Cambridge University Press (CUP) is the publishing
business of the University of Cambridge. Granted
letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534,
it is the world's oldest publishing house
and the second-largest university press in
the world (after Oxford University Press).
It also holds letters patent as the Queen's
Printer.The press's mission is "To further
the University's mission by disseminating
knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning
and research at the highest international
levels of excellence."Cambridge University
Press is a department of the University of
Cambridge and is both an academic and educational
publisher. With a global sales presence, publishing
hubs, and offices in more than 40 countries,
it publishes over 50,000 titles by authors
from over 100 countries. Its publishing includes
academic journals, monographs, reference works,
textbooks, and English language teaching and
learning publications. Cambridge University
Press is a charitable enterprise that transfers
part of its annual surplus back to the university.
== History ==
Cambridge University Press is both the oldest
publishing house in the world and the oldest
university press. It originated from letters
patent granted to the University of Cambridge
by Henry VIII in 1534, and has been producing
books continuously since the first University
Press book was printed. Cambridge is one of
the two privileged presses (the other being
Oxford University Press). Authors published
by Cambridge have included John Milton, William
Harvey, Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, and
Stephen Hawking.University printing began
in Cambridge when the first practising University
Printer, Thomas Thomas, set up a printing
house on the site of what became the Senate
House lawn – a few yards from where the
press's bookshop now stands. In those days,
the Stationers' Company in London jealously
guarded its monopoly of printing, which partly
explains the delay between the date of the
university's letters patent and the printing
of the first book.
In 1591, Thomas's successor, John Legate,
printed the first Cambridge Bible, an octavo
edition of the popular Geneva Bible. The London
Stationers objected strenuously, claiming
that they had the monopoly on Bible printing.
The university's response was to point out
the provision in its charter to print "all
manner of books". Thus began the press's tradition
of publishing the Bible, a tradition that
has endured for over four centuries, beginning
with the Geneva Bible, and continuing with
the Authorized Version, the Revised Version,
the New English Bible and the Revised English
Bible. The restrictions and compromises forced
upon Cambridge by the dispute with the London
Stationers did not really come to an end until
the scholar Richard Bentley was given the
power to set up a 'new-style press' in 1696.
In July 1697 the Duke of Somerset made a loan
of £200 to the university "towards the printing
house and presse" and James Halman, Registrary
of the University, lent £100 for the same
purpose.It was in Bentley's time, in 1698,
that a body of senior scholars ('the Curators',
known from 1733 as 'the Syndics') was appointed
to be responsible to the university for the
press's affairs. The Press Syndicate's publishing
committee still meets regularly (eighteen
times a year), and its role still includes
the review and approval of the press's planned
output. John Baskerville became University
Printer in the mid-eighteenth century. Baskerville's
concern was the production of the finest possible
books using his own type-design and printing
techniques.
Baskerville wrote, "The importance of the
work demands all my attention; not only for
my own (eternal) reputation; but (I hope)
also to convince the world, that the University
in the honour done me has not entirely misplaced
their favours." Caxton would have found nothing
to surprise him if he had walked into the
press's printing house in the eighteenth century:
all the type was still being set by hand;
wooden presses, capable of producing only
1,000 sheets a day at best, were still in
use; and books were still being individually
bound by hand. A technological breakthrough
was badly needed, and it came when Lord Stanhope
perfected the making of stereotype plates.
This involved making a mould of the whole
surface of a page of type and then casting
plates from that mould. The press was the
first to use this technique, and in 1805 produced
the technically successful and much-reprinted
Cambridge Stereotype Bible.
By the 1850s the press was using steam-powered
machine presses, employing two to three hundred
people, and occupying several buildings in
the Silver Street and Mill Lane area, including
the one that the press still occupies, the
Pitt Building (1833), which was built specifically
for the press and in honour of William Pitt
the Younger. Under the stewardship of C. J.
Clay, who was University Printer from 1854
to 1882, the press increased the size and
scale of its academic and educational publishing
operation. An important factor in this increase
was the inauguration of its list of schoolbooks
(including what came to be known as the 'Pitt
Press Series'). During Clay's administration,
the press also undertook a sizeable co-publishing
venture with Oxford: the Revised Version of
the Bible, which was begun in 1870 and completed
in 1885. It was in this period as well that
the Syndics of the press turned down what
later became the Oxford English Dictionary—a
proposal for which was brought to Cambridge
by James Murray (lexicographer) before he
turned to Oxford.
The appointment of R. T. Wright as Secretary
of the Press Syndicate in 1892 marked the
beginning of the press's development as a
modern publishing business with a clearly
defined editorial policy and administrative
structure. It was Wright (with two great historians,
Lord Acton and F. W. Maitland) who devised
the plan for one of the most distinctive Cambridge
contributions to publishing—the Cambridge
Histories.
The Cambridge Modern History was published
between 1902 and 1912. Nine years later the
press issued the first volumes of the freshly
edited complete works of Shakespeare, a project
of nearly equal scope that was not finished
until 1966. The press's list in science and
mathematics began to thrive, with men of the
stature of Albert Einstein and Ernest Rutherford
subsequently becoming Press authors. The press's
impressive contribution to journal publishing
began in 1893, and today it publishes over
300 journals.
In 1992 the press opened its own bookshop
at 1 Trinity Street, in the centre of Cambridge.
Books have been sold continuously on this
site since at least 1581, perhaps even as
early as 1505, making it the oldest known
bookshop site in Britain. In 2008 the shop
expanded into 27 Market Hill where its specialist
Education and English Language Teaching shop
opened the following year.
