ANU Press (or Australian National University Press; originally ANU E Press) is an
open-access scholarly publisher of
books
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical ar ...
,
textbooks and
journals. It was established in 2004 to explore and enable new modes of scholarly publishing. In 2014, ANU E Press changed its name to ANU Press to reflect the changes the publication industry had seen since its foundation.
History
ANU Press was Australia's first primarily electronic
academic publisher
Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or theses. The part of academic written output that is not formally publ ...
.
ANU Press justified its foundation by mentioning the desire to publish scholarly works that would not necessarily gain profit, and the belief that
online publishing was an viable alternative to traditional academic publishing that overcame the inaccessibility, costs, and requirements for setup that were inherent in traditional publishing.
Activities
ANU Press produces on average 50–60 fully
peer-reviewed
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
research publications each year, and maintains a website featuring over 700 recent and back-list titles. It is recognised by the
Department of Industry
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
as a commercial publisher, enabling ANU Press authors to gain full recognition under the
Higher Education Research Data Collection scheme.
Nearly all books and journals published by the Press are available in
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
,
epub
EPUB is an e-book file format that uses the ".epub" file extension. The term is short for ''electronic publication'' and is sometimes styled ''ePub''. EPUB is supported by many e-readers, and compatible software is available for most smartphones ...
,
mobi and
html formats. All works are also available to purchase in hard copy through a Print-on-Demand (PoD) service.
ANU Press is multidisciplinary; it has 24 subject-specific editorial boards to evaluate monograph submissions and publishes 10 journals covering a wide range of disciplines. In order to ensure that the Press publishes only high-quality academic books, each submission goes through a rigorous selection process including evaluation by the relevant editorial board, a double-blind peer-review process, revision following reviewers’ reports and final approval by the board. This process ensures that the research is current, relevant and an important contribution to the field.
Imprints
As well as its titular imprint, ANU Press publishes work under two additional imprints: and .
ANU Press is the imprint under which all peer-reviewed monographs, multi-author works, edited works, serials and journals are published. There is no requirement that works be produced by ANU affiliated researchers, authors or editors: ANU Press welcomes submissions from external sources.
was established in 2009 in response to the growing need for an outlet for the exceptional student writing being produced by ANU students. publishes a range of materials including conference papers, student journals, republications of important academic works and other internally referred University material.
was launched in 2013, and provides an open access option for ANU academics looking to develop and distribute their
textbooks.
Co-publishers
ANU Press has co-publishing agreements with a number of organisations including: the Australian Centre on China in the World; the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research; the Australian and New Zealand School of Government;
Charles Darwin University; Aboriginal History Inc.; and Social Sciences Academic Press (China).
Open Access
All research published by ANU Press is available through
Open Access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...
, which allows it to be disseminated free of charge to readers all around the world. In this way, ANU Press supports the
Australian National University's commitment towards research that contributes to societal transformation, recognising that research, no matter how thorough, innovative or world-changing, is only useful if it is made readily available to those who can use it best rather than being treated as a commodity accessible only to those who can afford it.
Journal publications
ANU Press publishes or co-publishes a number of academic journals, including:
*''
Aboriginal History''
*''Agenda''
*
*''Australian Journal of Biography and History''
*''East Asia Forum Quarterly''
*''Human Ecology Review''
*''International Review of Environmental History''
See also
*
Pacific Linguistics
References
External links
ANU Press home page{{Authority control
2004 establishments in Australia
Australian National University
Open access publishers
Academic publishing companies
University presses of Australia
Book publishing companies of Australia
Publishing companies established in 2004
Online publishing companies