The Monograph's Future as Humanities Scholars See It

An article about a study described as "the first in-depth study of the role, value and future of the monograph from the viewpoint of the scholar" appeared in Aslib Proceedings earlier this year. * The study used a qualitative methodology by gathering information from 17 scholars during interviews. There was general agreement among the interviewees that despite decreasing numbers of titles being published, print scholarly books are still essential means of scholarly communication. Topics covered were funding, self-publishing, e-books, and archiving. The five authors of the study are faculty members of the Centre for Information and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER) and School of Library, Archive and Information Studies (SLAIS), University College London. From the summary of findings:

The monograph continues to be of great value in the arts and humanities field, and is seen as essential for career progression. Much concern was expressed about the decline in quality of this and other forms of writing . . . . Reservations were expressed about moving towards digital versions of the monograph, although print-on-demand was considered to be a viable option to enable the continuing publication of specialist works.

*Williams, Peter; Stevenson, Iain; Nicholas, David; Watkinson, Anthony; Rowlands, Ian. "The Role and Future of the Monograph in Arts and Humanities Research." Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 61, 1 (2009): 67-82.