About MCUP

Established in 2008, Marine Corps University Press (MCUP) recognizes the importance of an open dialogue between scholars, policy makers, analysts, and military leaders and of crossing civilian-military boundaries to advance knowledge and solve problems. To that end, MCUP focuses on books and periodicals that provide a forum for interdisciplinary discussion of national security and international relations issues and how they impact the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy, and the U.S. Marine Corps directly and indirectly. While the press does not operate on a revenue basis, MCUP must be creative, entrepreneurial, focused, and far-sighted to anticipate both the current needs of Marine Corps University and the broader DOD community but also the future in a rapidly evolving industry and respond with vision, commitment, and resolve. 

Mission 

The MCU Press publishes original scholarly, peer-reviewed research (books, journals, and other forms of research) in military history, national security, international relations, and political science realms for worldwide communities. As a government military publisher, the press disseminates these products to research libraries, institutions, and scholars at no charge. The press also serves the faculty, staff, and students at Marine Corps University by publishing on topics related to the history, culture, politics, and future of the Corps and the U.S. military.

MCU Press is a platinum open-access press, which means that the press provides permanent and free access to all publications to the public in both print and digital formats. Authors are not charged any publication fees except when copyrighted material is used. All publications are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. MCU Press adopted this model of publishing in the belief that knowledge is a public and social good and should be shared without barriers to access. This includes financial barriers for the author by eliminating publishing fees and for the reader by providing free access to federally funded publications for the public good.

MCU Press protects academic freedom for both the author and the press, whereby neither internal nor external pressures can influence what the press publishes or the processes it uses to do so, as the press supports scholarly best practices for rigorous and ethical publishing.

Vision and Core Values
MCU Press strives to establish its identity as an internationally recognized publisher of research in military history, national security, international relations, and political science, thereby advancing scholarship, enlarging our understanding of the world in which we live, and improving the ability of the U.S. military to serve this country. Publishing academic works of distinction enhances the reputation of the university and its faculty and staff, and it functions as a critical tool for connecting the university with the larger research community and the world. Publishing timely works in partnership with the university encourages students to become lifelong learners with an intention to share their knowledge.

EDUCATION
We publish peer-reviewed scholarship with an impact on research and education in and out of the classroom.

COLLABORATION
We cooperate formally with numerous scholarly societies, associations, and educational institutions to publish original scholarship. We offer noncommercial solutions to the publishing challenges facing academic institutions and partner with external like-minded publishers and agencies to benefit our customers and improve the quality and reach of our content.

QUALITY
Our publications, whether book or journal, print or digital, mirror our commitment to scholarly and customer-oriented quality while being responsible stewards of federal dollars.

INTERNAL/EXTERNAL COMMITMENTS
We build relationships internally, with our colleagues across the university and at the other Service schools, as well as outside the university with researchers, scholars, policy makers, and institutions worldwide.

INTEGRITY
We conduct our operation in a manner that is fair, environmentally friendly, economically balanced, honest, and respectful of a diverse community.

Ethics and Code of Conduct
MCUP has a clear mission that informs everything we do: to create world-class academic resources and to make them freely available across the world. We share Marine Corp University’s uncompromising standards and belief in the transformative power of education to inspire progress and innovation in the professional military education environment. It is therefore critical that our partners—internal and external—exhibit high ethical standards and principles. Our core practices revolve around activities that ensure the rigor of the scholarly publication process, the reputation of the author, and the status of the press. Actions that do not fall within those constraints will be acted on by the director and their staff, including allegations of personal or professional misconduct, plagiarism, conflicts of interest, validity and reproducibility of data, ethical misconduct, misappropriation of intellectual property, etc.

Inclusion and Diversity
MCUP embraces diversity and inclusion as core values that support our goal of providing an intellectually stimulating publishing environment where multiple perspectives coexist to foster innovation and vigorous discussion. For our purposes, diversity describes a community with varied ideas, worldviews, and personal characteristics, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, age, socioeconomic status, national origin, geographical region, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and life experiences. As such, our hiring practices, content acquisitions, and the very language we use in our publications will ensure that all are welcome and can see themselves in our work. Part of our diversity initiatives include the use of nonbiased and inclusive language, enabling MCUP to communicate effectively to diverse, global audiences.