View source for Oxford University Press

{{Short description|Publishing arm of the University of Oxford}}
{{Redirect|OUP}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox publisher
| image        = Oxford University Press logo.svg
| parent       = [[University of Oxford]]
| status       = 
| founded      = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1586}}
| founder      = 
| headquarters = [[Oxford]], England
| country      = United Kingdom
| keypeople    = Nigel Portwood (Secretary to the Delegates and CEO)<ref>[https://global.oup.com/uk/archives/pdf/Reference%20Material/Secretaries%20to%20the%20Delegates.pdf "Secretaries to the Delegates of the Press (1868–present)"]. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 8 March 2022.</ref>
| publications = {{hlist | [[Academic journals]] | books | [[sheet music]]}}
| topics       = 
| genre        = 
| imprints     = {{ubl|Clarendon Press|[[Blackstone Press]]}}
| revenue      = 
| numemployees = 6,000
| nasdaq       = 
| website      = {{URL|https://corp.oup.com/}}
}}

'''Oxford University Press''' ('''OUP''') is the publishing house of the [[University of Oxford]]. It is the largest [[university press]] in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Short History of Oxford University Press |url=https://global.oup.com/about/oup_history/?cc=lt |website=Oxford University Press |access-date=29 April 2022}}</ref> It is the second-oldest university press after [[Cambridge University Press]], which was founded in 1534.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/16/news/16iht-presseduc.html |title=400 Years Later, Oxford Press Thrives |last=Balter |first=Michael |date=16 February 1994 |access-date=28 June 2011 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/aboutus/ |title=About Oxford University Press |website=OUP Academic |access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cambridge.org/about-us/who-we-are/history/brief-history-press |title=A Brief History of the Press |website=Cambridge University Press   |access-date=3 August 2018}}</ref>

It is a department of the University of Oxford. It is governed by a group of 15 academics, the Delegates of the Press, appointed by the [[Vice Chancellor|vice-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.<ref>Carter p. 137</ref> The press is located on [[Walton Street, Oxford|Walton Street]], Oxford, opposite [[Somerville College, Oxford|Somerville College]], in the inner suburb of [[Jericho, Oxford|Jericho]].

For the last 400 years, OUP has focused primarily on the publication of pedagogical texts. It continues this tradition today by publishing academic journals, dictionaries, English language resources, bibliographies, books on [[Indology]], music, classics, literature, and history, as well as Bibles and atlases.

OUP has offices around the world, primarily in locations that were once part of the [[British Empire]].

==History==
[[File:Oxford University Press Museum (31175477990).jpg|thumb|Matrices for casting type collected by [[John Fell (bishop)|Bishop Fell]], part of his collection now known as the "Fell Types", shown in the OUP Museum]]
The University of Oxford began printing around 1480 and became a major printer of Bibles, prayer books, and scholarly works.<ref>Carter, passim</ref> Oxford's chancellor Archbishop [[William Laud]] consolidated the legal status of the university's printing in the 1630s and petitioned [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] for rights that would enable Oxford to compete with the Stationers' Company and the [[King's Printer]]. 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".<ref>Sutcliffe p. xiv</ref> Laud also obtained the "privilege" from the Crown of printing the [[Authorized King James Version|King James]] or [[Authorized Version]] of [[Scripture]] at Oxford.<ref>Carter ch. 3</ref> This privilege created substantial returns over the next 250 years.<ref>Barker p. 11</ref>

Following the [[English Civil War]], Vice-chancellor [[John Fell (bishop)|John Fell]], [[Dean (religion)|Dean]] of [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]], [[Bishop of Oxford]], and Secretary to the Delegates was determined to install printing presses in 1668, making it the university's first central print shop.<ref>Carter ch. 5</ref> In 1674, OUP began to print a [[broadsheet]] calendar, known as the ''[[Oxford Almanack]],'' that was produced annually without interruption from 1674 to 2019.<ref>Barker p. 22</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Oxford University Press on Twitter |url=https://twitter.com/OxUniPress/status/1212679381841256449}}</ref> Fell drew up the first formal programme for the university's printing, which envisaged hundreds of works, including the Bible in [[Greek language|Greek]], editions of the [[Coptic Gospels]] and works of the [[Church Fathers]], texts in [[Arabic]] and [[Syriac language|Syriac]], comprehensive editions of [[classical philosophy]], poetry, and mathematics, a wide range of [[medieval]] scholarship, and also "a history of insects, more perfect than any yet Extant."<ref>Carter p. 63</ref>

