A comprehensive report on molecularly imprinted monolayers (MIMs) is presented, but does not include bulk‐polymer thin film coatings on surfaces, inorganic surface imprinting, polymer grafting and layer‐by‐layer methods. Due to difficulties in imprinting large molecules and obtaining fast binding responses with traditional network polymer materials, MIMs have been developed with the aim of enhancing mass‐transfer of analytes in imprinted materials. Three approaches to MIM fabrication have been developed with respect to the formation of the pre‐organized template‐matrix complex. In the first approach, the molecular binding sites are formed in a monolayer on a glass or gold surface. The second approach uses a template‐macromolecule complex to form binding sites in the solution phase that are immobilized onto a surface; and the third approach transfers an imprinted Langmuir film onto a gold surface. Mass transfer in these MIMs in most cases is on the order of minutes, and both small and large molecules (proteins) have been imprinted. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.