Oxford University Press (OUP) is the
university press
A university press is an academic publishing house specializing in monographs and scholarly journals. Most are nonprofit organizations and an integral component of a large research university. They publish work that has been reviewed by schola ...
of the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586, it is the second oldest university press after
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pr ...
.
It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics known as the Delegates of the Press, who are appointed by the
vice-chancellor
A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system.
In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...
of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on
Walton Street, Oxford, opposite
Somerville College
Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, ...
, in the inner suburb of
Jericho
Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho ...
.
For the last 500 years, OUP has primarily focused on the publication of pedagogical texts and continues this tradition today by publishing academic journals, dictionaries, English language resources, bibliographies, books on
indology
Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies.
The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') i ...
, music, classics, literature, history, as well as bibles and atlases.
OUP has offices throughout the world, primarily in locations that were once part of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
(mainly
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
).
History
![Oxford University Press Museum (31175477990)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Oxford_University_Press_Museum_%2831175477990%29.jpg)
The University of Oxford began printing around 1480 and grew into a major printer of bibles, prayer books, and scholarly works. Oxford's chancellor,
Archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...
William Laud
William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 ...
, consolidated the legal status of the university's printing in the 1630s and petitioned
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
for rights that would enable Oxford to compete with the Stationers' Company and the
King's Printer
The King's Printer (known as the Queen's Printer during the reign of a female monarch) is typically a bureau of the national, state, or provincial government responsible for producing official documents issued by the King-in-Council, Ministers o ...
. He obtained a succession of royal grants and Oxford's "Great Charter" in 1636 gave the university the right to print "all manner of books". Laud also obtained the "privilege" from the Crown of printing the
King James or
Authorized Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of ...
of
Scripture
Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pra ...
at Oxford. This "privilege" created substantial returns in the next 250 years.
Following the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I (" Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of r ...
, Vice-chancellor,
John Fell,
Dean of
Christ Church, Bishop of Oxford, and Secretary to the Delegates was determined to installed printing presses in 1668, making it the university's first central print shop. In 1674 OUP began to print a
broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner and tabloid–compact formats.
Description
Many broadsheets measure roughly ...
calendar, known as the ''Oxford Almanack,'' that has been produced annually without interruption from Fell's time to the present day. Fell drew up the first formal programme for the university's printing which envisaged hundreds of works, including the Bible in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, editions of the
Coptic Gospels
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet, t ...
and works of the
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
, texts in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
, comprehensive editions of
classical philosophy
This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, namely philosophical thought extending as far as early post-classical history ().
Overview
Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures ...
, poetry, and mathematics, a wide range of
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
scholarship, and also "a history of insects, more perfect than any yet Extant."
![Oxford University Press Building – Walton Street](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Oxford_University_Press_Building_%E2%80%93_Walton_Street.jpg)
Generally speaking, the early 18th century marked a lull in the press's expansion. It suffered from the absence of any figure comparable to Fell. The business was rescued by the intervention of a single Delegate,
William Blackstone
Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the ''Commentaries on the Laws of England''. Born into a middle-class family ...
. Disgusted by the chaotic state of the press, and antagonized by the
Vice-Chancellor
A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system.
In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...
George Huddesford
Rev. George Huddesford (1749–1809) was a painter and a satirical poet in Oxford. His first work was described by Fanny Burney as a "vile poem" as it revealed that she had written the novel, ''Evelina''.
Life
Huddesford was baptized at St. M ...
, Blackstone called for sweeping reforms that would firmly set out the Delegates' powers and obligations, officially record their deliberations and accounting, and put the print shop on an efficient footing. Nonetheless, Randolph ignored this document, and it was not until Blackstone threatened legal action that changes began. The university had moved to adopt all of Blackstone's reforms by 1760.
By the late 18th century, the press had become more focused. In 1825 the Delegates bought land in Walton Street. Buildings were constructed from plans drawn up by
Daniel Robertson and
Edward Blore
Edward Blore (13 September 1787 – 4 September 1879) was a 19th-century English landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary.
Early career
He was born in Derby, the son of the antiquarian writer Thomas Blore.
Blore's back ...
