Another important step has been completed in the academic and institutional development of the Alevi Encyclopedia. The German National ISSN Centre has assigned the Encyclopedia the number ISSN 3055-9928.
ISSN, the International Standard Serial Number, is an eight-digit standard identifier used to identify serials and continuing publications internationally. It contributes to the accurate and consistent registration of printed and digital publications in library catalogues, bibliographic databases, and academic information systems.
Published in Turkish, English, and German as a multilingual digital reference work, the Alevi Encyclopedia’s ISSN strengthens both its status as a continuing academic publication and its institutional identity. This development is also significant because it enables the entries, video recordings, and other scholarly content published by the Encyclopedia to be identified more consistently within national and international cataloguing systems.
Following the assignment of its ISSN, the bibliographic information of the Alevi Encyclopedia can be registered and identified in national and international systems such as the German National Library Catalogue, the German National Bibliography, the Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB)—one of the world’s most comprehensive serials catalogues—and the ISSN Portal. The Encyclopedia can therefore be searched, distinguished, and catalogued by libraries, researchers, and academic information systems through its standard publication identifier.
The assignment of the ISSN, considered together with the International Standard Identifier for Libraries and Related Organizations (ISIL) DE-4607, which the Alevi Encyclopedia recently obtained, represents a new stage in the institutional infrastructure developed by the project in digital academic publishing, archiving, and public knowledge production. While the ISSN identifies the Alevi Encyclopedia as a continuing publication, the ISIL identifies its institutional structure as an archive and memory institution according to international standards. The ISIL registration gives the institution a unique and permanent identity in the official German ISIL Directory administered by the Berlin State Library.
Through these two international identifiers, the Alevi Encyclopedia is now represented with a standard identity as an academic publication and memory institution both within Germany’s national library and bibliographic infrastructure and in international publication and institutional identification systems. This development marks an important stage in the Encyclopedia’s long-term institutionalisation, international visibility, and the reliable documentation of the knowledge it produces.
The Alevi Encyclopedia aims to document and make publicly accessible the historical, religious, social, cultural, and geographical plurality of Alevism through academic research, oral-history records, and the knowledge transmitted by Alevi spiritual leaders. With contributions from researchers across different disciplines and from Alevi communities, the Encyclopedia will continue to develop a multilingual, accessible, and sustainable field of knowledge.
Alevi Encyclopedia
ISSN 3055-9928
ISIL DE-4607
