About the Publishing House


The Transylvanian Museum Society (EME) functioned as the publisher of the scholarly works resulted from the research of the Society’s collections, and also edited several scholarly journals already as early as the 1860s. In accordance with the structure of the Society, each series was based on works of various fields of research, the publications presented the most recent results of humanities, as well as medical and natural sciences.

In 1990, when the Society resumed its activity, it also revived its publishing work. For this purpose, the editors’ team set out in two directions. Firstly, in order to continue the tradition of publishing, they restarted the series and journals paused for almost fifty years. Secondly, in keeping up with the new developments in the fields of science, they elaborated concepts for new series. In 1991, the publishing house resumed the Erdélyi Múzeum journal, which continues to appear quarterly (in four issues by year), being considered one of the most important forum of the Transylvanian Humanities Thought. The other journals of the publisher are also appearing continuously: the medical bulletin Orvostudományi Értesítő; for the Natural Sciences field - the Múzeumi Füzetek. Acta Scientiarium Translvanica; the archeological yearbook Dolgozatok az Erdélyi Múzeum Érem- és Régiségtárából. To this list we recently added Acta Materialia Transylvanica, our newest journal with contributions to Technical Studies.

In continuation of a previous book series, the 209th issue of the Erdélyi Tudományos Füzetek appeared in 1991, reaching by now its 291th issue. This series publishes the works of contributors of the Society’s research institute, doctoral dissertations, source publications, theoretical works, and conference papers, mostly in the field of humanities.

A further important direction of editions is the publication of Transylvanian historical sources. The four bulky volumes (IV–VII) of the new series of the Székely Oklevéltár (Szekler Archival Collections) are the most outstanding publications of the EME in the field of historical research. The general and military censuses of the Szekler region are rarities for 16th -17th century European history at large, inasmuch as they list the heads of families or even the complete male population of the entire Szeklerland, in the order of settlements and social stratification within them, in a period preceding general censuses. The Erdélyi Történelmi Adatok (Transylvanian Historical Documents) and Erdélyi Nemzeti Múzeum Levéltára (Archive of the Transylvanian National Museum) series offers publication opportunities for source collection activities going on in the EME research institute; these series publish important historical sources such as the royal registries of the Princes of Transylvania, reports of chapter houses, or records of family archives of various Transylvanian families.

The EME also undertook the publication of Attila Szabó T.’s monumental work, Erdélyi magyar szótörténeti tár (Transylvanian Hungarian collection of etymology). Attila Szabó T. managed to establish a serious editorial collective consisting of his colleagues and disciples who, even after his death and a ten-year forced break, have continuously proved by the publication of several volumes that they have remained faithful to their professor and the tradition of Hungarian etymological research.

An important innovation of the publishing house, following the 1990s, was to offer new series for the publication of research results in the field of technology. Whereas the series Műszaki Tudományos Füzetek (Journal in Technological Research) publishes the most recent scholarly results, also undertaking the role to develop the Hungarian research terminology of the field, the Tudomány- és Technikatörténeti Füzetek (Journal of the history of science and technology) series started as a forum for discovering the Transylvanian technical heritage, and it also plans to publish in the future works in the history of technology.

Also uninterruptedly published are our auxiliary publications, lexicons (especially Romániai Magyar Irodalmi Lexikon – Hungarian Literary Lexicon from Romania) and bibliographies supporting the scientific research. Our most recent commitment was the Dictionary of the Moldvai magyar tájnyelv szótára (The Hungarian Dialect in Moldova), published in 2017-2018.

The source-document volumes of the Emberek és kontextusok series are aimed especially at the readers interested in sociology, folklore, poplar lifestyle. Also, the book series Letöltés publishes works related in the fields of Media and Communication or popular culture.

In addition to the series listed above, the number of individual volumes is also significant, containing titles in literary studies, social sciences, history, and natural and medical sciences, all of high scholarly importance.

The professional standard of the publications is ensured by peer reviewers on a case-to-case basis. The EME publishing house is accredited by the CNCSIS (National Council of Scientific Research in Higher Education) since 2006.

Editor-in-charge of the publishing house, as of April 2010, is Annamária Biró.
Contact: Biró Annamária biro.annamaria a-rond eme.ro

The publishing house secretary since February 2014 is Papp Kinga. Contact papp.kinga a-rond eme.ro