Guidelines for Authors of Digital Projects’ Reviews
Reviewing for Textual Cultures
The endeavor of Textual Cultures is designed to widen our understanding of how new developments in fields like codicology, material philology, art history, musicology and cultural studies are redefining and integrating our notions of what constitutes a text in diverse cultural contexts. Textual Cultures is committed to reviewing a wide range of digital projects across these and other disciplines.
Instructions for digital projects’ reviewers:
Metadata
At the beginning of the review:
- creator/creators and main editor/editors of digital project reviewed
- date of project
- title of project
- project’s URL or DOI
Examples:
Wayne Storey, John Anthony Walsh, and Isabella Magni. 2013. Petrarchive: an edition of Petrarch’s songbook. http://dcl.slis.indiana.edu/petrarchive/.
Eaves, Morris, Robert Essick, and Joseph Viscomi. 1996. The William Blake Archive. http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/.
At the end of the review:
- reviewer’s name and affiliation
Content
Reviews of digital projects should include:
- Project’s content
- Project’s scholarly goals and objectives
- Importance and impact of the project in the field
- Standardized technologies used (coding/encoding languages, digital tools, platforms etc.)
- Design and interface
- Usability (including intended audience, user experience etc.)
- Project’s overall documentation
Reviews can include also:
- Interoperability
- Metadata standards used
- Licensing and reuse
- Public impact of the project
- Public presence of the project (media, social media etc.)
Style
- Length: 1750-2000 words
- Follow Chicago Manual of Style Notes and Bibliography citation style
- For additional guidelines check our Style Sheet page
- Please write the review keeping in mind that not all the readers will be familiar with the content and/or technical features of the project
Fairness
For fairness purposes, reviewers must not be affiliated with the digital project they review.
This new section of Textual Cultures will include reviews of digital projects across the wide range of disciplines—codicology, material philology, literature, art history, musicology, cultural studies, etc.—represented in the journal.
If you want to propose a project to review, write to Textual Cultures Digital Editor: isamagni@indiana.edu