TOME@UMD

Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem

The University of Maryland has joined TOME for a two-year pilot program. TOME is a national initiative to advance open-access (OA) publishing of monographs in the humanities and social sciences. TOME’s goal is to make this important scholarship available to readers across the globe, without cost and access barriers. TOME@UMD is led by the University Libraries in partnership with the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, and the College of Arts and Humanities.

Three Grants Available

For its initial pilot program, during 2021-2023, TOME@UMD will sponsor the publication of three OA monographs by UMD faculty members. The pilot project will issue three grant awards of up to $15,000 each to produce open access, digital monographs of 90,000 words or less in any discipline, but with preference for those in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Funding will be provided to a publisher participating in TOME.

The application process for the 2021-2023 pilot program is now closed. More informtion will be shared soon about accepted manuscripts.

Author eligibility 

All UMD faculty members are eligible to apply, including tenure-stream, permanent-status-stream, and PTK faculty. Preference will be given to faculty members publishing their first monographs and/or publishing a monograph that advances the faculty member's professional or research goals.

Manuscript eligibility

Eligible manuscripts will be long-form, peer-reviewed works of up to 90,000 words in length in any discipline, but preferably the arts, humanities, or social sciences, accepted for publication by a participating press (see the TOME publishers list). This project does not fund critical editions, edited anthologies, creative works, textbooks, or translations. The OA digital edition must be freely available online upon publication without embargo, under a CC BY Creative Commons license. Publishers must agree to produce an OA edition in a digital format that is accessible and platform agnostic and allow authors to retain copyright of their monographs.

Application Process

The application process for the 2021-2023 pilot program is now closed. More information will be shared soon about accepted manuscripts.

Review process

The TOME@UMD Selection Advisory Committee reviewed applications and recommended manuscripts for funding to the TOME@UMD Steering Committee. Submissions were evaluated using the following criteria:

• Potential impact of this work on the field
• Potential impact of this work on communities outside the academy
• Description of the benefits of open access distribution for the work
• Value for the applicant’s own research potential and progress
• Potential to enhance the scholarly distinction of the University of Maryland
• Potential to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion in the production and dissemination of knowledge

More About TOME

TOME, “Toward an Open Monographs Ecosystem,” was launched in 2017 as a five-year pilot project of the Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and Association of University Presses (AUPresses). The pilot is built on participating colleges and universities and participating university presses.