《口头传统》学刊

Oral Tradition JournalE-ISSN: 1542-4308 Print ISSN: 0883-5365
Welcome to Oral Tradition, a forum for discussion of the world’s oral traditions and related forms, from the ancient world to the present day. OT is freely available to all interested scholars, students, performers, and general readers without charge as an online, open-access resource. Here you will find both the current issue of the journal as well as all back issues from the inaugural publication in 1986 onward. In this electronic incarnation, OT reaches more than 20,000 readers per year in 216 countries and territories, and includes multimedia eCompanions to articles—audio, video, photographic, and other support for the article texts—that help to illuminate the traditions under investigation.

Along with the current Table of Contents and Master Index just below, the menu on the righthand side of the page contains various tools and options to facilitate use of the more than 500 articles and 10,000 pages on this site. The Search mechanism allows users to investigate the OT archive by author, keyword, or more advanced topics. The Summative Bibliography collates every reference or citation made throughout the history of the journal (more than 16,000 items) in a searchable data-base. We also offer a Chinese translation of volume 18 (2003), in which more than seventy authors address two questions: “What is oral tradition in your field?” and “What are the next few challenges in your area?”

As part of this welcome note, let us offer you three invitations. First, near the bottom of the righthand menu-bar you can sign up to receive notification of new issues via e-mail. Second, we hope that you will consider contributing to as well as reading the journal; manuscripts for possible publication are evaluated within ninety days, on the basis of their quality within the particular field and their more general pertinence for our highly diverse readership. Third, we invite you to join ISSOT, the newly launched International Society for Studies in Oral Tradition, an electronic platform that was created to facilitate communication among interested parties worldwide.