About the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

• Brief Description
• The SEP's Publishing Model
• History
• History of Grants
• Publications
• Acknowledgements

Brief Description

Welcome to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), which as ofSummer 2023, has nearly 1800 entries online. From its inception, theSEP was designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up-to-dateby an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries andsubstantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguishedEditorial Board before they are made public. Consequently, our dynamic reference workmaintains academic standards while evolving and adapting in responseto new research. You can cite fixed editions that are created on aquarterly basis and stored in ourArchives (every entry contains alink to its complete archival history, identifying the fixed editionthe reader should cite). TheTable of Contents lists entries that are published or assigned. TheProjected Table of Contents also lists entries which are currently unassigned but neverthelessprojected.

The SEP's Publishing Model

The combination of features exhibited by the SEP publishing modeldistinguishes it from other attempts to build scholarly resources onthe web. Our open access model has the following features: (1) apassword-protected web interface for authors, which allows them todownload entry templates, submit private drafts for review, andremotely edit/update their entries; (2) a password-protected webinterface for the subject editors, which allows them to add newtopics, commission new entries, referee unpublished entries andupdates (updates can be displayed with the original and updatedversions side-by-sidewith the differences highlighted) andaccept/reject entries and revisions; (3) a secure administrative webinterface for the principal editor, by which the entire collaborativeprocess can be managed with a very small staff (the principal editorcan add people, add entries, assign entries to editors, issueinvitations, track deadlines, publish entries and updates, etc.); (4)a tracking system which logs the actions taken at the web interfaces,monitors the state of every entry, determines who owes work and when,automatically sends occasional, friendly email reminders, and providesa summary to the principal editor; (5) software which dynamicallycross-references the SEP when new entries are published, and whichperiodically checks for broken links throughout the content; (6)software which automatically creates an archive every quarter,providing the proper basis for scholarly citation; and (7) mirrorsites at universities in other parts of the world, which providefaster access to readers worldwide, provide access when the Stanfordserver is down for maintenance, and safeguard the digital content asextra backups. The SEP's publishing model therefore has the abilityto deliver, with very low administrative and production costs, qualitycontent meeting the highest of academic standards via a medium that isuniversally accessible.

Few dynamic reference works have been built to the specificationsdescribed in the previous paragraph. Most of the other encyclopediaprojects available on the web lack some of the dynamic and scholarlyfeatures of the SEP. Usually, one of the following applies: (a) theyare costly and behind a subscription wall, invisible to search enginesand so not as useful to academics and the general public; (b) theydon't have an administrative system capable of screening new entriesand updates prior to publication and ensuring that entries areresponsive to new research; (c) they don't allow the authors/editorsto directly contact the server to update/referee the content of theentries; (d) they lack a system of archives for stable, scholarlycitation (thus, when entries change, the old content is just lost, andany citations to, or quotations from, prior content become impossibleto verify); or (e) they lack a university-based Advisory Board to vetthe members of its Editorial Board.

The SEP's model may therefore represent a unique digital libraryconcept: a scholarly dynamic reference work. A scholarly dynamicreference work differs from an academic journal, for academic journals(1) do not typically update the articles they publish, (2) do not aimto publish articles on a comprehensive set of topics, but rather, forthe most part, publish articles that are randomly submitted by themembers of the profession, (3) do not aim to cross-reference andcreate links among the concepts used in the articles they publish, (4)typically serve a narrow audience of specialists, and (5) do not haveto deal with theasynchronous activity of updating,refereeing, and tracking separate deadlines for entries, since theyare published on asynchronized schedule. Moreover, ourreference work differs from preprint exchanges, for the latter notonly exhibit features (1), (2), (3), and (4) just mentioned, but alsodo not referee their publications and so need not incorporate awork-flow system that handles the asynchronous refereeing process thatoccurs between upload and publication in a dynamic reference work.None of this is to say that electronic journals and preprint exchangeshave a faulty design, but rather that a scholarly dynamic referencework is a distinctive new kind of publication that represents a uniquedigital library concept.

History

The SEP project began in September 1995 whenJohn Perry was the Director of the Center for the Study of Language andInformation (CSLI). Perry's suggestion that CSLI enhance its web presenceby creating a (static) online dictionary of philosophy was taken up byEdward N. Zalta, who developed the idea into that of a dynamic reference work.Zalta then started designing the SEP to be an online encyclopediathat would satisfy the highest academic standards. After two years ofsupport from CSLI, our prototype became a proof of concept that earnedthe first of a series of successful grant applications. (See theHistory of Grants below.) The addition ofColin Allen andUri Nodelman to the project in 1998 resulted in significant enhancements to thedesign and implementation of our new academic publishing model. Theyintroduced browser-based file-upload, workflow principles thatcategorized the state of every entry and possible state transitions,remote HTML editing, an engine which compares an original and revisedentry side-by-side in the browser with the differences highlighted,etc.Paul Daniell programmed/developed the new search engine that theSEP brought online in September 2006. The SEP projectmoved to the Department of Philosophy in September 2021.

