DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE is an open-access journal that provides free accessibility without any fees or other charges for authors and readers. Open-access publications require the permission of the authors. New papers will only be accepted if authors grant permission in advance. The Open Access Agreement Terms [PDF] (see “For Authors”) Submitted papers will be published online as soon as possible after formal acceptance, usually within four to six weeks. For the technical implementation we use the open-source software “Open Journal Systems”, also supported by the DFG. For hosting, practical support, technical updates, advice and especially the challenge of ensuring long-term archiving, we cooperate with Heidelberg University Library and the Bavarian State Library (BSB) Munich and the portal “Propylaeum”, a Virtual Special Library of Classical Studies hosted by Heidelberg University Library and the Bavarian State Library (BSB) Munich.

Benefits of innovation for authors

• Your article is published much faster and can be cited by third parties.
• Open access means your article is more easily and more widely available – you can reach more readers.
• The online version of your article may be enriched with additional materials (“supplemental material”).
• You can publish pictures in a high resolution and in colour; for technical reasons, this is still not offered by many printed publications.
• The data (such as tables) in your paper can be linked to a data repository, enabling a new form of data transparency (see “For Authors: Information on the data repository HeiData”). For this you will need to fill in the metadata in the worksheet “Dataverse form” and provide the data in an appropriate format.
• Your article is easier to find for search engines, which provide more accurate results on your content.
• Others can link to your article directly via links.

This is all at no cost and no extra effort on your part.

Answers to other frequently asked questions

Why online?

We want your article read while on a PC, mobile, tablet computer or any other device: We are concerned only about your valuable content, not the medium. Our core purpose is not to reproduce the print version of your paper, but to publish high-quality scientific content with all the potential of open online publications. And we want to be fast: The online publication process is different from the inevitably long production time and the high cost of the traditional printing process. The new process will not influence the quality, because DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE is bound by the principles of peer review.

How fast do we publish?

The online publication does not change the core of the usual quality assurance procedures: Submissions will undergo a short preliminary substantive and technical check by the editors to verify that they are complete, followed by an expert peer review. In the case of well-prepared manuscripts, review and publication is possible within 3 months. Once an article has reached “accepted” status, it can be proofread and published within about four to six weeks.

When can an article for DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE be submitted?

Open Journal Systems makes fixed dates unnecessary: After approval, copyediting und proofreading the paper can be published quite promptly.

You can register in DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE: What is the benefit?

Online registration allows users to register – with no strings attached – for our journal: A reader / writer can be informed via RSS feed automatically about a new article. Registered authors can submit their articles electronically via OJS. Registration is not required to read the editorials, announcements, comments or reviews.

Increasing visibility

Online publication in OJS includes electronic recording of authors, titles, and bibliographic metadata, abstracts and keywords. The published papers will be fully searchable electronic texts. This means search engines can not only find authors as well as title and bibliographic data, but also the entire text. This increases the visibility of your work, much more than mere indexing. DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE is open access: Search engines such as Google Scholar will not be slowed by payment barriers.

Copyright, Creative Commons

The author holds the Copyright of his article he publishes in DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE. Furthermpore the author ensures to have all necessary rights to use and exploit the content of his article.

The article will be published under a Creative Commons licence, which can be freely chosen by the author. Information about the various CC-licences: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=de

Rights of use and exploitation

The author holds without constraints the proprietary rights of use and exploitation of the respective article he has published in DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE. Depending on the choosen Creative Commons licence the author provides the users of his article certain rights of use.

What about self-archiving: Can I upload a PDF of my paper, for example on academia.edu or ResearchGate.net?

The general answer is: You can do what has been expressly agreed on. With DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE, the authors retain the right of use, so self-archiving is then permitted in any form.

Will Heidelberg University Library or the BSB Munich earn money with my work in DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE?

No. Both institutions are committed to helping the authors taking on new tasks, in favour of the authors, the readers and the general public.

What about VG Wort royalties?

VG WORT, founded in 1958, is the German collecting society representing the copyright interests of hundreds of thousands of authors and publishers. It works in collaboration with many other collecting societies in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. At the moment royalties for online papers are not possible. Once VG Wort arrangements offer a technically feasible method, DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE will inform its authors and take care of providing the detection marker.

What about reprints?

Each author can download and redistribute their paper independently of DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE. Or you just send the link to your article!

Will my paper get a DOI?

Yes. Each paper in DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE will get the current international DOIs (Document Identifiers).

Do the authors have to pay anything?

No, DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE is a free service and will not take any fees from authors.

Why is special consent of the authors required for online publication?

Because our partners, Heidelberg University Library and the BSB Munich, demand this kind of consent with good reason and because some legal risks for online publications are larger due to the greater visibility and greater range of online media, and any legal disputes could be costly. This applies in particular to infringement of image rights. Some aspects are explained in detail in the following.

What does the following mean: “For the purpose of long-term archiving and content keeping,Heidelberg University Library has the right to implement technical changes”?

DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE uses the content management system of OJS and the individual papers are published as PDFs. What happens to your paper, if for example in the near or distant future the PDF standard is superseded by a new technology? Your text will still be available for this purpose, and data conversion may be necessary. With the passage quoted above, you agree as the author to carry out such technical changes to your paper.

What does the following mean: “DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE and Heidelberg University Library are entitled to transfer the rights conferred by this agreement of online publication in whole or in part to third parties and other libraries ...”?

Each time a book is printed in Germany, two copies are given to and archived by the German National Library (DNB, Frankfurt and Leipzig). In addition, given the right to increase data security and for the purpose of long-term archiving, it may be necessary to use another server for archiving in addition to the server of Heidelberg University Library.

What does the following mean: “The undersigned further confirms that he / she is responsible for the content of information provided for publication and that with the publication no law and no rights of third parties (e.g., as copyright) have been violated.”

This statement shall be issued as part of the Online Submission Instructions in DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE. The author thus assumes responsibility for their paper and confirms that they really are the author and therefore entitled to transfer the usage of rights to others. The submitting authors – not DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE or Heidelberg University Library – are responsible with regard to unnoticed plagiarism and compensation for economic damage. Particularly in the case of the possible use of images, where image rights have not actually been proven then without such a declaration DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE would run an incalculable risk.

What does the following mean: “He/she indemnifies DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE and Heidelberg University Library from all third-party claims”?

An example: If an author violates image copyrights of a third party and the actual holder of the rights complains and/or demands a fee, the responsibility lies with the author, not with DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE or Heidelberg University Library.

Do you have any more questions?

Should you have any questions regarding open access, OJS etc. please contact the editors of DIGITAL CLASSICS ONLINE. For any questions regarding the submission process, operating procedures etc. please contact the editorial assistant.