“ Universities have a social compact to share the fruits of scholarship and scientific research. Research and teaching are the two key pillars of the academic enterprise, and public engagement is the third pillar. Each year, over a million high-quality publications bearing MIT’s name are distributed around the world. We are a vital link in MIT’s mission to share research and engage the public.
—Amy Brand, Director and Publisher
The MIT Press
Photo of The Wende Museum, Culver City. Photo: Alaina Booth.
Some MIT Press annual stats
41 journals
2,470 articles
125,000+ citations
250+ new books
1 million books sold
85+ new open access books
4.5M web visits
65% international
Alchemist sculpture surrounded by fall foliage,
Photo: Qudus Shittu
Open access to vetted knowledge
Scan
“Most people recognize the MIT Press as a forwardthinking, top-tier university press with an impressive roster of authors, books, and journals. But what most people don’t realize is that the MIT Press is also a leader in democratizing access to knowledge, striving to make academic information available to everyone, not just those who can afford it.
We were so impressed by their efforts that we made a $10 million gift to create the first permanent endowment for the MIT Press. We wanted that endowment to be a catalyst for change. The first $5 million laid the foundation, and the remaining $5 million was set aside as a challenge fund, encouraging others to contribute and help raise another $5 million from like-minded individuals who share this vision.
Our goal in making this gift—and in seeking to build a community around it—is to support open access to knowledge. This is critical, especially now, when reliable, trustworthy information is more essential than ever and harder to come by. We believe the MIT Press is perfectly positioned to lead this charge.
Our goal in making this gift—and in seeking to build a community around it—is to support open access to knowledge.
—Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin are the Co-Founders of Arcadia, a charitable fund that helps people record cultural heritage, conserve and restore nature, and promote open access to knowledge. Since 2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $1.2 billion to organizations around the world. Its CEO, Simon Chaplin, represents Arcadia on the MIT Press Advisory Council.
Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
The Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science [OECS] is a new, freely available multidisciplinary guide to understanding the mind through a growing collection of peer-reviewed articles introducing key topics to a broad audience of students and scholars.
“Cognitive science is inherently interdisciplinary, built on shared knowledge and collaboration,” says Asifa Majid, of Oxford University, Co-Editor-in-Chief of OECS with Michael C. Frank, of Stanford. “The OECS brings together key resources and ideas in a single, authoritative encyclopedia to support multidisciplinary learning.”
Supporting open access at the MIT Press ensures the continued growth of the OECS and other innovative open learning tools.
MIT Open Publishing Services (MITops)
MIT Open Publishing Services is an MIT-branded hosting and publishing operation, pairing open scholarship with professional strategy and support.
Our inaugural project, The MIT Case Studies in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing from the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, is now used by more than 1/3 of MIT undergraduates.
In collaboration with the President’s Office, we published An MIT Exploration of Generative AI: From Novel Chemicals to Opera. This open access collection of papers about Generative AI from interdisciplinary teams of faculty and researchers across the Institute explores the transformative potential of generative AI, in both positive and negative directions, across a wide range of applications.
“An MIT Exploration of Generative AI offers a glimpse into some of MIT’s most brilliant minds at work, weaving new ideas across fields, departments and schools. We share their work in the hope it will serve as a springboard for further research, study and conversation about how we as a society can build a successful AI future.”
—Sally Kornbluth, President, MIT
“The Florida Virtual Campus is honored to participate in D2O in order to provide this collection of high-quality scholarship to more than 1.2 million students and faculty at the 28 state colleges and 12 state universities of Florida.”
—Elijah Scott, Executive Director of Library Services, Florida Virtual Campus
705k reads
326 libraries
New report on open access
The MIT Press released a comprehensive report that addresses how open access policies shape research and what is needed to maximize their positive impact on the research ecosystem.
The report—titled “Access to Science & Scholarship 2024: Building an Evidence Base to Support the Future of Open Research Policy”—is the outcome of a solutions-focused workshop targeted to these questions, organized by the MIT Press and funded by the National Science Foundation.