, and the press moved into them in 1830. This site remains the main office of OUP in the 21st century, at the corner of
Walton Street and
Great Clarendon Street
Great Clarendon Street is one of the principal thoroughfares of the Jericho district of Oxford, England, an inner suburb northwest of the centre of the city.
At the northeast end of the street is a junction with Walton Street. Opposite is ...
, northwest of Oxford city centre.
The press now entered an era of enormous change. In 1830, it was still a
joint-stock
A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders are ...
printing business in an academic backwater, offering learned works to a relatively small readership of scholars and clerics At this time,
Thomas Combe
Thomas Combe (1796 – 30 June 1872) was a British printer, publisher and patron of the arts. He was 'Printer to the University' at Oxford University Press, and was also a founder and benefactor of St Barnabas Church, near the Press in Jeri ...
joined the press and became the university's
Printer until his death in 1872. Combe was a better business man than most Delegates, but still no innovator: he failed to grasp the huge commercial potential of
India paper, which grew into one of Oxford's most profitable trade secrets in later years. Even so, Combe earned a fortune through his shares in the business and the acquisition and renovation of the bankrupt paper mill at Wolvercote. Combe showed little interest, however, in producing fine printed work at the press. The most well-known text associated with his print shop was the flawed first edition of ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...
'', printed by Oxford at the expense of its author
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
(Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) in 1865.
It took the 1850
Royal Commission on the workings of the university and a new Secretary,
Bartholomew Price, to shake up the press. Appointed in 1868, Price had already recommended to the university that the press needed an efficient executive officer to exercise "vigilant superintendence" of the business, including its dealings with
Alexander Macmillan, who became the publisher for Oxford's printing in 1863 and in 1866 helped Price to create the Clarendon Press series of cheap, elementary school books – perhaps the first time that Oxford used the Clarendon imprint. Under Price, the press began to take on its modern shape. Major new lines of work began. To give one example, in 1875, the Delegates approved the series ''Sacred Books of the East'' under the editorship of
Friedrich Max Müller, bringing a vast range of religious thought to a wider readership.
Equally, Price moved OUP towards publishing in its own right. The press had ended its relationship with Parker's in 1863 and in 1870 bought a small London bindery for some Bible work. Macmillan's contract ended in 1880, and wasn't renewed. By this time, Oxford also had a London warehouse for Bible stock in
Paternoster Row
Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area ca ...
, and in 1880 its manager Henry Frowde (1841–1927) was given the formal title of Publisher to the university. Frowde came from the book trade, not the university, and remained an enigma to many. One obituary in Oxford's staff magazine ''The Clarendonian'' admitted, "Very few of us here in Oxford had any personal knowledge of him." Despite that, Frowde became vital to OUP's growth, adding new lines of books to the business, presiding over the massive publication of the
Revised Version
The Revised Version (RV) or English Revised Version (ERV) of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version. It was the first and remains the only officially authorised and recognised revision of the King James Versio ...
of the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chris ...
in 1881 and playing a key role in setting up the press's first office outside Britain, in New York City in 1896.
Price transformed OUP. In 1884, the year he retired as Secretary, the Delegates bought back the last shares in the business. The press was now owned wholly by the university, with its own paper mill, print shop, bindery, and warehouse. Its output had increased to include school books and modern scholarly texts such as
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and ligh ...
's
''A Treatise on Electricity & Magnetism'' (1873), which proved fundamental to
Einstein's thought. Simply put, without abandoning its traditions or quality of work, Price began to turn OUP into an alert, modern publisher. In 1879, he also took on the publication that led that process to its conclusion: the huge project that became the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
'' (OED).
Offered to Oxford by
James Murray and the
Philological Society
The Philological Society, or London Philological Society, is the oldest learned society in Great Britain dedicated to the study of language as well as a registered charity. The current Society was established in 1842 to "investigate and promot ...
, the "New English Dictionary" was a grand academic and patriotic undertaking. Lengthy negotiations led to a formal contract. Murray was to edit a work estimated to take 10 years and to cost approximately £9,000. Both figures were wildly optimistic. The Dictionary began to appear in print in 1884, but the first edition was not completed until 1928, 13 years after Murray's death, at a cost of around £375,000. This vast financial burden and its implications landed on Price's successors.
