○. Early North Data Service (ENDS)

ENDS is currently under development. It is designed to be a platform for managing data and output relating to early Northern Europe. It has grown out of a number of projects integrated through the Skaldic Database.

Contributions are strongly encouraged and may include:

• transcription/diplomatic editing of manuscripts;
• critical editions of texts, poems, etc. in Old English, Old Norse, Latin and related languages;
• runology, including edition and interpretation, classification and geographical analysis;
• onomastics, including the linguistic analysis of place names and GIS;
• documentation and analysis of artefacts containing pictures;
• documentation and analysis of archaeological sites, burials, etc.;
• research papers and other analytical output.

ENDS is designed to be Open Access; all contributions are to have authorship assigned and managed through the same process. Copyright is claimed currently for all content, but other licensing arrangements may be used in the future for parts of the project. The copyright claim does not preclude the linking of data to the resource.

ENDS has a number of dimensions:

1. An exportable data structure related to early Northern Europe.
2. Identity management for contributors, editors, reviewers and other stakeholders
3. An interface for the research data.
4. A publication system for the output, including a peer review process and formal registration (ISSN/DOI).
5. Individual projects which use the data structure through different interfaces.

1. Data structure

The data structure is exportable and covers interdisciplinary research and research resources related to the field. It is managed in a relational data structure which is used to represent linguistic, cultural and other aspects of the resources.

The data structure will be made available through Semantic Web resources — The Old Norse World.

2. Identity management

Fundamental to the ENDS project, and what distinguishes it from most similar projects in the humanities, is the management of users and access to the resource. Designed to be open access for all published material, it also aims to be an interface to all stages of the research process, from data gathering, management, quality control and peer review. In order to achieve this, a sophisticated system of individual- and project-based management of access is needed.

3. Interface

An interface for entering, editing, collaborating, reviewing and publishing of research data related to early Northern Europe.

• Desktop interface
• Mobile interface using HTML5/JQuery Mobile
• Editing interface
• Print output via HTML/Word
• Eventually: LaTeX/PDF

4. Publication system

An online publication system is in place for electronic publication. In addition it is intended to implement a single-blind peer-review process, but publication will be staged so that drafts, unreviewed and reviewed work may be visible and labelled as such.

Reviewed work will be published as an electronic serial with an ISSN and potentially DOI address.

5. Projects

• Skaldic Project (since 2001)
• Pre-Christian Religions of the North: Sources (since 2012)
• Nottingham Rune Dictionary (since 2008)
• The Eddic Corpus Reassessed (proposed)

References