About

A cornerstone of humanities scholarship across the world, Oxford University Press’s list of scholarly editions is unparalleled in breadth and quality. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) provides full-text access to over 1,700 editions covering over 2000 years of history straight to your desktop, showcasing their authoritative editorial notes directly alongside the text and enabling advanced search within and between editions.

With OSEO you can discover a rich collection of primary material that ranges across a wide variety of subject areas, from philosophy, literature, and theology, to economics, linguistics, and medicine. Helpful research tools on every page allow you to save valuable time. If you need to get straight to a specific scene or line in a work then use the ‘Find Location in Text’ search box. Where an editor refers to another work, simply highlight the reference with your mouse and choose "Open this text in OSEO" in the menu pop up to go straight to the right passage. Or highlight a quote and choose the ‘Copy and Cite’ option in the menu pop up to grab all the essential information you need for referencing, including a static link to go back to the full work whenever you need to.

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View a short animation below to find out more about scholarly editions, or discover the full story of OSEO (also available with Chinese subtitles on YouKu).


OSEO provides access to more than 1,750 scholarly editions of material written between 8th and 20th century, plus Roman and Greek authors, including all of Shakespeare’s plays, the writings of Aristotle, Austen, Plato, Ovid, and Virgil, the poetry of John Donne, and works by Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham. These editions contain over 200,000 different works including more than 3,800 plays, over 36,000 poems, and the equivalent of over 870,000 print pages! 

View a complete list of titles currently in OSEO.

The collection is set to grow into a massive virtual library, ultimately including the entirety of Oxford’s distinguished list of authoritative scholarly editions, from the Oxford Classical Texts to the Romantic poets, and from medieval Latin chronicles to the twentieth century. Oxford University Press is also delighted to announce a series of licensing agreements with several leading academic publishers, allowing us to include more of the best scholarly content on OSEO.

Updates of new content are released in ’modules’–each corresponding to a historical period in which the original works were written. Sign up to the OSEO RSS feed to keep up-to-date with the latest additions.


Building on the cornerstones of humanities scholarship…

Scholarly editions are the enduring focus of humanities research, providing a reliable and trusted source through which scholars interpret the core texts of their disciplines. In placing these online, OSEO complements the traditional elements familiar from these printed editions with the advantages of online availability. OSEO’s content constitutes the cornerstone of research in the fields of English Literature, as well as Philosophy, History, Religion, and Classical Studies.

Each title within the collection presents the full text of the work, as established by an authoritative editor, accompanied by the editor’s record of important variations, and interpretative and explanatory notes placed directly alongside the text. Most also have introductions placing the work and the author in a historical context and explaining the editorial principles and the history of the text.


Unlocking a wealth of scholarly content — anywhere, anytime…

OSEO allows users to:

  • Search the complete text of over 1,700 scholarly editions — browse each text’s editor’s record of important variations, and interpretative and explanatory notes
  • Be assured of authoritative and reliable content with scholarly apparatus — ensuring interpretations and ideas are based on accurately edited texts
  • Utilise excellent searching and linking facilities — to find that obscure quote or a specific poem, scene, or line quickly and easily
  • Invest their time and research in a growing research library, with future updates bringing to life hundreds of scholarly editions of works from all periods up to the 20th century
  • Access the editions anywhere, anytime — have a consistent research discussion or teach a class across the world because everyone is using the same, trusted edition


All with the hallmark of authority…

From the conception of OSEO the project included a prestigious academic editorial board who oversaw OSEO to ensure that it upheld the high standards of scholarship embodied in the original print editions. Michael F. Suarez, S.J., University Professor and Director of Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, was its Editor-in-Chief.

In 2018, six years after OSEO launched, it was decided that the need for a formal editorial board was no longer required, and instead we retain a number of the board as academic advisors. Alongside Editor-in-Chief Michael F. Suarez, S.J., they continue to ensure the highest editorial standards of scholarship.


Getting started with OSEO...

New to the site? Visit our getting started page, or watch our how to videos.

FAQs are available for both users and librarians, and an in-depth guide to using OSEO can be found in our help section. 


For Librarians…

Print scholarly editions are necessarily a scarce resource in the university and research library. The publication of these scholarly editions online offers access to multiple users simultaneously, both on campus and remotely—providing a critical tool for research for any library. 

OSEO also provides excellent service and support with:

  • Flexible purchase models, making collections available on annual subscription, or for a one-time purchase fee
  • COUNTER-compliant statistics for reporting down to book level
  • MARC21 records available free of charge
  • OpenURL compliance, connecting citations straight into your library catalogue
  • Conformance with WCAG accessibility guidelines and ‘AA’ compliant
  • Support for all standard remote access methods
  • Sign up to the OSEO RSS feed—delivering the latest news and blog posts straight to your desktop
  • DOIs for all included editions and works
  • Superior customer support providing subscribers and users with timely responses and assistance
  • Freely available library training and promotional materials at www.oup.com/online/librarians

Download or view a complete list of titles/authors/ISBNs/URLs in OSEO (Microsoft® Excel format).


Obtaining access to OSEO

If you are a Librarian, you can find out how to subscribe or contact us for a 30-day free trial.

If you are an academic or a student, please recommend OSEO to your librarian. Alternatively, if you live outside North and South America you can take out a personal subscription. For more information, please browse to the relevant Module from our catalogue page.

Free trials are unavailable to private individuals.


Latest news from OSEO

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