FAQ
For questions not found below, please contact us at ocd.ore@oup.com.
About the Oxford Classical Dictionary
How to Use the Oxford Classical Dictionary
Technical and Access Questions
About the Oxford Classical Dictionary
1. How does the digital edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary differ from the 4th edition?
The digital Oxford Classical Dictionary is comprised at its core of all articles from the OCD 4th edition, but is expanding with the regular addition of both newly commissioned articles and revisions and updates of previously published articles. Thus, the digital edition will continue to evolve and will be updated to ensure scholarship remains current and reflective of new research.
Depending on the scope of a given topic, new and revised articles are of variable length and depth. Unconstrained by the limits of print, the digital OCD now features lengthier overview articles that are able to explore broader topics and trace their historiographical developments in more detail.
We are also making some changes to formatting of bibliographic references to make them more legible and functional for discovery tools. Finally, the digital edition includes images, audio and video files, and links to useful digital resources, including open-access texts, translations, and databases. A series of maps of the ancient world, created in partnership with the Ancient World Mapping Center, are also freely available on the site for personal and educational use.
2. How often does the Oxford Classical Dictionary update?
The site updates at the end of each month and may include new and revised articles and new resources on our supplementary information pages.
3. How do I know an article has been recently updated or revised?
A gray box at the top of the text will summarize changes that have been made, followed by the date that the new version published and a link to the article's previous version.
4. How can I see the newest articles added to the site?
Visit our Recently Published page, or browse content sorted by publication date.Visit the Forthcoming Articles page to see titles of articles expected in future updates.
5. What are the Oxford Research Encyclopedias? What is their relationship to the OCD?
The Oxford Research Encyclopedias are dynamic digital reference works for advanced scholars and students, composed of peer-reviewed overview articles that map the entirety of a field of study. The OCD is the Oxford Research Encyclopedia covering classical studies.
6. How can I suggest a new article or express interest in writing for the OCD?
We would love to hear from you! Contact our editorial team at ocd.ore@oup.com or visit For Authors for more information about contributing to the OCD.
7. Are Oxford Classical Dictionary articles peer reviewed?
Yes, each article goes through a rigorous external peer-review process before it is approved for online publication. For more information, contact an editor at ocd.ore@oup.com.
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How to Use the Oxford Classical Dictionary
1. Can I print text from the OCD?
Yes. To print any article, click the printer icon at the top right of the page, which will take you to a printer-friendly display page that you can print using your web browser. Please note that restrictions apply – see below for guidelines on legal printing and copyright.
2. Can I save articles as PDF from the OCD?
Yes. You can print or save individual articles to PDF from Oxford Classical Dictionary. To generate a PDF of an individual article, simply click on the “View PDF” link at the top right of the entry text, then download or print the PDF using your web browser. Please note that copyright restrictions apply.
3. How do I cite articles from the OCD?
Click on the pencil 'cite' icon at the top-right of the article page. You may select APA, MLA, or Chicago to preview the article's citation on the screen, download it in MS Word, or export it in .Ris, Bib, or .Enw formats for use in citation management software.
4. What is the OCD’s ISBN or ISSN??
The online ISBN is 9780199381135. ISBNs of print volumes in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia series can be found by searching the OUP online catalog. We do not register ISSNs for reference collections.
5. How much material can I legally print/save to PDF from the OCD?
You are limited by copyright restrictions to the amount of information that you can print or download. It is very important that you read the Legal Notice, which includes information on printing and downloading PDFs, before printing or downloading anything from the OCD.
6. I discovered a cross-reference link that doesn't work.
If a cross-reference in the text isn't working or links to the wrong article, please contact us. We cannot correct faulty cross-reference links immediately, but will load the corrections with the next monthly update.
7. I am having problems with searching.
Go to Site Help to find information about searching as well as tips on how to avoid common problems. If your searches don’t return any results, be sure to check the spelling of your search terms, or attempt your search with alternate spellings. If your search returns many results, try refining using the various options to the left of your list of results or sorting using one of the options at the top of the results list.
8. The article I’m viewing has no summary or keywords.
Article summaries are included only with newly published or revised articles that are of considerable length.
Keywords appear only on newly published and revised articles. As the process of revising previously published articles continues, keywords will be added to those entries.