The event brought together leading experts to discuss critical issues in open scientific and scholarly publishing and to identify key research questions to advance open science and scholarship. These include:
• How can we better model and anticipate the consequences of government policies on public access to science and scholarship?
• How can research funders support experimentation with new and more equitable business models for scientific publishing?
• If the dissemination of scholarship is decoupled from peer review and evaluation, who is best suited to perform that evaluation, and how should that process be managed and funded?
Public understanding of science
“As a scientist, I’m interested in having my research make the largest impact it can to help solve some of the challenges of society. Open access, making research available to people around the world, is an important aspect of this objective. But the quality of publications is dependent upon peer review. Thus, open access policies need to be considered and promoted in the context of a vigorous peer-review publication process.
MIT has long been at the forefront of innovations, and the MIT Press is a key actor in the Institute’s leadership to provide open, equitable access to peer-reviewed digital learning, books, and journals.
This workshop report is a crucial step in building a data-driven roadmap for the future of open science publishing and policy.
This workshop report is a crucial step in building a data-driven roadmap for the future of open science publishing and policy.
—Dr. Phillip Sharp, Institute Professor and Professor of Biology Emeritus at MIT, winner of 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and faculty lead of the working group behind the workshop and the report
Imaging Neuroscience
In 2023, the MIT Press launched Imaging Neuroscience, now recognized as the premier journal in the field of neuroimaging. The journal’s Editor-in-Chief—Stephen M. Smith, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Oxford University— was joined by the entire former editorial team from the journals Neuroimage and Neuroimage: Reports after they resigned from their previous roles because of the high article process charges (APCs) with their prior publisher. This departure was hailed by The Chronicle of Higher Education as a “high-profile move in the long-unfolding battle over who pays and who benefits in the academic-publishing world.”
“The entire editorship has moved over to start the new journal. It has been a delight to work with MIT Press on this—in part because they clearly have a much more ethical approach to academic publishing than we often see,” said Smith.
Impact
• 885 submissions
• 354 articles
• 55% reduction in APC fees
Unleashing research
“The MIT Press journals program adheres to and exemplifies the mission of MIT Press as a whole: to lead by pushing the boundaries of scholarly publishing.
We do this by being open to experimentation while staying close to the scholarly communities we serve. The latter has served the former well by giving the Press willing and thoughtful partners who want to explore the edges and see where new modes of dissemination can take them and their readers.
We are open to experimentation while staying close to the scholary communities we serve.
This has given us the chance to take chances: on journals that contain new features like interactive data visualizations and executable code, or ones that represent new ways of thinking about what the academy needs at a given moment such as peer reviews of papers on a rapidly emerging infectious disease. By being nimble and attentive, and working with best-in-class partners, the Press will continue to seek out the borderlands.
—Nick
Lindsay, Director for Journals and Open Access, The MIT Press
Scan to read “Data Science and AI: Everything Everywhere All at Once,” from Harvard Data Science Review editor-in-chief Xiao-Li Meng
Introducing the MIT Press Faculty and Alumni Book Awards
Late last year, the MIT Press received a grant from an anonymous donor to launch a new book awards program, focused on MIT faculty and alumni authors publishing with us. The program honors the enduring importance of books and book authors within the MIT community. 2025 is our inaugural year for this new awards program.
This year’s finalists include Counting Feminicide by Catherine D’Ignazio, Wonder by Frank Keil, The Equitably Resilient City by Zachary Lamb and Lawrence Vale, Data Is Everybody’s Business by Barbara Wixom, Cynthia Beath, and Leslie Owens, The Work of the Future by David Autor, David Mindell, and Elisabeth Reynolds, Melancholy Wedgwood by Iris Moon, The Abundant University by Michael D. Smith, and Taming Silicon Valley by Gary Marcus.
Celebrating 100
In 2024, the MIT Press published its 100th Essential Knowledge Series title
The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers accessible, concise, beautifully produced books, written by leading thinkers, on topics ranging from critical thinking and cynicism to space flight and UFOs to open access and machine learning, and everything in between.
