News & Events

Preserving Online Publications

The full archives of The Medieval Review, a groundbreaking publication recognized as one of the first scholarly humanities publications to be made freely available online, are now preserved in IUScholarWorks. 

IUScholarWorks, managed by the IU Libraries, is the university’s online home for preserving and sharing research. 

Founded by classicist James O’Donnell and medievalist Eugene Vance and published since 1993, The Medieval Review embraced an open-access method of publishing that abandoned paper and ink for the immediate and free access afforded by the Internet.   

Archiving electronic journals can be a concern for editors, who often need solutions for migrating from one technology to another, or ensuring that years of work are preserved for the long term. “Authors want to know that their scholarship will outlive them.  A print journal will survive as long as there are libraries,” says executive editor Deborah Deliyannis, assistant professor of history. “But an online journal  seems more ephemeral, and preserving it requires an ongoing commitment on the part of libraries .  We are thrilled to be working with the IU Digital Library Program, because they are really at the forefront of this kind of undertaking.”   

The IU Libraries have not only added the entire run into IUScholarWorks repository in order to provide a stable, searchable archive but have also designed a prospective publishing platform for the review’s continued publication.  

“We are delighted to host The Medieval Review in IUScholarWorks,” says Julie Bobay, associate dean for collections and digital publishing. “We are grateful to those who came before us in supporting TMR.  As is often the case in scholarly endeavors, the work of colleagues elsewhere has laid the groundwork for us to take the next step, providing uninterrupted access for the thousands of readers who rely on it to do their scholarly work, as well as a more manageable and sustainable platform for the scholars who produce it.” 

From 1996 to 2007, The Medieval Review was published thanks to the generous support of the Medieval Institute and the Department of History at Western Michigan University, and its website was housed by the Scholarly Publishing Office at the University Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  Since 2007, it has been sponsored by the Medieval Studies Institute and the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington.  Editors Deliyannis and Diane Reilly, Associate Professor of the History of Art, are IU faculty members. 

IUScholarWorks is supported by the IU Libraries and the IU Digital Library Program, a collaborative effort of the IU Libraries and University Information Technology Services. 

See https://scholarworks.iu.edu/ dspace/handle/2022/3631).