Monograph

A monograph is a specialist written work (in contrast to reference works)^[1] or exhibition on one subject or one aspect of a usually scholarly subject, often by a single author or artist. Although a monograph can be created by two or more individuals, its text remains a coherent whole and it keeps being an in-depth academic work that presents original research, analysis, and arguments. As a focused, in-depth and specialised written work in which one or more authors develop a uniform and continuous argument or analysis over the course of the book, a monograph is essentially different from an edited collection of articles. In an edited collection, a number of original and separate scholarly contributions by different authors are edited and compiled into one book by one or more academic editors.

In library cataloguing, monograph has a broader meaning: a non-serial publication complete in one volume (book) or a definite number of books. Thus it differs from a serial or periodical publication such as a magazine, academic journal, or newspaper.^[2] In this context only, books such as novels are considered monographs.

^ Campbell, Robert; Pentz, Ed; Borthwick, Ian (2012). Academic and Professional Publishing. Elsevier. ISBN 978-1-78063-309-1. '[M]onograph' has become a generic term for a book that is not of a reference type, is of primary material and which may be multi-authored, single-authored, or an edited collection.
^ Harrod, Leonard Montague (2005). Prytherch, Raymond John (ed.). Harrod's librarians' glossary and reference book: a directory of over 10,200 terms, organizations, projects and acronyms in the areas of information management, library science, publishing and archive management (10th ed.). Aldershot, Hampshire, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate. p. 462. Archived from the original on 2020-09-03 – via Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science. For the purpose of library cataloging, any nonserial publication, complete in one volume or intended to be completed in a finite number of parts issued at regular or irregular intervals, containing a single work or collection of works. Monographs are sometimes published in monographic series and subseries. Compare with book.

[1] Campbell, Robert; Pentz, Ed; Borthwick, Ian (2012). Academic and Professional Publishing. Elsevier. ISBN 978-1-78063-309-1. '[M]onograph' has become a generic term for a book that is not of a reference type, is of primary material and which may be multi-authored, single-authored, or an edited collection.

[2] Harrod, Leonard Montague (2005). Prytherch, Raymond John (ed.). Harrod's librarians' glossary and reference book: a directory of over 10,200 terms, organizations, projects and acronyms in the areas of information management, library science, publishing and archive management (10th ed.). Aldershot, Hampshire, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate. p. 462. Archived from the original on 2020-09-03 – via Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science. For the purpose of library cataloging, any nonserial publication, complete in one volume or intended to be completed in a finite number of parts issued at regular or irregular intervals, containing a single work or collection of works. Monographs are sometimes published in monographic series and subseries. Compare with book.

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