Variants is the blind, peer-reviewed journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship (ESTS). Issued once per year, it publishes original articles in English on any aspect of the theory and practice of textual scholarship, including, but not limited to, scholarly, critical and textual editing, philology, manuscript studies, codicology and palaeography, genetic criticism/scholarship, historical bibliography and the history of the book, and authorship studies. Given the journal's European dimension, it particularly encourages methodological and theoretical approaches that are transnational, comparative and interdisciplinary. Furthermore, the journal has been at the forefront of the digital wave; over the years it has provided ample space to the treatment of digital text and tools and to editing in the electronic environment (again, on the level of theory and praxis) and continues to do so. It also actively solicits reviews of digital scholarly editions to appear alongside its regular reviews of scholarly editions and monographs on textual scholarship. In each issue it also seeks to showcase new, innovative, ongoing digital or print-based editorial projects in a section called “Work in Progress” intended to show best practice and to inform prospective editors and project leaders. There is no restriction as to genre, historical period or geographical area.

The inaugural volume (out of print), edited by H.T.M. Van Vliet and P.M.W. Robinson, was published by Brepols (Turnhout, Belgium) in 2002. All subsequent volumes (2003-2014) were published by Brill (previously Rodopi). Back issues in hard copy can be ordered directly from the company. These include seven specially themed issues:

Variants 2/3 (2003), Reading Notes, edited by Dirk Van Hulle and Wim Van Mierlo.

Variants 4 (2005), The Book as Artefact / Text and Border, edited by Anne Mette Hansen, Roger Lüdeke, Wolfgang Streit, Cristina Urchuaguía and Peter Shillingsburg.

Variants 5 (2006), Textual in Multiple Versions / Histories of Editions, edited by Luigi Giuliani, Herman Brinkman, Geert Lernout and Marita Mathijsen.

Variants 6 (2007), Textual Scholarship and the Material Book, edited by Wim Van Mierlo.

Variants 7 (2008), Textual Scholarship and the Canon, edited by Hans Walter Gabler, Peter Robinson and Paulus Subačius.

Variants 8 (2012), Private: do (not) enter: Textual Scholarship and Personal Writings, edited by João Dionísio. (Table of Contents)

Variants 9 (2012), Texts beyond Borders: Multlingualism and Textual Scholarship, edited by Wout Dillen, Caroline Macé and Dirk Van Hulle.