Celebrating The Australian National University’s 75th birthday

Source: https://press.anu.edu.au/news-events/celebrating-anu-75th-birthday Parent: https://press.anu.edu.au/news-events

Over 60 years of publishing at the ANU

2 August 2021

Over the past 75 years the ANU has been a leader in academic publishing, including establishing the world’s first fully open-access press. Browse the links below to see what the University has been up to in the world of publishing over the past decades.

To celebrate The Australian National University’s 75th anniversary, we have brought together some of our resources here:

Find out more about the history of the Press

Discussions on forming an electronically based national university press began in 2001. In 2002, Mr Colin Steele, University Librarian, and Professor James Fox approached Vice Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb to urge the establishment of an ANU E Press. In the nearly 20 years following, achievements have included more than 5 million downloads a year and 60 titles published annually, a well-established set of editorial boards and peer-review processes, opening up the Press to publish academics from all over the world, recognition as one of the leading publishers in Pacific, Asian and Australian Indigenous studies, and more than 960 titles in our catalogue.

Discover our titles from the original press (1965–1991)

The ANU Archives house some interesting documents, photos and minutes from the original ANU Press, which was a traditional university press that ran 1965–91 and published books in hard copy format only. All of the titles from the previous ANU Press are available to download in a special section on our website: ‘ANU Press Archive, 1965–1991’.

Browse some of our top titles and hidden gems from over the years

Over the years we’ve published some incredible titles. From insightful scholarly works to original voices and new and innovative formats, our open-access format has provided free access to huge audiences. Discover some of our most popular, interesting or understated titles.

Meet some of our authors and editors on our Youtube channel

Ever wanted to know what goes on inside a publishing house? Why not come and meet some of our incredible authors and editors to find out a little more about us.

Read about open access and how COVID has changed the Press

‘Around the world, the need to access information during the COVID lockdown has enhanced the open-access movement. ANU Press is the world’s largest open-access university press: with over 5 million downloads, these numbers have now skyrocketed. Since March 2020, ANU Press has seen a 44% rise in downloads.’ (ANU Press Advisory Chair Professor James Fox)

Check out our 2020 results

In case you missed it: Despite an incredibly tough year in many respects, ANU Press proved resilient, showcasing how open-access publishing is more necessary than ever before. Read about how the Press was able to triumph in such turbulent times.