{{Short description|International independent academic publishing house}} {{Primary sources|date=April 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox publisher | image = 200px | status = Active | founded = {{Start date and age|1972}} | founder = Herbert W. Richardson | country = United States | headquarters = Lewiston, New York<br />Queenston, Canada<br />Lampeter, Wales | distribution = Self-distributed; worldwide | publications = Peer-reviewed academic and reference books | topics = Humanities, education, social science, arts, law | genre = | imprints = Mellen Biblical Press; Mellen Poetry Press | url = {{URL|http://www.mellenpress.com}} }}

The '''Edwin Mellen Press''', sometimes stylised as '''Mellen Press''', is an academic publisher founded in 1972 by theology professor Herbert W. Richardson.<ref name="MellenAbout">{{Cite web |year=2008 |title=The Edwin Mellen Press: Contact Details |url=http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?pc=27 |access-date=November 11, 2008 |publisher=Edwin Mellen Press: Academic Publishers}}</ref> It has been involved in a number of notable legal and academic controversies, sometimes being labeled as a vanity press.

==History== Following its founding in 1972, the publishing house was initially meant to publish specialized scholarship produced in Richardson's department at the University of St Michael's College,{{Efn|A constituent college of the University of Toronto.}} Early publications included bibliographies, translations, and dissertations completed by faculty and doctoral students at the University of Toronto.<ref name="Mellen"> {{Cite web |year=2008 |title=Edwin Mellen Press |url=http://www.mellenpress.com/index.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081107094106/http://www.mellenpress.com/index.cfm |archive-date=2008-11-07 |access-date=November 11, 2008 |publisher=Edwin Mellen Press: Academic Publishers}}</ref> The house was named after Richardson's grandfather, Edwin Mellen, whom he describes as a lover of books,<ref name="Chronicle_2013">{{cite journal |last1=New |first1=Jake |date=April 15, 2013 |title=Herbert Richardson v. the World |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Herbert-Richardson-v-the/138497/ |journal=The Chronicle of Higher Education |access-date=February 9, 2016 |volume=59 |issue=3 |id={{Gale|A326493305}} }}</ref> as was Edwin Mellen University, a private university located on Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands operated by Richardson since 1992.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Trueheart |first=Charles |date=July 13, 1994 |title=Publish and Perish? |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/07/13/publish-and-perish/4af8bb0e-b9cc-4bf9-b1d9-375959c5a665/ |access-date=2023-01-31}}</ref>

Under Richardson, the publishing house grew and began publishing works by scholars outside of the University of Toronto, widening its range of topics to the broader humanities and social sciences. By 1979 it had moved to new locations in Lewiston, New York and Queenston, Canada.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=http://mellenpress.com/newhistory.cfm |title=Edwin Mellen Press|website=Edwin Mellen Press - Academic Publishers|access-date= June 4, 2016}}</ref> Its office in Lampeter, Wales opened in 1987.<ref name=":0" /> By 1990 it was publishing up to 150 titles a year.<ref name=":0" /> Following Richardson's professional parting with St. Michael's College following a gross misconduct investigation{{Efn|Trueheart considers the gross misconduct investigation to have been in part caused by Richardson's activities operating his publishing firm and private university and, according to Jake New, of the ''Chronicle of Higher Education'', laid twelve charges against Richardson of not properly disclosing the amount of time he had spent operating his business ventures, compared to his activities for St. Michael's College. New additionally points out that scholars such as Westhues consider Richardson's investigation, tribunal and firing a case of academic mobbing.<ref name="Chronicle_2013" /><ref name=":1"/>}} and subsequent dismissal in October 1994, he expanded his publishing business, raising the annual number of works published to 350.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="miles_1995">{{Cite web |last=Miles |first=Murray |date=2012-04-02 |title=The Responsibility Of Professors: Academic Freedom, Peer Review and the Scholarly Conscience Today" (1995) |url=http://www.safs.ca/academicfreedom/miles.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402232633/http://www.safs.ca/academicfreedom/miles.html |archive-date=2012-04-02 |url-status=dead |access-date=2024-03-09 }}</ref>

== Scholarly publishing == Mellen Press describes its goals in selecting works as valuing "scholar-for-scholar research more than anything", stating: "The manuscript must make a contribution to scholarship," and states that its publications are peer-reviewed,<ref name="miles_1995" /> with research libraries constituting its primary customer base.<ref name="The Edwin Mellen Press">{{Cite web |title=Edwin Mellen Press |url=http://mellenpress.com/newreasons.cfm |access-date=June 4, 2016 |website=Edwin Mellen Press - Academic Publishers}}</ref>

