A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually

scholarly The scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars and academics to make their claims about their subjects of expertise as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly pu ...

) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published as a book, but it may be an artwork,

audiovisual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service provide ...

work, or exhibition made up of

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...

works. In library cataloguing, the word has a specific and broader meaning, while in the United States, the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

uses the term to mean a set of published standards.

Written works

Academic works

The English term ''monograph'' is derived from modern

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, which has its root in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

. In the English word, ''mono-'' means and ''-graph'' means . Unlike a

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, but also of learners ( ...

, which surveys the state of knowledge in a field, the main purpose of a monograph is to present primary

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

and original scholarship. This research is presented at length, distinguishing a monograph from an article. For these reasons, publication of a monograph is commonly regarded as vital for career progression in many academic disciplines. Intended for other researchers and bought primarily by libraries, monographs are generally published as individual volumes in a short

print run Print circulation is the average number of copies of a publication. The number of copies of a non-periodical publication (such as a book) are usually called print run. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulat ...

. In Britain and the U.S., what differentiates a scholarly monograph from an academic trade title varies by publisher, though generally it is the assumption that the readership has not only specialised or sophisticated knowledge but also professional interest in the subject of the work. A written monograph is usually a specialist book on one topic, although the term is sometimes used loosely, with its meaning being broadened to include any works which are not

reference work A reference work is a document, such as a Academic publishing#Scholarly paper, paper, book or periodical literature, periodical (or their electronic publishing, electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information ...

s and which may be written by one or more authors, or an edited collection. This broadened use of the term, however, does not affect the essential difference in academic publishing and assessment between an authored academic book (i.e., a traditional academic monograph) and an edited volume (i.e., a non-authored book). In the case of an academic monograph, it is a "a focused work of scholarship pitched at a relatively high level of intellectual sophistication", whose author (or authors) has carried out the research and written the text of the book. By contrast, the editor of an edited volume owns the copyright to the concept, structure and organization of the book, as well as any text he or she has authored, while the authors of the individual chapters retain the copyright to the text and content of the chapters they authored.

Library definition

In library cataloguing, ''monograph'' has a broader meaning: a non-serial publication complete in one

volume Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...

(book) or a definite number of books. Thus it differs from a serial or

periodical publication Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

such as a

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

academic journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...

, or

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

. In this context only, books such as

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

s are considered monographs.__FORCETOC__

Types of monographs

Biology

In biological taxonomy, a monograph is a comprehensive treatment of a

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

in written form. Monographs typically review all known

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

within a group, add any newly discovered species, and collect and synthesize available information on the ecological associations, geographic distributions, and morphological variations within the group. The first-ever monograph of a plant taxon was

Robert Morison Robert Morison (162010 November 1683) was a Scottish botanist and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist. A forerunner of John Ray, he elucidated and developed the first systematic classification of plants.Vines Biography Born in Aberdeen, Morison w ...

's 1672 , a treatment of the

Apiaceae Apiaceae () or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium,'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot, or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering p ...

Art

Book publishers use the term "artist monograph" or "art monograph" to indicate books dealing with a single artist, as opposed to broader surveys of art subjects.

Film and multimedia

The term monograph is also used for audiovisual or film documentary-type representations of a subject, often creatively expressed. The term "monographic film" has also been used for short fiction or animated films. Video or film essays on a single topic are also referred to as monographs. ''IndyVinyl'', by Scottish film academic Ian Garwood, is a monographic research project focused on "vinyl records in American independent cinema between 1987 and 2018". It includes an 8,000-word peer-reviewed academic book chapter; video compilations; "critical montages"; and a series of social media posts, all curated on a website. Garwood has written that his project is "an attempt to produce a research output equivalent to an academic monograph, but incorporating video-based forms of criticism that have been popularised through online film culture".

FDA usage

In the context of

regulation, monographs represent published standards by which the use of one or more substances is automatically authorized. For example, the following is an excerpt from the ''

Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the government gazette, official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every wee ...

'': "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a final rule in the form of a final monograph establishing conditions under which

over-the-counter Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are medicines sold directly to a consumer without a requirement for a prescription from a healthcare professional, as opposed to prescription drugs, which may be supplied only to consumers possessing a valid pres ...

(OTC) sunscreen drug products are

generally recognized as safe and effective Generally recognized as safe and effective (abbreviated as GRASE, GRAS/E, or GRAS/GRAE) is designation for certain old drugs that do not require prior approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in order to enter the United States marketpl ...

and not misbranded as part of FDA's ongoing review of OTC drug products." Such usage has given rise to the use of the word monograph as a verb, as in "this substance has been monographed by the FDA".