Indiana University Press

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is a publishing house associated with Indiana University that engages in academic publishing, specializing in the humanities and social sciences. It was founded in 1950. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana.

IU Press is currently the second-largest public university press in the United States, as measured by titles and income. It publishes 170 new books annually, in addition to 21 journals. Its current catalog comprises some 1,800 titles.

Indiana University Press mainly publishes in the following areas: African, African American, Asian, classical and ancient, cultural, Jewish, Middle East, Russian and East European, and women's and gender studies; anthropology, film, folklore, history, bioethics, music, paleontology, philanthropy, philosophy, and religion.

IU Press also undertakes extensive regional publishing.

IU Press is the subject of various controversies involving its professionalism. Its latest fiasco, reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, preceded by press releases from the head of IU Press, Ms. Rabinowitz, and IU's lawyer, concerns a biography of the pianist de Pachmann allegedly written by one Mark Mitchell. After a multi-year investigation, IU's lawyer admitted that the book was based, without attribution or approval, largely on a manuscript written by a piano specialist, Edward Blickstein. In recent months IUP recalled all copies of the book and Ms. Rabinowitz apologized to Mr. Blickstein. Ms. Rabinowitz was the editor of Mr. Mitchell's book, and seemingly never asked him to show his sources. She has since been promoted to be head of the IU Press, and IU apparently supports her and has chosen not to reprimand her. The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that Blickstein is a better writer than Mitchell, so hopefully his biography will appear within the next year.