The next Secretary, Philip Lyttelton Gell, was appointed by the Vice-Chancellor
Benjamin Jowett
Benjamin Jowett (, modern variant ; 15 April 1817 – 1 October 1893) was an English tutor and administrative reformer in the University of Oxford, a theologian, an Anglican cleric, and a translator of Plato and Thucydides. He was Master of B ...
in 1884 but struggled and was finally dismissed in 1897. The Assistant Secretary, Charles Cannan, took over with little fuss and even less affection for his predecessor: "Gell was always here, but I cannot make out what he did." Charles Cannan, who had been instrumental in Gell's removal, succeeded Gell in 1898.
By the early 20th century OUP expanded its overseas trade. The 1920s saw skyrocketing prices of both materials and labour. Paper especially was hard to come by, and had to be imported from South America through trading companies. Economies and markets slowly recovered as the 1920s progressed. In 1928, the press's imprint read 'London, Edinburgh,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
, Leipzig, Toronto, Melbourne,
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, Bombay,
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...
,
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
and Shanghai'. Not all of these were full-fledged branches: in Leipzig there was a depot run by H. Bohun Beet, and in Canada and Australia there were small, functional depots in the cities and an army of educational representatives penetrating the rural fastnesses to sell the press's stock as well as books published by firms whose agencies were held by the press, very often including fiction and light reading. In India, the Branch depots in Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta were imposing establishments with sizable stock inventories, for the Presidencies themselves were large markets, and the educational representatives there dealt mostly with upcountry trade. The Depression of 1929 dried profits from the Americas to a trickle, and India became 'the one bright spot' in an otherwise dismal picture. Bombay was the nodal point for distribution to the Africas and onward sale to Australasia, and people who trained at the three major depots moved later on to pioneer branches in Africa and South East Asia.
In 1923 OUP established a Music Department. At the time, such musical publishing enterprises, however, were rare.
[Sutcliffe p. 210] and few of the Delegates or former Publishers were themselves musical or had extensive music backgrounds. OUP bought an Anglo-French Music Company and all its facilities, connections, and resources. This concentration provided OUP two mutually reinforcing benefits: a niche in music publishing unoccupied by potential competitors, and a branch of music performance and composition that the English themselves had largely neglected. Hinnells proposes that the early Music Department's "mixture of scholarship and cultural nationalism" in an area of music with largely unknown commercial prospects was driven by its sense of cultural philanthropy (given the press's academic background) and a desire to promote "national music outside the German mainstream."
It was not until 1939 that the Music Department showed its first profitable year.
[Sutcliffe p. 212]
The period following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
saw consolidation in the face of the breakup of the Empire and the post-war reorganization of the Commonwealth.
In the 1960s OUP Southern Africa started publishing local authors, for the general reader, but also for schools and universities, under its
Three Crowns Books
Three Crowns Books was an imprint of Oxford University Press devoted to writing from the British colonies in Africa and South Asia. The series was active publishing for both the UK and international market from 1962 until 1976.
Notable authors w ...
imprint. Its territory includes
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...
,
Lesotho
Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked as an enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the highest mountains in Southern Africa. It has an area of over and has a population ...
,
Swaziland
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its n ...
and
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, as well as South Africa, the biggest market of the five. OUP Southern Africa is now one of the three biggest educational publishers in South Africa, and focuses its attention on publishing textbooks, dictionaries, atlases and supplementary material for schools, and textbooks for universities. Its author base is overwhelmingly local, and in 2008 it entered into a partnership with the university to support
scholarships
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholarsh ...
for South Africans studying postgraduate degrees.
Today the North American branch in New York City is primarily a distribution branch to facilitate the sale of
Oxford Bibles in the United States. It also handles marketing of all books of its parent, Macmillan. By the end of 2021, OUP USA has published eighteen Pulitzer Prize–winning books.
Operations in South Asia and East and South East Asia were and, in the case of the former, remain major parts of the company.
In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic its Bookshop on the High Street closed.
