For Authors

Publishing with Mohr Siebeck

A warm welcome to Mohr Siebeck and thank you for your interest in publishing with us.

Whether you would like to publish a monograph, your habilitation thesis or your dissertation, as a Mohr Siebeck author you will receive personal support the whole way through the publishing process publication request right up to the finished book and beyond. Our competent staff in each relevant department will be at your side every step of the way through to marketing your work after it has appeared.

Are you the editor of a planned conference volume or a collection of essays? Then you can talk to the responsible program director about inclusion in our publishing program.

Do you have an idea for a future publication or are you pursuing another academic project (handbook, textbook or similar) alone or with colleagues and are looking for a suitable partner for your publication? Then please feel free to contact us.

We are also happy to receive publication requests for our journals.

On the following pages you will find an initial overview of our services.

Please send your publication request in digital form to the [program director] responsible for your area of expertise. If available, please include your complete manuscript as an open text file (e.g., Word) as well as a PDF, along with a brief description, and your academic CV.

If you would like to publish a qualification thesis (habilitation thesis, dissertation), please also send us PDF files of the reviews. All documents will of course be treated confidentially.

Check list for publication requests:
√ Complete manuscript as an open text file and PDF
√ Short description
√ Academic CV
√ For qualification theses, PDF files of the reviews

Qualification theses are published in series appropriate to their content in order to give them their ideal platform. You can find a list of our series here. As a rule, your manuscript will be reviewed by the responsible program director and the series’ editors. The requirements for acceptance and the duration of the review vary depending on the series. Our program directors will be happy to provide you with more information.

Please send your publication request digitally to the relevant editorial contact. Information on publication in Mohr Siebeck's journals and on preparing the manuscript as well as contact details for manuscript submission can be found under Works > Journals at the respective journal under "Manuscripts".

Mohr Siebeck Service Packages for Books - OA and non-OA

Publishing with Mohr Siebeck includes a wide range of publishing services, including author support, quality assurance (content/formal/technical), typesetting, metadata, dissemination on relevant platforms, distribution of the print edition if applicable, and marketing.

New! To enable you to make a transparent choice of the publication model that suits you best, we are going to offer various service packages as of August 1st, 2023:

Basic OA is an Open Access publication of the eBook. In the Classic and Premium modules, a print edition with different features will be added.

Classic OA includes a standardized typesetting process according to specified design patterns (font: Times New Roman), a guaranteed print run in soft cover (paperback) with crediting of expected print revenues against the publication fee, the obligatory copies of dissertations to be delivered to the faculty/university, and 5 complimentary copies for you as the author.

Premium OA includes an individual typesetting process in Mohr Siebeck style (choice of font: Garamond, Minion, Bembo), a guaranteed print run (as with the Classic OA module) with a cloth binding and a dust jacket, the obligatory copies for dissertations, and 10 complimentary copies for you personally.

You do not wish to publish in Open Access? We will continue to offer you the “conventional” form of publication: In addition to the publication of the eBook which can be purchased in our eLibrary, the packages provide for a guaranteed print edition in paperback (Classic non-OA) or with cloth binding (Premium non-OA). The service catalogs correspond to those of the OA variants; in the non-OA modules you will also receive a free electronic copy exclusively for personal use.

Please note: The availability of the modules may vary according to the program area and series; please contact the program editors responsible for further information.

Please click here for an outline of the packages we will offer.

Here we offer an configurator, which you can use to obtain a non-binding initial estimate of the costs to be expected (non-OA variants can also be calculated). You will receive a binding offer from the program editors in charge after your publication has been accepted into the publishing program.

We will be happy to advise you on possible funding applications and support you in the application process, for example by providing the necessary documents.

The results of your research should be available to as broad a public as possible without barriers to access - yet it is important for you to publish on a well-known platform that ensures that your research will be easy to find and will be quoted uniformly? We offer you a widely visible basis for your Open Access work, a basis held in high regard by numerous institutions, which will enable your work to receive the attention it deserves and make it possible for others to make use of your findings.

Your work can be made openly accessible either immediately upon publication or after an embargo period of 12 or 24 months.

With a Creative Commons license, your publication can be used internationally under well-defined conditions. The program editors will be happy to advise you on the choice of license. Your publication in Open Access will be made freely accessible in the Mohr Siebeck eLibrary and posted in the most important international Open Access repositories (OAPEN, JSTOR Open Access Books) as well as listed in important discovery services (e.g. the Directory of Open Access Books/DOAB). Upon request, we can provide you with quarterly usage statistics from the repositories mentioned. Your publication's metadata will be registered with over 450 of the world's leading academic libraries, including the British Library, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, the Max Planck Digital Library, and numerous university libraries in Germany, Europe, and the United States. In addition, you can post the PDF of your work on institutional or subject-specific repositories yourself at any time. Your publication will be long-term archived using Portico and CLOCKSS, ensuring that it will be available for a long time.

