monograph n : a detailed and documented treatise on a particular subject

English

Etymology

mono- + -graph

Noun

1. An extended essay on a single subject, generally of a learned nature.

   I had never given much thought to the role of darkness in ordinary human affairs until I read a monograph prepared by John Staudenmaier, a historian of technology and a Jesuit priest, for a recent conference at MIT. Cullen Murphy, "Hello Darkness", The Atlantic Monthly, March 1996, Volume 277, No. 3, pp. 22-24.

Translations

A monograph is a scholarly book or a treatise on a single subject or a group of related subjects, usually written by one person. It is a one-time publication that is complete in itself. It may refer to a detailed, well-documented work on a limited subject or a person.

In library and information science, a monograph is a nonserial publication complete in one volume or a finite number of volumes. Thus it differs from a serial publication such as a magazine, journal or newspaper.

Popular culture

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, Sherlock Holmes repeatedly refers to the monographs he's written on such varied topics as the distinction between varieties of tobacco ash, the tracing of footsteps, and the influence of a trade upon the form of a hand.

References

• Library Jargon Defined (Boise State University, Albertsons Library)

Samples

• Japanese monograph 152POLITICAL STRATEGY PRIOR TO OUTBREAK OF WAR, PART VPrepared by Military History Section Headquarters, Army Forces Far EastDistributed by:Department of the Army Office of the Chief of Military History Washington 25 D.C. courtesy of ibiblio.org.
• http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/911_TerrFin_Monograph.pdf Sample of a monograph, the 9/11 Commission on Terrorist Financing.

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