The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) is a scholarly online encyclopedia, dealing with philosophy, philosophical topics, and philosophers.[1] The IEP combines open access publication with peer reviewed publication of original papers. Contribution is generally by invitation, and contributors are recognized and leading international specialists within their field.[1][2]
Type of site | Online encyclopedia |
---|---|
Created by | James Fieser |
Editor |
|
URL | www |
Launched | 1995 |
ISSN | 2161-0002 |
The IEP was founded by philosopher James Fieser in 1995, operating through a non-profit organization with the aim of providing accessible and scholarly information on philosophy.[3] The current general editors are philosophers James Fieser and Bradley Dowden, with the staff also including numerous area editors as well as volunteers.[4][2] The entire website was redesigned in 2009, moving from static HTML pages[citation needed] to the open-source content management system WordPress.[5]
The intended audience for the IEP is philosophy students and faculty who are not specialists within the field, and thus articles are written in an accessible style. Articles consist of a brief survey or overview, followed by the body of the article, and an annotated bibliography. Articles are searchable either by an alphabetical index or through a Google-power search mechanism.[2]
Similarweb analytics suggest that the IEP website is accessed worldwide between two and three million times per month.[6] Some 75% of this usage is through internet searches, 18% is through direct access, and 5% through referral, with the referring websites including other reference websites and university library guides.[6]
The IEP is included by the American Library Association in its listing of Best Free Reference Sites;[7] listed as an online philosophy resource by the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations;[8] listed by EpistemeLinks as one of the "outstanding resources" in philosophy on the internet;[9] and listed as a reliable resource in many university philosophy guides.[10]