JH Libraries Open Monograph Initiative (JHLOMI) Grant

JH Libraries Open Monograph Initiative (JHLOMI) provides funding to Johns Hopkins faculty for the publication of new open-access digital monographs.

Johns Hopkins University joined the Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) initiative in 2020 to facilitate greater access to its faculty’s scholarship through open-access publishing. The TOME program was a collaborative project developed by the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) to make more scholarly monographs by humanities and humanistic social sciences faculty members openly available on a broad scale. As part of the commitment to supporting open access monographs, the JH Libraries Open Monograph Initiative (JHLOMI) was launched in 2024.

Faculty authors in the humanities and humanistic social sciences at Johns Hopkins are invited to apply for JHLOMI grants in 2023-24 to support the publication of open access monographs. The grants provide up to $15,000 per academic monograph—paid to a participating university press on the author’s behalf with funding provided by the Office of the Provost—to make a digital copy of the monograph available free of charge under a Creative Commons license through MuseOpen. Monographs funded by a JHLOMI grant pass through the same rigorous peer-review and professional editing process as any other monograph published by the specified publisher, but are made openly available online as well as through traditional distribution channels.

Read a blog post about the 2020-22 JHU TOME grant recipients

Author Eligibility

All full-time JHU faculty, including tenure-track and tenured faculty, as well as full time non-tenure-track faculty, are eligible to apply.

Program Description

• A grant of up to $15,000 is available to fund the open-access publication of a standard monograph project (average 90,000 words, with a light illustration program). The grant may be used to offset any publication costs.
• The recipient’s monograph must have been accepted for publication prior to applying for the grant. A letter of intent to publish from the press will be requested (see application process below).
• Recipients of the JHLOMI grant may not receive other JHU publication grants for the same book.
• Recipients are expected to be single authors or co-authors of a monograph. Co-authors from other institutions may need to contribute a portion of the subsidy.
• Recipients may not receive royalties on the grant from their publishers.
• Recipients may receive support from this grant program once within an academic year. Unsuccessful applicants may apply without prejudice to fund a different project. Reapplications for previously denied projects will be considered only when/if circumstances have significantly changed.
• Adjunct or visiting faculty members, as well as faculty members whose contracts will not be renewed for the following year, and faculty members who plan to resign their appointments at the end of the current year, are not eligible for funding at this time.

Project Eligibility

Monographs are defined here as long-form scholarly works on a single subject that present evidence, an argument, and conclusions beyond the scope of an academic journal article.

Edited volumes, anthologies, textbooks, or translations of previously published works are not eligible for funding.

This fund does not support making previously published (backlist) monographs available as open access. If you have questions about how to work with a publisher to make a previously published monograph open access, please email TOME@jhu.edu.

Three types of open digital monographs are eligible for funding:

1. Open e-books. These monographs may include scholarship with a limited audience, for which publication through a traditional sales model is unlikely, or on a topic that could reach a broader audience as an open-access publication. A print counterpart may also be made available for sale where possible and desirable.
2. Digitally enhanced e-books that extend the capabilities of print books. Examples of enhancement include embedding audio or video or linking directly to primary evidence from an open e-book. An enhanced e-book might simultaneously be made available in print form without the digital features. It might also link to a companion website developed in conjunction with the book.
3. Multimodal works that could not exist in a print environment. Such monographs would integrate text and digital components within a single publishing platform. They must provide evidence of significantly advancing a scholarly question within a field of research. They must also demonstrate the integrity of the digital design and a sustainability plan for ongoing access.

Expectations for Publishers

As stated in its Open Access Policy, Johns Hopkins University is committed to disseminating the research and scholarship of its faculty as widely as possible. JHU expects that the following criteria for open access be met for monographs supported through JHLOMI:

1. An open monograph will be available free of charge to read and download immediately upon publication.
2. Eligible publishers must maintain a high standard of peer-review, editorial support, and marketing for open monographs. All members of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) are automatically eligible.
3. Commercial academic, scholarly trade, and textbook publishers may be deemed eligible on a case-by-case basis with a detailed description of the publisher’s peer-review and editorial selection process.
4. Authors retain copyright of their books.
5. The institutional grant will be treated as a subsidy and not as a sale of electronic rights upon which the author will receive royalties.
6. The book should be published under a Creative Commons (CC) license, selected by the author in consultation with the book’s publisher and the Johns Hopkins Libraries.
7. The digital format of the e-book should be accessible to those with print disabilities and free of digital rights management. EPUB3 is preferred.
8. Publishers are encouraged to make a print counterpart simultaneously available for sale where possible and desirable. Authors should receive appropriate royalties on sales of a print edition.
9. The open version should be the electronic version of record, and not a pre-publication draft. We expect that publishers accepting this subsidy will not sell an electronic version of the book with significant enhancements beyond those available in the open version.
10. Potential buyers of the printed book should be made aware that an open version is available. Conversely, when a print version is available for sale, we encourage publishers to post purchasing information for the bound book alongside the open-access version.
11. To ensure wide distribution of the open version, along with robust metadata, we ask publishers to make the digital version available through Muse Open. Publishers may also host the publication on the publisher’s own platform (where applicable).
12. We further expect that publishers will provide to authors and/or JHU, upon request, usage metrics (e.g., number of downloads over time; demographic and geographic analysis) at the chapter and book levels. Altmetrics, that measure the book’s overall impact, will be welcome if available.

For questions about expectations for open digital monographs, email the Johns Hopkins Libraries at TOME@jhu.edu.

Application Process

1. Applications are currently accepted on a rolling basis. Authors are encouraged to schedule a consultation by contacting TOME@jhu.edu prior to applying.
2. Authors must complete and submit the online application form below with supporting documentation. The documentation should be collected into a single PDF and include:

• Letter of interest from the publisher, on publisher letterhead, stating its intent to publish the book and the level of support expected to make the work open. The letter should also describe the publisher’s plans for distribution and marketing of the open monograph, as well any requests for significant deviations from the guidelines described here. Presses which are not members of AUPresses must also articulate their review and editorial selection processes and confirm their capacity to produce and market an open digital monograph to a high standard
• One-page statement from the author explaining how the project benefits from open and/or multimodal publication
• Copy of the book proposal, or an abstract of the project, along with sample digital extracts or links where relevant
• Copies of all readers’ reports as evidence of robust peer-review, as well as a copy of any author responses to those reports

3. A review committee of representatives from the Johns Hopkins Libraries will review all applications.
4. Upon approval of the project, the Johns Hopkins Libraries will work with the press to reach an agreement that outlines any addenda to existing contracts necessary to meet eligibility for funding.
5. Funding is released when the university has received a signed agreement with the publisher, presentation of a signed publisher contract or an addendum to an existing contract between the publisher and author, and an invoice from the publisher. Authors are encouraged to consult with Johns Hopkins Libraries staff before signing any contracts or agreements. Contact the librarians at TOME@jhu.edu.