Oxford Historical Monographs [OHM] is a series for the publication of Oxford University D.Phil. theses whose content is historical. It is published by Oxford University Press [OUP]. The members of the OHM Editorial Committee for 2012 are Joanna Innes (Chair), Patricia Clavin, Lawrence Goldman, , Robert Service, Paul Slack, Bryan Ward - Perkins and John Watts. The Chair of the Faculty Board belongs to the Committee ex officio. Once we have received the examiners’ reports, we ask supervisors or authors for copies of theses which we are interested in pursuing. We reach decisions as soon as we can, but since the process of consideration always includes at least one external reading of the thesis, it can take time. We are not in a position to enter into correspondence with individual thesis writers at this stage. The latter are, of course, entirely at liberty to negotiate with other publishers at any time; but OUP will not consider a separate submission for a book based on a recent Oxford thesis without the consent of the Committee. We give priority to work which, besides incorporating the best new scholarship, is reasonably accessible, readable and marketable, and which is better communicated in the form of a book than as as series of articles. Two rules of thumb are that we can accept only the top 10% or so of new Oxford theses; and that necessary revisions which we might require an author to make should not be expected to take more than a year or perhaps eighteen months of their time (assuming substantial but not overwhelming other commitments).
Authors are encouraged to submit a final text as soon as possible. We should not have accepted the work if we had thought that revising it would take long (cf. above). However, the Committee recognizes that the pressure of other duties, whether academic or non-academic, frequently conspires to make the revision of some theses a much slower process than their authors wish or initially expect. Authors will be prompted if they have not submitted a final text within four years and will, in normal circumstances, be granted only a further twelve months to do so. This does not mean that it will not be possible to accept a revised thesis submitted after that time; but there will no longer be any presumption of such acceptance on our part, and a new application would need to be made at the time. Obviously at that juncture we should have regard to any exceptional circumstances which might obtain in a particular case. When the book is finished to the mutual satisfaction of the author, AE, and Committee, it is formally proposed to the Delegates of the Press. At that point the work is taken on by OUP and the Committee has no further control over it. When the Delegates have accepted it, a contract is offered, and normally the book will be published within a year or so of final acceptance. Any technical matters relating to illustrations, tables, appendices, etc. will be dealt with by OUP, though they should be raised at the time of final submission. |