[[File:Oxford University Press Building – Walton Street.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Oxford University Press building from [[Walton Street, Oxford|Walton Street]]]]
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]]. Disgusted by the chaotic state of the press and antagonized by Vice-Chancellor [[George Huddesford (Vice-Chancellor)|George Huddesford]], 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.<ref>I.G. Phillip, ''William Blackstone and the Reform of the Oxford University Press'' (Oxford, 1957) pp. 45–72</ref> Nonetheless, Randolph{{ambiguous|reason=Nobody by this name is mentioned again throughout the article.|date=September 2023}} 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.<ref>Carter, ch. 21</ref>

By the late 18th century, the press had become more focused. In 1825, the Delegates bought land on Walton Street. Buildings were constructed from plans drawn up by [[Daniel Robertson (architect)|Daniel Robertson]] and [[Edward Blore]], and the press moved into them in 1830.<ref>Barker p. 41. Sutcliffe pp. 4–5</ref> This site remains the principal office of OUP in the 21st century, at the corner of [[Walton Street, Oxford|Walton Street]] and [[Great Clarendon Street]], northwest of Oxford city centre.

The press then entered an era of enormous change. In 1830, it was still a [[Joint-stock company|joint-stock]] printing business in an academic backwater, offering learned works to a relatively small readership of scholars and clerics <ref>Sutcliffe, pp. 1–2, 12</ref> At this time, [[Thomas Combe]] joined the press and became the university's [[Printer (publishing)|Printer]] until he died in 1872. Combe was a better businessman 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.<ref>Sutcliffe pp. 39–40, 110–111</ref> 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.<ref>Sutcliffe p. 6</ref> The best-known text associated with his print shop was the flawed first edition of ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', printed by Oxford at the expense of its author [[Lewis Carroll]] (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) in 1865.<ref>Sutcliffe p. 36</ref>

It took the 1850 [[Royal Commission]] on the workings of the university and a new Secretary, [[Bartholomew Price]], to shake up the press.<ref>Barker pp. 45–47</ref> 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 (publisher)|Alexander Macmillan]], who became the publisher for Oxford's printing in 1863 and 1866 helped Price to create the Clarendon Press series of cheap, elementary school books&nbsp;– perhaps the first time that Oxford used the Clarendon imprint.<ref>Sutcliffe pp. 19–26</ref> Under Price, the press began to take on its modern shape. Major new lines of work began. For 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.<ref>Sutcliffe pp.&nbsp;45–46</ref>

{{Anchor|Henry Frowde}}<!-- This Anchor tag serves to provide a permanent target for incoming section links. Please do not remove it, nor modify it, except to add another appropriate anchor. If you modify the section title, please anchor the old title. It is always best to anchor an old section header that has been changed so that links to it will not be broken. See [[Template:Anchor]] for details. This template is {{subst:Anchor comment}} -->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.<ref>Sutcliffe pp. 16, 19. 37</ref> Macmillan's contract ended in 1880 and was not renewed. By this time, Oxford also had a London warehouse for Bible stock in [[Paternoster Row]], 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."<ref>The Clarendonian, 4, no. 32, 1927, p. 47</ref> 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]] of the [[New Testament]] in 1881<ref>Sutcliffe pp. 48–53</ref> and playing a key role in setting up the press's first office outside Britain, in New York City in 1896.<ref>Sutcliffe pp. 89–91</ref>

Price transformed OUP. In 1884, the year he retired as Secretary, the Delegates bought back the last shares in the business.<ref>Sutcliffe p. 64</ref> 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]]'s [[Maxwell's equations|''A Treatise on Electricity & Magnetism'']] (1873), which proved fundamental to [[Albert Einstein|Einstein's]] thought.<ref>Barker p. 48</ref> 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 massive project that became the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OED).<ref>Sutcliffe pp. 53–58</ref>

Offered to Oxford by [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]] and the [[Philological Society]], 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 ten years and to cost approximately £9,000.<ref>Sutcliffe pp. 56–57</ref> Both figures were wildly optimistic. The Dictionary began appearing in print in 1884, but the first edition was not completed until 1928, 13 years after Murray's death, costing around £375,000.<ref>[[Simon Winchester]], ''[[The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (Oxford, 2003)</ref> This vast financial burden and its implications landed on Price's successors.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

The next Secretary, [[Philip Lyttelton Gell]], was appointed by the Vice-Chancellor [[Benjamin Jowett]] in 1884 but struggled and was finally dismissed in 1897.<ref>Sutcliffe pp. 98–107</ref> The Assistant Secretary, Charles Cannan, was instrumental in Gell's removal.<ref name="Gadd">{{cite book |last1=Gadd |first1=Ian Anders |last2=Eliot |first2=Simon |last3=Louis |first3=William Roger |last4=Robbins |first4=Keith |title=History of Oxford University Press: Volume II: 1780 to 1896 |date=November 2013 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-954315-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_bYJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA111 |page=111 |language=en}}</ref> Cannan took over with little fuss and even less affection for his predecessor in 1898: "Gell was always here, but I cannot make out what he did."<ref>Sutcliffe p. 66</ref>

