Five Years of EPOCH - History for Everyone
EPOCH is Lancaster University's very own independent history magazine, publishing high quality original research from emerging historians from across the globe. Founded by PhD students in the History Department in 2020, the magazine recently celebrated its fifth anniversary and has become a recognised platform for engaging historical research.
EPOCH is still published by postgraduate researchers at Lancaster but has expanded significantly and now takes submissions from all over the world. Contributors from six continents have proudly featured in EPOCH and the magazine attracts over 100,000 readers every year.
Much of this success rests on the magazine's commitment to the principle that high quality historical research should be open access, freely available, and accessible to all. Every article published in EPOCH can be read for free at https://www.epoch-magazine.com/ and the magazine charges no publishing fees.
As this suggests, EPOCH is designed to be as accessible as possible and this is reflected in every article. The writing style is academic but not verbose, avoiding jargon wherever possible. There are no footnotes, plenty of images, and a further reading list in every article. The aim has always been to produce articles that are accessible to a general reader, without needing to be an expert on the topic. This gives EPOCH a unique diversity of articles covering a wide range of historical periods, themes, and regions: from the Viking Age to the Cold War, medieval politics to eighteenth century literature, ancient Africa to early modern Japan, and everything in between. The result is a history magazine that showcases a broad selection of original research from emerging historians working on all manner of topics, with the hope that every reader can find something that piques their interest.
The magazine is published entirely online via quarterly issues, published in March, June, September, and December. Each issue has a dedicated theme to ensure the magazine can showcase as diverse a range of articles as possible.
Issue 22 launches on the 1st December and features articles on sport and society. EPOCH's characteristic mix of high quality original articles on all manner of historical periods, as well as special features, such as a guide to creating historical infographics from a leading expert in the field.
A key part of EPOCH's mission is promoting emerging historians and creating a platform for postgraduate researchers to share their work with new audiences. It is therefore a source of particular pride that former contributors have gone on to publish books, win prestigious scholarly prizes, and secure exciting jobs in academia and beyond.
EPOCH could not run without new authors, so submissions are invited on any topic of historical interest from postgraduates and early career researchers in any discipline. Potential contributors start by submitting a short 'pitch' or summary of their idea for a piece and then members of the EPOCH Editorial Board will work with every accepted pitch to help develop it into a published article. Historically-minded SCAN readers are warmly encouraged to consider submitting a pitch.
Submissions can be made at: https://www.epoch-magazine.com/submit
Written by Jude Rowley & Georgia Platt
