Marines


Acquisitions

Marine Corps University Logo
Marine Corps University Press
Marine Corps University
OPEN ACCESS STATEMENT

As a platinum open access publisher, the MCUP publishing program is not based on revenue generation, either from the author or from the reader. The content is freely available without physical or fiscal obstacles and authors are not required to pay any fees to publish their work. As part of our open access model, we encourage authors to register with ORCID and submit their ID with all proposed work https://orcid.org/register.

EDITORIAL POLICIES AND REVIEW PROCEDURES

Dedicated to the dissemination of open access, scholarly and professional information, the MCUP publishing program provides quality resources. As professional publishing arm of Marine Corps University, MCUP is also a partner for university faculty and staff wishing to disseminate the results of their research. However, authors do not have to work for MCU to publish with this program.

PUBLISHING SCOPE AND AIMS

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 scholarly books and academic journals 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 the current and future needs of Marine Corps University, History Division, and the broader DOD community in a rapidly evolving industry and respond with vision and commitment.

The freedom to publish is a fundamental element of the basic right to freedom of expression. Freedom is a prerequisite for a university press to thrive, and it represents an essential part of a democratic society based on a knowledge economy. Part of MCUP’s mission is to protect and promote the author’s freedom to publish their original intellectual property. We rely on these works to circulate information, ideas, beliefs, and opinions that further the conversation on advanced military studies generally and the Department of Defense and its military Services. MCUP defends its right to publish and distribute these works with complete autonomy, even when it presents controversial viewpoints that are supported by evidence, provided that it respects all legal rights that may be attached to the work and the country of origin. Further, MCUP defends itself against internal or external influence whereby administrators, faculty, board members, or public officials may attempt to pressure the publication of certain works or topics to appease personal or professional aims that may go against the mission or ethical standards of the press and its staff, which are also upheld by the Association of University Presses, the professional scholarly publishing association of which MCUP is a member. The press director makes the final decision on all works to be published under any MCUP imprint without fear of retribution or reprisal for them or their staff.

MCUP does not publish classified information, biographies, or works of fiction. Please ensure that your submissions do not fall into these categories before you submit. We also do not encourage authors to dual submit their works here and simultaneously at other publishers. Intellectual freedom and ownership of that property is critical to an ethical publishing process. As such, all submissions to any MCUP imprint will be run through Turnitin to guard against all forms of plagiarism. Finally, we use a double-blind peer review process with all our publications. Our editorial and advisory boards actively participate in our publishing process, serving as subject matter experts and guiding our work throughout the year.

The Journal of Advanced Military Studies (JAMS) publishes twice a year (spring and fall). Articles must be at least 4,000-10,000 words, including footnotes, and formatted according to Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). Articles under consideration must pass peer review with two positive results. 

Expeditions with MCUP is our digital-only journal. It features all the same rigor as our print journals but can be published in half the time. Most articles can be posted within 4-6 weeks of acceptance. These articles are much more timely and should follow the same guidelines as JAMS.

MARINE CORPS HISTORY
Articles for Marine Corps History must be between 4,000-10,000 words, including footnotes, and formatted according to Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). Marine Corps History publishes twice a year, and the editors are currently looking for new articles and book reviews on all topics within the long history of the Corps: Civil War, Spanish-American War, Banana Wars, WWI, WWII, Korea, Cold War, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, current operations, and focus on some aspect of the Corps either directly or indirectly, including foreign marines and joint operations. We are particularly interested in masters and PhD students who are ready to venture into scholarly publishing.

DEADLINES: For Summer and Winter issue deadlines, contact the managing editor at stephani.miller@usmcu.edu.
Author guidelines provide more detailed information on submitting to Marine Corps History.

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON MILITARY EDUCATION
Articles for IPME are accepted from January-October and published as they are reviewed and accepted. Articles may be submitted in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. At the end of the calendar year, the articles are compiled into a single print volume for distribution. For more information or to submit an article, email mcu_press@usmcu.edu.

MCUP BOOK PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

Authors: please note in your proposal if you are submitting your project to multiple publishers. If your book is ready for MCUP to review, in 500–2,500 well-chosen, polished words, the proposal should provide the following:

1. Subject, scope, and thesis.

2. Core contribution: what's unique, significant, exciting?

3. Comparison to the most important, germane books.

4. Intended audience.

5. Reasons for undertaking the work.

6. Research methodology.

7. Length of work (preferably in words) and number of illustrations (what kind?).

8. Table of contents (preferably annotated sufficiently to convey both the chapter's coverage and how it develops the overall argument).

9. Full bibliography or sample that demonstrates the depth and breadth of research.

10. Status of proposed work: if not begun or finished, what is the schedule for completion?

11. Qualifications of author.

MCUP welcomes e-mailed proposals and will contact prospective authors regarding partial or full submission of manuscript.

For information or to submit an article or book review, contact the director at mcu_press@usmcu.edu.