By the early 20th century, OUP expanded its overseas trade, partly due to the efforts of [[Humphrey Sumner Milford|Humphrey Milford]], the publisher of the University of Oxford from 1913 to 1945. The 1920s saw skyrocketing prices of both materials and labour. Paper 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]], Leipzig, Toronto, Melbourne, [[Cape Town]], Bombay, [[Calcutta]], [[Madras]] 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 sizeable stock inventories, for the Presidencies themselves were large markets, and the educational representatives there dealt mostly with upcountry trade.<ref name="Milford's Letterbooks">Milford's Letterbooks</ref>

In 1923, OUP established a Music Department.<ref name="Sutcliffe p. 211">Sutcliffe p. 211</ref> At the time, such musical publishing enterprises, however, were rare.<ref name="Sutcliffe p. 210">Sutcliffe p. 210</ref> and few of the Delegates or former Publishers were themselves musical or had extensive music backgrounds.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} OUP bought an Anglo-French Music Company and all its facilities, connections, and resources.<ref name="Sutcliffe p. 211"/> 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."<ref>Hinnells p. 8</ref>
It was not until 1939 that the Music Department showed its first profitable year.<ref name="Sutcliffe p. 212">Sutcliffe p. 212</ref>

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 later moved to pioneer branches in Africa and Southeast Asia.<ref name="Milford's Letterbooks"/>
In 1927–1934 Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, was reorganized by Geoffrey Cumberlege to return it to profitability from the lows of the Depression years. (In 1945–1956, Cumberlege would succeed Milford as publisher to the University of Oxford).<ref>{{cite ODNB |author1=John Brown |author2= Clare L. Taylor |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30989 |title=Cumberlege, Geoffrey Fenwick Jocelyn (1891–1979)}}</ref>

The period following [[World War II]] saw consolidation in the face of the break-up of the Empire and the post-war reorganization of the Commonwealth.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

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]] imprint. Its territory includes [[Botswana]], [[Lesotho]], [[Swaziland]], and [[Namibia]], as well as South Africa, the biggest market of the five.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} OUP Southern Africa is now one of the three biggest educational publishers in South Africa. It focuses on publishing textbooks, dictionaries, atlases, supplementary material for schools, and university textbooks. Its author base is overwhelmingly local, and in 2008, it partnered with the university to support [[Mandela Rhodes Scholarship|scholarships]] for South Africans studying postgraduate degrees.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Operations in South Asia and East and South East Asia were and, in the case of the former, remain significant parts of the company.
Today, the North American branch in New York City is primarily a distribution branch to facilitate the sale of [[#Bibles|Oxford Bibles]] in the United States. It also handles marketing of all books of its parent, Macmillan.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}
By the end of 2021, OUP USA had published eighteen Pulitzer Prize–winning books.<ref>{{cite web |title=OUP Major Book Awards |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/aboutus/major-awards/?cc=us&lang=en& |website=OUP Academic |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic its Bookshop on the High Street closed.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-15 |title=Oxford University Press bookshop in High Street has shut forever |url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19923908.oxford-university-press-bookshop-high-street-shut-forever/ |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Oxford Mail |language=en}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=9 June 2021 |title=Oxford University Press to end centuries of tradition by closing its printing arm |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/09/oxford-university-press-to-end-centuries-of-tradition-by-closing-its-printing-arm |access-date=9 June 2021}}</ref>

== Museum ==
The Oxford University Press Museum is located on [[Great Clarendon Street]], [[Oxford]]. Visits must be booked in advance and are led by an archive staff member. Displays include a 19th-century [[printing press]], the OUP buildings, and the printing and history of the ''[[Oxford Almanack]]'', ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' and the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

=== Clarendon Press<!--'Clarendon Press' redirects here--> ===
OUP came to be known as "('''The''') '''Clarendon Press'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->" when printing moved from the [[Sheldonian Theatre]] 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"<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> 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 labelling 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.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://global.oup.com/uk/archives/8.html#| title = Oxford University Press website, Archives}}</ref>

== Scholarly journals ==
OUP as '''Oxford Journals''' has also been a major publisher of [[academic journals]], both in the sciences and the humanities; {{as of|2024|lc=y}} it publishes more than 500 journals on behalf of learned societies around the world.<ref name="Journals">{{cite web |title=Oxford Journals |url=https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/journals_a_to_z |access-date=25 February 2024 |publisher=OUP}}</ref> It has been noted as one of the first university presses to publish an [[open access journal]] (''[[Nucleic Acids Research]]''), and probably the first to introduce so-called [[hybrid open access journal]]s, offering "optional open access" to authors, which provides all readers with online access to their paper free of charge.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/exbotj/open_access.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204093326/http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/exbotj/open_access.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 December 2008 |title=Optional Open Access Experiment |work=[[Journal of Experimental Botany]]|publisher=Oxford Journals  |access-date=19 April 2016}}</ref> The "Oxford Open" model applies to the majority of their journals.<ref name="Oxford Open">{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordjournals.org/en/oxford-open/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140719034831/http://oxfordjournals.org/en/oxford-open/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 July 2014 |title=Oxford Open |publisher=Oxford Journals |access-date=19 April 2016}}</ref> OUP is a member of the [[Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association]].<ref>[https://oaspa.org/membership/members/ Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association Members]</ref>

OUP is a signatory of the [[SDG Publishers Compact]],<ref name="members">{{cite web |title=SDG Publishers Compact Members |url=https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg-publishers-compact-members/ |website=United Nations Sustainable Development |access-date=18 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="UN">{{cite web |title=SDG Publishers Compact |url=https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg-publishers-compact/ |website=United Nations Sustainable Development |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref> and has taken steps to support the achievement of the [[Sustainable Development Goals]] (SDGs) in the publishing industry.<ref name="Spanoudi">{{cite news |last1=Spanoudi |first1=Melina |title=OUP publishes report on sustainability targets |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/oup-publishes-report-on-sustainability-targets |work=The Bookseller |date=May 24, 2023 |language=En |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240306012052/https://www.thebookseller.com/news/oup-publishes-report-on-sustainability-targets |archive-date= 6 March 2024 }}</ref><ref name="Gilbert">{{cite news |last1=Gilbert |first1=Claire |title=Publishers' Sustainability Survival Guide: BookMachine event |url=https://www.orielsquare.co.uk/event-recap-bookmachine-unplugged-the-publishers-sustainability-survival-guide/ |work=OrielSquare |date=6 June 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813002909/https://www.orielsquare.co.uk/event-recap-bookmachine-unplugged-the-publishers-sustainability-survival-guide/ |archive-date= Aug 13, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Oxford University Press shares progress on sustainability in latest Responsible Publishing Report |url=https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/oxford-university-press/pressreleases/oxford-university-press-shares-progress-on-sustainability-in-latest-responsible-publishing-report-3253830 |website=Oxford University Press |date=24 May 2023 |language=en |via=Mynewsdesk |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230811164308/https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/oxford-university-press/pressreleases/oxford-university-press-shares-progress-on-sustainability-in-latest-responsible-publishing-report-3253830 |archive-date= Aug 11, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Responsible Publishing Report 2022-2023 |date=2023 |url=https://oup.foleon.com/responsible-publishing-report-2022-23/2022-23/contents |website=Oxford University Press |language=en |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921142510/https://oup.foleon.com/responsible-publishing-report-2022-23/2022-23/contents |archive-date=21 September 2023 |access-date=30 August 2023 }}</ref> These include the publishing of a new series of Oxford Open Journals, including ''Oxford Open Climate Change'', ''Oxford Open Energy'', ''Oxford Open Immunology'', ''Oxford Open Infrastructure and Health'', and ''Oxford Open Digital Health''.<ref name="James">{{cite news |last1=Butcher |first1=James |title=Scholarly publishers and the SDGs |url=https://geoscientist.online/sections/unearthed/scholarly-publishers-and-the-sdgs/ |work=GEOSCIENTIST |date=1 March 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927154800/https://geoscientist.online/sections/unearthed/scholarly-publishers-and-the-sdgs/ |archive-date= Sep 27, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Oxford Open journal series expands with the launch of two new Open Access titles |url=https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/oxford-university-press/news/oxford-open-journal-series-expands-with-the-launch-of-two-new-open-access-titles-447564 |work=Oxford University Press |date=10 May 2022 |language=en |via=mynewsdesk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811163426/https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/oxford-university-press/news/oxford-open-journal-series-expands-with-the-launch-of-two-new-open-access-titles-447564 |archive-date= Aug 11, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Oxford Open Journals |url=https://academic.oup.com/oxfordopenjournals |website=Oxford Open Journals}}</ref>

== Series and titles <!--[[Oxford Languages]] redirects here--> ==
[[File:Oxford University Press dictionaries, W.H. Smith, Enfield.jpg|thumb|Oxford University Press dictionaries]]
[[File:OED2 volumes.jpg|thumb|Seven of the twenty volumes of the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (second edition, 1989)]]

