Getting Started

Getting Started in Documentary Editing

If you’re new to documentary editing, this page is your gateway into the field. Here, you’ll find key information on how to begin a documentary editing project—from identifying potential funders like the NEH and NHPRC, to understanding the minimum standards for creating electronic editions. We also introduce the Guide to Documentary Editing, a foundational resource that outlines best practices for editing, annotating, and publishing historical documents. Whether you’re preparing your first proposal or exploring editorial methods, these tools will help you take your first confident steps.

A Guide to Documentary Editing – Online Edition

From the UVA Press: “For more than twenty years, A Guide to Documentary Editing has proven an invaluable tool for scholarly editors, editors-in-training, readers of documentary editions, and other students of American history and literature. This new, extensively revised edition of the Guide arrives in the midst of great change in the field. In addition to exploring fully the increasingly central role electronic technology plays in the editing process, this edition provides the most current treatment of the craft’s fundamental issues. These include locating and collecting sources, transcribing source texts, conventions of textual treatment, dealing with nontextual elements, and preparing editions for publishers. The documentary-editing environment is more vibrant than ever, and the authors draw on this wealth of activity to include numerous examples of the Guide’s principles in practice.”

Funding for Editions

Most documentary editing projects receive federal grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and/or the National Endowment for the Humanities. Most also get funding from their host institutions and raise funds from private foundations, individuals and in some cases state agencies. Virtually all of the letterpress editions are published by university presses, often with the aid of subvention funding and grants.

Grant and fellowship opportunities that support documentary‑editing, archival research, and digital editions are often posted on our website. Past announcements are available to explore—and as new opportunities arise, we’ll post them so you won’t miss deadlines or new information.

Join the ADE

Become a member of the Association for Documentary Editing and gain access to exclusive resources, professional development opportunities, and the peer-reviewed Scholarly Editing journal. Membership connects you with a network of editors and scholars, supports your growth in the field, and helps advance the practice of documentary editing in the broader humanities.

ADE Community

The field of documentary and scholarly editing is constantly evolving—shaped by new approaches, emerging technologies, and innovative digital tools. Connecting with a vibrant community is key to staying current and growing as an editor. Through external resources like global email forums, digital publishing cooperatives, and eLabs, editors are given an opportunity to have hands-on training, join conversations, exchange ideas, and learn from peers.