This FAQ is relevant for readers and librarians. More questions? Please contact us, putting "Scholarly Editions" in the subject line.

For Readers

What is Brill Scholarly Editions?

Brill Scholarly Editions is a digital publication platform for text editions, translations, and commentaries.

What publications can I find on Brill Scholarly Editions?

You can find a full overview in the list of Publications.

What are the advantages of Brill Scholarly Editions?

Brill Scholarly Editions offers the following advantages.

  • A reader that is designed to provide an uninterrupted reading experience and to display parallel texts side by side.
  • Connectivity and interoperability through implementation of standards developed by the scholarly community: TEI, CTS, FRBR.
  • Community building through Open source development.

Please also see the features page.

How is Brill Scholarly Editions organized?

Brill Scholarly Editions consists of two parts: a publications page and a reader. The publications page gives an overview of works and textgroups. (A textgroup usually corresponds to an author). The reader is the place where the works are presented.

The library is found under the Browse option in the navigation bar. Enter the reader by clicking on the green access buttons in the main library page, by clicking on the read buttons on the information cards in the textgroup and work pages in the library.

How is the publications page structured?

The publications page gives an overview of publications, and of the text groups and works they contain.

On this page, users can search and browse. Search results can be viewed on different levels: publication, textgroup, work, and passage level. Filters allow you to narrow down your search results.

What does the reader do?

First of all, it presents the text of the scholarly editions. Chevrons at either side of the middle panel take you to previous and next pages.

There are two side panels that can fold out and in. The left panel allows you to navigate and to search. Navigate by entering a textpart number (or range) in the search field. Or navigate by clicking on the numbers in the ancestors or children widgets. Search by entering a term in the search field. This searches the work version you are currently reading.

The right panel contains various widgets for citing, downloading, morphology, and readability.

How do I search Brill Scholarly Editions?

There are two ways to search in Brill Scholarly Editions:

  • The search widget in the left panel in the reader. This searches the work version you are currently reading.
  • The search page that can be reached by clicking the search button in the navigation bar. This searches the entire library. Search results can be filtered by textgroup and work, as well as by edition, translation, and commentary. Results are ordered by frequency. It is possible to use wildcards for sophisticated queries. This is explained on the search page itself, as well as in the How to section of this platform.

Note that the library allows you to browse and filter textgroups and work versions.

How do I type Greek or other scripts in the search fields on Brill Scholarly Editions?

Download and install the relevant font, select the right keyboard, and start typing. More information can be found on Brill's fonts, scripts, and Unicode page, where the Brill font can be downloaded as well.

Can I display texts side-by-side?

Yes. This is a feature of the reader. We call it "Add parallel version". This is explained in the How to section of this platform.

What does the blue message mean, with the text "X cannot be resolved, instead we are showing you Y"?

This message appears when two work versions are not completely parallel. For example, when you have an edition of a chapter with ten sections, and a translation of that chapter with only nine sections. Selecting the untranslated section in the edition whilst displaying the versions side by side will result in the blue message: the platform tries to retrieve the section in the translation, but is unable to find it (as it doesn't exist). If possible, the platform will select the ancestor of the section instead, the chapter in this case, and give everything it has for it.

Can I download from Brill Scholarly Editions?

Yes. Go to the Export passage widget in the reader (right panel). This downloads the text displayed in the reader at that moment. Select text to download in a plain text format. Select xml to download it in TEI XML format. Select source to download the TEI XML file for the entire work.

Downloaded materials are subject to the same copy right conditions as the contents on the site itself. See the terms and conditions for more information.

How do I cite the editions on Brill Scholarly Editions?

There is a citation widget in the right panel of the reader. This cites the publication containing the works.

If you want to cite the works themselves, or passages in them, you can use the CTS URN widget in the right panel of the reader. This gives a stable and unique identifier for the text, in a form that machine-readable yet adheres closely to traditional scholarly canonical references.

What is CTS?

Brill Scholarly Editions uses CTS URNs to identify works and passages. CTS, or Canonical Text Services, is part of the CITE Architecture, developed by Christopher Blackwell and Neel Smith.

A CTS URN, such as urn:cts:latinLit:phi1212.phi002.apo-ed-lat1:1.1.1 has the following syntax:

  • urn: this tells you it is a URN
  • cts: this tells you it is a CTS URN
  • latinLit: this tells you the namespace, in this case Latin literature
  • phi1212.phi002.apo-ed-lat1: this tells you (1) the textgroup, in this case it is Apuleius, (2) the work, in this case Metamorphoses, both using the PHI identifier scheme, and (3) the version, in this case the Brill online publication of the first version of the Latin text edition
  • 1.1.1: this tells you the structure of the work: there are three levels of textparts, and this is the first textpart (a section) in the first textpart (a chapter) in the first textpart (a book)

How is the text of the editions digitized?

All works on Brill Scholarly Editions are digitzed in CTS compliant TEI XML which can be downloaded from the Export passage widget in the right panel in the reader.

Tell me about the URLs.

All URLS for works on Brill Scholarly Editions consist of a prefix followed by a CTS URN.

The prefix is https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/reader. Adding a CTS URN to this results in a URL like https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/reader/urn:cts:latinLit:phi1212.phi002.apo-ed-lat1:1.1.1-1.1.5/.

Can I use the website on mobile devices?

Yes. Responsive design allows Brill Scholarly Editions to be used on all devices: desktop, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

Can I use the website with cookies disabled?

