Daejeon, July 27–31
Digital Humanities is a field grounded in a culture of openness, collaboration, and the reuse of methods, approaches and data. Open Access is central to these principles (Eve, 2014; Fornaro, 2020) – for research as well as for teaching, where openly accessible, sustainably published materials are essential. In this context, Open Educational Resources (OER) extend these principles from research dissemination to pedagogy by providing valuable, low-threshold, hands-on resources for teaching DH (Eckhoff, n.d.; Mahony et al., 2012). Yet, access to practical, reusable examples and teaching concepts remains challenging for the DH teaching community (Dombrowski, 2023). As LLMs become more prevalent in educational settings, it is increasingly important to teach digital methods responsibly (Pack and Maloney, 2024; Zhang et al., 2024), and thus to support instructors in developing suitable teaching approaches.
Our response to this demand is the establishment of the forTEXT journal (https://journal.fortext.org/), a German, publisher-independent Diamond Open Access journal dedicated to DH teaching and research. The journal was established with funding from the German “Stiftung Innovation Hochschullehre” (Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education) and receives technical and financial support from the University and State Library Darmstadt (ULB).
Launched in 2024 as an extension of the forTEXT Portal (www.portal.fortext.org, est. 2017), which provides low-threshold German introductions to DH methods, tools, and workflows, the journal builds on its concepts and addresses a strong demand for DH teaching materials that emerged from community feedback over the past years The portal was funded and maintained from 2017 to 2022. Between September 2018 and October 2022, it registered approximately 99,600 visits and was integrated into around 30 German-speaking university platforms.
In our talk, we will reflect on three years of conceptualising, launching, and running the forTEXT journal. We will outline the complexities of integrating the core principles of the predecessor project into a new publishing format. And, we will demonstrate how the journal's editorial processes have evolved through the engagement of multiple DH community participants.
Building on the forTEXT Portal, the conceptual transfer of its core principles – low-threshold access, reusability, and practical orientation – formed the basis for the journal’s development. Our objective was to establish a consistent, interoperable, and extensible publication platform where content is systematically curated and openly accessible for long-term reuse. Over three years, we operationalized these principles into concrete editorial and technical workflows through a dynamic, needs-driven process informed by portal experience, its proven formats, stakeholder feedback and insights from organisations such as the German Research Foundation (DFG), the University and State Library Darmstadt (ULB) or the Center for Educational Development and Technology (HDA) at the Technical University of Darmstadt.
Informed by tried-and-tested formats and resources of the HDA, we developed submission guidelines and templates For submission guidelines, see forTEXT journal, “Einreichungsguidelines,” accessed April 27, 2026, https://journal.fortext.org/site/guidelines/; for submission template, see fortext lab GitHub, accessed April 27, 2026, https://github.com/forTEXT/fortext_journal_template. For review criteria, see forTEXT journal, “Call for Papers,” accessed April 27, 2026, https://journal.fortext.org/site/cfp/.
To ensure transparency and quality assurance, we adopted defined bias criteria based on the guidelines of the DFG for reviewer assignments (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 2015). In addition, we developed evaluation criteria for the review process. These consist of general criteria – addressing low-threshold access and practical orientation – and specific criteria that assess the contribution’s fit with the thematic focus of an issue or the respective contribution type.To ensure transparency and quality assurance, we adopted defined bias criteria based on the guidelines of the DFG for reviewer assignments (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 2015). In addition, we developed evaluation criteria for the review process. These consist of general criteria – addressing low-threshold access and practical orientation – and specific criteria that assess the contribution’s fit with the thematic focus of an issue or the respective contribution type.
Moreover, former forTEXT Portal members form the editorial board and contributed their extensive experience from the portal to the refinement of the review workflow and templates. We further incorporated author feedback on file formats and templates to streamline the submission process and strengthen the journal’s community orientation.
In addition, the journal is currently preparing its first special issue initiated by guest editors and supported by an independent group of reviewers. Working with this external team offered a crucial opportunity to test, validate, and refine our workflows and materials. In addition, the journal is currently preparing its first special issue initiated by guest editors and supported by an independent group of reviewers. Working with this external team offered a crucial opportunity to test, validate, and refine our workflows and materials.
Collaborating with these various groups – guest editors, internal and external reviewers, and authors – enabled us to accommodate different roles and requirements, resulting in a flexible workflow anchored in the portal’s core principles.Collaborating with these various groups – guest editors, internal and external reviewers, and authors – enabled us to accommodate different roles and requirements, resulting in a flexible workflow anchored in the portal’s core principles.
Figure 1: forTEXT Editorial Workflow
Over the past three years, we have systematically refined our editorial workflow (see fig. 1) to ensure transparency, quality assurance, and usability for all participants. All phases of the process are managed and documented through the publication system Janeway (Eve and Byers, 2018). We currently issue Call for Papers for thematic issues; a general open submission option is under consideration.
For transparent quality assurance, contributions undergo an open peer-review process with open identities, i.e. with disclosed reviewer and author identities (Burghardt et al., 2022; Ross-Hellauer, 2017), fostering accountability and collaboration.
The editorial board conducts the reviews. An expanded version of the editorial process allows for the involvement of guest editors and external reviewers, which fosters a collaborative, community-driven approach to publishing. Our technical team handles copy-editing and typesetting. Publications appear as rolling issues – thematic collections that grow continuously through new contributions. The editorial board conducts the reviews. An expanded version of the editorial process allows for the involvement of guest editors and external reviewers, which fosters a collaborative, community-driven approach to publishing. Our technical team handles copy-editing and typesetting. Publications appear as rolling issues – thematic collections that grow continuously through new contributions.
Driven by an initial community demand, forTEXT journal has evolved into a community-sustained publication format, continually enriched by diverse perspectives.