TOME supports the work of university presses by providing grants for scholarly monographs that are deserving of publication but increasingly difficult to publish due to market-based concerns.
TOME makes the work of humanities and social science faculty more widely available both inside and outside the academy, which advances the core mission of colleges and universities to create and transmit new knowledge for public benefit.
TOME’s mission is twofold: 1) to harness the potential of digital publishing technologies to increase access to book-length research in the humanities and social sciences and 2) to ensure the long-term economic viability of the scholarly publishing system.
To accomplish our mission we believe it is essential to change the way monograph publishing is funded. The reality is that university presses can no longer cover the costs of publishing specialized monographs through sales alone. Likewise, it is unreasonable to expect humanities and social sciences fields to adopt a STEM-style author-pays system. For these reasons, we believe that the only rational solution to the scholarly monograph dilemma is a system of institutionally funded faculty book subsidies that retains the same commitment to editorial excellence while guaranteeing global access through open access editions.
Of course, such a solution cannot be formulated and implemented overnight, which is why we seek partners and collaborators committed to fundamental change. TOME is eager to work with other open monograph initiatives that share the same vision of bringing together scholars, universities, libraries, and presses in pursuit of a common goal—a sustainable open monograph ecosystem. In short, TOME is a movement not a club.
Discover Research from TOME
Here you will find just a few of the latest monographs published with TOME funding.
TOME is part of a growing movement to open up scholarly research to the world. As such we support the work of other initiatives and, wherever possible, hope to collaborate with them.
The Sustainable History Monograph Pilot (SHMP) is a Mellon-funded initiative to publish open digital editions of high-quality books from university presses in the field of history.
Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) 2020 Meeting
An invitation-only meeting on the Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem initiative will be held virtually on Thursday, October 22, 2020. The exact time of the meeting will be announced at a later date.
OpenMonographs.org Launches to Flip Funding Model for University Publishing
TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) creates website to build a community of scholars, publishers, librarians, university administrators that increases access to humanities and social sciences scholarship The Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and Association of University Presses (AUPresses) have launched a new website, OpenMonographs.org, in a bold new effort to […]
What good is a book if people can’t read it? Calvin L. Warren, assistant professor at Emory University, studies “concerns of black existence, such as justice, anti-black violence, and black suffering.” When Warren talked with people about his work, he found many were interested in reading his book to learn more, but they could not […]
Sixty scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences have been made freely available to researchers, students, and the general public under the TOME initiative.
@womeningerman Here's the link, with huge thanks to a grant from @UTKLibraries that made our participation in the TOME @openmonographs project possible. @CUArtsSciences @cublibraries https://t.co/DsAtQZ1zBU
Congrats to @stehle_maria @beverlymweber on their co-authored monograph, Precarious Intimacies, which explores how to recognize, affirm, and value love, touch, & care while challenging the racialized & gendered politics in which they are embedded https://t.co/ucKwkbKzCI
Some news: Im a Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) Award recipient! So my forthcoming book #SoundsFromTheOtherSide (preorder https://t.co/je6vL5Fjpg) will be open access (there'll be a free/interactive digital version)! Huge thanks 2 @UMinnPress, @umnlib, & @openmonographs
If you are an author, publisher, librarian, or administrator, we want to hear from you. Use this form to send your comments, questions, or suggestions to Peter Potter, ARL visiting program officer for TOME.