No. The site sets cookies for purposes of access management and usage analytics. Please see the Brill privacy statement

Use this tool to perform a privacy check of Brill Scholarly Editions.

Which browsers are supported?

We support current versions of the following browsers on Windows, Macintosh, Android and iOS platforms:

  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • Firefox
  • Safari

Please keep in mind that no two browsers (or two versions of the same browser) will display pages in exactly the same way.

Does the website meet global accessibility standards?

Yes. Brill Scholarly Editions supports AA criteria of WCAG 2.0. and should work with most screen-reading software. Please have a look at our Accessibility statement.

For Librarians

Why did Brill create this platform?

We want to give all scholars the best possible user experience. With this in mind we created a platform specifically for the publication of text editions. It is designed to provide an uninterrupted reading experience and to display parallel texts side by side.

What publications can I find on Brill Scholarly Editions?

Brill Scholarly Editions hosts text editions, translations, and commentaries. You can find a full overview in the Publications page.

Can I use the website on mobile devices?

Yes. Responsive design allows Brill Scholarly Editions to be used on all devices: desktop, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

Can I use the website with cookies disabled?

No. The site sets cookies for purposes of access management and usage analytics. Please see the Brill privacy statement

Use this tool to perform a privacy check of Brill Scholarly Editions.

Which browsers are supported?

We support current versions of the following browsers on Windows, Macintosh, Android and iOS platforms:

  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • Firefox
  • Safari

Please keep in mind that no two browsers (or two versions of the same browser) will display pages in exactly the same way.

What information about the website is Brill making available?

The following material is available:

The site also has a dedicated How-to and FAQ pages for users and librarians.

Is Brill Scholarly Editions OpenURL-compliant?

No. Brill Scholarly Editions does not yet support OpenURL.

Does Brill Scholarly Editions make use of DOIs?

Yes. A digital object identifier (DOI) is available for every publication on Brill Scholarly Editions, and for every separate work version within an edition.

DOIs are included in the bibliographical data on the information cards in the textgroup and work pages in the library, and in the Cite this widget in the reader.

Does Brill Scholarly Editions provide MARC records for subscribing institutions?

Yes. Machine Readable Cataloguing (MARC) records can be downloaded from brill.com. These records are NACO, SACO, AACR2, and RDS compliant.

No KBART files are available.

What is your policy on cookies?

The site sets cookies for purposes of access management and usage analytics.

Please see the Brill privacy statement.

Do I need to install any fonts?

No. Brill Scholarly Editions packs all required fonts in the pages that contain the text.

Does Brill Scholarly Editions provide user statistics reports?

Yes. Usage of Brill Scholarly Editions is registered.

COUNTER 5

As of 1 July 2021, Brill has implemented a new access management system for its Scholarly Editions platform called LibLynx (login here). Usage Data from Liblynx is available in Counter 5 format for all data beginning in July of 2021. If you have any questions about how to access your Liblynx administrative account, please contact our Sales team

COUNTER 4

COUNTER Usage reports for resources available on Scholarly Editions but previously published on Brill’s Reference Works platform will remain available via Brill Subscriber Services until 31 December 2021. All data tracked prior to 1 July 2021 is exclusively listed at Brill Subscriber Services in both BR1 and DB1 reports. This concerns the following resources:

  • Classic Arabic Texts Online
  • The Context of Scripture Online
  • Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library Biblical Texts
  • Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library Non-Biblical Texts
  • Flavius Josephus Online
  • Gregorii Nysseni Opera Online
  • Jacoby Online
  • Lexicon Gregorianum Online
  • Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum Online

More information about library admin portals and accessing Brill’s online resources can be found on this page. For questions, contact our Sales team.

What access methods does Brill Scholarly Editions support?

Access to Brill Scholarly Editions is possible by the following methods:

  • username and password
  • IP authentication
  • SAML (Shibboleth and OpenAthens)
  • passcode

Please see this page for more information.

EZproxy

Brill Scholarly Editions supports EZProxy.

The URLs required by EZProxy take the form https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/PRODUCTACRONYM. For example, https://scholarlyeditions.brill.com/cato for Classic Arabic Texts Online.

Managing IP addresses

Brill Scholarly Editions supports IP address authentication. Updating your institution's IP addresses is done by our Sales Support team.

Please see this page for more information.

Does Brill Scholarly Editions support SUSHI?

Yes. COUNTER reports registering usage of Brill Scholarly Editions can be exported in XML format. Librarians can import these files into their own SUSHI application.

Please see this page for more information in the context of COUNTER5.

Please see this page for more information in the context of COUNTER4.

Does the website meet global accessibility standards?

Yes. Brill Scholarly Editions supports AA criteria of WCAG 2.0. and should work with most screen-reading software. Please have a look at our Accessibility statement.

Discoverability

What content can Google, and other search engines, access on Brill Scholarly Editions?

They can crawl the library. The contents of the reader is off limits to them, unless the content is in Open Access.

What discovery services contain metadata from Brill Scholarly Editions?

Metadata from Brill Scholarly Editions is provided to the following discovery services:

  • EBSCO Discovery Service
  • OCLC
  • Summon
  • OCLC WorldCat
  • Ex Libris ALMA

How do I receive updates on Brill Scholarly Editions?

Sign up for our Newsletters and follow us on social media. Please go to this page to stay updated.

Whom can I contact if I have a question?

Please contact our Sales Support team, putting "Scholarly Editions" in the subject line, or contact our sales staff directly.

More questions? Please contact us, putting "Scholarly Editions" in the subject line.