Welcome to the first issue of Studies in Digital Heritage (SDH)!

SDH offers professionals active in the field of Digital Heritage the opportunity to publish their work, at no cost, in an online, peer-reviewed Open Access journal with three issues per year. Topics appropriate for the journal cover the entire workflow of cultural heritage studies, from discovery and documentation of monuments to analysis, interpretation, and public outreach. Articles should highlight the role of digital technology in facilitating cultural heritage research and applications.

SDH is especially eager to publish work that is innovative and creative in one of two ways: articles whose importance depends on the value of the cultural object studied; and those presenting innovations in digital technologies. For example, an article presenting a new insight or discovery about a key monument such as the Temple of Zeus at Olympia would be appropriate for the journal, as long as that insight arose from the application of digital technology. Equally of interest to SDH are articles about purely technical advances of direct application in one of the fields of cultural heritage.

In addition to articles, SDH also publishes mediated blogs; reviews of books, software, and hardware; and review articles summarizing the state of the technology or art regarding any Digital Heritage topic or discussing the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to a given task The content of blogs can vary widely, including, e.g., a comment (whether critical or constructive) about an article we have published, the announcement of an upcoming conference with related Call for Papers, etc.

Articles may be as long as 10,000 words, or, with special permission, even longer. In addition to text and images, SDH supports the following embedded media: audio, video, and interactive 3D models using a WebGL solution such as 3DHOP, Sketchfab, or Unity.

Once an article has been submitted, it is assigned to an editor, who, in turn, recruits a minimum of two and, ideally, three referees. Identifying suitable readers can sometimes take a month or more. Referees are generally given one month to write their reports. Our goal is to act on submissions within two or, at most, three months of submission. As with most journals, submissions can be accepted, accepted subject to revision, or rejected. If an article is accepted subject to revision, the original referee requesting changes is consulted before the new version is accepted and published.

SDH encourages authors to team up to propose special issues for the consideration of our editorial board. We also encourage authors to volunteer to serve as reviewers and members of the editorial board. Articles are published in two formats: online and a downloadable PDF. Editors of special issues can arrange for printed versions to be generated through the print-on-demand service of the Indiana University Press. As a publication of the Indiana University Press (IU Press), SDH offers authors free professional services including copy-editing and help with layout and design. IU Press also handles advertising, publicity, and submission of the applications for obtaining an Impact Factor.

In short, SDH is here to serve the needs of the international community of Digital Heritage professionals and to do so with Open Access, no Article Processing Charge (APC), and no sacrifice in standards with respect to style, layout, and scientific substance.

Sincerely yours,

Bernard Frischer, Indiana University, co-editor-in-chief
Gabriele Guidi, Politecnico di Milano, co-editor-in-chief
and the following members of the Editorial Board: