Guidelines for Submitting Books to Project MUSE

Basics

  • Publishers must have world publishing rights to all electronic editions
  • The book must be complete (no sections can be redacted)
  • We permit redacting of images but discourage submitting books that have all or most images redacted, or any images that are central to the theme of the book
  • Project MUSE participation is non-exclusive
  • Books that are already available open access cannot be included in the Collections (we cannot sell to libraries content that is freely available elsewhere)
  • We ask that books that will be made open access in the immediate future not be submitted for the Collections; they can be submitted to our Open Access Books Program
  • Books in the MUSE collections that are also posted open access in other venues will also be made open access on Project MUSE

New Editions and Versions

  • We do not replace or update books with newer editions or versions
  • We accept new editions or versions only if they contain new content and are submitted as separate titles with their own ISBNs

Examples of new versions or updated editions:

  • Book released in 1978 that is in MUSE’s backlist (“archival”) collection: a new edition published in 2017 will go into the 2017 Collections
  • A book originally published in 2016 and included in MUSE 2016 Collections but released in 2017 as a paperback with a new introduction: the 2017 book will be assigned to the 2017 frontlist collections because it contains new content

Scope of Content

Project MUSE welcomes these books for the Collections

  • Scholarly monographs and collections in the humanities and social sciences
  • Other books with scholarly content and appeal to an academic audience
  • Fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, memoirs
  • Regional publishing that is scholarly in nature

Please do NOT submit:

  • Young adult or children’s book
  • Books for popular audiences such as travel guides, cookbooks, hiking guides, hunting guides, gardening books, consumer health, *self-help, or coffee table books
  • Heavily illustrated books that require redaction of the photos or illustrations
  • Physical or biological sciences, engineering, and math books can only be accepted when space in the collection permits

*We do accept consumer health for books sold only as single titles (Single Select Books program).