How to Cite the SEP

To cite theStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, we recommendthe following bibliographic format, which you may need to adapt tomeet the style requirements of the publication for which you arewriting.

Typically, users read the current ‘active’ version of eachentry. This is the version you reach directly from our main Table ofContents. However, because Encyclopedia entries are subject toperiodic revision, it is more appropriate to cite one of the‘archived’ versions of the entry. When you quote from anentry, it is particularly important to cite an archived version, forotherwise the passage you cite might disappear from the active versionof the entry. Be sure to verify that the passage you are quotingmatches what is in the archived version. For some scholarly purposes,it might be important to cite theearliest version in ourArchives that matches the current version. But any archived SEP entryis citable.

If the material you wish to cite has not been archived (because theentry is new or has been recently modified), you should, if possible,wait for the next archived version of the Encyclopedia. Fixededitions of the Encyclopedia are created and archived every threemonths, on the 21st of September, December, March, and June.

To make the citation process easier, each entry has an “Authorand Citation Info” link in the box of menu items located at thetop left corner of the entry. This takes you to a page with specificcitation information for that entry. For example, the citationinformation page for Jeff Malpas' entry on Donald Davidson will showyou a citation of the following form:

Malpas, J., “Donald Davidson”,The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2012 Edition), Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2012/entries/davidson/>.

Note that the above URL ends in the name “davidson”followed by a slash “/”. “davidson” is thename of the directory which contains the entry. The filename of theentry itself is “index.html” (indeed, all the entries inthe Encyclopedia are named “index.html”). However, youneed not include the entry filename at the end of the URL. Bydefault, our web server will send the file “index.html”when a web browser requests a URL such as the one displayed above.

Again, the above citation is only an example. To get the currentcitation information for the Donald Davidson entry or any other entry,please go to the entry and click on the “Author and CitationInfo” link in the menu list located in the box at the top leftcorner of each entry.

If you require other kinds of bibliographic information, you may findthe following facts helpful.

• Title:The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Co Principal Editors: Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman
• World Wide Web URL: https://plato.stanford.edu/
• Publisher:

  The Metaphysics Research Lab
  Philosophy Department
  Stanford University
  Stanford, CA 94305-4115

• International Standard Serial Number: ISSN 1095-5054

If you have any further questions, pleasecontact the SEP.