Code4Lib Journal has released a call for submissions for a special issue titled “Static websites for scholarly editions and other publications in the Humanities.” From the call:
Static websites are increasingly recognized as a sustainable solution for digital editions and other scholarly publications in the Humanities. They are broadly defined as applications that do not rely, or rely only minimally, on server-side processing; some definitions restrict static websites to applications that are free of JavaScript; others embrace its use for complex client-side generation. While static websites offer durability and ease of maintenance, they may present limitations in functionality and scalability. We frame the question of static publications within the discussion about minimal computing in digital humanities and sustainability of research outputs as a research data management practice.
This special issue will consist of short reports (1,000–2,000 words) on practical experiences and lessons learned when developing, maintaining, or refactoring digital editions and other types of research outputs as static publications. Contributions may address project-specific solutions, generic workflows, automation strategies, institutional approaches, and more. Contributions from any practitioner working on digital publication are welcome, regardless of the stage or sophistication of the publication’s development. This includes boutique, shoestring publications created by PhD students or early-career researchers who may lack financial or technical support and resources, as well as large-scale projects that rely on institutional backing, development teams, practices, and infrastructure. We encourage authors to make their code and data related to their submission, or a sample of them, available in FAIR compliant repositories (e.g., Zenodo) and link to it from their article. While the emphasis is on hands-on reporting, reflective position papers discussing the definitions, sustainability, and technical or conceptual boundaries of “the static” are also welcome. Reports may describe unpublished work as well as work that has been published or presented elsewhere.
Abstracts of no more than 500 words are due April 17, 2026 and can be submitted through this Google form: https://forms.gle/Kg5Fp1dfBfTn6jsi9.
dh+lib Review
This post was produced through a cooperation between Mimosa Shah, Claire Burns, Carrie Pirmann, Melissa Horak-Hern, and Taylor Faires (Editors-at-Large), Caitlin Christian-Lamb and Rachel Starry (Editors for the week), Claudia Berger, Ruth Carpenter, Nickoal Eichmann-Kalwara, Linsey Ford, Pamella Lach, Molly McGuire, Hillary Richardson, and Christine Salek (dh+lib Review Editors), and Tom Lee (Technical Editor).