In today’s era of instant information gratification, we have ready access to opinions, rationalizations, and superficial descriptions. Much harder to come by is the foundational knowledge that informs a principled understanding of the world. Essential Knowledge books fill that need. Synthesizing specialized subject matter for nonspecialists and engaging critical topics through fundamentals, these compact volumes offer readers a point of access to complex ideas.
As an expression of gratitude, MIT Press donors will receive free access to the Essential Knowledge Series through MIT Press Direct, our online platform. Scan to see 100+ topics included in the Essential Knowledge Series.
A year for sharing big ideas
MIT Press events this past year highlighted the vital role of university presses in preserving and disseminating worldchanging ideas. Unlike commercial publishers, university presses prioritize advancing academic thought and making critical research accessible to educators, students, and the public.
From D.C.’s Library of Congress to San Francisco’s exclusive Battery Club, we partnered with MIT Alumni to hold lively discussions centered on generative AI, trust, and the importance of open access. These gatherings underscore MIT Press’s dedication to ensuring that discoveries and innovations are available to everyone, fostering a more informed and equitable society.
BUILDING TRUST IN SCIENCE FOR A MORE INFORMED FUTURE
Building Trust in Science for a More Informed Future, a collaboration between the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program and the MIT Press, aims to bridge the gap between the evidence-base on how humans process and understand information, and the vulnerabilities to misinformation and propaganda we endure when we fail to leverage this knowledge in communicating science, especially in the age of generative AI.
Guests listen to a speaker at an Aspen Institute program. Source: Aspen Institute.
MIT Press authors (l-r) Clifford Johnson, Kevin Bethune, and Christine Borgman discussed “Democratizing Knowledge” with Talk Nerdy podcast host Cara Santa Maria at The Wende Museum.
The MIT Press @ The Wende Museum
In September 2024, the Press took part in an unforgettable evening at The Wende Museum for MIT Club of Southern California members and friends of the MIT Press, cohosted by Justin Jampol and the team at the Wende. The night began with a tour of the museum's extraordinary Cold War art and artifacts, followed by vibrant conversations and thought-provoking insights from some of the leading voices in publishing and innovation.
MIT Press authors Kevin Bethune, Christine Borgman, and Clifford Johnson shared their expertise on design, AI, big data, and the critical importance of open access in today’s digital landscape, with Emmy-award winning journalist and Talk Nerdy podcast host Cara Santa Maria as moderator.
“We need presses like the MIT Press that take chances.”
—Christine Borgman, MIT Press author
top: (l-r) Event guest meets MIT alumnus Fred Hameetman and Justin Jampol, Executive Director, Wende Museum
bottom: (l-r) Simon Chaplin, CEO of Arcadia Foundation speaks with MIT Press authors Kevin Bethune and Dori Tunstall
“The MIT Press is considered the only university press at the intersection of art, science, technology, and design. Many university presses have long-standing endowments. MIT Press has not, until now. Thanks to the generosity of the Arcadia Fund, MIT is the first university to have a permanent endowment for the transition to open access publishing.”
—Sally Yu, MIT Class of 2000, member of the MIT Corporation Development Committee and MIT Press Partner Advisory Council, and co-host of the MIT Press event at the Battery
The MIT Press @ The MIT Club of NorCal
At an event hosted by the MIT Club of NorCal (MITCNC) for the MIT Press at the Battery in San Francisco, authors Dan Russell, Hal Varian, Abbey Smith Rumsey, and Stefano Bertozzi spoke on the topics of publishing, open knowledge, generative AI, and trust.
The event also put a spotlight on the Open Publishing initiative, the MIT Press’s ground-breaking effort to publish open access books and journals in fields ranging from science and technology to the social sciences, arts, and humanities.
This initiative was kicked off with a $10 million donation from the Arcadia Fund.
Top: (l-r). MIT Press authors Dan Russell, Hal Varian, Abbey Smith Rumsey, and Stefano Bertozzi
Bottom: (l-r) Larry Brilliant, Amy Brand, Diana Chapman Walsh, Stephen Marshall, Sally Yu, John Chisholm
Spotlight on design
In 2025, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Muriel Cooper’s birth, honoring her transformative impact on design at the MIT Press and beyond. As the Press’s first design director, Cooper revolutionized the visual identity of academic publishing, establishing a legacy that continues to shape our books and journals today. The iconic colophon she designed still graces every MIT Press spine, a testament to her enduring influence.