If we have already published one of your works, this can also be transferred to Open Access. Please contact the program editors; they will be happy to provide you with an individual offer.

At Mohr Siebeck, we publish books with a variety of high-quality features in all the usual classical and digital formats.

Before your manuscript can become a book, it must meet our standards in terms of content, language and layout. Our editors will support you in preparing your manuscript so that it complies with our guidelines. In addition to the generally applicable instructions on formal layout, our editors will prepare individual notes on your manuscript to guide you in the revision process. You can also contact the editorial office and the production department personally at any time.

Should you require assistance with editing or indexing your work, Mohr Siebeck authors can now take advantage of our cooperation with Academic Language Experts (ALE) and benefit from special discounted rates. You can find more information about ALE’s publication support services here.

Editors of collections should please observe the following instructions for their publications:

Guidelines for law collections
Guidelines for theology collections

The following production steps detail how your manuscript is shaped into its final layout and then printed. Depending on the agreement, the typesetting preparation of your manuscript can be undertaken by us or you can create the layout yourself according to our specifications.

(1) Typesetting of manuscript data by the publisher:

After your final manuscript has been checked and approved by the editorial team, it will be handed over to production for typesetting. You will then receive the so-called typesetting run for checking. This will give you the chance to note corrections that have arisen in the typesetting process. If the changes do not cause any further page shifts, you can resolve any page cross-references and create the customary registers. After the typesetting work has been completed and you have given the all clear with your imprimatur, the final printing process usually takes four to six weeks.

Please observe the following technical notes for preparing manuscripts for books:

Technical manuscript preparation for typesetting by the publisher
guidelines on Compiling an Index.

(2) Creating a print-ready template yourself:

If you choose this option, you can create a print-ready template, based on detailed instructions, which is then to be submitted as a PDF file. To help with preparation, a document template can also be made available if your manuscript meets the necessary technical requirements.

During the revision and pre-printing phase, you not only implement the formal comments of the proofreader, but at the same time also bring your manuscript into line with the publisher's layout (page layout, spacing, font sizes, headers, table of contents, etc.). If you have any questions or problems, your production editor will be happy to assist you. There is no correction of galley proofs in this type of production; the final PDF file submitted by you is printed after you give us the green light with your imprimatur.

Please observe the following technical notes when preparing print-ready files:

Standard format monographs
Standard format collections
Publications in the ORA series
Publications in the NoeG series
guidelines on Compiling an Index.

Good to know: whichever option you choose, an experienced member of our production team will accompany you throughout the entire publication process. Also, we choose to work with regional service providers, and all our titles are printed and bound in Germany.

Promoting your book

All our authors and editors benefit from the services of our marketing department. To make your work as visible as possible, we offer the following marketing activities:

Presentation on the publisher's homepage (including promotional flyer, free use of the work’s public domain cover, and references to reviews of your work)
A tailor-made initial announcement in our printed and digital Mohr Kurier (our preview of new publications, published three times a year)
Inclusion in our new publications newsletter (e-mail)
Where applicable, presentation at conferences at which the publishing house is represented.
Where applicable, inclusion in special newsletters on specific topics, etc.

If you have any questions regarding the marketing or distribution of your work, please contact the person responsible contact in the relevant department.

Would you like to promote your publication yourself among colleagues in your professional network?

On our website (your title’s dedicated page) you can download a flyer in PDF format and use the "Share" button to draw attention to your new publication on social networks (Facebook, Twitter).
You can also forward the PDF flyer to your university’s press office and ask for a press release to be sent to Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (www.idw-online.de). This cannot be done by the publisher, because the Informationsdienst does not accept press releases from publishers.
You still have the opportunity to draw attention to your title by mentioning it in your publication list and referring to it in your email signature, on your website or in professional networks (LinkedIn, Academia.edu) - gladly also with a direct link to our website.
In addition, you can add your publication to Wikipedia as literature for suitable articles.
In the case of eBooks and journal articles, it is advisable to include the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) in the publication list. This way, the reference leads directly to the online version of your article in the Mohr Siebeck eLibrary.
If you are in touch with potential reviewers, please ask them to send an email to reviews@mohrsiebeck.com and request a review copy, stating the reviewing institution.

Authors of single works as well as editors are entitled to a discount on our entire program of books and journals from the moment you sign a contract with us. To make use of your discount, please order directly from our web shop; unfortunately, the discount cannot be redeemed on orders placed through a bookshop.

To place an order with a discount you first need to set up an account with us registration page. To have the discount activated by our customer service, please send an email to sales@mohrsiebeck.com stating that you are one of our authors.

