About University of Minnesota Press

Information about the University of Minnesota Press's mission; its affiliation with the university and community; how to make a tax-deductible donation; and facts about our print publishing, digital publishing, test, and journal programs.

ABOUT US
DID YOU KNOW?

 

UMP building

ABOUT US

The University of Minnesota Press is recognized internationally for its innovative, boundary-breaking editorial program in the humanities and social sciences and as publisher of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the most widely used objective tests of personality in the world. Minnesota also maintains as part of its mission a strong commitment to publishing books on the people, history, and natural environment of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. Established in 1925, Minnesota is among the founding members of the Association of University Presses (AUP).

In the 1980s, Minnesota emerged as the first university press to define its editorial program by critical method and perspective—social and cultural theory and interdisciplinary inquiry—rather than by traditional scholarly discipline. At that same time, the Press set a policy of publishing virtually all titles in paperback editions with the goal of increasing access to scholarship by lowering the cost to readers and maximizing circulation of the work it publishes. Minnesota extended this philosophy into the digital era in 2011 with the announcement that it would issue all new scholarly titles in simultaneous print and digital editions through partnerships with major e-book distributors.

Other recent innovations of the Press include the launch of Minnesota Archive Editions in 2009, which returns to print and makes available as e-books every title published by the Press since its founding, and the Quadrant initiative, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which explores new collaborative approaches to scholarly research and publication through a partnership with the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota. The Press’s Test Division maintains an active research program that informs development of the MMPI instruments.

The University of Minnesota Press is a self-sustaining unit of the University of Minnesota, authorized and governed by Board of Regents Policy and guided editorially by a faculty committee, the All-University Committee on the Press, appointed by the Vice President for Research and Innovation in the Research and Innovation Office (RIO).

The Press welcomes donations and legacy bequests in support of its publication program through the University of Minnesota Foundation. Contact us for more information.

Read more about the University of Minnesota Press's history.

 

FACTS ABOUT US: DID YOU KNOW ...

  • Established: 1925
  • Annual title output: 110
  • Titles in print: 3,782 (as of Winter 2023)
  • Journals published: 9
  • Tests available: 6 (MMPI-3, MMPI-2-RF, MMPI-2, MMPI-A-RF, MMPI-A, MPQ)
  • First publication of MMPI: 1943
  • Number of MMPI translations: 45
  • Staff: 34
  • Faculty committee:  8 members from University of Minnesota faculty, appointed to three-year rotating terms
  • Test Division Advisory Committee: 5 members, appointed to three-year rotating terms
  • Sources of support: Approximately 92 percent of the Press’s operations are funded by sales and other income from book, test, and journal publications. Another 2 percent is funded by grants, gifts, and endowments to the Press in support of its program. University support comprises the remaining 6 percent of the Press’s total annual budget; adjusted for fees paid to the university, the Press’s net support from its parent institution is less than 1 percent of its costs.
  • Donations to the Press: Donations to the Press are tax deductible and count toward annual giving commitments to the University of Minnesota. Contact us for more information.
  • Relative size among book publishers: Minnesota is a midsize university press, with annual title output slightly above average compared to other members of AAUP.
  • Best seller: Literary Theory: An Introduction, by Terry Eagleton, has sold more than 250,000 copies since it was first published by the Press in 1983.
  • First book published: The Press published Cyrus Northrop: A Memoir, by Oscar W. Firkins, in 1925. The first Press catalog for 1927–28 included The Marketing of Farm Products, The Attitudes of Mothers Toward Sex Education, The Development of the Twin Cities as a Metropolitan Market, and Prunes or Pancakes, a “popular guide to the science of eating . . . [and] dietetic reform” by the dean of the College of Dentistry of the University of Minnesota.
  • Number of submissions annually: 2,000
  • Acceptance rate of submissions: 5 percent
  • Authors: About 75 percent of Press authors are academic faculty, with the rest including journalists, critics, and a broad range of individuals with varying expertise, from chefs to composers to wilderness guides. Faculty affiliated with the University of Minnesota write approximately 15 percent of the books published by the Press.
  • Number of print books sold each year: 300,000
  • Percentage of total sales that are e-book and digital: 17 percent

 

For more information about what a university press is, was, and potentially will be, read University of Minnesota Press director Douglas Armato's presentation at the 2012 Charleston Conference on Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition.