Encyclopædia Britannica

Past owners have included, in chronological order, the

Recent advances in information technology and the rise of electronic encyclopaedias such as Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite, Encarta and Wikipedia have reduced the demand for print encyclopaedias.[9] To remain competitive, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. has stressed the reputation of the Britannica, reduced its price and production costs, and developed electronic versions on CD-ROM, DVD, and the World Wide Web. Since the early 1930s, the company has promoted spin-off reference works.^[10]

The Encyclopaedia Britannica has been issued in 15 editions, with multi-volume supplements to the 3rd and 4th editions (see the Table below). The 5th and 6th editions were reprints of the 4th, and the 10th edition was only a supplement to the 9th, just as the 12th and 13th editions were supplements to the 11th. The 15th underwent massive reorganization in 1985, but the updated, current version is still known as the 15th. The 14th and 15th editions were edited every year throughout their runs, so that later printings of each were entirely different from early ones.

Throughout history, the Britannica has had two aims: to be an excellent reference book, and to provide educational material.^[11] In 1974, the 15th edition adopted a third goal: to systematize all human knowledge.^[12] The history of the Britannica can be divided into five eras, punctuated by changes in management, or reorganization of the dictionary.

In the first era (1st–6th editions, 1768–1826), the Britannica was managed and published by its founders, Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell, by Archibald Constable, and by others. The Britannica was first published between December 1768^[13] and 1771 in Edinburgh as the Encyclopædia Britannica, or, A Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, compiled upon a New Plan. In part, it was conceived in reaction to the French Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (published 1751–1772), which had been inspired by Chambers's Cyclopaedia (first edition 1728). It went on sale 10 December.^[14]

The Britannica of this period was primarily a Scottish enterprise, and it is one of the most enduring legacies of the Scottish Enlightenment.^[15] In this era, the Britannica moved from being a three-volume set (1st edition) compiled by one young editor—William Smellie^[16]—to a 20-volume set written by numerous authorities.^[17] Several other encyclopaedias competed throughout this period, among them editions of Abraham Rees's Cyclopædia and Coleridge's Encyclopædia Metropolitana and David Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia.

During the second era (7th–9th editions, 1827–1901), the Britannica was managed by the Edinburgh publishing firm A & C Black. Although some contributors were again recruited through friendships of the chief editors, notably Macvey Napier, others were attracted by the Britannica's reputation. The contributors often came from other countries and included the world's most respected authorities in their fields. A general index of all articles was included for the first time in the 7th edition, a practice maintained until 1974.

Production of the 9th edition was overseen by Thomas Spencer Baynes, the first English-born editor-in-chief. Dubbed the "Scholar's Edition", the 9th edition is the most scholarly of all Britannicas.

In the third era (10th–14th editions, 1901–1973), the Britannica was managed by American businessmen who introduced direct marketing and door-to-door sales. The American owners gradually simplified articles, making them less scholarly for a mass market. The 10th edition was an eleven-volume supplement (including one each of maps and an index) to the 9th, numbered as volumes 25–35, but the 11th edition was a completely new work, and is still praised for excellence; its owner, Horace Hooper, lavished enormous effort on its perfection.^[19]

When Hooper fell into financial difficulties, the Britannica was managed by

In the fourth era (1974–1994), the Britannica introduced its 15th edition, which was reorganized into three parts: the Micropædia, the Macropædia, and the Propædia. Under Mortimer J. Adler (member of the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica since its inception in 1949, and its chair from 1974; director of editorial planning for the 15th edition of Britannica from 1965),[26] the Britannica sought not only to be a good reference work and educational tool, but to systematize all human knowledge. The absence of a separate index and the grouping of articles into parallel encyclopaedias (the Micro- and Macropædia) provoked a "firestorm of criticism" of the initial 15th edition.^[18][27] In response, the 15th edition was completely reorganized and indexed for a re-release in 1985. This second version of the 15th edition continued to be published and revised through the release of the 2010 print version. The official title of the 15th edition is the New Encyclopædia Britannica, although it has also been promoted as Britannica 3.^[18]

On 9 March 1976 the US Federal Trade Commission entered an opinion and order enjoining Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. from using: a) deceptive advertising practices in recruiting sales agents and obtaining sales leads, and b) deceptive sales practices in the door-to-door presentations of its sales agents.^[28]

In the fifth era (1994–present), digital versions have been developed and released on optical media and online.