Its Adèle Mellen Prize is awarded to an author for a book which, in the judgment of its peer reviewers, makes a "distinguished contribution to scholarship".{{Efn|A number of scholars have received this prize since 1985, including Joyce E. Salisbury (1985),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iberian Popular Religion, 600 BC to 700 AD: Celts, Romans, and Visigoths by Joyce E. Salisbury |url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Iberian-Popular-Religion-600-BC-to-700-AD-Celts-Romans-and-Visigoths/2157/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Elizabeth A. Clark (1986),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith: Essays on Late Ancient Christianity|url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Ascetic-Piety-and-Womens-Faith-Essays-on-Late-Ancient-Christianity/2109/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Karl W. Schweizer (1989),<ref>{{Cite web |title=England, Prussia, and the Seven Years War: Studies in Alliance Policies and Diplomacy |url=https://mellenpress.com/book/England-Prussia-and-the-Seven-Years-War-Studies-in-Alliance-Policies-and-Diplomacy/3450/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Masudul Alam Choudhury (2002),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Explaining the Qur'an. A Socio-Scientific Inquiry. Vol. 1 by Masudul Alam Choudhury |url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Explaining-the-Quran-A-Socio-Scientific-Inquiry-Vol-1/5370/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Mario I. Aguilar (2004),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Social History of the Catholic Church in Chile, Volume I: The First Period of the Pinochet Government by Mario I. Aguilar |url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Social-History-of-the-Catholic-Church-in-Chile-Volume-I-The-First-Period-of-the-Pinochet-Government/6179/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Hilmi M. Zawati (2004),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Selected Socio-Legal Bibliography on Ethnic Cleansing, Wartime Rape and Genocide in Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda|url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Selected-Socio-Legal-Bibliography-on-Ethnic-Cleansing-Wartime-Rape-and-Genocide-in-the-Former-Yugoslavia-and-Rwanda/6089/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Michael Egan (2006),<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Tragedy of Richard II, Part One: A Newly Authenticated Play by Shakespeare, Vol. 1 by Michael Egan |url=https://mellenpress.com/book/The-Tragedy-of-Richard-II-Part-One-A-Newly-Authenticated-Play-by-Shakespeare-Vol-1/6352/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Joëlle Rollo-Koster (2008),<ref>{{Cite web |title=People of Curial Avignon: Critical Edition of the Liber Divisionis and the Matriculae of Notre Dame la Majour |url=https://mellenpress.com/book/The-People-of-Curial-Avignon-A-Critical-Edition-of-the-Liber-Divisionis-and-the-Matriculae-of-Notre-Dame-la-Majour/7809/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Nikolai Tolstoy (2009),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oldest British Prose Literature. Compilation of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi by Nikolai Tolstoy |url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Oldest-British-Prose-Literature-The-Compilation-of-the-Four-Branches-of-the-Mabinogi/7729/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Paula Birnbaum and Anna Novakov (2009),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Essays on Women's Artistic and Cultural Contributions, 1919-1939: Expanded Social Roles for the New Woman Following the First World War|url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Essays-on-Womens-Artistic-and-Cultural-Contributions-1919-1939-Expanded-Social-Roles-for-the-New-Woman-Following-the-First-World-War/7693/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> Bahar Davary (2009),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women and the Qur'an. A Study in Islamic Hermeneutics|url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Women-and-the-Quran-A-Study-in-Islamic-Hermeneutics/7906/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref> and Sue Brannan Walker (2013).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ecological Poetics of James Dickey: How Landscape Shapes the Being of Man|url=https://mellenpress.com/book/Ecological-Poetics-of-James-Dickey-A-Study-in-How-Landscape-Shapes-the-Being-of-Man/8875/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press}}</ref>}}<ref name="The Edwin Mellen Press" />

==Reception== Although some critics have described Edwin Mellen Press as a vanity press, the publisher maintains that it is a "non-subsidy academic publisher" and does not accept payments from authors for publication.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edwin Mellen Press - official website |url=https://mellenpress.com/publish-academic-book/ |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Edwin Mellen Press: Academic Publishers}}</ref> It has often taken legal action against critics alleging it to be a vanity press — which, some critics claim, has further damaged its reputation.<ref name="reid">{{cite book |last=Reid |first=Paul H. Jr. |title=Edwin Mellen Press Versus Lingua Franca: A Case Study in the Law of Libel |publisher=Edwin Mellen Press |year=2006 |isbn=0773454462 |location=Lewiston, N.Y. |author-link=}}</ref>

The publisher's litigiousness began in 1993, when its former employee Robert West urged the American academic magazine ''Lingua Franca'' to publish an exposé, describing the publisher's founder, Richardson, as a "rogue professor" operating a "vanity press".{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} ''Lingua Franca'' published "Vanity's Fare: The Peripatetic Professor and His Peculiarly Profitable Press" by Warren St. John as the cover story of its September–October 1993 issue.<ref name="stjohn">{{cite magazine |last=St. John |first=Warren |title=Vanity's Fare: The Peripatetic Professor and His Peculiarly Profitable Press |magazine=Lingua Franca |date=September–October 1993 |pages=1, 22–25, 62}}</ref> The article described the publisher as a "quasi-vanity press cunningly disguised as an academic publishing house"<ref name="stjohn"/>{{rp|22}} and, in particular, ridiculed the work ''Rulers of Reality and the Ruled Races'' (1990) by Joseph R. Washington Jr. In response, the publisher, in 1994, sued West and ''Lingua Franca'' for libel.<ref name="reid" /> West sent a letter of regret to Richardson for "the difficulties he had with ''Lingua Franca'' magazine and the University of Toronto", stating: "I do not believe Herbert Richardson to be a 'rogue professor,' nor do I believe that the Edwin Mellen Press was organized to be a vanity operation."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Westhues |first=Kenneth |title=Envy of Excellence: Administrative Mobbing of High-Achieving Professors |publisher=Edwin Mellen Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780773459793 |location=Lewiston, N.Y. |pages=325}}</ref> However, in 1996, the publisher lost its lawsuit against ''Lingua Franca,'' on grounds that the article in dispute was "supported by an honest assessment of the facts at hand when the article was published".<ref name="reid"/>

In a 1995 conference talk, Brock University philosopher Murray Miles quoted Edwin Mellen Press material, noting the press says it "accepts no author subsidies but also pays no royalties" and expects authors to provide "error-free, camera-ready copy" by themselves — which, according to Miles, means that "a considerable expense is borne by the author." He described his own experience of having a manuscript accepted without having sent a requested short statement about the academic merits of the work, concluding that the press is "neither a traditional 'vanity press' nor a typical academic press either&nbsp;.... Here, then, is a puzzle worthy of the efforts of an investigative reporter."<ref name="miles_1995" />

In 1998, the press sued Oxford University Press concerning a review by R.W. Burgess in one of its publications, ''The Journal of Theological Studies'', over the phrase "Edwin Mellen Press is generally perceived to be an academic vanity press".<ref name="jts_burgess">{{cite journal |last=Burgess |first=R.W. |title=Review of The Idea of Universal History from Hellenistic Philosophy to Early Christian Historiography |journal=Journal of Theological Studies |volume=49 |issue=1 |date=April 1998 |pages=324–328 |doi=10.1093/jts/49.1.324 }}</ref> One year later, the journal retracted the offending statements, apologized, and published a new review.<ref name="jts_louth">{{cite journal |last=Louth |first=Andrew |title=Review of the Idea of Universal History from Hellenistic Philosophy to Early Christian Historiography |journal=The Journal of Theological Studies |volume=50 |issue=1 |date=April 1999 |pages=455–457 |doi=10.1093/jts/50.1.455 }}</ref>

In 2009, the press successfully sued the academic Thom Brooks for blog postings found by a court to be defamatory. One of these was titled "More reasons to avoid Edwin Mellen Press". Brooks was required to pay financial damages and offered his "sincere apologies", saying he accepts "without reservation that Mellen does not charge authors anything to have their works published" and "now accepts that there was no truth in any of those allegations and that the criticisms he made...were unjustified".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Doughty |first=Sophie |date=November 18, 2009 |title=Newcastle University academic pays up for libellous blog |url=http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-university-academic-pays-up-4469749 |journal=The Journal |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-date=16 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216151039/http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-university-academic-pays-up-4469749 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=17 November 2009 |title=Newcastle University academic apologises over libel blog |newspaper=The Northern Echo |url=http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/4744844.Newcastle_University_academic_apologises_over_libel_blog/}}</ref>