Cooper’s pioneering work extended beyond print into the realms of digital design and information visualization. Her contributions to the Visible Language Workshop at MIT’s Media Lab presaged contemporary explorations of typography, interactivity, and data-driven storytelling. She challenged conventions, blending clarity with experimentation, and set a standard that continues to guide our commitment to design excellence.
Support of the Cooper Memorial Design Fund from the MIT Press community helps sustain this tradition, enabling the creation of exquisitely designed books that honor Cooper’s legacy. Together, we continue to inspire new ideas and uphold the enduring value of great design.
left: Pioneering educator and designer Muriel Cooper (1925–1994) Photo Credit: Marie Cosindas
Spotlight on the Open Climate Collection
Climate change demands urgent action and access to trustworthy knowledge is essential. The MIT Press Open Climate Collection offers curated open access books and journals to advance climate research.
Your support helps expand open access initiatives, ensuring vital insights reach scientists, policymakers, and citizens worldwide.
Scan to start reading the open access climate collection.
Award-winning books
Tech Agnostic by Greg Epstein
• Winner, Porchlight’s Best Business Books of 2024, Big Ideas and New Perspectives
Blotter by Erik Davis
• Longlisted, 2024 Non-Obvious Book Award
Recycling Class by Manisha Anantharaman
• Honorable Mention, ISA Global Development
Section Book Award
We, the Data by Wendy H. Wong
• 2024 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy
• Shortlisted, 2024 Lionel Gelber Prize
The Science-Music Borderlands by Elizabeth H. Margulis, Psyche Loui and Deirdre Loughridge
• 2024 Ruth A. Solie Award
The Brain Abstracted by Mazviita Chirimuuta
• 2024 Nayef Al-Rodhan International Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy
Mortevivum by Kimberly Juanita Brown
• 2024 Photography Network Book Prize
The Skills-Powered Organization by Ravin Jesuthasan and Tanuj Kapilashrami
• Finalist, 2024 Goody
Business Book Awards: Business Management Category
Melancholy Wedgwood by Iris Moon
• Shortlisted, 2024 Apollo Awards Book of the Year
Voidopolis by Kat Mustatea
• 2024 Digital Dozen Breakthroughs in Storytelling Awards from Columbia University's Digital Storytelling Lab
Weapons in Space by Aaron Bateman
• 2024 Air Force Historical Foundation Space History Book Prize
Counting Feminicide by Catherine D'Ignazio
• 2024 American Book Fest Best Book Award, Women's Issues & Women's Studies Category
Tenacious Beasts by Christopher Preston
• Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Business, Finance, and Management
• 2024 High Plains Book Award, Non-Fiction category
• First Honorable Mention, 2024 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award
Balkan Cyberia by Victor Petrov
• 2024 Marshall D. Shulman Book Prize
Best Book Introducing New, Innovative, or Underrepresented Perspectives
• Shortlisted, 2024 AATSEEL Best Book in Cultural Studies
Her Space, Her Time by Shohini Ghose
• 2023 Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award, General Category
Boston in Transit by Steven Beaucher
• 2024 New England Society Book Award: Art & Photography
Media Ruins by Margaret Jack
• 2024 Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Best Information Science Book Award
Technology of the Oppressed by David Nemer
• 2024 Sally Hacker Prize from the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)
Visions of a Digital Nation by Jacob Ward
• 2024 Barbara Jelavich Book Prize
• 2024 Computer History Museum Book Prize from the Society for the History of Technology (SIGCIS)
In Visible Presence by Oksana Sarkisova and Olga Shevchenko
• Honorable Mention, 2024 Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History
• Honorable Mention, 2024 Barbara Heldt Prize for the
• 2024 Turriano Prize from the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC)
Prison Media by Anne Kaun and Fredrik Stiernstedt
