7 insights into Cambridge's academic publishing

Cambridge University Press is the world’s oldest university press as well as one of the world’s most highly regarded, and is one of the oldest continuously operating companies of any kind. Here are some insights into the Press’s work, past and present.

8. In 2023, Cambridge University Press books won or were shortlisted for more than 130 awards.

9. Between 2016 and 2021, we continued to drive innovation and open research, launching our flagship platform Cambridge Core, followed by Cambridge Open Engage (for early research) and our dedicated Higher Education platform.

10. 2019 marked the launch of Cambridge Elements. Combining the best features of books and journals, our Elements publications consist of original, succinct, authoritative, and peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific research, offering a concise publishing solution for researchers and readers.

11. In 2021, we launched Cambridge Advance Online, a programme of short online courses from the University of Cambridge.

12. The Press is committed to supporting Open Research and in 2023, over 63% of research articles were published as open access. In total we now have published 85,000 open access (OA) articles, >370 OA books and >160 OA Elements.

13. More than 190 Nobel Laureates have been published by Cambridge University Press. Our first title by a Nobel Laureate was J.J. Thomson’s Elements of the Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, published in 1895. Later Nobel Laureates published include Ernest Rutherford (Chemistry), Elinor Ostrom (Economics), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Physics) and Wole Soyinka (Literature).

14. We publish journals on behalf of over 220 learned societies, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, The Nutrition Society and The American Political Science Association. In 2023, scholarly research documents published by Cambridge – including book chapters and research papers – were downloaded over 114 million times.

7 recent Cambridge book and journal highlights

Cambridge's publishing helps to inform and educate the world. Here are some of our recent high-impact publications.

15. Cambridge is building knowledge of the climate emergency for the scientific community and general readers. Recent books include Mike Berners-Lee’s There Is No Planet B, Five Times Faster by Simon Sharpe and Mark Z. Jacobson's No Miracles Needed.

16. The press is renowned for its history and political science titles: from its 400-volume Cambridge Histories, first published in 1902 and spanning 196,000 pages of unrivalled scholarship, to the latest political thinking helping readers sharpen their knowledge ahead of what is being dubbed the ‘election year’.

17. Our journals program continues to develop and grow – from 1956, with the launch of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics in conjunction with the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, to the launch of our Cambridge Prisms series in 2023, which address real-world challenges.

18. We publish journals across all academic areas – and, over the past year, we have seen sustainability emerge as a core concern across disciplines and applications ranging from fashion design to otter habitats, and from construction to the coastal sciences.

19. Cambridge is a renowned Shakespeare publisher. Recent releases include What Was Shakespeare Really Like? by pre-eminent Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells, All the Sonnets of Shakespeare edited by Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells, and more recently Shakespeare’s White Others by David Sterling Brown. Readers can also explore the works and worlds of Shakespeare on Cambridge Shakespeare.

20. In 2021, The Cambridge Greek Lexicon was published. The Lexicon took twenty years to complete and was written by an editorial team based in the Faculty of Classics in Cambridge, consisting of Professor James Diggle (Editor-in-Chief), Dr Bruce Fraser, Dr Patrick James, Dr Oliver Simkin, Dr Anne Thompson, and Mr Simon Westripp.

21. From Byron to Darwin, from Hemingway to Austen, Cambridge is at the forefront of exploring the lives and legacies of historical figures – some of whom even published with Cambridge University Press during their own lifetimes – and who continue to shape the world today.

7 lesser-known insights into Cambridge’s activities

Did you know these facts about our work?

22. Cambridge remains the King’s Printer to this day – which means the Press is sometimes called upon by the Royal Family to publish Bibles for special ceremonial occasions.

23. Cambridge is the world’s oldest Bible publisher that continues to print books today, having produced its first Bible in 1591.

24. We now have over 2,000 transformative agreements signed with research institutions and universities around the world, enabling researchers at those institutions and universities to publish open research at no additional cost.

25. The Cambridge University Press Bookshop, which is based at 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge, operates on a site where books have been sold continuously since at least the 1580s.

