Brown students are used to buying course materials emblazoned with the words "Princeton University Press" or "Oxford University Press," but they will never open a textbook and see an imprint with their own institution's name.
Nearly all Brown's peer universities have a press, according to Brenna McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Association of American University Presses. "Brown is one of the very few top research institutions that doesn't have a press," she said. "This is somewhat of an obvious gap when you look at their profile."
But Brown did have a standalone press from 1932 to 1981, according to Encyclopedia Brunoniana. The press was closed down due to budgetary constraints.
Its published works included the series Brown University Studies and Colver Lectures, but Brown University Press' most famous publication may be the non-existent volume, titled "Psychoceramics," by the University's fictional professor, Josiah Carberry. A 1958 article in American Scientist magazine cited Carberry's supposed work, and the hoax even elicited orders for it.
In 1981, the financially troubled Brown University Press merged with seven other university publishers as part of the University Press of New England.
But even as part of the conglomerate, Brown's publishing house never rivaled the presses of Harvard or Yale universities, according to Professor of Philosophy Ernest Sosa, who served as editor of Brown University Press for over 10 years.
"We never attained the level of prestige required in order to attract a critical mass of excellent submissions, nor was Brown willing to make the substantial investment that would be required for that," Sosa told The Herald in an e-mail.
Brown eventually withdrew from UPNE because its membership did not garner "enough prestige for its investment," Sosa wrote.
Prestige and publicity are among the most important advantages a university press can bring to its parent institution, McLaughlin said.
According to AAUP's Web site, university presses seek to "publish work of scholarly, intellectual, or creative merit, often for a small audience of specialists," and can provide increased accessibility to research conducted at their institutions.
"A lot of people in the academic world seem to think that if your university has a press, you get a little more recognition," said Andrew DeSio, spokesperson for Princeton University Press. Its 100-year history makes Princeton University Press one of the largest and oldest of its kind in the country.
Certain university presses may be better known in some fields than others, DeSio said, adding that Princeton University Press is particularly known for its economics and math publications. Many universities "align" the fields in which they publish with their institution's academic strengths, McLaughlin said.
University presses do not exclusively publish works by their own faculty and students. Every AAUP member has a peer review system in which scholars review the prospective manuscript to ensure its accuracy and significance, DeSio said.
Robert Self, associate professor of history, said Brown's lack of a university press does not impact its faculty's ability to get published.
"It used to be that the university presses had an interest in publishing the books of their faculty, but now, the vast majority, at least in my discipline, publish at university presses that aren't at their university, even if their university has a prestigious press," Self said.
Professors will often look to university presses outside of their institution to avoid the impression that their work is "a vanity publication or that it can't be accepted somewhere else," McLaughlin said.
Self published his first book, "American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland," in 2003 with Princeton University Press. He said he chose to publish with the press because he liked its editor and felt that the press had a very good understanding of his project.
Although Self acknowledged that university presses can bring prestige to an institution, he does not think Brown's faculty suffers because of the University's lack of a press. "In terms of Brown faculty publishing their work, it doesn't really impact them at all - they're capable of getting published by other prestigious university presses in the country," Self said.
Professor of Biology Kenneth Miller '70 P'02, who has co-authored biology textbooks used by millions of American high school and college students, agreed with Self. Miller said most of his writing is published by commercial publishing houses, rather than university presses.
Self said Brown would have trouble trying to revive a university press at this point. "It's a tough world to survive in financially," Self said of academic publishing. "University presses are in a tough bind - they're publishing all these books, but they're losing money."
Self said university presses are trying to resolve this issue by attempting to balance the number of published academic books, which are for a more specialized audience, and trade books, which have more of a "commercial possibility."
He added, "the vast majority of academic books just don't sell particularly well to a commercial audience."
But university presses are nonetheless an important part of the academic world, DeSio said. Their existence, he said, helps universities prosper and, of course, spread knowledge.
