Contribute to Our Online Resources
Join our community of expert authors in creating authoritative online resources that shape academic discourse. Our living databases are continuously updated and maintained to the highest standards, ensuring lasting impact in the academic community.
The information on this page pertains to the online resources from De Gruyter. Discover specialty products from Brill, including primary source collections and major reference works, by visiting brill.com.
The Publishing Process
Our living reference works are managed by editorial offices, either in-house or external. We offer supporting material focused on authors’ needs, schedule processes and oversee workflows. We are experts in managing large and complex products in a digital environment and support authors and editors in all aspects of the editorial and publication process.
Our reference works follow an established publishing process from writing and submitting an entry, to review, revision and copy editing, and ending with the publication of your entry in one of our databases.
Once you have agreed to contribute to one of our reference works, the responsible editorial office will get in touch with you via email. Automated messages from our Content Management System (CMS) will lead you through the publishing workflow supplying you with all information needed. If questions arise, we are happy to assist you personally.
To simplify the writing process for our authors, we offer a customized Word document for most of our online resources. This template displays the general structure of the entry and includes all styles that can be used in the publication you are contributing to.
Submit your entry and – if applicable – its media files (images, audio, and video files) by email. Your submission will be reviewed, converted to XML format, and uploaded to our Content Management System.
Our CMS ensures efficient management for expansive, comprehensive reference works including its editorial processes, entries, and metadata. The browser-based application offers access to the content, reports, and statistics anytime and anywhere.
The embedded online editor (Xeditor) is an editing interface enabling authors and editors to edit, review and revise entries easily.
We provide authors with precise and comprehensive online guidelines for using the CMS and the Xeditor. Our editorial offices offer quick and personal support as well.
Our online resources are reviewed to guarantee the highest scientific standards. Our reviewers are all experts in their subject and – depending on the publication – editors, editorial board members, or external academics. The review process can comprise up to three stages and is usually managed within our CMS.
Depending on the publication, we offer different levels of copy editing, language polishing support or translation services for individual entries. Our standardized editing workflows and detailed style guides ensure consistency in formal aspects of all entries.
ISSN, DOIs and ORCID
The majority of our online reference works have an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), comparable to an ISBN for books and mostly used for series without a fixed end date.
Entries are published with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to ensure citability. Once an entry is combined with a registered DOI, the entry cannot be changed anymore, thus ensuring that a citation always refers to one and the same article. The DOI also functions as a persistent link to an entry published online; possible changes to the database’s URL do not influence the URL containing the DOI. Depending on the online reference work we may decide to only register DOIs after its completion. In this way we ensure that articles can be adjusted formally to fit the final publication.
We are happy to publish your ORCID if it is provided before online publication of your article. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized. To register visit the ORCID website.
Open access: options and conditions
We publish several Open Access databases. With Open Access, authors maintain the rights to their work and can publish elsewhere in parallel or archive in other repositories with no embargo period. Open Access can also be applied for single entries and even after publication. The article will be made available under a Creative Commons license. We strongly recommend the use of CC-BY (Attribution 4.0 International). Read more about Creative Commons licenses.
Please get in touch with the editorial office if you plan to publish your contribution as Open Access.
You can download a PDF of your entry from our website (“Print” button). Additionally, we supply personal unlimited access to the online version of your entry. We also provide functionalities to share your entries on social media and cite it in the most common styles.
Discoverability and impact
To ensure our high standard reference works reach the greatest number of readers, our website has undergone extensive search engine optimization to make your entry easily discoverable. In addition, with each update of our reference works, individual entries can be selected for temporary free access.
Repository Policy
Twelve months after the initial publication of an entry, you can archive the final published version on your personal website and/or in an institutional repository.
The source must be acknowledged and a link to the publication’s website or entry’s DOI must be included. You may not self-archive your article in public and/or commercial subject-based repositories.
Name Change Policy
If you change your name for any reason and want the change to be implemented in your published entries as well, please get in touch with your Editorial Office or namechangepolicy@deguyter.com. We will handle your request with great regard for your privacy. Changes can and will be made in our CMS, in the articles published online as well as in ebooks or PDFs.
Please submit a name change request providing:
- Your previous name
- Your current name
- Your previous e-mail address if it has changed
- The DOI(s) or links of the publication(s) to be updated
You do not need to provide official proof of your name change.
You may inform any co-authors or (co-)editors if you wish to do so. To protect your privacy, De Gruyter will not notify anyone else of your name change.
What we will (and will not) do:
- We replace the original version of your publication with the updated version. Please be aware it may take a few weeks for the change to be effective. The DOI/link of your publication will stay the same.
- The updated publication will not include any notice of change, anonymized or otherwise.
- For technical and legal purposes, we store a version of your work bearing your previous name. This version will not be made publicly available and will only be accessible to authorized De Gruyter staff.
