Mission

After having ceased operations in 1996, Rice University Press has been able to resume operations largely because of Connexions, Rice University’s open-source e-publishing platform. The technology offers us an inexpensive, easy-to-use digital publishing platform and a means of producing high-quality print-on-demand books at far less cost than traditional publishing does. Connexions also offers authors a way to use multimedia — audio files, live hyperlinks or moving images — to craft dynamic scholarly arguments, and to publish on-demand original works in fields of study that are increasingly constrained by traditional print publishing.

Our digital press operates just as a traditional press does, up to a point. Manuscripts are solicited, reviewed, edited and resubmitted for final approval by an editorial board of prominent scholars. But rather than waiting for months for a printer to make a bound book, we run our digital files through Connexions for automatic formatting and population with high-resolution images, audio and video, and Web links.

Users of Rice University Press titles are able to view the content online for free or, thanks to our partnership with on-demand printer QOOP, order printed books in every style, from softbound black-and-white on inexpensive paper to leather-bound, full-color hardbacks on high-gloss paper.

Authors published by Rice University Press retain the copyrights for their works, in accordance with Connexions' licensing agreement with Creative Commons. Additionally, because Connexions is open-source, authors will be able to update or amend their work, easily creating revised editions of their books.

We at Rice University Press are resolved not only to publish new forms of scholarship on new platforms and in new media, but also to explore new modes of thought and argument. We are interested in publishing both traditional scholarship in traditional disciplines and new kinds of interdisciplinary works that seek, in both their form and content, to advance scholarly investigation into hitherto-uncharted territory.

Our mission is fivefold:

1. Putting out original scholarly work in fields particularly impacted by the high costs and distribution models of the printed book.
2. Fostering new models of scholarship. With the rise of digital environments, scholars are increasingly attempting to write book-length studies that use new digital media as part of their arguments.
3. Providing more affordable publishing for scholarly societies and centers. Often, disciplinary societies and smaller centers, particularly in the humanities, publish annual reports, reflections on their field of study, or original research resulting from grants. For smaller organizations, the printing costs of these publications are prohibitive.
4. Partnering with large university presses. In the wake of rising production costs and overhead, many university presses have closed or reduced the number of titles they publish, especially in the humanities and social sciences. As a result, many peer-reviewed books of high quality are waiting on backlog. Rice University Press will work with selected university publishers to inexpensively publish approved works.
5. Publishing a small, selected number of titles pertaining to medical diagnostics. Books on medical diagnostics are often populated with many color images that are expensive to print, making the cost of these fundamental resources quite high. Rice University Press will publish a small number of these works as digital objects in order to provide a far greater degree of access to physicians and patients, especially in developing areas of the world, at much reduced cost.