What's a monograph? Peer review?
- A scholarly work
- That has been peer reviewed (see video)
- That is secondary scholarship
- On a single topic
- That is book-length, and not article or chapter length
Etymology for the linguists: from mono- "single" + -graph "something written."
- What is peer review? (video, 2:41)
Short video that describes what the peer review process is and why it's important, how the peer review process works, and how to locate peer reviewed articles. This process varies slightly by discipline.
These ARE monographs
Making of Black Detroit in the Age of Henry Ford by Call Number: Online & F574.D49 N428 2012ISBN: 9780807837450Publication Date: 2012-09-24Availability and more information from Catalyst...
- Scholarly work?
- Yes - It's published by the University of North Carolina Press by a professor emerita at Wayne State University.
- Secondary scholarship?
- Yes - it's not a reference book, and while there are reproductions of photographs (primary sources for this work) they are supporting documents.
- Single topic?
- Yes - it's not an edited work, and the entire work has a single argument.
- Book, and not journal article?
- Yes - it's a full book length work.
The Park and the People by Call Number: F128.65.C3 R67 1992ISBN: 0801497515Publication Date: 1998-09-03Availability and more information from Catalyst...
- Scholarly work?
- Yes - It's published by the Cornell University Press by two history professors. The Catalyst record mentions that there's a bibliography and an index. (Note: monographs are often written by a single author, but that is not a requirement)
- Secondary scholarship?
- Yes - It's not a collection of primary sources, and it's not a reference source.
- Single topic?
- Unclear from the Catalyst record alone, so I consulted a book review for more information. After reading that, it looks like it is indeed a single topic work.
- "The book satisfies all expectations of a standard history...". From: Trachtenbert, Alan. "Reviews of Books -- The Park and the People: A History of Central Park by Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar." The American Historical Review 98, no. 5 (1993): 1671. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2167209
- Unclear from the Catalyst record alone, so I consulted a book review for more information. After reading that, it looks like it is indeed a single topic work.
- Book, and not journal article?
- Yes - it's a full book length work.
These are NOT monographs
The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War by ISBN: 9780199236961Publication Date: 2013-04-05Overview articles about different aspects of the cold war.
- Scholarly work?
- Yes - It's published by Oxford University Press by two professors.
- Secondary scholarship?
- No - A Handbook is a type of reference material (tertiary scholarship).
- Single topic?
- No - It's an edited volume. Each section has a different author.
- Book, and not journal article?
- Yes - The entire edited volume is a book length work. However, since it's on multiple topics, most people will just be citing a single chapter (i.e not a book length work).
Richard Nixon: speeches, writings, documents by Call Number: onlineISBN: 9781400835683Publication Date: 2010-01-02
- Scholarly work?
- Yes/No - This collection is published by Princeton University Press (scholarly). However the original primary source material that is being published did not go through any scholarly peer review process.
- Secondary scholarship?
- No - While there is an introduction written by the editor, this is primarily a collection of primary sources.
- Single topic?
- No - since the collection of primary sources, each item is about a different topic. The collection is artificially unified around the author (Nixon) by the editor (Perlstein).
- Book, and not journal article?
- Yes/No - The entire edited volume is a book length work. However, there are two creators listed: Richard Nixon (author of the primary sources), and the person who edited the volume after the fact. As such, most people will want to cite an individual source, and not the collection writ large.