In 2012, the press pursued lawsuits against Hamilton's McMaster University and one of its librarians, Dale Askey, for $4.5 million in damages over statements alleged to be "false" and "defamatory in its tone and context".<ref>{{cite news |title=Book publisher sues McMaster librarian, university for libel |last=Ruf |first=Cory |website=CBC News |date=2023-02-14 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/book-publisher-sues-mcmaster-librarian-university-for-libel-1.1321112 }}</ref> He had criticized Mellen Press on a blog post, which had been deleted prior to the publisher filing suit.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edwin Mellen Press vs. Dale Askey and McMaster University (Ontario Superior Court 2012) |url=https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bz0QkOJbKc0mbVlBZmd3dUtDMmM/|access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Ontario Superior Court}} </ref> The Canadian Association of University Teachers and others condemned the press for what they called SLAPP lawsuits intended to curtail academic freedom.<ref name="Flaherty">{{cite news |last=Flaherty |first=Colleen |author-link= |date=February 8, 2013 |title=Price of a Bad Review |newspaper=Inside Higher Ed |url=http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/08/academic-press-sues-librarian-raising-issues-academic-freedom}}</ref><ref name="New">{{cite news |last=New |first=Jake |author-link= |date=February 8, 2013 |title=Edwin Mellen Press Sues University Librarian for Libel |newspaper=The Chronicle of Higher Education |url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/edwin-mellen-press-sues-university-librarian-for-libel/42193}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Kevin L. |title=Publishing Ethics and Platform Neutrality {{!}} Peer to Peer Review |url=https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/publishing-ethics-and-platform-neutrality-peer-to-peer-review |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Library Journal}}</ref> Martha Reineke started a petition demanding that the press drop the suits. It garnered 2,691 signatures. According to coverage of this event in the ''Chronicle of Higher Education'', more than 30 scholarly organizations condemned the press, which in turn maintained that its good reputation was at stake and that this concern had prompted the suit.<ref name="Chronicle_2013" /> In March 2013, the press dropped one suit against Askey but maintained another.<ref name="LJ_2013">{{cite magazine |title=Edwin Mellen press drops one suit against librarian |magazine=Library Journal |date=2013-04-01 |volume=138 |page=12 |issue=6 |id={{Gale|A324979873}} }}</ref> In February 2015, the last of the lawsuits was settled out of court. Askey said, "The outcome of this case is essentially a neutral outcome for academic freedom. Both parties walk away from the matter admitting nothing and resolving nothing".<ref name="Chronicle_2015">{{Cite web |last=Fabris |first=Casey |date=February 5, 2015 |title=Librarian Says Academic Press Has Settled Lingering Lawsuit Against Him |url=http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/librarian-says-academic-press-has-settled-lingering-lawsuit-against-him/93413 |access-date=February 5, 2015 |work=The Chronicle of Higher Education}}</ref>

In 2013, the press threatened legal action against the Society for Scholarly Publishing for publishing blog posts containing what it characterized as "disparaging comments" and for allowing "libellous statements" to be posted in the reader comments section on ''Scholarly Kitchen''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Anderson |first=Kent |date=March 29, 2013 |title=Posts Removed Because We've Received Letters From Edwin Mellen Press's Attorney |url=http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/03/29/posts-removed-because-weve-received-letters-from-edwin-mellen-press-attorney/ |publisher=The Scholarly Kitchen |access-date=March 29, 2013}}</ref> These posts were first removed and then restored in their entirety; but one reader comment which Mellen Press had found objectionable was removed.<ref>{{cite web |last=Price |first=Gary |date=29 March 2013 |title=The Scholarly Kitchen Removes Posts Re: Edwin Mellen Publishers, Following Letter from Lawyer |url=http://www.infodocket.com/2013/03/29/the-scholarly-kitchen-removes-posts-re-edwin-mellen-publishers-threatens-comment-author-with-lawsuit/ |access-date=March 29, 2013 |work=InfoDocket |publisher=Library Journal}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Meyer |first=Carol Anne |title=SSP Board Decides to Reinstate Removed Posts |date=3 April 2013 |url=http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2013/04/03/ssp-board-decides-to-reinstate-removed-posts// |publisher=The Scholarly Kitchen |access-date=April 4, 2013}}</ref>

== Footnotes == {{Notelist}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{Official website|http://mellenpress.com}} * {{Open Library publisher|Edwin Mellen Press|Mellen Press}}

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Category:Academic publishing companies Category:Publishing companies established in 1972 Category:Book publishing companies of the United States Category:Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Category:Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Category:Reference publishers Category:Education companies established in 1972