On 27 August 2021, OUP closed Oxuniprint, its printing division. The closure will mark the "final chapter" of OUP's centuries-long history of printing.
Museum
The Oxford University Press Museum is located on
Great Clarendon Street
Great Clarendon Street is one of the principal thoroughfares of the Jericho district of Oxford, England, an inner suburb northwest of the centre of the city.
At the northeast end of the street is a junction with Walton Street. Opposite is ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. Visits must be booked in advance and are led by a member of the archive staff. Displays include a 19th-century
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
, the OUP buildings, and the printing and history of the ''
Oxford Almanack'', ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' and the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
''.
Clarendon Press
OUP came to be known as "(The) Clarendon Press" when printing moved from the
Sheldonian Theatre
Sheldonian Theatre, located in Oxford, England, was built from 1664 to 1669 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the University at the time and the project's ...
to the Clarendon Building in Broad Street in 1713. The name continued to be used when OUP moved to its present site in Oxford in 1830. The label "Clarendon Press" took on a new meaning when OUP began publishing books through its London office in the early 20th century. To distinguish the two offices, London books were labelled "Oxford University Press" publications, while those from Oxford were labelled "Clarendon Press" books. This labeling ceased in the 1970s, when the London office of OUP closed. Today, OUP reserves "Clarendon Press" as an imprint for Oxford publications of particular academic importance.
Scholarly journals
OUP as Oxford Journals has also been a major publisher of
academic journals
An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...
, both in the sciences and the humanities; it publishes more than 500 journals on behalf of learned societies around the world.
It has been noted as one of the first university presses to publish an
open access journal
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 ...
(''
Nucleic Acids Research
''Nucleic Acids Research'' is an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 1974 by the Oxford University Press. The journal covers research on nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, and related work. According to the ''Journal Ci ...
''), and probably the first to introduce
Hybrid open access journal
A hybrid open-access journal is a subscription journal in which some of the articles are open access. This status typically requires the payment of a publication fee (also called an article processing charge or APC) to the publisher in order to p ...
s, offering "optional open access" to authors to allow all readers online access to their paper without charge. The "Oxford Open" model applies to the majority of their journals.
The OUP is a member of the
Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association.
Series and titles
![OED2 volumes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/OED2_volumes.jpg)
Oxford University Press publishes a variety of dictionaries (e.g.''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
'', ''
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' (''SOED'') is an English language dictionary published by the Oxford University Press. The SOED is a two-volume abridgement of the twenty-volume ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'').
Print editions ...
'', ''
Compact Oxford English Dictionary'', ''
Compact Editions of the Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a ...
'', ''
Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English
The ''Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English'' is a one-volume dictionary published by Oxford University Press. It is intended for a family or upper secondary school readerships. The third edition (revised), published in 2008, ha ...
'', ''
Concise Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Concise Oxford English Dictionary'' (officially titled ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary'' until 2002, and widely abbreviated ''COD'' or ''COED'') is probably the best-known of the 'smaller' Oxford dictionaries. The latest edition contains ...
'', ''
Oxford Dictionary of Marketing'', ''
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
The ''Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary'' (''OALD'') was the first advanced learner's dictionary of English. It was first published in 1948. It is the largest English-language dictionary from Oxford University Press aimed at a non-native au ...
'',
English as a second or foreign language
English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...
resources (e.g. ''
Let's Go''), English language exams (e.g.
Oxford Test of English
The Oxford Test of English (OTE) is an on demand computer-adaptive test of English proficiency for non-native speakers of English, reporting at A2, B1, and B2 levels of the Common European Framework of Reference ( CEFR). The test was developed b ...
and the
Oxford Placement Test
The Oxford Placement Test (OPT), also called the Oxford Online Placement Test (OOPT), is an on demand computer-adaptive test of the English language for non-native speakers of English, reporting at Pre-A1, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2 levels of the ...
), bibliographies (e.g.''
Oxford Bibliographies Online
Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO), also known as Oxford Bibliographies, is a web-based compendium of peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies and short encyclopedia entries maintained by Oxford University Press.
History
Oxford Bibliographies On ...
''), books on
indology
Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies.
The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') i ...
, music, classics, literature, history, bibles and atlases.