Oxford University Press publishes a variety of [[Dictionary|dictionaries]] (e.g. ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', ''[[Shorter Oxford English Dictionary]]'', ''[[Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English|Compact Oxford English Dictionary]]'', ''[[Compact Editions of the Oxford English Dictionary]]'', ''[[Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English]]'', ''[[Concise Oxford English Dictionary]]'', ''[[Oxford Dictionary of Marketing]]'', ''[[Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary]])'', [[English as a second or foreign language]] resources (e.g. ''[[Let's Go (textbooks)|Let's Go]]''), English language exams (e.g. [[Oxford Test of English]] and the [[Oxford Placement Test]]), [[Bibliography|bibliographies]] (e.g., ''[[Oxford Bibliographies Online]]''<ref>{{cite web |title=About |website=Oxford Bibliographies |url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/obo/page/about}}</ref>), miscellaneous series such as ''[[Very Short Introductions]]'', and books on [[Indology]], [[music]], [[classics]], [[literature]], [[history]], [[Bible]]s, and [[atlas]]es. Many of these are published under the Oxford Languages brand.

== Clarendon Scholarships ==
Since 2001, Oxford University Press has financially supported the [[Clarendon bursary]], a [[University of Oxford]] graduate scholarship scheme.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of the Clarendon Fund |url=https://www.ox.ac.uk/clarendon/about/history-of-the-clarendon-fund?wssl=1 |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=12 February 2018}}</ref>

== Controversies ==

===Tehran Book Fair controversy===
In February 1989, Iran's [[Ruhollah Khomeini|Ayatollah Khomeini]] issued a fatwa urging the execution of British author Salman Rushdie and of all involved in the publication of his novel [[Satanic Verses controversy|''The Satanic Verses'']]. Rushdie went into hiding, and an international movement began to boycott book trading with Iran. There was, therefore, outrage when, in April 1989, OUP broke the worldwide embargo and chose to attend the [[Tehran International Book Fair|Tehran Book Fair]]. OUP justified this by saying, "We deliberated about it quite deeply but felt it certainly wasn't in our interests, or Iran's as a whole, to stay away."<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/mullahsb.jpg quoted in "Such principled publishers", an article in The Bookseller, 5 May 1989]</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/mullahs1.jpg 'Books for the Mullahs', ''The New York Times'', 27th April 1989]</ref> and ''[[The Sunday Times]]''<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/mullahs2.jpg Norman Lebrecht and Ian Birrell, 'Anger over Iran book fair visits', The Sunday Times, 7th May 1989]</ref> both condemned Oxford's decision.

===Malcolm vs. Oxford University 1986–1992===
In 1990, in the UK Court of Appeal, author [[Andrew Malcolm (author)|Andrew Malcolm]] won a landmark legal judgment against Oxford University (Press) for its breach of a contract to publish his philosophical text ''Making Names''. Reporting on the verdict in ''The Observer'', Laurence Marks wrote, "It is the first time in living memory that [[Grub Street]] has won such a victory over its oppressors".<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/marks1.jpg Laurence Marks, 'A builder's dialogue that silenced OUP', The Observer, 23 December 1990]</ref> The Appeal Court judges were highly critical of Oxford's conduct of the affair and the litigation. Lord Justice Mustill declared, "The Press is one of the longest-established publishing houses in the United Kingdom, and no doubt in the world. They must have been aware from the outset that the absence of agreement on the matters in question [the book's print-run and format] was not, in the trade, regarded as preventing a formal agreement from coming into existence. Candour would, I believe, have required that this should have been made clear to the judge and ourselves, rather than a determined refusal to let the true position come to light... This is not quite all. I do not know whether an outsider studying the history of this transaction and of this litigation would feel that, in his self-financed struggle with the assembled Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford the appellant has had a fair crack of the whip. I certainly do not... Mr Charkin took the decision [to renege on the OUP editor's contract], not because he thought the book was no good - he had never seen it and the reports were favourable - but because he thought it would not sell. Let there be no mistake about it, the failure of this transaction was about money, not prestige. Nor does the course of the litigation give any reason to suppose that the Press had any interest but to resist the claim, no matter on what grounds, so long as they succeeded."<ref name="Appeal">[http://www.akmedea.com/jdgmtca.html Court of Appeal judgement and order, 18 December 1990, CHF0480/90]</ref> Lord Justice Leggatt added: "It is difficult to know what the Deputy Judge (Lightman) meant by a 'firm commitment' other than an intention to create legal relations. Nothing short of that would have had any value whatever for Mr Malcolm... To suggest that Mr Hardy intended to induce Mr Malcolm to revise the book by giving him a valueless assurance would be tantamount to an imputation of fraud... It follows that in my judgment when Mr Hardy used the expressions 'commitment' and 'a fair royalty' he did in fact mean what he said; and I venture to think that it would take a lawyer to arrive at any other conclusion. There was therefore an enforceable contract for the publication of Mr Malcolm's book... The Respondents' final statement may be thought unworthy of them."<ref name="Appeal" />