9. I've spotted an error in the text.
If you notice an error, please contact us. We cannot usually correct errors in the text immediately. However, we will load the correction with the next monthly update.
10. Is the OCD OpenURL compliant?
Yes. To enable this feature in your institution, please access your account information in OUP Subscriber Services. OCD also supports the selection of custom OpenURL resolver icons.
11. Does the OCD make use of digital object identifiers (DOIs)?
Yes, digital object identifiers (DOIs) are registered for each article.
A DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon initial electronic publication. The DOI will never change, making it the best way of citing and linking to OCD articles.
When adding links to reading lists, first locate the relevant DOI. DOIs appear at the top of article pages. The International DOI Foundation, which oversees the DOI scheme, provides a service at dx.doi.org enabling users to create a URL from a DOI simply by adding this site address and the DOI together, as with this example: dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.772.
For more information on these features please contact customer support through Subscriber Services.
12. Does the OCD provide MARC records for subscribing institutions?
Yes, Machine Readable Cataloguing records (MARC21 records) are available for library professionals to download. These MARC21 Records are AARC2, NACO and SACO-compliant.
Please note that you will require MARC record reader software to load these files to your library system. Please visit Subscriber Services to download the OCD MARC record.
13. I would like to reuse or reproduce excerpts from the OREs. Do I need to get permission?
Yes, in order to reuse, reproduce, digitize or translate any except, article and image from the OCD, you need to fill out a permissions request form, available at the following URL:
https://global.oup.com/academic/rights/permissions/
Depending on your request, please select the appropriate link on the online form, and follow the instructions.
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Technical and Access Questions
1. How do I subscribe to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, or recommend it to my librarian?
Visit How to Subscribe for more information on subscriptions and trials, and to access the librarian recommendation form.
2. I am a subscriber and I can't access the Oxford Classical Dictionary.
First, please check that you have sent us your license agreement. Unless you are in a free trial period, we cannot give you access to the OCD until we have received and checked your signed license agreement. Please see the following FAQs for other connection issues.
a) It is possible that some of your registration details are incorrect in our database.
If the IP address/es for your institution or the username and password which you use to access the OCD are incorrect in our subscriber database you will not be able to access the site. Check with your librarian or account administrator, and ask them to follow the instructions below.
First, log in using administrator credentials at OUP Subscriber Services. From there you can check that you are using the correct username and password or that the correct IP addresses have been entered for your institution.
Once you have checked whether your IP address details are correct, contact customer support and tell us whether:
• your IP address/es need to be corrected (if so, please supply the correct address/es)
• your IP address/es are correct, but you still can't get access to the OCD
b) Are you seeing any error messages when you try to log in to the OCD?
Error messages appear by the login box. These give some suggestions about why you may not be able to access the site. They may direct you to contact either your network administrator or customer support (see Subscriber Services).
c) If your institution holds a concurrent user license, it may be that your browser is not configured to accept cookies.
Cookies are required for subscribers to the OCD in order to control access to the service. If you see a cookie-related error message when you try to log in to the OCD, enable cookies in your web browser and try again.
Please note that all modern browsers should allow cookies from the OCD by default with no additional user intervention.
JavaScript is required for some site features in the OCD. Use your browser’s menu to check JavaScript settings.
d) It is possible that you are seeing an old page and need to clear your browser’s cache.
All modern browsers allow you to delete your browsing history, which will remove the OCD pages saved to your computer’s local drive in a previous session. In most cases, however, this step should not be necessary.
3. Do you offer library card access to the OCD?
We don't currently offer library card access to the OCD. Please contact customer support if you would like to offer library card access to your users.
4. Our institution connects to the internet using NAT; can we access the OCD?
Our access control software will work fine with sites firewalled using NAT. In order to give you access, we just need to know which IP address ranges that the NAT software is masquerading as. Please contact us if you would like to do this.
5. Can users access the OCD off-site?
We do not allow remote access unless it is by a secure route e.g. referred URL access from an access-controlled page on the subscriber's website or access via a VPN (Virtual Private Network) or Shibboleth. Please contact customer support for more information.
