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NYU Press Publication Guide

NYU Press is the non-profit scholarly publisher of New York University, founded in 1916 by chancellor Elmer Ellsworth Brown and now a department of the NYU Division of Libraries. It is a book-first press - monographs, edited collections, and trade-crossover scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and law - rather than a journal publisher.

What it publishes: Scholarly books - monographs, edited volumes, and course texts (not journals)
Subject strengths: American studies, race and ethnic studies, gender and sexuality, religion, criminology, law, media, urban studies
Founded: 1916 - one of the older university presses in the United States
Open access: Open Square, NYU Press's open-access book platform
Notable series: Library of Arabic Literature · Keywords · Enhanced Networked Monographs
Headquarters: New York, NY, United States
Distribution: Ingram Publisher Services (US) · Combined Academic Publishers (UK)
Website: nyupress.org
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Publication Guide

NYU Press is the scholarly publishing arm of New York University, founded in 1916 by chancellor Elmer Ellsworth Brown and today a department of the NYU Division of Libraries. The important thing to know before you plan a submission: NYU Press is a book publisher. Its list is monographs, edited collections, readers and trade-crossover scholarship. It does not run a journal portfolio, so there is no article processing charge, no rolling article submission system, and no read-and-publish agreement to check.

That changes what "submitting" means. Instead of uploading a finished manuscript to an editorial system and waiting for a first decision, you pitch a project to a named acquisitions editor, revise with them, then go through external peer review and a faculty editorial board vote. This guide covers what the press publishes, how the proposal and review process works, what open access looks like for books, and how to prepare your files.

Which NYU Press route fits your project?

You're most likely to...Choose this route
Have a finished or near-finished scholarly monograph in the humanities or social sciencesStandard book proposal - pitch the relevant acquisitions editor by email with an abstract, annotated table of contents and one or two sample chapters.
Be assembling an edited collection or readerEdited volume proposal - same materials plus contributor bios and a realistic delivery schedule; the press will want to see that contributors are committed.
Want the book free to read on publicationOpen Square - NYU Press's open-access book platform. Discuss funding early: OA monographs are paid for by grants, institutional programmes or subventions, not by the author personally.
Be publishing a short-form or digitally enhanced projectDigital projects - the press runs initiatives such as Enhanced Networked Monographs and the Keywords collections alongside conventional books.
Represent another press looking for US distributionPartner press programme - NYU Press distributes Monthly Review Press, New Village Press, University of Regina Press, Wits University Press, University of Guam Press and Fonograf Editions.

What NYU Press actually publishes

The list is concentrated rather than encyclopaedic, and it is strongest where NYU's own faculty strengths are:

  • American studies and history, including media and cultural history.
  • Race and ethnic studies - African American, Asian American and Latinx studies are all long-running programmes.
  • Gender, sexuality and queer studies.
  • Law and criminology, including critical race theory and criminal-justice policy.
  • Religion and Jewish studies, a programme the press has been known for since the mid-twentieth century.
  • Sociology, anthropology and urban studies, often with a New York City frame.
  • Translated classics through the Library of Arabic Literature, a parallel-text Arabic-English series.

The press also has a long history with major editorial projects - it published The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman - and with award-winning single-author books such as Henry Jenkins's Convergence Culture.

Open access at NYU Press

Open access for books works differently from journals, and the difference is the single most common source of confusion.

RouteWhat it meansWho pays
Priced edition (default)Print plus ebook, sold through Ingram in the US and Combined Academic Publishers in the UKReaders and libraries
Open SquareThe press's OA book platform; titles are free to read onlineGrants, institutional OA-monograph programmes, or a publication subvention
Green / self-archivingChapter or manuscript deposit, negotiated in the contractNo fee; terms vary per title

There is no standing price list to quote, because there is no APC. If open access matters to you, raise it in the proposal stage - funding usually has to be lined up before the contract is signed, not after.

Peer review and the editorial board

NYU Press follows the standard American university-press model:

  1. Editorial assessment. Your acquisitions editor decides whether the project fits the list.
  2. External peer review. The manuscript or sample chapters go to scholarly readers, normally two, who write substantive reports.
  3. Author response. You reply to the reports and revise.
  4. Faculty editorial board. The board votes on whether to authorise a contract.
  5. Contract and production. Copyediting, design, marketing and distribution follow.