After we have verified the information and replied, you can order with your discount. For subsequent orders with the same account, your discount will be deducted automatically. Please note that this discount is not displayed in the shopping basket, but only on the payment page ("Go to checkout"). In the price information, "Price with deducted discount for authors" will then appear.

Orders with discounts can also be sent to the publisher by post, fax or email (to sales@mohrsiebeck.com).

Scope and duration of the transfer of rights

In the publishing agreement or when a work is accepted for publication, the publishing rights are transferred to Mohr Siebeck. Part of this is our exclusive right to reproduce and distribute works or contributions and to make them publicly available.

For monographs as well as adaptations in commentaries, lexicons, handbooks and textbooks (e.g., utb volumes, RGG and HTLS) or similar, it is not permitted to reproduce or distribute material in either printed or electronic form without the permission of the publisher, unless this has otherwise been expressly agreed. Please contact our rights department for more information.

Authors of articles in a journal or collected volume retain the right to reproduce and distribute (e.g., by email) the digital offprint of their own article for private use, but not to make it publicly available (e.g., on the internet, intranet or in a repository).

For journal articles, exclusivity falls away 12 months following publication, and for chapters in edited volumes after 24 months. Correspondingly, you may then (a) reproduce and distribute a print version of your contribution; (b) grant another publisher non-exclusive permission to reprint the article following publication with us; (c) make the print identical version accessible online for non-commercial purposes only by placing it on your own homepage, your institution’s repository, or the likes of academia.edu. In all cases, full reference is to be made to the original Mohr Siebeck publication and, for journal contributions only and where applicable, mention made of the article's DOI (Digital Object Identifier).

Reprint permissions

To request permission to reprint, please complete this form. Please note that we do not grant permissions verbally and that only written requests can be processed. As this can take up to six weeks, please submit your request in good time.
No permission is required for reprinting excerpts of up to around 400 words. The text must nevertheless be accompanied by a full reference to the source.

What is ORCID?

ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor iD, and is a persistent digital identifier for researchers. It has been available from the independent not-for-profit initiative of the same name since 2012. The open and globally-networked service links works and their authors unmistakably to one another.

The project has been supported in Germany by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (www.orcid-de.org) since 2016, with many other research institutions also making use of it.

ORCID iDs complement the already established ISBNs, ISSNs and DOIs for books, journals and journal articles.

What is the benefit of using ORCID?

It eliminates confusion by ensuring that authors and their works are correctly identified in cases of identical names, name changes or similar spellings. With an ORCID, your publications are also assigned to you across publishers and platforms. Libraries and databases also work with them.

Good to know: In German-speaking countries, ORCIDs are translated into GND numbers (Gemeinsame Normdatei). This means that your works published with us can be clearly assigned to you in all library catalogues.

How does Mohr Siebeck use your ORCID?

We use these digital identifiers in our own systems to link authors to their works. We also pass them on to all metadata administrators (Crossref, union catalogues, discovery services etc.) so that they can do the same across different publishing houses.

What do we ask of you?

Only you as author can decide whether you would like to set up an ORCID account and what information you would like to provide therein. Registration on www.orcid.org is completely free. If you are interested and do create an account (www.orcid.org/register), please let us know by email (rieg@mohrsiebeck.com).

You can also use the opportunity to update us about any changes to your private or work addresses.

What is VG Wort?

VG Wort is a collecting society for authors and publishers representing the interests of both. One of its tasks as a fiduciary society is to assert the remuneration claims of rights holders and members against third parties. It collects levies from libraries and manufacturers of copying machines and storage media. Each year in July, all income is distributed retroactively for the previous year.

Your rights management agreement with VG Wort

To benefit from distributions, authors must conclude a rights management agreement with VG Wort. Once you have done this, you can register your publication(s) for the next distribution on the VG Wort portal (T.O.M. – Texte Online Melden). Certain notification deadlines apply, which you can find on the VG Wort homepage. It is advisable to register soon after the publication of your work.
Good to know: all works published in a calendar year are eligible for registration, even if they only appeared in the last few days of the year.

The publisher's participation in VG Wort distributions

Because the collecting society represents the interests of publishers as well as authors, both get to participate in its distributions. For research publications, the distribution key is two thirds for authors and one third for publishers.

Remuneration for electronic publications (ebooks)

For electronic publications, there are two ways in which authors can benefit from the distributions:

On the one hand, VG Wort has introduced the METIS procedure, which measures the use of a work on the basis of certain counters in the publisher's own electronic libraries. This procedure requires a separate registration of the publication. A prerequisite is that the publisher has technically implemented the counter mark function in its eLibrary. This option is not yet available for works published by us.
However, you also have the option of registering your electronic publication for the so-called special distribution. You can find information on VG Wort’s homepage here.

Author's Discount

To be activated as an author by our customer service, please fill out the following form: Apply for author access.