PERSISTENT IDENTIFIERS 

MCU Press is now requesting that authors provide a personal ORCID iD, which will be published with an author’s biographical information, in addition to a unique DOI for the article. If you do not already have an ORCID iD, please register and create one at https://orcid.org/

COPYRIGHT, LICENSING, AND PERMISSIONS

Copyright for all works—journals and monographs—is retained by the author(s). Some works of authorship from Marine Corps University Press (MCUP) are created by U.S. government employees as part of their official duties and are now eligible for copyright protection in the United States; further, some of MCUP’s works available on a publicly accessible website may be subject to copyright or other intellectual property rights owned by non-Department of Defense (DOD) parties. Regardless of whether the works are marked with a copyright notice or other indication of non-DOD ownership or interests, any use of MCUP works may subject the user to legal liability, including liability to such non-DOD owners of intellectual property or other protectable legal interests.

Works published by MCUP are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This license allows readers to share (copy and distribute) the content in any medium or format as long as they meet the following requirements:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

  • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

  • NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

​For more complex permissions requests or foreign language rights, please send an email with your name, affiliation, and a description of the use/request to mcu_press@usmcu.edu.

Authorship

Authorship of a scholarly article or monograph should be limited to those individuals who have contributed in a meaningful and substantive way to its intellectual content. All authors are responsible for fairly evaluating their roles in the project as well as the roles of their coauthors to ensure that authorship is attributed according to these standards in all publications for which they will be listed as an author.

Requirement for Attribution of Authorship. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for its content. Coauthors should have been directly involved in all three of the following:

•  planning and contribution to some element (conception, design, conduct, analysis, or interpretation) of the work that led to the work submitted or interpreting at least a portion of the results;

•  writing a draft of the article/monograph or revising it for intellectual content; and

•  final approval of the version submitted for consideration. All authors should review and approve the manuscript before it is submitted as it pertains to their roles in the project.

 

Contributorship

MCUP encourages authors to list anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship in an acknowledgments section in their publication with permission.

 

Artificial Intelligence

Though AI is considered a tool to support innovation in the classroom, the press acknowledges that like all tools it might be misappropriated in the academic publishing environment.

(1) The use of AI and machine learning tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Grammarly, etc.) to author original scholarly content does not meet MCUP’s requirements for authorship, given the need for accountability and transparency for our readers. These restrictions do not include the use of tools like language translation services, but they should be disclosed at submission.

(2) Authors are accountable for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of their research, including for any use of AI in its creation. Any use of AI to author content or manipulate data or images breaches MCUP’s plagiarism policy. These restrictions do not include the use of standard image editing and creation tools, such as Photoshop or Illustrator. If AI is used to generate an image outside of these practices, it should be disclosed at submission.

(3) Scholarly works must be the author’s own and not present others’ ideas, data, words, or material without adequate citation and transparent referencing.

(4) The use of AI or machine learning as the sole source of feedback during the peer review process does not align with MCUP’s policies on ethical peer review.

(5) The press will not use AI to perform the primary functions of the publishing process, including peer review, copyediting, layout, and production. These restrictions do not include tools for basic spell check and grammar as part of word processing software.

ADVERTISING POLICY

The MCUP publishing model does not rely on any form of advertising revenue, even if there is no formal prohibition to it. The press may create partnerships for in-kind advertising with organizations who align with the mission of the press and Marine Corps University. Advertisements are not related in any way to the editorial decision-making process and shall remain visibly distinguishable and separate from the published content.

Marine Corps university Press BOARDS

The MCUP editorial and advisory boards support the annual publishing efforts of MCUP by acting as a review and sounding board for projects and future topics of interest.

 

Editorial Board

Sebastian J. Bae
Research Analyst & Wargame Designer
Center for Naval Analyses (CNA)

Dr. Kirklin J. Bateman
Chief Academic Officer
Expeditionary Warfare School
Marine Corps University

Dr. Jorge Benitez
Command and Staff College
Associate Professor of International Relations
Marine Corps University

Dr. Earl J. Catagnus Jr.
Assistant Teaching Professor of Information Sciences and Technology
Penn State Brandywine

Dr. Eliot Cohen
Dean, School of Advanced International Studies
Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Paul F. Diehl
Associate Provost and Director
Ashbel Smith Professor of Political Science
University of Texas-Dallas

Admiral James G. Foggo III (Ret)
U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet
U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa

Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr.
U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
Executive Chairman, Lightbridge Corporation

Megan J. Hennessey, PhD
Interim Provost
Marine Corps University

Dr. Kristina Hook
Assistant Professor of Conflict Management 
School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development
Kennesaw State University

Dr. Jennifer L. Mazzara
Independent Historian

Dr. Eliahu Niewood
Department of the Air Force

Dr. Nathan R. Packard
Associate Professor of Military History
Command and Staff College
Marine Corps University

Dr. Saira Yamin
Women, Peace, and Security Chair & Professor
U.S. Naval War College

 

To explore our imprints--MCU Press, History Division, and Marine Corps University--click on the links above.

For more information on our books and journals or to submit an article or monograph for consideration, please click on the links.

Call for Submissions

MCUP is interested in cultivating full-length scholarly monographs that create an open dialogue between scholars, policy makers, analysts, and military leaders. These titles should provide a forum for interdisciplinary discussion of national security and international relations issues from either a historical, contemporary, or forward looking perspective and how they impact the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy, and the U.S. Marine Corps directly and indirectly. Review the book proposal guidelines to the right and submit your manuscript today to mcu_press@usmcu.edu.