Celebrating 50 years of our journals program

The MIT Press journals program has been publishing groundbreaking scholarship across a wide variety of disciplines for five decades

2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of our journals division. Established with the publication of the inaugural issues of Linguistic Inquiry and Journal of Interdisciplinary Historyboth of which are still actively publishing today—the MIT Press journals division remains dedicated to producing journals that push the edges of scholarship in both form and content. In recent years, the Press has committed to growing our list of journals that publish open access; this fall we added the Journal of Climate Justice and Climate Resilience to our expanding collection of OA journals.

To celebrate the occasion, we asked our journal editors to share what they love about working with the MIT Press. Explore their insights below, or learn more about our journals program.


“MIT is constantly pushing back the boundaries of knowledge. MIT Press is constantly expanding what it means to be a university press. This is no more evident than in the remarkable way they have merged a paper press with the demands of electronic publishing. When it comes to flexibility, MIT Press, thy name is Slinky.” —Jay Keyser, Linguistic Inquiry

“Working with the team of MIT Press is a great pleasure. I truly admire their enormous dedication to all aspects of scholarly publishing.” —Ludo Waltman, Quantitative Science Studies

“With imagination and professionalism, the MIT Press brings ideas to life!” —Randall Kennedy and Martha Minow, American Journal of Law and Equality

“MIT Press publications were my gateway drugs into art history and theory as an undergraduate; they provided my daily nourishment as a graduate student; and they constitute a pillar of my intellectual universe as a scholar, teacher, and editor. From its landmark logo (designed by Muriel Cooper) to its watershed books and journals, few academic presses have shaped the form and substantive of scholarly, intellectual, and artistic life over the last sixty years as definitively as MIT Press.” —Noam Elcott, Grey Room

“For decades, MIT Press has consistently published the most fundamental and ground-breaking work in brain and cognitive science. Whatever the next 60 years may bring, it seems certain that the Press will remain at the forefront and help shape our discipline.” —Olaf Sporns, Network Neuroscience

“Over the past quarter century, my center at Harvard University has worked closely with MIT Press to put out the Journal of Cold War Studies. Our partnership has been immensely rewarding, and the many years of working together have reinforced my view that academic journals will find no better publisher than MIT Press. The Press is a superb part of one of the world’s greatest universities.” —Mark Kramer, Journal of Cold War Studies

“MIT Press amplifies authors’ writing. The journal program embodies the amplification.” —Xiao-Li Meng, Harvard Data Science Review

“As a not-for-profit academic publisher, MIT Press has facilitated our early implementation of gold open access, with extremely low article processing charges (APCs), double anonymized review, a gender balanced editorial board, and has strongly supported our marketing efforts and applications to registries.” —Steven Small, Neurobiology of Language

“MIT Press has pioneered Open Access publishing for journals, understanding the importance of making the results of research freely and widely available.” —Kate Watkins, Neurobiology of Language

“MIT Press is a true leader in the world of scientific publishing.” —Ted Gibson, Open Mind

“It would be hard to think of a university press whose journals have had a more lasting and more consistent impact on the way we think about postwar art and media.” —Sven Spieker, ARTMargins

“After 50 years, MIT Press Journals remains an enduring point of reference in the evolving landscape of academic publishing. As a long-time journal editor, I appreciate the intellectual support MIT Press Journals provides for members of editorial boards committed to publishing peer-reviewed work of the highest quality. MIT Press Journal’s commitment to scholarship is second to none.” —Dennis Doordan, Design Issues

“In 1970 the MIT Press boldly experimented with a new enterprise for them—journal publication—and a new kind of historical venture, the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Finding and supporting innovative scholarship at the intersection of disciplines has been its hallmark ever since. The JIH is very proud to be a founding journal with the Press.” —Anne McCants, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“With for-profit journal publishers driving our subscription costs up relentlessly, I am thrilled to be working with a press that has decided not to be part of the problem, showing the scholarly world that it is possible to deliver the best content without gouging prices.” —Alex Levine, Perspectives on Science


Learn more about our journals program