These three volumes, from established academic literary publishers, cemented the recognition of science fiction and fantasy by academia. The Oxford SF volume, edited by critic Tom Shippey, explores descriptions of science fiction and its history, and declares the scope of the anthology as following those of other Oxford collections: chronologically presented, no author represented more than once, with the aim "to give an impression of the range, vitality, and literally quality of a genre."

The Norton Book -- "in the tradition of other groundbreaking Norton Anthologies" though with a slightly different title than those -- followed a year later, with a higher-profile co-editor. The subtitle describes its scope: "North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990". (Karen Joy Fowler is acknowledged as a consultant, on the title page.) There is a long introduction by Le Guin, though no individual story introductions. The emphasis is on a variety of authors and themes, sometimes at the expense of story length; most stories are relatively short, and not always their authors' best or best-known works.

Shippey's fantasy anthology for Oxford follows his science fiction volume by three years. As in that earlier book, Shippey's introduction explores descriptions of the genre and its history, and the book follows the pattern of other Oxford collections: chronologically presented, no author represented more than once. The book ends with a Selected Bibliography of single-author collections, anthologies, and critical and reference works.

James Tiptree, Jr., is in all three volumes. Fifteen other authors are reprinted twice among them.