Keel ja Kirjandus (‘Language and Literature’) is a monthly journal of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and Estonian Writers’ Union, published since 1958. A year’s worth of issues spans approximately 1000 pages on linguistics, literature, folklore, and cultural history. As a primary source of philological information for students at all levels, Keel ja Kirjandus is an essential read for scholars of Estonian philology and history. Undergraduates will find it both a welcome extension of their lecture notes and a platform for discussion. In addition to original scholarly articles the journal features essays, reviews, and updates from the world of philology.


Keel ja Kirjandus is indexed in CEEOL (Central and Eastern European Online Library), DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), ERIH (European Reference Index of the Humanities) category NAT, LLBA (CSA Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, ProQuest), MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association), Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, and Linguistic Bibliography of CIPL (Permanent International Committee of Linguists). Article manuscripts submitted to Keel ja Kirjandus undergo peer review before publication, a practice in place since 2001.

The journal follows best practices in the ethics of scholarly publishing as outlined in the COPE’s (Committee on Publication Ethics) Code of Conduct and Guidelines for all involved parties: Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher; see http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct.

Keel ja Kirjandus operates on an open-access model. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. The articles are published under the Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, permitting reusers to copy and distribute unadapted material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only, with proper attribution.

The journal is funded by the state of Estonia (Ministry of Culture).

Five volumes of indexes have been published (I: 1958–1967, II: 1968–1977, III: 1978–1987, IV: 1988–1997, V: 1998–2006); indexes 1988–1997 and 1998–2006 are published electronically, see Archive.

The book series Keele ja Kirjanduse raamatusari features publications aligned with the journal’s focus, including article collections, studies and other relevant texts.

Since 2016, the journal has held conferences every three years in line with its focus. Previous conference themes include “The Disintegration of Philology” (2016), “Truth and Truths in the Humanities” (2019), and “Chances of Small Languages in Literature, Culture, and Society” (2022).