Clarendon Scholarships
Since 2001, Oxford University Press has financially supported the
Clarendon bursary
The Clarendon Fund Scholarship is a scholarship at the University of Oxford. All Oxford University applicants to degree bearing graduate courses are automatically considered for the Clarendon Scholarship.
Established in 2000 and launched in 200 ...
, a
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
graduate scholarship scheme.
Controversies
Closure of Poetry List
In November 1998, the OUP announced the closure, on commercial grounds, of its modern poetry list. Andrew Potter, OUP's director of music, trade paperbacks and Bibles, told
the Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
that the list "just about breaks even. The university expects us to operate on commercial grounds, especially in this day and age."
[Dalya Alberge, 'Anger over Dead Poets Society', The Times, 21st November 1998](_blank)
/ref> In the same article, the poet D.J.Enright, who had been with OUP since 1979 said, "There was no warning. It was presented as a fait accompli. Even the poetry editor didn't know....The money involved is peanuts. It's a good list, built up over many years." In February 1999, Arts Minister Alan Howarth made a speech in Oxford in which he denounced the closure: "OUP is not merely a business. It is a department of the University of Oxford and has charitable status. It is part of a great university, which the Government supports financially and which exists to develop and transmit our intellectual culture....It is a perennial complaint by the English faculty that the barbarians are at the gate. Indeed they always are. But we don't expect the gatekeepers themselves, the custodians, to be barbarians." A decade later, OUP's managing director, Ivon Asquith, reflected on the damage caused by the episode: "If I had foreseen the self-inflicted wound we would suffer I would not have let the proposal get as far as the Finance Committee."Ivon Asquith letter to Roy Foster, quoted by Foster in 'The Poetry Question', Keith Robbins (ed), ''The History of Oxford University Press'', Vol IV, OUP, 2017, p478
/ref>
See also
* :Oxford University Press academic journals
* List of Oxford University Press journals
* ''Hachette Hachette may refer to:
* Hachette (surname)
* Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing
** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary
** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm
See also
* Hachett ...
''
* ''Hart's Rules
''Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford''—today published under the short title ''New Hart's Rules''—is an authoritative reference book and style guide published in England by Oxford University Press (OUP ...
for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford''
* List of largest UK book publishers
This is a list of largest UK trade book publishers, with some of their principal imprints, ranked by sales value.
List
According to Nielsen BookScan as of 2010 the largest book publishers of the United Kingdom were:
# Penguin Random House ' ...
* Cambridge University Press v. Patton, a copyright infringement suit in which OUP is a plaintiff
* Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
* University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...
* Edinburgh University Press
* Express Publishing
Express Publishing is an independent UK based publishing house with its headquarters in Berkshire./compdetails "Express Publishing". ''Companies House''. March 24, 2015. The company was founded in 1988 and it specializes in English language lea ...
* Blavatnik School of Government
The Blavatnik School of Government is a school of public policy founded in 2010 at the University of Oxford in England. The School was founded following a £75 million donation from a business magnate Leonard Blavatnik, supported by £26 million ...
(opened in 2015), opposite the OUP on Walton Street
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* Gadd, Ian, ed. (2014)
''The History of Oxford University Press: Volume I: Beginnings to 1780''
Oxford: OUP. .
* Eliot, Simon, ed. (2014)
Oxford: OUP. .
* Louis, Wm. Roger, ed. (2014)
''The History of Oxford University Press: Volume III: 1896 to 1970''
Oxford: OUP. . Also online .
* Robbins, Keith, ed. (2017)
''The History of Oxford University Press: Volume IV: 1970 to 2004''
Oxford: OUP. .
External links
*
*
Illustrated article: The Most Famous Press in the World
''World's Work and Play'', June 1903
{{Authority control
1586 establishments in England
1896 establishments in New York City
Book publishing companies of England
Book publishing companies based in New York (state)
University presses of the United Kingdom
Departments of the University of Oxford
Sheet music publishing companies
Shops in Oxford
Museums in Oxford
Literary museums in England
Publishing companies established in the 16th century
Organizations established in the 1580s
Companies based in Oxford
Reference publishers
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