Throughout the past year the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) has spoken out to signify our community’s integrity, stewardship of research and resources, and abiding support of intellectual freedom as well as equity and inclusion.
In particular this year, the Association joined with numerous peer organizations to speak out against US governmental overreach and censorship—declared primarily by executive orders dismissing facts and vilifying those with whom the current administration disagrees—which threaten intellectual freedom, the advance of research-based knowledge, and the scholarship that university presses help steward. As chronicled in Responding to the Current Political Moment in the United States, AUPresses has spoken in support of the National Endowment for the Humanities; the painstaking preservation, comprehensive presentation, and accurate teaching of US history; the civil and human rights of transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming individuals; and the pursuit of robust and equitable scholarly inquiry in all disciplines.
The Association’s mission and core values also informed these additional contributions to public discourse about scholarship and scholarly publishing:
AUPresses Articulates Guiding Principles for Position Statements, May 2024
Offers insights into the Association’s considerations when evaluating any new technology or business model.
“Is 0.66% of QR funding too much to ask for OA books?,” LSE Impact, June 2024
This opinion piece by AUPresses President Anthony Cond (Liverpool) and Executive Director Peter Berkery reflects the Association’s comments, submitted to the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029 Open Access Consultation, encouraging equitable government funding for longform open access humanities and social science scholarship.
University Presses Offer Essential Resources for Understanding Democracy, December 2024
Presents a selection of books, journal articles, reading lists, and commentary from AUPresses members and their expert authors to all who seek to understand and nurture democracy.
AUPresses Submits Responses to Consultations on Copyright and AI, February 2025
Summarizes the Association’s response to consultation requests from the UK and US governments, asserting that current copyright laws protect rights holders from unauthorized use of their work and should be upheld.
“Art, Liberty, Diverse Voices: Six Poets on Why University Presses Are Critical for Poetry,” LitHub, March 2025
Six poets discuss their publishing experiences with 10 AUPresses member presses in this feature article, demonstrating that poetry publishing constitutes an important dimension of university presses’ mission to cultivate human knowledge.
AUPresses Reaffirms Principles of the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Publishing, April 2025
AUPresses Board of Directors voted during its spring 2025 meeting to reaffirm the Association’s commitment to these principles for building a socially just community that welcomes, values, and celebrates all who contribute to scholarly communications.
In addition, the Association voiced its values by prioritizing a new social media platform this year, leaving an increasingly ineffective and bleak X (Twitter) in late 2024 to help build a vibrant new community of member presses, scholars, and librarians on Bluesky (@aupresses.bsky.social).