In 2012 the press decided to end the tradition
of printing after 428 years and now uses third
parties to provide all of its print publications.
== Governance ==
The Press has, since 1698, been governed by
the Press 'Syndics' (originally known as the
'Curators'), made up of 18 senior members
of the University of Cambridge who represent
a wide variety of subjects and areas of expertise.
The Syndicate has delegated its powers to
a Press & Assessment Board, which has an Audit
Committee, Remuneration Committee and Nominations
Committee (all shared with Cambridge Assessment);
and to an Academic Publishing Committee and
an English Language Teaching & Education Publishing
Committee. The Press & Assessment Board oversees
the Press's financial, strategic and operational
affairs, while the two Publishing Committees
provide quality assurance and formal approval
of the publishing strategy. The Chair of the
Syndicate is currently Professor Stephen Toope
(Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge).
The operational responsibility of the Press
is delegated by the Syndics to the Press's
Chief Executive, Peter Phillips, and the Press
Board.
== Structure ==
Cambridge University Press is a global organization
with three market facing publishing groups.
These are:
=== Academic publishing ===
This group publishes academic books and journals
in science, technology, medicine, humanities,
and the social sciences. The group also publishes
Bibles, and the press is one of only two publishers
entitled to publish the Book of Common Prayer
and the King James Version of the Bible in
England.
=== Cambridge English Language Teaching ===
The Cambridge English group publishes English
language teaching courses and resources for
all ages around the world. The group works
closely with Cambridge English Language Assessment
to provide solutions that improve language
proficiency, aligned to the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages, or CEFR.
=== Education ===
The Education group delivers educational products
and solutions for primary, secondary and international
schools, and Education Ministries worldwide.
== Electronic and digital developments ==
Owing to the changes taking place in the way
that books and content are bought and accessed,
Cambridge believes that digital products,
services and solutions could account for two-thirds
of its sales by 2020.Since 2010, Cambridge
has provided electronic book content through
the website Cambridge Books Online. For many
years, all of Cambridge's journals have been
published in both hard copy format and online.
Other recent ventures include Race to Learn,
curriculum software that uses Formula One
to encourage group working in primary school
children, published through Cambridge–Hitachi,
a joint venture between Cambridge University
Press and Hitachi Software Engineering that
produces software for teaching on interactive
whiteboards in schools.
== Controversies ==
=== Alms for Jihad ===
In 2007, controversy arose over CUP's decision
to destroy all remaining copies of its 2006
book Alms for Jihad: Charity and Terrorism
in the Islamic World, by Burr and Collins,
as part of the settlement of a lawsuit brought
by Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz. Within
hours, Alms for Jihad became one of the 100
most sought after titles on Amazon.com and
eBay in the United States. CUP sent a letter
to libraries asking them to remove copies
from circulation. CUP subsequently sent out
copies of an "errata" sheet for the book.
The American Library Association issued a
recommendation to libraries still holding
Alms for Jihad: "Given the intense interest
in the book, and the desire of readers to
learn about the controversy first hand, we
recommend that U.S. libraries keep the book
available for their users." The publisher's
decision did not have the support of the book's
authors and was criticized by some who claimed
it was incompatible with freedom of speech
and with freedom of the press and that it
indicated that English libel laws were excessively
strict. In a New York Times Book Review (7
October 2007), United States Congressman Frank
R. Wolf described Cambridge's settlement as
"basically a book burning". CUP pointed out
that, at that time, it had already sold most
of its copies of the book.
Cambridge defended its actions, saying it
had acted responsibly and that it is a global
publisher with a duty to observe the laws
of many different countries.
=== Cambridge University Press v. Patton ===
In this ongoing case, begun in 2008, CUP et
al. accused Georgia State University of infringement
of copyright.
=== Censorship of academic material ===
On 18 August 2017, Cambridge University Press
deleted over 300 politically sensitive articles
from the China Quarterly on its Chinese website.
The articles focus on topics China regards
as taboo, including the 1989 Tiananmen massacre,
Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, Hong Kong’s
fight for democracy and ethnic tensions in
Xinjiang and Tibet. However, on 21 August
2017, the press announced it had backed down
and would immediately repost journal articles,
in the face of growing international protests.Prior
to this controversy, in 2012, the University
of Cambridge had received £3.7 million from
the daughter of the former President of China
Wen Jiabao. The donation was used to create
the Chong Hua Chair in Chinese Development
studies, whose inaugural appointee was her
former professor at Cambridge, Peter Nolan.
== Community work ==
The press has been recognized on several occasions
for its commitment to community involvement
and social responsibility, and it has stated
that public engagement is an important part
of the press's role, by undertaking educational
projects and fundraising.The press partnered
with Bookshare in 2010 to make their books
accessible to people with qualified print
disabilities. Under the terms of the digital
rights licence agreement, the press delivers
academic and scholarly books from all of its
regional publishing centres on the world to
Bookshare for conversion into accessible formats.
People with qualified print disabilities around
the world can download the books for a nominal
Bookshare membership fee and read them using
a computer or other assistive technology,
with voice generated by text-to-speech technology,
as well as options for digital Braille.
== Open access ==
CUP is one of thirteen publishers to participate
in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global
library consortium approach to funding open
access books.
CUP is a member of the Open Access Scholarly
Publishers Association.
== See also ==
List of Cambridge University Press journals
== References ==
=== 
Citations ===
=== 
Sources ===
== 
External links ==
A Brief History of Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press Bibles
Cambridge Journals Online