In 1996, the Britannica was bought by Jacqui Safra at well below its estimated value, owing to the company's financial difficulties. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. split in 1999. One part retained the company name and developed the print version, and the other, Britannica.com Incorporated, developed digital versions. Since 2001, the two companies have shared a CEO,

Britannica's final print edition was in 2010, a 32-volume set.[1] Britannica Global Edition was also printed in 2010, containing 30 volumes and 18,251 pages, with 8,500 photographs, maps, flags, and illustrations in smaller "compact" volumes, as well as over 40,000 articles written by scholars from across the world, including Nobel Prize winners. Unlike the 15th edition, it did not contain Macro- and Micropædia sections, but ran A through Z as all editions up through the 14th had. The following is Britannica's description of the work:^[30]

The editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, the world standard in reference since 1768, present the Britannica Global Edition. Developed specifically to provide comprehensive and global coverage of the world around us, this unique product contains thousands of timely, relevant, and essential articles drawn from the Encyclopædia Britannica itself, as well as from the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, the Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions, and Compton's by Britannica. Written by international experts and scholars, the articles in this collection reflect the standards that have been the hallmark of the leading English-language encyclopedia for over 240 years.

In 2020, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. released the Britannica All New Children's Encyclopedia: What We Know and What We Don't, an encyclopaedia aimed primarily at younger readers, covering major topics. The encyclopedia was widely praised for bringing back the print format. It was Britannica's first encyclopaedia for children since 1984.^[31][32][33]

The Britannica was

From 1985, the Britannica consisted of four parts: the Micropædia, the Macropædia, the Propædia, and a two-volume index. The Britannica's articles are contained in the Micro- and Macropædia, which encompass 12 and 17 volumes, respectively, each volume having roughly one thousand pages. The 2007 Macropædia has 699 in-depth articles, ranging in length from two pages to 310 pages, with references and named contributors. In contrast, the 2007 Micropædia has roughly 65,000 articles, the vast majority (about 97%) of which contain fewer than 750 words, no references, and no named contributors.

Information can be found in the Britannica by following the cross-references in the Micropædia and Macropædia; these are sparse, however, averaging one cross-reference per page.^[37] Readers are instead recommended to consult the alphabetical index or the Propædia, which organizes the Britannica's contents by topic.^[38]

The core of the Propædia is its "Outline of Knowledge", which aims to provide a logical framework for all human knowledge.^[12] Accordingly, the Outline is consulted by the Britannica's editors to decide which articles should be included in the Micro- and Macropædia.^[12] The Outline can also be used as a study guide, as it puts subjects in their proper perspective and suggests a series of Britannica articles for the student wishing to learn a topic in depth.^[12] However, libraries have found that it is scarcely used for this purpose, and reviewers have recommended that it be dropped from the encyclopaedia.^[39] The Propædia contains colour transparencies of human anatomy and several appendices listing the staff members, advisors, and contributors to all three parts of the Britannica.

Taken together, the Micropædia and Macropædia comprise roughly 40 million words and 24,000 images.^[38] The two-volume index has 2,350 pages, listing the 228,274 topics covered in the Britannica, together with 474,675 subentries under those topics.^[37] The Britannica generally prefers British spelling over American;^[37] for example, it uses colour (not color), centre (not center), and encyclopaedia (not encyclopedia). There are some exceptions to this rule, such as defense rather than defence.^{[40][original research?]} Common alternative spellings are provided with cross-references such as "Color: see Colour."

Since 1936, the Britannica has been revised on a regular schedule, with at least 10% of the articles considered for revision each year.^[37][10] According to one Britannica website, 46% of the articles in the 2007 edition were revised over the preceding three years;^[41] however, according to another Britannica website, only 35% of the articles were revised over the same period.^[42]

The alphabetization of articles in the Micropædia and Macropædia follows strict rules.^[43] Diacritical marks and non-English letters are ignored, while numerical entries such as "1812, War of" are alphabetized as if the number had been written out ("Eighteen-twelve, War of"). Articles with identical names are ordered first by persons, then by places, then by things. Rulers with identical names are organized first alphabetically by country and then by chronology; thus, Charles III of France precedes Charles I of England, listed in Britannica as the ruler of Great Britain and Ireland. (That is, they are alphabetized as if their titles were "Charles, France, 3" and "Charles, Great Britain and Ireland, 1".) Similarly, places that share names are organized alphabetically by country, then by ever-smaller political divisions.

In March 2012, the company announced that the 2010 edition would be the last printed version. This was part of a move by the company to adapt to the times and focus on its future using digital distribution.^[44] The peak year for the printed encyclopaedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold, but sales had dropped to 40,000 per annum by 1996.^[45] There were 12,000 sets of the 2010 edition printed, of which 8,000 had been sold by March 2012.^[46] By late April 2012, the remaining copies of the 2010 edition had sold out at Britannica's online store. As of 2016^[update], a replica of Britannica's 1768 first edition is available via the online store.^[47]

Britannica Junior was first published in 1934 as 12 volumes. It was expanded to 15 volumes in 1947, and renamed Britannica Junior Encyclopædia in 1963.^[48] It was taken off the market after the 1984 printing.