6. What is your policy on cookies?
Cookies are used on the OCD in order to grant users access to the site and track certain usage metrics. The default behavior will be to use cookies for authentication. However, subscribers who have unlimited access licenses for the OCD may choose to disable cookies without affecting user access to the site. Note that usage statistics related to user sessions will not be available with cookies disabled.
7. Proxy servers
a) Will our proxy server IP address(es) be enough to allow access to the OCD?
Yes. However, if you are accessing the OCD through a proxy server then you need to provide its IP address for authentication.
b) I've registered my proxy server IP address(es), but I can't access the OCD.
If you see a log-in form when you are on classics.oxfordre.com, and have no access to full-text content, then the IP address of your proxy server is not being recognized by the OCD site. If this is the case, please contact us, giving us details of the problem.
c) After previously successful IP-authenticated access via a proxy server, why am I now being requested to sign in with a username and password?
If there is no obvious technical solution to the problem, please contact your Internet service provider (ISP) to check whether they have changed their configuration in a way that might have affected your IP-authenticated access to the OCD.
8. Questions relating to IP addresses
a) How do I register a large number of IP addresses?
Contact the office appropriate to your region with the list of IP addresses.
North and South America: oxfordonline@oup.com
Rest of the world: onlinesubscriptions@oup.com
Tip: remember to use the asterisk (*) wildcard character if you are registering an entire class of IP addresses, and condense IP ranges in the following way, e.g. nnn.nnn.1-30.*
b) How do I change my institution's IP addresses?
Contact the office appropriate to your region with the list of IP addresses.
North and South America: oxfordonline@oup.com
Rest of the world: onlinesubscriptions@oup.com
Tip: remember to use the asterisk (*) wildcard character if you are registering an entire class of IP addresses, and condense IP ranges in the following way, e.g. nnn.nnn.1-30.*
9. Questions about passwords
a) I've forgotten my site administrator password.
Please contact customer support and specify whether you would like to be reminded of your password, or whether you would like to change it (along with details of what you'd like to change it to) and we will send you the details as soon as possible.
b) Can I distribute my site administrator username and password to allow access for colleagues?
No, this is a restricted ID which should be kept in a safe place for use only by the librarian or site administrator. As access to the OCD for institutions is IP authenticated, your colleagues will be able to access the service without a username and password. If any of your colleagues requires a username and password for off-site access to the OCD, please contact us.
c) I have forgotten my username and password to access the OCD.
Only account administrators can reset passwords. Please see your librarian or administrator for help.
10. Can I see usage statistics for my library/institution?
Yes, but usage statistics are only available to account administrators, who will have an administrator’s username and password in order to access these pages. To see your institution’s usage statistics, log in to OUP Subscriber Services.
11. How do I use Subscriber Services?
Information about Subscriber Services is available on the OCD site from the toolbar at the top of every page. Library administrators with username and password may also access the central OUP Subscriber Services site to:
• View subscription information and IP addresses
• View your institutional usage reports
If you are a subscriber and cannot log in to OUP Subscriber Services, please contact customer support.
12. How do I view or update my institution's subscription record?
To view or update your subscription information, use your administrator username and password to sign into OUP Subscriber Services and access your subscription.
Alternatively you can e-mail the office appropriate to your region describing what you would like us to change:
North and South America: oxfordonline@oup.com
Rest of the world: onlinesubscriptions@oup.com
13. Which browsers should I use for the OCD?
The OCD is designed to display and function correctly on the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and MS Edge.
14. Will my screen-reader software work on the OCD? What are the site’s accessibility standards?
To help achieve our objective of excellence in research, scholarship and education and as part of our commitment to serving our customers and users, Oxford University Press is striving to make its products accessible to and inclusive of all our users, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive, or motor impairments. Visit the Accessibility page to find out more.
15. How are the OCD usage reports defined?
Oxford University Press provides usage statistics that are compliant with the COUNTER Code of Practice, Release 5. These reports are designed to be clear, flexible, and consistent. For more information and to access reports for your institution, please see our Usage Statistics page for librarians.
16. Does the OCD support search/retrieval queries?
Yes, please see the SRU help pages for this site.
17. What is your policy on third party data mining?
OUP recognizes the research benefit of Text and Data Mining (TDM) across a variety of research fields. As such, we are happy to accommodate TDM for non-commercial use. If you have any questions please e-mail Data.Mining@oup.com.