26. We are working with many different parts of our University, including Cambridge Zero and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, to develop initiatives to help tackle the climate emergency through improved education.

27.  Our environmental strategy supports the delivery of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 13 (Climate Action). Cambridge signed the Sustainable Development Goals Publishers Compact in honour of our commitment to further advance the SDGs through our publishing and operations. We also publish the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.

28. Since 1698, Cambridge has been governed by the ‘Syndics’ (originally known as the Curators), who are senior members of the University of Cambridge with a range of subject and business expertise.

7 key changes being spearheaded by Cambridge

As a leading publisher, Cambridge has an important role in shaping the policies that will affect researchers, learners, readers, and the academic community.

29. We are playing a leading role in advancing open access research to drive greater collaboration, transparency and accessibility.

30. To address the inequity when publishing open access, we launched the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative (COEI) in April 2023. COEI fully funds open access publishing in 107 low- and middle-income countries where there is a cost barrier for authors. In 2024, we were recognised for this work when we won the IPG Impact Award.

31. Cambridge was one of the first publishers to develop a policy for its author community about the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, advocating for transparency and human authorship and oversight.

32. We seek to serve the public by publishing high-impact, expert-led work that advances understanding of the world.

33. Cambridge is changing the way we operate and working collaboratively across the industry to scale up global progress towards increasing sustainability in publishing. In 2025, 65% of our journals list will be e-only.

34. Cambridge is making changes across our entire supply and value chain in books. We aim for 95% of our new titles to be print-on-demand. We have already made more than 70% of our backlist book catalogue and almost 80% of our frontlist book prints available as print-on-demand.

35. As an academic publisher, we are dedicated to unlocking potential with the best learning and research solutions. We combine publishing excellence with innovation to meet the needs of our customers, authors and partners. Our publications, research, and higher education solutions spread knowledge, spark curiosity and aid understanding around the world.

7 facts and figures about Cambridge University Press & Assessment today

In 2021, the Press and Cambridge Assessment joined together to form Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Cambridge is a bigger organisation than many people realise. Here are some facts and figures that put our work into perspective.

36. We reach over 100 million learners worldwide.

37. As of 2023, Cambridge was made up of over 6,000 colleagues spread across more than 80 offices around the world.

38. Over 60 percent of our academic research articles are now fully open access.

39. Cambridge is a strong advocate for improving climate education and incorporating insights into our changing world more meaningfully into school curricula.

40. The Cambridge Dictionary is the number one online dictionary in the world for learners, according to page views.

41. Over 11 million grades are issued globally by our exam boards.

42. Every year Cambridge publishes over 1,500 books, 400 academic journals and 300 Elements.

7 facts and figures about Cambridge’s charitable initiatives

Cambridge is a nonprofit. Values of education and sustainability are at our core, and volunteering and charitable giving form an important part of the Cambridge culture. We share the mission of the University of Cambridge and our financial success is reinvested in progressing the Cambridge mission, enabling us to expand on the good we do.

43. In 2023, more than 500 colleagues across Cambridge University Press & Assessment volunteered nearly 2,800 hours to a variety of projects. Of these, 90 colleagues gave nearly 630 hours to environmental activities.

44. In the same year, more than 200,000 books were donated.

45. As a member of Research 4 Life, Cambridge has also been facilitating online access to research content in developing countries for over two decades.

46. We partner with educational charities internationally and our colleagues are encouraged to fundraise, support and volunteer with them. In 2023, nearly £188,000 was donated to many causes, £13,600 of which was raised by colleagues through a wide range of activities and UK Give As You Earn, with £13,500 added from matched funding.

47. More broadly, Cambridge has been donating books to schools and libraries in need via Book Aid International for over 30 years.

48. Cambridge’s Partnership for Education is working on a multi-year project with UNICEF to help Rohingya children access quality education in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

49. Cambridge firmly believes that a child’s right to education continues to exist in times of emergency or crisis and that this right should never be denied or suspended. Cambridge’s Partnership for Education also works to provide services in the world’s most challenging contexts and environments, to reach children whose education risks being disrupted owing to emergencies or disasters – whether social, political, or environmental.