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MIT Press

Coordinates: 42°21′43.7″N 71°5′8.0″W / 42.362139°N 71.085556°W / 42.362139; -71.085556
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MIT Press
Parent companyMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Founded1962; 62 years ago (1962)
FounderJames R. Killian Jr.
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationCambridge, Massachusetts
DistributionPenguin Random House Publishing Services
Key peopleAmy Brand, director
Publication typesBooks, academic journals
Official websitemitpress.mit.edu
Display of publications at conference booth in 2008

The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962.

History

The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT published under its own name a lecture series entitled Problems of Atomic Dynamics given by the visiting German physicist and later Nobel Prize winner, Max Born. Six years later, MIT's publishing operations were first formally instituted by the creation of an imprint called Technology Press in 1932. This imprint was founded by James R. Killian, Jr., at the time editor of MIT's alumni magazine and later to become MIT president. Technology Press published eight titles independently, then in 1937 entered into an arrangement with John Wiley & Sons in which Wiley took over marketing and editorial responsibilities. In 1962 the association with Wiley came to an end after a further 125 titles had been published. The press acquired its modern name after this separation, and has since functioned as an independent publishing house.[1]

A European marketing office was opened in 1969, and a Journals division was added in 1972. In the late 1970s, responding to changing economic conditions, the publisher narrowed the focus of their catalog to a few key areas, initially architecture, computer science and artificial intelligence, economics, and cognitive science.[1]

In January 2010 the MIT Press published its 9000th title,[1] and in 2012 the Press celebrated its 50th anniversary, including publishing a commemorative booklet on paper and online.[2]

The press co-founded the distributor TriLiteral LLC with Yale University Press and Harvard University Press. TriLiteral was acquired by LSC Communications in 2018.[3]

In July 2020, the MIT Press transitioned its worldwide sales and distribution to Penguin Random House Publisher Services.

Business

The MIT Press primarily publishes academic and general interest titles in the fields of Art and Architecture; Visual and Cultural Studies; Cognitive Science; Philosophy; Linguistics; Computer Science; Economics; Finance and Business; Environmental Science; Political Science; Life Sciences; Neuroscience; New Media; and Science, Technology, and Society.[4]

The MIT Press is a distributor for Semiotext(e), Goldsmiths Press, Strange Attractor Press, Sternberg Press, Terra Nova Press, Urbanomic, and Sequence Press. In 2000, the MIT Press created CogNet, an online resource for the study of the brain and the cognitive sciences.[5]

In 1981, the MIT Press published its first book under the Bradford Books imprint, Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology by Daniel C. Dennett.

In 2018, the Press and the MIT Media Lab launched the Knowledge Futures Group to develop and deploy open access publishing technology and platforms.

In 2019, the Press launched the MIT Press Reader, a digital magazine that draws on the Press's archive and family of authors to produce adapted excerpts, interviews, and other original works. The publication describes itself as one which "aims to illuminate the bold ideas and voices that make up the Press’s expansive catalog, to revisit overlooked passages, and to dive into the stories that inspired the books".[6]

Retail outlet

The MIT Press Bookstore, founded in 1980, is one of the only retail bookstores owned and operated by a university press.[7] The MIT Press Bookstore moved to 314 Main Street in Kendall Square in 2021. The store showcases MIT Press's front and backlist titles, alongside a large selection of complementary works from other academic and trade publishers. The new bookstore space features a dedicated area for children's space, featuring STEAM books.

The Bookstore regularly collaborates with various organizations and the MIT Press on author events and exhibits.[8]

Colophon

The MIT Press uses a colophon or logo designed by its longtime design director, Muriel Cooper, in 1962.[9] The design is based on a highly abstracted version of the lower-case letters "mitp", with the ascender of the "t" at the fifth stripe and the descender of the "p" at the sixth stripe the only differentiation.[10] It later served as an important reference point for the 2015 redesign of the MIT Media Lab logo by Pentagram.[9]

Open Access

The MIT Press is a leader in open access book publishing. They published their first open access book in 1995 with the publication of William Mitchell's City of Bits, which appeared simultaneously in print and in a dynamic, open web edition. They now publish open access books, textbooks, and journals. Open access journals include American Journal of Law and Equality, Computational Linguistics, Data Intelligence, Harvard Data Science Review, Network Neuroscience, Neurobiology of Language, Open Mind, Projections, Quantitative Science Studies, Rapid Reviews: COVID-19, Transactions of the Association of Computational Linguistics, and Thresholds.[11]

In 2021, the Press launched Direct to Open, a framework for open access monographs.[12] MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies is a robust digital collection of classic and previously out-of-print architecture and urban studies books hosted on our digital book platform, MIT Press Direct.[13]

The Fund for Diverse Voices

The MIT Press's Fund for Diverse Voices supports new work by authors who bring excluded and chronically underrepresented perspectives to the fields in which the Press publishes across the sciences, arts, and humanities. The Fund also provides financial support for the MIT Press Grant Program for Diverse Voices the provides financial support for authors that are underrepresented in scholarly publishing. Books supported by the Fund include Power On! by Jean J. Ryoo and Jane Margolis, Carbon Queen by Maia Weinstock, Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond by Ashley Jean Yeager, and The Curie Society by Heather Einhorn, Adam Staffaroni, Janet Harvey, and Joan Hilty.[14]

MIT Kids Press and MITeen Press

In 2019, the MIT Press partnered with Candlewick Press to launch two new imprints for young readers, MIT Kids Press and MITeen Press to publish books for children and young adults on STEAM topics.[15]

List of journals published by the MIT Press

Arts and humanities

Economics

International affairs, history, and political science

Science and technology

References

  1. ^ a b c "History | The MIT Press". Archived from the original on 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
  2. ^ "50 Years of Influential Books and Journal Articles | The MIT Press".
  3. ^ "LSC Buys TriLiteral; Turner Purchases Gürze Books". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2018-07-08.
  4. ^ "MIT Press Catalogs". Archived from the original on 2018-03-14. Retrieved 2014-05-11.
  5. ^ "CogNet FAQ". Archived from the original on 2012-05-21.
  6. ^ "The MIT Press Reader".
  7. ^ "The MIT Press Bookstore". Archived from the original on 2014-10-02. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  8. ^ Press, The MIT. "About". mitpress.mit.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  9. ^ a b Stinson, Liz. "MIT Media Lab Gets a Transforming Logo, Courtesy of Pentagram".
  10. ^ "AIGA profile of Muriel Cooper".
  11. ^ "MIT Press Open Access". MIT Press Open Access. Retrieved 2022-03-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ "Direct to Open | Books Gateway | MIT Press". direct.mit.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  13. ^ Press, The MIT. "MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies". mitpress.mit.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  14. ^ Press, The MIT. "Fund for Diverse Voices". mitpress.mit.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  15. ^ Press, The MIT. "MIT Kids Press and MITeen Press Imprints from Candlewick". mitpress.mit.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  16. ^ "MIT Press Journals". MIT Press Journals. Retrieved 2018-07-21.

42°21′43.7″N 71°5′8.0″W / 42.362139°N 71.085556°W / 42.362139; -71.085556