Monographic series (alternatively, monographs in series) are scholarly and scientific books released in successive volumes, each of which is structured like a separate book or
scholarly monograph.
Semantics
In general books that are released serially (in successive parts) once a year, or less often, are called
series. Publications that are released more often than once a year are known as
periodicals. If the volumes can each stand on their own as a separate book, they are called monographs in series; if not, they are called book sets.
Associations
The connection among books belonging to such a series can be by discipline, focus, approach, type of work, or geographic location. Examples of such series include "Antwerp Working Papers in Linguistics"; "Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile" (Rosenkilde & Bagger, Copenhagen); Garland reference library; "Canterbury Tales Project" (see ''
The Canterbury Tales'');
Early English Text Society
The Early English Text Society (EETS) is a text publication society founded in 1864 which is dedicated to the editing and publication of early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes contain editions of ...
.
The ''
Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology'' (a series of 19th-century editions of theological works by
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
writers, devoted to significant
Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches.
The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglica ...
figures, published by
John Henry Parker) is an example of a common usage in naming monographic series; another example is the
John Harvard Library which consists of notable works relating to the United States. The
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a series of books originally published by Heinemann in London, but is currently published by Harvard University Press. The library contains important works of ancient Greek and ...
is a series of editions of Greek and Latin texts in which the original texts are accompanied by translations into English; the series was begun by James Loeb and is published by
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
, Cambridge, Massachusetts Series intended for general readers may also have "library" in their titles, e.g.
Everyman's Library.
Categorization
Libraries and indexing services handle them in various ways. The
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
catalogs each part of them as an individual book with an individual call number and
ISBN
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.
An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition a ...
and a series note (technically a series added entry for the overall series, which has its
ISSN
An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs a ...
, and usually a call number. As the Library of Congress receives two copies of most scholarly books as
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
deposits, it normally keeps one by individual call number and one by series call number. Most other libraries do not have that luxury and have to choose. The Anglo-American Cataloging Rules 2nd edition allows either of these options to be used.
Medical libraries
A health or medical library is designed to assist physicians, health professionals, students, patients, consumers, medical researchers, and information specialists in finding health and scientific information to improve, update, assess, or e ...
almost always keep them together as a series. The biomedical indexing service
PubMed
PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health maintai ...
from the
National Library of Medicine
The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library.
Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...
treat the individual volumes in such a series as if they were volumes in a journal.
* ''
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
''Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology'' is a peer-reviewed book series. It covers the broad fields of experimental medicine and biology. The series was established in 1967 and is published by Springer Nature. The editors-in-chief are Wi ...
''
Themed volumes
In many cases each volume in such a series itself contains individual chapters or articles written by different authors, usually on the same general theme. The Library of Congress does not list each such article separately, but PubMed does.
A frequent occasion for such a themed volume is a celebration in honor of a person's scholarly work. If done at retirement or on an anniversary (e.g. 60th birthday), it is usually called a
Festschrift
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...
or celebration volume. If after death, it is usually called a
memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...
.
The publisher Variorum Reprints began publishing its Collected Studies series in 1970. Each of these volumes contains "a selection of articles by a leading authority on a particular subject ... reprinted from a vast range of learned journals,
Festschrifts
In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...
, conference proceedings ...". These volumes are published by
Ashgate Publications.
See also
*
Book series
*
Collection (publishing)
In the field of book publishing, a collection or, more precisely, editorial collection (french: collection éditoriale; es, colección editorial; it, collana editoriale; pt, coleção de livros, translation=collection of books), is a set of boo ...
*
Serials, periodicals and journals
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Academic publishing
Academic publishing is the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in academic journal articles, books or theses. The part of academic written output that is not formally pub ...
*
Edited volume
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monographic Series
Academic publishing
Books by type