The History and Development of Academic Publishing in Malaysia

Academic books in Malaysia are mainly published by university presses and government’s research institutions. It is carried out as a social responsibility to disseminate knowledge from the researches done, mainly by government servants in the university or research institutions. As such, the number of academic books published in a year is relatively small with limited print-of-run. However, compared to her neighbouring countries, Malaysia has a good structure of governance in academic books publishing with the formation of Malaysian Scholarly Books Council or MAPIM which unify all university presses into a single body. This article discusses the history and development of academic publishing in Malaysia with a focus on the role of MAPIM