Budget several months for steps two to four. Reviewer turnaround, not editorial indecision, is usually what sets the pace.

How to submit a proposal

Proposals go by email to the acquisitions editor who covers your subject - the press states it no longer accepts submissions by post. A complete proposal includes:

  • A one-to-two-page description of the book and its argument
  • The intended audience and the fields it speaks to
  • Three or four competing titles and how yours differs
  • An annotated table of contents with chapter summaries
  • An estimated word count and completion date
  • Details of any illustrations
  • Contributor biographies, for edited collections
  • One or two sample chapters, ideally including the introduction
  • Your current CV

Contracted authors receive the press's manuscript-preparation guidelines, an author questionnaire, and keyword, abstract and alt-text guidance.

Formatting and citation style

NYU Press works in Chicago style, the norm for humanities and social-science monographs; notes-and-bibliography is typical for history and literary work, author-date for social science. Follow the manuscript-preparation guidelines your editor sends over any general advice, and settle permissions for images and long quotations early - clearing rights is frequently the step that delays production.

Ethics and integrity

As a non-profit university press governed by a faculty editorial board, NYU Press's quality control sits in external peer review and that board vote rather than in journal-style ethics machinery. The press supports the Initiative for Open Citations. Standard scholarly expectations apply: disclose overlap with your own previously published work, secure permissions for third-party material, and tell your editor promptly if an error surfaces after publication so a correction or corrected reprint can be arranged.

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PUBLISHER COMPARISON

How NYU Press compares

How NYU Press compares on scope, open-access routes, author costs, review model and turnaround - read as a book publisher, not a journal portfolio.

NYU Press
NYU Press logo
How NYU Press compares on scope, open-access routes, author costs, review model and turnaround - read as a book publisher, not a journal portfolio.
University of Pennsylvania Press
University of Pennsylvania Press logo
How Penn Press compares on breadth of titles, open-access routes, charges, waivers and turnaround.
Duke University Press
Duke University Press logo
How Duke University Press compares across breadth of titles, open-access routes, author fees, waivers and turnaround.
Core Features
Best for
Humanities and social-science books; American, ethnic, gender and legal studies
Humanities research - early American studies, intellectual history, Jewish studies, Romance literatures
Critical theory, area studies, gender & queer studies, humanities flagships
Typical APC (OA)
N/A - no article charges; open-access books are grant- or subvention-funded
N/A - no standard APC list; subscription and society funded
$0 for most routes - OA funded by libraries/communities, not authors
LMIC fee waivers
N/A - authors are not charged to publish; ask your editor about subvention expectations
Not applicable in the usual sense - authors are not normally charged to publish
Largely N/A - author-facing fees are rare to begin with
Read & Publish deals coverage
N/A - no journal transformative agreements; OA books rely on programme funding
Minimal - check the ESAC registry or your library rather than assuming coverage
Limited - library-funded OA initiatives (S2O, Direct to Open) instead of large TA portfolios
Free / subscription (non-OA option)
Yes - the default route is a conventional priced print and ebook edition
Yes - subscription is the default across the journal list
Yes - most journals are subscription-based with no submission or page charges
Breadth of titles
Book-primary list plus six distributed partner presses; no journals
~27 journals, 1 additional imprint (Wharton School Press)
~60 journals + ~150 books/year; HSS-focused with a mathematics list
Cheapest realistic OA route
Open Square, where funder or institutional support covers the title
Green self-archiving of the accepted manuscript - $0, terms per journal agreement
Fully-OA titles (e.g., Demography, Environmental Humanities) - no author fee
Speed to first decision
Proposal reply in weeks; full peer review and board approval typically several months
Typically 3-6 months; scope-based desk rejections come much faster
Varies by title; HSS review commonly 3-6 months (Public Culture: up to 6 months)
KEY BRANDS

Popular NYU Press Venues

NYU Press publishes books rather than journals, so there are no SciSpace journal pages in this family - browse the press's book series and Open Square catalogue on nyupress.org instead.

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Faqs

NYU Press FAQs

NYU Press is the non-profit scholarly publisher of New York University, founded in 1916 by chancellor Elmer Ellsworth Brown. It operates as a department of the NYU Division of Libraries and publishes books - monographs, edited collections and trade-crossover scholarship - across the humanities, social sciences and law.