The case ended in July 1992 with a Tomlin order, a damages settlement under which the servants and agents of Oxford University are permanently barred from denigrating Malcolm or ''Making Names'', rendering it the first book in literary history to be afforded such legal protection.<ref name="Baty">[http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/167385.article Phil Baty, 'Whistleblowers', The Times Higher Education Supplement, 22 February 2002] '</ref><ref name="Baty1">[http://www.akmedea.com/2K1whsl1.html Phil Baty, 'Whistleblowers', THES article on the akmedea website] '</ref><ref name="Tomlin">{{cite web|url=http://www.akmedea.com/xA210.html|title=Malcolm v Oxford: settlement agreement 1/7/92|website=www.akmedea.com}}</ref> The case was reported to have cost Oxford over £500,000.<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/privteye.jpg Books and Bookmen column, Private Eye, 15 January 1993]</ref>

===Closure of poetry list===
In November 1998, 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]]'' that the list "just about breaks even. The university expects us to operate on commercial grounds, especially in this day and age."<ref name="Alberge">[http://www.akmedea.com/dedpoets.jpg Dalya Alberge, 'Anger over Dead Poets Society', The Times, 21st November 1998]</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."<ref name="Alberge" /> In February 1999, Arts Minister [[Alan Howarth, Baron Howarth of Newport|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."<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/feb/04/danglaister Dan Glaister, 'Minister steps into Oxford poetry list row', The Guardian, 4 February 1999]</ref> Oxford's professor [[Valentine Cunningham]] wrote in the ''Times Higher Education Supplement'': "Increasingly, (OUP) has behaved largely like a commercial outfit, with pound signs in its eyes and a readiness to dumb down for the sake of popularity and sales....Sacking poets not because they lose money but because they do not make enough of it: it is an allegory of a university press missing the point, mistaking its prime purpose."<ref name="Mammon">[http://www.akmedea.com/mammon.jpg "Mammon's Imprint", The Times Higher Education Supplement, 12 February 1999].</ref> In March 1999 ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' commissioned Andrew Malcolm to write an article under the strapline "Why the present constitution of the OUP cannot work".<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/jericho.jpg Andrew Malcom, 'Don't go to Jericho: Why the present constitution of the OUP cannot work', Times Literary Supplement, 2 April 1999]</ref> A decade later, OUP's managing director, Ivon Asquith, reflected on the public relations 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."<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/OUPIV478.jpg 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>

===Tax-exemption controversies===
Since the 1940s, both OUP and the [[Cambridge University Press]] (CUP), had made applications to the Inland Revenue for exemption from corporate tax. The first application, by CUP in 1940, was rejected "on the ground that, since the Press was printing and publishing for the outside world and not simply for the internal use of the University, the Press's trade went beyond the purpose and objects of the University and (in terms of the Act) was not exercised in the course of the actual carrying out of a primary purpose of the University."<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/MHB-267.jpg M.H. Black, Cambridge University Press 1584-1984, CUP, 1984, p267]</ref> Similar applications by OUP in 1944 and 1950 were also rejected by the Inland Revenue, whose officers repeatedly pointed out that the university presses were in open competition with commercial, tax-liable publishers. In November 1975, CUP's chief executive [[Geoffrey Cass]] again applied to the Inland Revenue, and a year later, CUP's tax exemption was quietly conceded.<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/MHB-267.jpg G Bridden, letter to Geoffrey Cass, 9 November 1976]</ref><ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/MHB-283.jpg M.H. Black, Cambridge University Press 1584-1984, CUP, 1984, p282]</ref> OUP's Chief Executive George Richardson followed suit in 1977. OUP's tax exemption was granted in 1978. The decisions were not made public. The issue was only brought to public attention due to press interest in OUP following the poetry list closure controversy.<ref name="Mammon" /> In 1999, the [[Civil society campaign|campaigner]] Andrew Malcolm published his second book, ''The Remedy'', where he alleged that OUP breached its 1978 tax-exemption conditions. This was reported in a front-page article in ''[[The Oxford Times]]'', along with OUP's response.<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/oxtimes.jpg Reg Little, 'OUP denies it has breached Charity rules', The Oxford Times, 5 November 1999]</ref>

In March 2001, after a 28-year battle with the Indian tax authorities, OUP lost its tax exemption in India. The Supreme Court ruled that OUP was not tax exempt in the subcontinent "because it does not carry out any university activities there but acts simply as a commercial publisher".<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/oxtimes2.jpg Maggie Hartford 'A Message from India', The Oxford Times, 30 March 2001]</ref> To pay off back taxes, owed since the 1970s, OUP was obliged to sell its Mumbai headquarters building, Oxford House. ''[[The Bookseller]]'' reported that "The case has again raised questions about OUP's status in the UK".<ref>[https://www.thebookseller.com/news/2001-oup-india-forced-pay-back-tax The Bookseller Editorial team, 'OUP India forced to pay back tax', ''The Bookseller'', 1 June 2001]</ref> In 2003, Joel Rickett of ''The Bookseller'' wrote an article in ''[[The Guardian]]'' describing the resentment of commercial rivals at OUP's tax exemption. Rickett accurately predicted that the funds which would have been paid in tax were "likely to be used to confirm OUP's dominance by buying up other publishers."<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/aug/30/featuresreviews.guardianreview21 Joel Rickett, 'latest news from the world of publishing', ''The Guardian'', 30 August 2003]</ref> Between 1989 and 2018, OUP bought out over 70 rival book and journal publishers. In 2007, with the new "public benefit" requirement of the revised Charities Act, the issue was re-examined <ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/education/2007/apr/17/administration.highereducation Jessica Shepherd, 'Freedom of the presses', the Guardian, 17 April 2007]</ref> with particular reference to OUP.<ref>[http://www.akmedea.com/bkslr5.jpg Tom Tivnan, 'Charities review could hit publishers', The Bookseller, 2007]</ref> In the same year, Malcolm obtained and posted the documents of OUP's applications to the Inland Revenue for tax exemption in the 1940s and 1950s (unsuccessful)<ref>[https://www.akmedea.com/1940indx.html 'CUP'S and OUP'S claims for tax-exemption, 1940-1950", Index of scans on the Akmedea website]</ref> and the 1970s (successful).<ref>[https://www.akmedea.com/75aindex.html 'CUP's and OUP's tax-exemption applications, 1975-78', Index of scans on the Akmedea website]</ref> In 2008, CUP's and OUP's privilege was attacked by rival publishers.<ref>[https://www.thebookseller.com/news/rivals-attack-oup-and-cup Philip Jones,'Rivals attack OUP and CUP', ''The Bookseller'', 24 April 2008]</ref><ref>[https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2276814.oup-status-attacked/ Chris Koenig, 'OUP status attacked', Oxford Mail, 16 May 2008]</ref> In 2009, ''[[The Guardian]]'' invited Andrew Malcolm to write an article on the subject.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Malcolm |first1=Andrew |title=The Oxbridge presses aren't charities, but are given unfair tax breaks |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/15/cambridge-univsersity-press-oxford |access-date=22 August 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=14 April 2009}}</ref>

===East African bribery scandal===
In July 2012, the UK's [[Serious Fraud Office (United Kingdom)|Serious Fraud Office]] found OUP's branches in Kenya and Tanzania guilty of bribery to obtain school bookselling contracts sponsored by the World Bank. Oxford was fined £1.9 million "in recognition of sums it received which were generated through unlawful conduct" and barred from applying for World Bank-financed projects for three years.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/law/2012/jul/03/oxford-university-press-fined-bribery Jeevan Vasagar, 'Oxford University Press fined £1.9m over bribery by African subsidiary firms', The Guardian, 3 July 2012]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-19 |title=Reprieve for Oxford Press's regional units as World Bank lifts sanctions |url=https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/business/reprieve-for-oxford-press-s-regional-units-as-world-bank-lifts-sanctions--1338944 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The East African |language=en |archive-date=25 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225170056/https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/business/reprieve-for-oxford-press-s-regional-units-as-world-bank-lifts-sanctions--1338944 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Uyghur controversy===
In December 2023, concerns were raised that OUP had published an academic paper based on genetic data taken from the [[Uyghurs|Uyghur population]] of [[Xinjiang]], a Turkic ethnic group in [[China]].<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/29/academic-paper-uyghur-genetic-data-retracted-ethical-concerns Anne Hawkins, 'Academic paper based on Uyghur genetic data retracted over ethical concerns', The Guardian, 29 December 2023]</ref> Rhys Blakely, a science correspondent for ''[[The Times]]'', reported: "The research has been published online by Oxford University Press (OUP) in a journal that receives financial support from [[Ministry of Justice (China)|China's Ministry of Justice]]. The highly unusual deal will raise fears that Oxford risks becoming entangled in [[Persecution of Uyghurs in China|human rights abuses against the Uighur community]]. It will also add to concerns over [[Chinese propaganda|China's efforts to influence UK academia]]."<ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/oxford-publish-chinese-funded-research-uighur-dna-zlz5bg0pp Rhys Blakely, 'Oxford publishes Chinese-funded research that uses Uighur DNA', The Times,4 February 2024]</ref> In February, OUP announced that it was carrying out internal investigations into two further studies, based on DNA taken from China's Xibe ethnic minority.<ref>[https://www.cherwell.org/2024/02/07/ethics-concerns-over-oxford-university-press-journal-study-based-on-uyghur-dna/ 'Ethics concerns over Oxford University Press journal study based on Uyghur DNA', Cherwell, 7 February 2024]</ref> On 17 May, [[The Times]] reported that Oxford had retracted the two studies, quoting a statement from the OUP: "Earlier this year, we were alerted to concerns regarding two papers in Forensics Sciences Research. Based on the information we received, we undertook further investigation and took the decision to retract the papers, in line with industry standard processes."<ref>Rhys Blakely, 'Oxford pulls studies over China DNA link', The Times, 17 May 2024</ref>