A British Children's Britannica edited by John Armitage was issued in London in 1960.^[49] Its contents were determined largely by the eleven-plus standardized tests given in Britain.^[50] Britannica introduced the Children's Britannica to the US market in 1988, aimed at ages seven to 14.

In 1961, a 16-volume Young Children's Encyclopaedia was issued for children just learning to read.^[50] My First Britannica is aimed at children ages six to 12, and the Britannica Discovery Library is for children aged three to six (issued 1974 to 1991).^[51] Compton's by Britannica, first published in 2007, incorporating the former Compton's Encyclopedia, is aimed at 10- to 17-year-olds and consists of 26 volumes and 11,000 pages.^[52]

There have been, and are, several abridged Britannica encyclopaedias. The single-volume Britannica Concise Encyclopædia has 28,000 short articles condensing the larger 32-volume Britannica;^[53] there are authorized translations in languages such as Chinese^[54] created by Encyclopedia of China Publishing House^[55] and Vietnamese.^[56][57]

Since 1938, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. has published annually a Book of the Year covering the past year's events. A given edition of the Book of the Year is named in terms of the year of its publication, though the edition actually covers the events of the previous year. The company also publishes several specialized reference works, such as Shakespeare: The Essential Guide to the Life and Works of the Bard (Wiley, 2006).

The

Britannica Online is a website with more than 120,000 articles and is updated regularly.[59] It has daily features, updates and links to news reports from The New York Times and the BBC. As of 2009^[update], roughly 60% of Encyclopædia Britannica's revenue came from online operations, of which around 15% came from subscriptions to the consumer version of the websites.^[60] As of 2006^[update], subscriptions were available on a yearly, monthly or weekly basis.^[61] Special subscription plans are offered to schools, colleges and libraries; such institutional subscribers constitute an important part of Britannica's business. Beginning in early 2007, the Britannica made articles freely available if they are hyperlinked from an external site. Non-subscribers are served pop-ups and advertising.^[62]

On 20 February 2007, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced that it was working with mobile phone search company AskMeNow to launch a mobile encyclopaedia.^{[63][needs update]} Users would be able to send a question via text message, and AskMeNow would search Britannica's 28,000-article concise encyclopaedia to return an answer to the query. Daily topical features sent directly to users' mobile phones were also planned.

On 3 June 2008, an initiative to facilitate collaboration between online expert and amateur scholarly contributors for Britannica's online content (in the spirit of a wiki), with editorial oversight from Britannica staff, was announced.^[64][65] Approved contributions would be credited,^[66] though contributing automatically grants Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. perpetual, irrevocable licence to those contributions.^[67]

On 22 January 2009, Britannica's president, Jorge Cauz, announced that the company would be accepting edits and additions to the online Britannica website from the public. The published edition of the encyclopaedia would not be affected by the changes.^[68] Individuals wishing to edit the Britannica website would have to register under their real name and address prior to editing or submitting their content.^[69] All edits submitted would be reviewed and checked and will have to be approved by the encyclopaedia's professional staff.^[69] Contributions from non-academic users would sit in a separate section from the expert-generated Britannica content,^[70] as would content submitted by non-Britannica scholars.^[71] Articles written by users, if vetted and approved, would also only be available in a special section of the website, separate from the professional articles.^[68][71] Official Britannica material would carry a "Britannica Checked" stamp, to distinguish it from the user-generated content.^[72]

On 14 September 2010, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced a partnership with mobile phone development company

In March 2012, it was announced that the company would cease printing the encyclopaedia set, and that it would focus on its online version.[78]^[79]

On 7 June 2018, Britannica released a

The print version of the Britannica has 4,411 contributors, many eminent in their fields, such as Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, astronomer Carl Sagan, and surgeon Michael DeBakey.^[82] Roughly a quarter of the contributors are deceased, some as long ago as 1947 (Alfred North Whitehead), while another quarter are retired or emeritus. Most (approximately 98%)^{[citation needed]} contribute to only a single article; however, 64 contributed to three articles, 23 contributed to four articles, 10 contributed to five articles, and 8 contributed to more than five articles. An exceptionally prolific contributor is Christine Sutton of the University of Oxford, who contributed 24 articles on particle physics.^[83]

