The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, the first of its kind, was published in 2006 (paperback 2007). In 2015, Edinburgh University Press commissioned this New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, a revised and enlarged version. Three of the editors remain the same. Our colleague Sue Innes died in 2005, and Jane Rendall, previously an associate editor, and a specialist on Scottish cultural life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, has joined us as a full editor.

What is different about the new version of the Dictionary? This preface explains the policy of revision, enlargement and other changes. For a full description of the thinking behind the volume and the criteria for selection, see the Introduction to the 2006 volume, reproduced below (pp. xxxviii ff.).

On the last point, we would remind readers that no living persons are included.

Illustrations

The New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women includes sixty black-and-white plates, of which forty are new to this volume.

Revision and updating

All the original entries from 2006 have been retained and checked by their authors and/or the editors, correcting errors and adding new information. This includes the findings of recent research and, in the sections on sources attached to each entry, recently published works such as biographies. We now know a great deal more, for instance, about the life and interests of Helen MacFarlane (1818–1860), the first translator of The Communist Manifesto. These references acknowledge the many titles published on Scottish history and culture in the last ten years or so. Furthermore, the general-reference landscape has completely changed in the last decade: more resources are now available online than in 2006, and we have assumed that readers looking further will refer to commonly used search engines. We include some specialised website addresses, with the proviso that they were active at the time of going to press, but do not list general-reference websites (for example, Scotland's People, Wikipedia) in our sources sections, unless there is a special reason: when for instance information is not easily available elsewhere, or for useful cross-references.

There is one exception: the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), originally published in sixty-four volumes in 2004, and now regularly updated online. We referenced the original ODNB in 2006, and we share some contributors.