== See also ==
{{cols|colwidth=21em}}
* [[:Category:Oxford University Press academic journals]]
* [[List of Oxford University Press journals]]
* ''[[Hachette (publishing)|Hachette]]''
* ''[[Hart's Rules]] for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford''
* [[List of largest UK book publishers]]
* [[Cambridge University Press v. Patton]], a copyright infringement suit in which OUP is a plaintiff
* [[Harvard University Press]]
* [[University of Chicago Press]]
* [[Edinburgh University Press]]
* [[Express Publishing]]
* [[Blavatnik School of Government]] (opened in 2015), opposite the OUP on Walton Street
* [[Women in a Celtic Church]]
{{colend}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |first=Nicolas |last=Barker |title = The Oxford University Press and the Spread of Learning |location=Oxford |year=1978 }}
* {{cite book |last=Carter |first = Harry Graham |author-link = Harry Carter (typographer) |title = A History of the Oxford University Press |location = Oxford |publisher = Clarendon Press |year = 1975 |oclc = 955872307 }}
* {{cite book |last = Chatterjee |first = Rimi B. |author-link = Rimi B. Chatterjee |title = Empires of the Mind: A History of the Oxford University Press in India During the Raj |location = New Delhi |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn = 978-0-19-567474-3 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=an4VAQAAIAAJ }}
* {{cite book |first=Duncan |last=Hinnells |title = An Extraordinary Performance: Hubert Foss and the Early Years of Music Publishing at the Oxford University Press |location = Oxford |publisher = OUP |isbn = 978-0-19-323200-6 |year=1998 }}
* {{cite book |publisher=Oxford University Press Music Department |title=Oxford Music: The First Fifty Years '23−'73 |location = London |year = 1973 }}
* {{cite book |first=Peter |last=Sutcliffe |title=The Oxford University Press: An Informal History |location = Oxford |publisher =  Clarendon Press |isbn = 0-19-951084-9 |year = 1978 |url = https://archive.org/details/oxforduniversity0000sutc |url-access=registration }}
* {{cite book |first=Peter |last=Sutcliffe |title = An Informal History of the OUP |location = Oxford |publisher = OUP |year = 1972 }}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* Gadd, Ian, ed. (2014). [https://books.google.com/books?id=VbkJAgAAQBAJ ''The History of Oxford University Press: Volume I: Beginnings to 1780'']. Oxford: OUP. {{ISBN|9780199557318}}.
* Eliot, Simon, ed. (2014). [https://books.google.com/books?id=_bYJAgAAQBAJ ''The History of Oxford University Press: Volume II: 1780 to 1896'']. Oxford: OUP. {{ISBN|9780199543151}}.
* [[Wm. Roger Louis|Louis, Wm. Roger]], ed. (2014). [https://books.google.com/books?id=YbcJAgAAQBAJ ''The History of Oxford University Press: Volume III: 1896 to 1970'']. Oxford: OUP. {{ISBN|9780199568406}}. Also online {{doi|10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199568406.001.0001}}.
*"A View of the Oxford University Press." ''[[The Book Collector]]'' 20  (no.4) Winter 1971: 447-464.
* [[Keith Robbins|Robbins, Keith]], ed. (2017). [https://books.google.com/books?id=_iUlDwAAQBAJ ''The History of Oxford University Press: Volume IV: 1970 to 2004'']. Oxford: OUP. {{ISBN|9780199574797}}.

== External links ==
{{Wikisource publisher|Oxford University Press}}
{{Commons category|Oxford University Press}}

*{{Official website}}
*{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/*/http://www.oup.co.uk/|title=Oxford University Press}}
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=ym0AAAAAYAAJ Illustrated article: The Most Famous Press in the World], ''World's Work and Play'', June 1903.

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