An introduction to the Golestan Encyclopedia

The main goal of the Golestan Encyclopedia (GE) is to gather all information and facts about Astrabad and Hyrcania (modern Gorgan and Golestan province). It focuses on the history, culture and nature of this northern part of Iran. Entries of GE are localized to the province and all aspects of them are carefully studied and described in articles. There are three categories of entries in respect of GE priorities: first, second, and third priority, which differs in volume of article.
The encyclopedia covers major topics and entries such as:
History (before and after Aryan; before and after Islam; and modern period)
Arts (painting, cinema and theatre, etc)
Literature (poetry, folklore, books, etc)
Languages (Gorgani, Tabari, Turkish, Turkmen, etc)
Ethnics (Armenians, Kurds, Kazaks, Turkmen, etc)
Archaeology (buildings, archeological sites, ancient ruins, caravanserais, etc)
Books (important books on the subjects of ancient and modern Gorgan)
Music (Katuli, Tabari, Turkmen, instruments, etc)
Handicrafts (carpets, rugs, sewing, etc)
Media (press, radio, television, etc)
Famous people
Religious centres (shrines, mosques, etc)
Educational centres (schools, universities, etc)
Medical centres (hospitals, etc)
Sport (traditional, teams, etc)
Industry (factories, etc)
Agriculture (crops, tools, land ownership trends, etc)
The environment (including all aspects of natural environment such as plants, animals, geography, climate, geology, etc)

The start of GE was in 2005, when the Golestan Encyclopedia Centre (GEC) published the first issue. The process of publishing is periodically and four to six ‘experimental’ or ‘interim’ issues are published in a year. At first, the publishing process was print publishing and the issues were sent to universities; libraries; research centres and other organisations, and read by many people, mostly researchers and academicians.
At present, the publishing process is electronic. All articles are being posted on GE website which is easily accessible to everyone on the Internet. After constructive discussion and criticism by expert readers, and checking the articles by authors themselves, researchers of scientific section of GEC review and edit the scientific writing of articles. Then the articles are reviewed and edited in terms of technical writing and prepared for publishing. The aim of this process is emphasis on accuracy, clarity and precision of all the articles. According to GEC goals, the complete set of articles will be published after 2011.
The GEC communicates with many local and regional research centres that carry out research on scientific, cultural, art, and folklore subjects. It has also close links with many universities and cultural centres of Iran.
GE accepts scientific articles from researchers all over the world, and welcomes any advice or suggestion from people who are interested in ancient and modern Gorgan and this important part of Iran.