METHIS. STUDIA HUMANIORA ESTONICA is a peer-reviewed open access journal in the field of humanities that is published twice a year (in spring and fall). 

It has an international editorial board and  the journal is indexed in international databases such as Scopus, ERIH PLUS, Ulrich, MLA, DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journal).

The content of the journal is available on the OJS (Open Journal Systems) platform of the University of Tartu Library.

Methis was founded as a collaborative publication of the Institute of Cultural Research and Fine Arts of the University of Tartu and the Cultural History Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum in 2007. The first issue was published in 2008. Since 2010, the journal has been published by University of Tartu Press.

Methis publishes original research in the field of humanities, in particular in the field of literary and cultural studies and theater studies. The journal features thematic issues on a regular basis with every third issue being a varia issue. Articles are published in Estonian (or in English) with a summary in English (or in Estonian).

The journal also includes the following sections:

- Manifesto: a programmatic (theoretical) article

- Mediation of theory: a translation of a key theoretical text within the field

- Review: a review article on recent developments within the field

- Archival finding: an annotated publication of some relevant archival source from the collections of Cultural History Archives of Estonian Literary Museum or another memory institution.

- Interview and 

- Varia

NB! The journal’s content is protected under Creative Commons license, i.e. the users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles.

Copyright

Authors will be asked, upon acceptance of an article, to share copyright of the article with the Publisher. This will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information under copyright laws.

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Charges

No page charges are levied on authors and their institutions. The access to the online articles of Methis is kept free of cost. 

Foreword to the INAUGURAL ISSUE OF of METHIS

Tiina Ann Kirss, first editor-in-chief of METHIS

How did the title of the journal come about? 

Metis is the mythological mother of Athena, and the symbolism of this lineage is connected with Tartu, a historic university city, referred to frequently with the locution “Emajõe Ateena” (“Athena on the Banks of the River Emajõgi“). The “Tartu spirit”, whether it is a figure for intellectual passion or a haunting of the past (or the name given to a very peppery chocolate truffle in one of Tartu’s famous cafes) is part folklore and part ideology. We hope that on the pages of this journal, it will be “catching” in the best sense of that word. Scholarly wisdom, championed by Athena, needs nurture and protection, perhaps especially these days, when the heat of institutional production requirements and bureaucratic quotas threaten to overpower the coolness, caution, slow absorption, meticulous tending and acumen of real scholarship. As a journal, Methis seeks to honour the solicitude of its mythological patroness. However, many of our colleagues in Classical Studies have been quite vocal about the extra letter in the name of our journal. While their objections are certainly justified, there is no gratuitous playfulness in the extra letter “H“. Since another European journal of the humanities already exists under the name Metis, we merely wished to avoid confusion.   

What is the aim of Methis?

The journal seeks to facilitate as a forum of original research in humanities harbouring the potential of the pleasure of the text and fireworks of words, as well as intellectual and textual elegance. Such a strategy helps to build a storehouse of key values and virtues of humanities so that they are not threatened by the bureaucratization and leveling processes of science. The advisory board and the editors of Methis have decided to facilitate a forum that is first and foremost in Estonian in a time when “science” is often validated by publications in an “international” language. This decision was fueled by a conviction that the ultimate source feeding Estonian humanities is Estonian language and the advancement of its scholarly faculties was a key responsibility Estonian scholarship in this field.

Predecessors

Its predecessors were series of collections of articles “Studia litteraria Estonica“ of the Chair of Estonian Literature of the University of Tartu, and series such as “Tradition and pluralism”, and “Accommodating Texts” of the Estonian Literary Museum. With due respect to its genealogy, the purpose of Methis is to provide a new forum for publication by young and established scholars, balancing between international and Estonian-language readerships since any new periodical is fraught with risk, especially in a country where the scholarly base is small. It is therefore crucial to take the measure of the landscape, both in the homeland and in Europe. The pressures of publishing must take into account perils and perishing, both on the level of individual scholars and their institutions. 

Methis is primarily and philosophically committed to peer-reviewed publishing in the Estonian language. The editorial board sees this not as a symptom of insularity, but rather as a deep, intentional investment in the cultivation of scholarly Estonian as a flexible, rich medium for scientific expression and communication at a level in keeping with the highest international standards. The objective has been to launch a new journal of literary and cultural studies that publishes individual research, clusters of thematic articles and special issues. The journal is published twice a year. Every third issue is a varia issue that provides a forum for younger researchers in the field of literary and cultural studies and theatre studies.

Methis and Etis

In time, Methis hopes to develop its own particular characteristics, seeking to act as a site for lively and competent intellectual debates, state of the art style and immediacy of dialogue. It is a peer reviewed scholarly journal with international advisory board that sees as its aim the facilitation of multi-vocal dialogue between the authors, board members and reviewers. 

Dear readers and future contributors! I wish you the joy of discovery of our new publication!

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About the name of the journal: