Cuneiform Digital Library Notes is a non-profit, electronic bulletin board for cuneiform studies. As an online journal, our task is the publishing of short notices of a high academic standard utilizing the full potential of electronic publication. The journal is supported by a number of institutions, chief among them Oxford University and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. Primary academic supervision of the journal derives from staff of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI).

About the journal

The CDLN is a moderated e-bulletin board for Assyriology and related disciplines and is conceived as a notepad publication for the Cuneiform Digital Library Journal (CDLJ) and the Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin (CDLB). The CDLJ seeks substantive contributions dealing with all aspects of the cuneiform world, but especially the editing and analysis of cuneiform texts (incorporating text, photographs, data, drawings, interpretations), early language, writing, paleography, administrative history, mathematics, metrology, and the technology of modern cuneiform editing. Articles in the CDLB are shorter contributions of two to five pages that deal with specific topics, collations, etc., and do not attempt to offer synthetic treatments of complex subjects. The CDLN assumes the role of a bulletin board for the quick publication and internet distribution of short notices of at most one or two pages.

The CDLN is hosted by the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative and edited by Émilie Pagé-Perron (Wolfson College, University of Oxford) and Rune Rattenborg (Uppsala University). The previous editor was Klaus Wagensonner.

Please report any problems, comments or suggestions to cdli (at) ames.ox.ac.uk.

Submission guidelines

Authors who are interested in submitting contributions to the CDLN should read the below guidelines, complemented by the guidelines for CDLJ and CDLB where appropriate. Please note that contributions to the CDLN are not peer-reviewed, but are moderated by the editors and staff of the CDLI. Editors reserve the right to not accept a manuscript or return it for review if deemed necessary. As the CDLN is published in an online version only, we strongly encourage authors to prepare their manuscript in line with the possibilities offered by this format, as outlined in the guidelines below.

Ethics

The editors of the CDLN encourage, but do not require, authors to include a provenance statement regarding artifacts included in their manuscript. A provenance statement is encouraged when preparing studies of inscribed artifacts deriving from illicit digging of archaeological sites, especially when provenance has not been exhaustively described elsewhere. The statement should include a brief summary of the assumed archaeological origin and overall provenance history of the artifact as far as this can be traced, if known.

Manuscript

• Publications with CDLN generally observe two header levels only.  A primary level (§ 1) is used for general sections, a subordinate level (§ 1.1) is generally reserved for artifact descriptions and commentaries and similar. Please structure your manuscript according to these standards.  
• In-text references should be given using author-date format and the use of footnotes kept to a minimum. A full bibliography of all cited works should be given at the end of the manuscript employing the CDLI citation format.
• When preparing manuscripts, please include links to the relevant entries in the CDLI database, namely all relevant publications, authors, artifacts, proveniences, collections, and similar. Links should be truncated to include only the subdomain URL, i.e. leaving out the domain URL "http://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de".

Data submission

• The journal pursues an ambitious agenda of research transparency and reproducibility. As such, submission of manuscripts that include reference to cuneiform artifacts should be accompanied by catalogue data submissions of new artifacts to the CDLI catalogue, or updates to relevant artifact entries currently in the CDLI catalogue. This is to allow direct in-text links from the published note to the appropriate artifacts in the CDLI catalogue and thereby strengthen the link between primary sources and research publications.
• Associated data includes also all publications referenced in the manuscript, full records of which should be uploaded to the CDLI publications index. This is to allow direct in-text links from the published note to individual references in the CDLI publications database.
• The editors are able to offer guidance and support to authors wishing to familiarise themselves with the CDLI platform, but will as a rule not undertake substantial data formatting and upload of catalogue data included in manuscript submissions. As a community platform, the CDLI allows for all users to add and update information in the catalogue, capabilities that all researchers making use of this resource should be familiar with.
• Please observe that the CDLN reserves the right to return for further editing or wholly reject manuscripts that do not include data submissions for new artifacts.

Proofing

Editors of the CDLN will accept and typeset manuscripts directly on Cuneiform Digital Library Notes, after which authors will be invited to review proofs of the article prior to publication. Note that all authors are required to have a valid CDLI user account in order to review article proofs.