A monograph is a specialized scientific book. As learned treatises on clearly defined topics, which may be intra-, inter-, or cross-disciplinary, monographs generally are written by specialists for the benefit of other specialists. Although usually regarded as a component of the review literature of science, monographs are works that demand the highest standards of scholarship. Their preparation calls for exceptional breadth and depth of knowledge on the part of their authors, who, inter alia, must be able to collect, collate, analyze, integrate, and synthesize all relevant contributions to the archival literature of the scientific and engineering journals and to add original material as required. The value of monographs lies in the coherence and comprehensiveness of the information and knowledge they contain, which is important to the specialized researchers to whom they are directed and, therefore, to the advancement of science and engineering generally. Most monographic manuscripts are critically reviewed and tightly edited. The resulting books can be expected to have a reasonably long shelf life.

Monographs commonly are confused with other kinds of books; hence, some distinctions need to be drawn. Textbooks are pedagogical works which, even if written on fairly narrow subjects, are designed to serve broader and more junior readerships than specialized research communities. Textbooks are not monographs. Neither are most books of conference proceedings, even though they may deal with specialized topics and be directed at specialized communities. Together with abstracts and the increasingly common "expanded abstracts," conference papers, valuable and necessary as they may be, commonly take the form of premature announcements of new scientific discoveries. Many are subsequently expanded and rendered in a form suitable for the scientific and engineering journals. Conference proceedings generally have a short shelflife. Certain books of scientific papers, which involve conference presentation in the course of their preparation, stand as notable exceptions, however, to the foregoing description of the conference literature. The papers in such books are designed from inception to review and augment existing knowledge of particular aspects of a specialized, unitary topic. The papers are prepared for inclusion more or less as "chapters" in a carefully planned and structured volume, and their conference presentation is intended primarily as a means of allowing invited contributors to the book to come together to discuss critically with one another the material they intend to include in their published "chapters." Many books produced in this way are indeed monographs, distinguished simply by having an unusually large number of authors. Additional criteria for the distinction of genuine monographs that may involve conference presentations as part of their preparatory procedure are provided in the unabridged pamphlet available from the NRC Research Press.

In summary, therefore, NRC Research Press regards monographs as scientific treatises of book length but otherwise variable format prepared by acknowledged experts on specialized topics for the benefit of others who have specialized in, or who wish to obtain a specialist's appreciation of, these topics. Monographs are externally reviewed and tightly edited. Textbooks and most volumes of conference proceedings are not monographs. As a component of the review literature in science and engineering, monographs facilitate the advancement of these fields of knowledge in a unique and important fashion.