While Britannica's authors have included writers such as Albert Einstein,^[84] Marie Curie,^[85] and Leon Trotsky,^[84] as well as notable independent encyclopaedists such as Isaac Asimov,^[86] some have been criticized for lack of expertise. In 1911, the historian George L. Burr wrote:

With a temerity almost appalling, [the Britannica contributor, Mr. Philips] ranges over nearly the whole field of European history, political, social, ecclesiastical... The grievance is that [this work] lacks authority. This, too—this reliance on editorial energy instead of on ripe special learning—may, alas, be also counted an "Americanizing": for certainly nothing has so cheapened the scholarship of our American encyclopaedias.^[87]

As of 2007^[update] in the 15th edition of Britannica,

Paul T. Armstrong remains the longest working employee of Encyclopædia Britannica. He began his career there in 1934, eventually earning the positions of treasurer, vice president, and chief financial officer in his 58 years with the company, before retiring in 1992.[91]

The 2007 editorial staff of the Britannica included five Senior Editors and nine Associate Editors, supervised by Dale Hoiberg and four others. The editorial staff helped to write the articles of the Micropædia and some sections of the Macropædia.^[92]

As of 2012, Britannica had an editorial board of advisors, which included a number of distinguished figures, primarily scholars from a variety of disciplines.^[93][94]

The Propædia and its Outline of Knowledge were produced by dozens of editorial advisors under the direction of

During much of the 20th century, the Britannica had a significant ownership stake from the University of Chicago, with many people associated with the university serving senior positions in the organisation.^[97]331-332 During the mid 20th century, managers and executives at the Britannica company were lavishly rewarded due to the healthy profit encyclopedia sales generated, with division managers at the top of the sales organisation earning an average salary of $125,000 in 1958 ($1,362,313 around in current USD adjusted for inflation).^[97]329

From 1974, the company was controlled by the

In the fall of 2017, Karthik Krishnan was appointed global chief executive officer of the Encyclopædia Britannica Group. Krishnan brought a varied perspective to the role based on several high-level positions in digital media, including RELX (formerly known as Reed Elsevier, and one of the constituents of the FTSE 100 Index) and Rodale, in which he was responsible for "driving business and cultural transformation and accelerating growth".^[104]

Taking the reins of the company as it was preparing to mark its 250th anniversary and define the next phase of its digital strategy for consumers and K–12 schools, Krishnan launched a series of new initiatives in his first year.

First was Britannica Insights,^[105] a free, downloadable software extension to the Google Chrome browser that served up edited, fact-checked Britannica information with queries on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Its purpose, the company said, was to "provide trusted, verified information" in conjunction with search results that were thought to be increasingly unreliable in the era of misinformation and "fake news."

The product was quickly followed by Britannica School Insights, which provided similar content for subscribers to Britannica's online classroom products, and a partnership with YouTube^[106] in which verified Britannica content appeared on the site as an antidote to user-generated video content that could be false or misleading.

Although prior to 1920 the Britannica was primarily sold by

While early on the Britannica was marketed to adults and in particular during the 19th and early 20th centuries, to an elite educated audience,[97]^152-153 by the mid 20th century, the Britannica (as well as other American encyclopedias^[109]) were primarily marketed to middle-class parents who wished to seek a good education for their children, despite the text not being aimed at a child's reading level.^{[98][97]317-330[109]} During the 20th century, the Britannica differentiated itself from other encyclopedias by using its long pedigree to present itself as a premium brand.^[98] Once the encyclopedia was purchased, it was often little read by its buyers.^[108]

As the Britannica is a general encyclopaedia, it does not seek to compete with specialized encyclopaedias such as the

The Internet tends to provide more current coverage than print media, due to the ease with which material on the Internet can be updated.[113] In rapidly changing fields such as science, technology, politics, culture and modern history, the Britannica has struggled to stay up to date, a problem first analysed systematically by its former editor Walter Yust.^[35] Eventually, the Britannica turned to focus more on its online edition.^[114]

The Encyclopædia Britannica has been compared with other print encyclopaedias, both qualitatively and quantitatively.^[36][18][37] A well-known comparison is that of Kenneth Kister, who gave a qualitative and quantitative comparison of the 1993 Britannica with two comparable encyclopaedias, Collier's Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia Americana.^[18] For the quantitative analysis, ten articles were selected at random—circumcision, Charles Drew, Galileo, Philip Glass, heart disease, IQ, panda bear, sexual harassment, Shroud of Turin and Uzbekistan—and letter grades of A–D or F were awarded in four categories: coverage, accuracy, clarity, and recency. In all four categories and for all three encyclopaedias, the four average grades fell between B− and B+, chiefly because none of the encyclopaedias had an article on sexual harassment in 1994. In the accuracy category, the Britannica received one "D" and seven "A"s, Encyclopedia Americana received eight "A"s, and Collier's received one "D" and seven "A"s; thus, Britannica received an average score of 92% for accuracy to Americana's 95% and Collier's 92%. In the timeliness category, Britannica averaged an 86% to Americana's 90% and Collier's 85%.^{[citation needed][115]}

