Home

Welcome to Oxford Historical Monographs

Oxford Historical Monographs (OHM) is a series for the publication of Oxford University DPhil theses whose content is historical. It is published by Oxford University Press (OUP).

The Oxford Historical Monographs series exists to publish some of the best Oxford University DPhil theses on historical subjects. Since receiving its current name in 1965, the OHM series has featured more than 250 titles, including the first books of many of today’s leading historians; a list of those still available to buy can be found on the Oxford University Press website. The series is run by an editorial Committee drawn from members of the History Faculty, which meets four times a year to consider examiners’ reports and conduct editorial business. You can find details of the members of the Committee here – all of us welcome representations from supervisors and examiners, and the Chair of the Committee will additionally be happy to answer any enquiries.

The Committee receives the examiners’ reports of all successful DPhil candidates in History; we also consider relevant reports from other faculties when these are drawn to our attention. Most OHM books derive from History theses, but we are happy to consider any dissertations on historical topics. So our catchment area is wide, and we publish books on all aspects of late antique, medieval and modern history. Some recent examples can be found on the Recent Publications page.

Examiners in History are specifically invited to comment in their reports on the suitability of a thesis to be considered for publication in the series, and they often do so. Supervisors are likewise encouraged to draw likely publications to the Committee’s attention. Members of the Committee consult extensively and informally with examiners, supervisors and others. Once we have received the examiners’ reports, we ask 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 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 a series of articles. We also bear in mind the amount of revision a given thesis is likely to need – our rule of thumb is that the process of turning a dissertation into a book should not take more than about a year or eighteen months, though we recognise that, given their other commitments, some of our authors may need longer than that in practice.

We publish about 10% of the historical theses we consider – that is, about 6 to 8 books a year – and OHM represents the only route through which recent Oxford University DPhil theses will be considered for publication by OUP. We try to notify the authors of those DPhils which we do not wish to pursue as soon as possible: usually within four months of the award of the degree. Theses rejected by us may well be accepted by other publishers, and, of course, dissertation authors are at liberty to negotiate with other presses at any time, except when they have agreed with us that we can send their work for external review.

If you wish to contact Oxford Historical Monographs, please send an email to ohm@history.ox.ac.uk.