Leeds Studies in English

According to the journal's website,

Leeds Studies in English is an international, refereed journal based in the School of English, University of Leeds. Leeds Studies in English publishes articles on Old and Middle English literature, Old Icelandic language and literature, and the historical study of the English language. After a two-year embargo, past copies are made available free access.

Authors are encouraged to make their work available open-access at any stage of the publication process. Recent volumes also include work on Anglo-Norman, medievalism, and historical linguistics, alongside editions and translations of medieval and early modern texts.[2]

The journal was begun as Leeds Studies in English & Kindred Languages by Bruce Dickins, Alan S. C. Ross and R. M. Wilson, who were then all in the Department of English Language at the University of Leeds. It was initially intended to showcase the work of staff and postgraduate students in the department.[3] The first volume emerged in 1932, and further volumes emerged annually until 1938, at which point volumes 7 and 8 were both delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War. During 1945-46, as the war ended, the editors all took new posts, respectively at Cambridge, Birmingham and Sheffield, whereupon 'any chance of refloating Leeds Studies in English with the old crew vanished'.[4] A. C. Cawley and Harold Orton saw volumes 7 and 8 through the press as a single volume in 1952 and hoped to publish more, but this did not eventuate.[5]

However, a new series was launched in 1967, initially under the editorship of A. C. Cawley (who had left Leeds in 1959 but returned in 1965) and R. C. Alston (appointed in 1964), a year after the foundation at Leeds University of the journal Northern History, and in the same year as the founding of the International Medieval Bibliography and the Institute for Medieval Studies. The editors broadened the scope of the journal to invite contributions from scholars internationally. Although they shortened the title to Leeds Studies in English, they affirmed the journal's multilingual scope.[6] A book review section was launched in 1990.[7] From 1967 to 1977 the journal was printed by Alston's company Scolar Press, and from 1977 to 1987 the journal was printed from copy-ready type-written text at the University's own printing service. From 1986, Elizabeth Williams, Joyce Hill and Pam Armitage oversaw a transition to word-processed text,[8] with the new format being finalised in 1991.[7] 1986 saw the introduction of the journal's logo, 'based on a panel from the Anglo-Saxon cross in Otley Parish Church, West Yorkshire'.[9]

With the fortieth issue (for 2009, published in 2010), under the editorship of Alaric Hall, the journal began online free-access publication alongside print publication, with a two-year embargo, on the grounds that ‘LSE has always been published by scholars, for scholars; its purpose is to disseminate high-quality research as widely as possible’. All past issues were digitised and made available via Leeds University Library. It also transitioned to typesetting in LaTeX. Print distribution, which had previously been undertaken within Leeds's School of English, was handed over in the same year to Abramis Academic Publishing.[10]

• Free-access archive at Leeds University Library
• Free-access archive at archive.org (whole issues)
• Hard copies via the printer and distributor (2009 onwards)
• Official website
• Incomplete list of contents