• 2024 International Communication Association (ICA) Best Book Award
To Know Is to Compare by Mora Matassi and Pablo J. Boczkowski
• 2024 Global Communication and Social Change (GCSC) Book Award
Technology's Child by Katie Davis
• 2023 INDIES GOLD Winner for Science & Technology
Proof and the Art of Mathematics by Joel David Hamkins
• 2024 Daniel Solow Author’s Award from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
Notebooks of a Wandering Monk by Matthieu Ricard
• Silver Winner: 2024 Nautilus Book Awards
On Disinformation by Lee McIntyre
• Silver Winner: 2024 Nautilus Book Awards
Wonder by Frank C. Keil
• 2024 Eleanor Maccoby Book Award in Developmental Psychology
The Strip by Stefan Al
• 2023 IPPY Award, Architecture: Silver Medal
Workforce Ecosystems by Elizabeth J. Altman, David Kiron, Jeff Schwartz and Robin Jones
• 2024 Axiom Business Book Awards: Gold Medal in Business Theory
Allison Katz: Artery, edited by Sam Thorne and Martin Clark
• Named one of "The Most Beautiful Swiss Books, 2023"
The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War by Neta C. Crawford
• 2024 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order
From Pessimism to Promise by Payal Arora
• Longlisted, Porchlight’s Best Business
Books of 2024, Innovation and Creativity category
Data is Everybody's Business by Barbara H. Wixom, Cynthia M. Beath, and Leslie Owens
• 2024 Axiom Business Book Awards: Silver Medal in Business Intelligence/Innovation
Amaza Lee Meredith Imagines Herself
Modern by Jacqueline Taylor
• Shortlisted, 2024 DAM Architectural Book Award
Communications Breakdown edited by Johnathan Strahan
• 2024 Aurora Awards, Best Short Story: "At Every Door A Ghost," Premee Mohamed
Inside the Competitor's Mindset by John Horn
• 2024 Axiom Business Book Awards: Gold Medal in Sales (sales skills, negotiating, closing)
The Myth That Made Us by Jeff Fuhrer
• 2024 Axiom Business Book Awards: Silver Medal in Economics
Building a New Leadership Ladder by Carol J. Geffner
• 2024 Axiom Business Book Awards: Bronze Medal in Women/ BIPOC in Business
The Great Remobilization by Olaf Groth, Mark Esposito, and Terence Tse
• 2024 Axiom Business Book Awards: Silver Medal in International Business/ Globalization
• Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Business, Finance, and Management
Mnemonic Ecologies by Sonja K. Pieck
• 2024 PROSE Award: Area of Excellence Award for Physical Science and Mathematics
• 2024 PROSE Award Winner: Environmental Science
Ending Epidemics by Richard Conniff
• 2024 PROSE Award Winner: Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, and Ancient History
Code to Joy by Michael Littman
• Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Computing and Information Sciences
More than a Glitch by Meredith Broussard
• Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Popular Science and Mathematics
Regression Modeling for Linguistic Data by Morgan Sonderegger
• Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Mathematics and Statistics
Insolvent by Christoph Becker
• Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Engineering and Technology
Causal Analysis by Martin Huber
• Finalist, 2024 PROSE Awards: Computing and Information Sciences
The Abundant University by Michael D. Smith
• 2024 Philip E. Frandson Award for Literature
The Power of Partnership in Open Government by Suzanne J. Piotrowski, Daniel Berliner and Alex Ingrams
• 2024 SPAR Best Book Award
Spotlight on the the Grant Program for Diverse Voices
The Fund for Diverse Voices supports the MIT Press Grant Program for Diverse Voices which provides essential support to authors who bring excluded and chronically underrepresented perspectives to the fields in which the Press publishes across the sciences, arts, and humanities.
Recipients are selected based on the merits of their book proposal and a successful peer review. Grants can support various needs, including research travel, copyright permission fees, parental/family care, developmental editing, and other costs associated with the research and writing process.
Grant Program for Diverse Voices recipients
Scan to learn more about these projects
TheodoreKim
Ava Sirrah
CatDawson
DeVoneBoggan
JasonCorburn
AndreaAlarcon
AmitraPande
DianeJones
Alle n
PUBLISHER’S CIRCLE THE MIT PRESS
Publisher’s Circle
Thank you to our inaugural Publisher’s Circle donors! Every contribution makes a difference! For more information about the Publisher’s Circle and other MIT Press giving opportunities, please contact our development office at mitp-development@mit.edu.
Publisher’s Circle members provide significant support to the MIT Press through gifts of $10,000 or more.
Members enjoy unique benefits including:
• Exclusive events: Access to VIP MIT Press gatherings showcasing leading authors.
• Your name in print: Acknowledgment in the frontmatter of a book of your choice.
• New books: Free holiday book bundle, plus 20% off all other MIT Press Bookstore purchases.
• Early notice: Seasonal catalogs mailed to you.
Publisher’s Circle donors qualify for membership through gifts to any MIT Press fund and help support:
• Top-quality publications, including award-winning books and journals across a range of fields.
• MIT Press author and bookstore events, enhancing campus culture and local communities.
• Open knowledge, making high-quality, trustworthy science and scholarship accessible at no cost around the world.
Lindsay Androski
Diana Chapman Walsh
Alexsis de Raadt-St. James
Michael Dornbrook
Prabha Kannan and Amar Kendale
Samuel Jay Keyser
Eric Klose
Fariborz Maseeh
Hyun-A Park and Jacob Friis
Robert Pozen
Cynthia and John Reed
Sanjay Sarma and Gitanjali Swamy
Phillip and Ann Sharp
Glenn and Kathie Strehle
Susan Whitehead
The MIT Press Fund for the Future
Access to trustworthy knowledge has never been more critical. Yet the economics of publishing have never been more challenging. The Fund for the Future is a discretionary fund that supports the operations of the MIT Press and ensures that we can continue to push the boundaries of publishing for the public good for decades to come. Your support will amplify our mission to address global challenges by giving voice to peer-reviewed research, with an emphasis on lifting up marginalized voices, making knowledge accessible, and combating disinformation.
The Urbanowski
Memorial Innovation Fund
The Urbanowski Memorial Innovation Fund honors the legacy of visionary director Frank Urbanowski (1936–2015) who led the MIT Press for almost 30 years, from 1975 to 2003. The Press's enduring innovative spirit draws inspiration from Urbanowski, who was responsible for pioneering our first open access book and establishing the MIT Press Bookstore, among other accomplishments. The Fund “future-proofs” the Press by supporting innovations in digital publishing, along with the Press’s mission-driven publication efforts. It covers full or partial publication costs of highquality, peer-reviewed scholarly books.
The Fund for Diverse Voices
The Fund for Diverse Voices supports new work by authors who bring excluded and chronically underrepresented perspectives to the fields in which the Press publishes across the sciences, arts, and humanities. It enables the Press to offer competitive advances to accomplished authors, to cover the cost of highquality production features (e.g. color images, or commissioned art) that may not be financially feasible otherwise, and to ensure that these works reach the widest readership possible through expanded marketing efforts. The Fund also supports the Grant Program for Diverse Voices.
Support what matters to you
The MIT Press publishes hundreds of books and journals across a range of fields, working daily to make trustworthy, groundbreaking knowledge as widely accessible as possible. We invite your support for these specific areas of publishing excellence below. For gifts of $10,000 and above, partners can designate forthcoming titles and will be directly acknowledged in the books themselves.
• AI and computer science
• Public understanding of science
• Environment and sustainability
• Cognition, language, and philosophy
• Brain and biological sciences
• Physics, math, and engineering
• Art, architecture, and design
• Humanities and culture
• Science fiction
“As a nexus between MIT and the world, the Press is an essential resource, elevating diverse voices, supporting women in STEM, engaging in children’s STEAM publishing, and transitioning a high-impact academic book and journal program to become openly accessible to all. By creating new understanding and sharing MIT’s outstanding story and scholarship worldwide, the MIT Press plays a crucial role in making the Institute’s mission of creating a better world a reality.”