The most notable competitor of the Britannica among CD/DVD-ROM digital encyclopaedias was Encarta,^[116] now discontinued, a modern multimedia encyclopaedia that incorporated three print encyclopaedias: Funk & Wagnalls, Collier's, and the New Merit Scholar's Encyclopedia. Encarta was the top-selling multimedia encyclopaedia, based on total US retail sales from January 2000 to February 2006.^[117] Both occupied the same price range, with the 2007 Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate CD or DVD costing US$40–50^[118][119] and the Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007 DVD costing US$45.^[120]

The Britannica disc contains 100,000 articles and Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus (US only) and offers primary and secondary school editions.^[119] Encarta contained 66,000 articles, a user-friendly Visual Browser, interactive maps, math, language, and homework tools, a US and UK dictionary, and a youth edition.^[120] Like Encarta, the digital Britannica has been criticized for being biased towards United States audiences; the United Kingdom-related articles are updated less often, maps of the United States are more detailed than those of other countries, and it lacks a UK dictionary.^[116] Like the Britannica, Encarta was available online by subscription, although some content could be accessed for free.^[121]

The main online alternative to Britannica is Wikipedia.^{[122][123][124]} The key differences between the two lie in accessibility; the model of participation they bring to an encyclopedic project; their respective style sheets and editorial policies; relative ages; the number of subjects treated; the number of languages in which articles are written and made available; and their underlying economic models: unlike Britannica, Wikipedia is not-for-profit, does not carry advertising on its site, and is not connected with traditional profit- and contract-based publishing distribution networks.

Britannica's articles either have known authorship or a set of possible authors (the editorial staff). With the exception of the editorial staff, most Britannica's contributors are experts in their field—some are Nobel laureates.^[82] By contrast, the articles on Wikipedia are written by people of unknown degrees of expertise; most do not claim any particular expertise, and of those who do, many are anonymous and have no verifiable credentials.^[125] It is for this lack of institutional vetting or certification that former Britannica editor-in-chief Robert McHenry noted his belief in 2004 that Wikipedia could not hope to rival the Britannica in accuracy.^[126]

In 2005, the journal Nature chose articles from both websites in a wide range of science topics and sent them to what it called "relevant" field experts for peer review. The experts then compared the competing articles—one from each site on a given topic—side by side, but were not told which article came from which site. Nature got back 42 usable reviews. The journal found just eight serious errors, such as general misunderstandings of vital concepts: four from each site. It also discovered many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 in Wikipedia and 123 in Britannica, an average of 3.86 mistakes per article for Wikipedia and 2.92 for Britannica.^[125][127]

Although Britannica was revealed as the more accurate encyclopaedia, with fewer errors, in its rebuttal, it called Nature's study flawed and misleading^[128] and called for a "prompt" retraction. It noted that two of the articles in the study were taken from a Britannica yearbook and not the encyclopaedia, and another two were from Compton's Encyclopedia (called the Britannica Student Encyclopedia on the company's website).

Nature defended its story and declined to retract, stating that, as it was comparing Wikipedia with the web version of Britannica, it used whatever relevant material was available on Britannica's website.^[129] Interviewed in February 2009, the managing director of Britannica UK said:

Wikipedia is a fun site to use and has a lot of interesting entries on there, but their approach wouldn't work for Encyclopædia Britannica. My job is to create more awareness of our very different approaches to publishing in the public mind. They're a chisel, we're a drill, and you need to have the correct tool for the job.^[60]

For the 15th anniversary of Wikipedia, the Telegraph published two opinion pieces which compared Wikipedia to Britannica and falsely claimed that Britannica had gone bankrupt in 1996.^[130][131] In a January 2016 press release, Britannica responded by calling Wikipedia "an impressive achievement" but argued that critics should avoid "false comparisons" to Britannica in terms of differing models and purposes.^[132]

The Britannica has a reputation for summarizing knowledge.[110] To further their education, some people have devoted themselves to reading the entire Britannica, taking anywhere from three to 22 years to do so.^[19] When Fat'h Ali became the Shah of Persia in 1797, he was given a set of the Britannica's 3rd edition; after reading the complete set, he extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopædia Britannica".^[136]

Writer