See the masthead on theEditorial Information page, for a list of other people involved in the project.

History of Grants

Grant Duration	Grant Number	Granting Organization	Amount
10/1998–09/2000	#PA-23167-98	NEH/Preservation and Access Division	$131,400
10/2000–09/2003	#IIS-9981549	NSF/Information and Intelligent Systems (with support from NEH)	$528,900
02/2002–08/2002	Officer's Grant	Andrew W. Mellon Foundation	$43,000
10/2003–09/2005	#PA-50133-03	NEH/Preservation and Access Division	$300,828
01/2005–12/2008	#CH-50156	NEH/Office of Challenge Grants (awarded to SOLINET for the SEP)	$500,000
10/2005–09/2007	#PA-51255-05	NEH/Preservation and Access Division	$150,000
09/2005–08/2007	#2005-6238	William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Education, Technology, Open Content	$190,000

Publications About the Stanford Encyclopedia

Information about our dynamic reference work can be found inthe following papers and abstracts:

• “From SEP to SEPIA: How and why Indiana University is helpingthe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy”, by Colin Allen and Cecile Jagodzinski, inAgainst the Grain, 18/4 (September 2006): 42–43.
• “The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A University/Library Partnership in Support of Scholarly Communications and Open Access,”by Edward N. Zalta, inCollege & Research Libraries News (a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries), 67/8 (September 2006): 502–504, 507.
• “I Hear the Train A Comin' ”, by Greg Tananbaum, inAgainst the Grain, 18/1 (February 2006): 84–85.
• Abstracts:
  • “Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Dynamic Reference Work”, by Colin Allen, Uri Nodelman, and Edward N. Zalta, inProceedingsof the Third ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries(May 27–31, 2003), New York: Association for Computing MachineryPublications, p. 383.
  • “Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Dynamic Reference Work”, by Uri Nodelman, Colin Allen, and Edward N. Zalta, inProceedingsof the Second ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries(July 14–18, 2002), New York: Association for Computing MachineryPublications, p. 380.
  • “Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Dynamic Reference Work”, by Edward N. Zalta, Colin Allen, and Uri Nodelman, inProceedingsof the First ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries(June 24–28, 2001), New York: Association for Computing MachineryPublications, p. 457.
  • “Digital Workflow Concepts for Dynamic Reference Works”, abstract of talk delivered by Edward N. Zalta at theAncientStudies — New Technology Conference, Salve ReginaUniversity, December 2000.
• “The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Developed Dynamic Reference Work” (285K PDF document), by Colin Allen, Uri Nodelman, and Edward N. Zalta, inMetaphilosophy, 33/1-2 (January 2002): 210–228; reprinted inCyberPhilosophy: The Intersection of Philosophy andComputing, James H. Moor and Terrell Ward Bynum, (eds.), Oxford:Blackwell, pp. 201–218.
• “Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy”, by Edward N. Zalta,SPARC E-News (October/November 1999), published by TheScholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, onlinepublication. (This issue is now archived offline; the above linkis to our preprint.)
• “A Solution to the Problem of Updating Encyclopedias”, by Eric Hammer and Edward N. Zalta,Computers and the Humanities, 31/1 (1997): 47–60.[Note: The ftp-based file upload system described in this paper was superseded by a browser-based file upload system which uses specialpassword-protected web interfaces for the authors and editors.]
• “Why Philosophy Needs a ‘Dynamic’ Encyclopedia”, by John Perry and Edward N. Zalta, URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/pubs/why.html>, November 1997.

Acknowledgments

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is indebted to many people,both at Stanford and elsewhere, who have supported the efforts of theproject in significant ways. First, and foremost, we'd like to thankProfessor John Perry, who has served as the principal investigator onthe SEP grants, provided high-level supervision on the project, servesas the SEP's advocate to the Stanford administration, and gavegenerously of his time in SEP fund-raising activities. After Perryserved as the SEP's Faculty Sponsor for many years, the role finallyturned over first to Helen Longino, and then to R. LanierAnderson.

Administrative Assistance

The SEP would like to acknowledge significant support from theAdministrative Staff of the Center for the Study of Language andInformation (CSLI) from Fall 1995 (when the SEP project started)through Fall 2021, when the SEP moved to the Department ofPhilosophy. We especially thankAmita KumarandMichelle Lodwickfor their tireless efforts on behalf of the SEP. The project would notbe what it is today without their work.

Editorial Assistance

The SEP would also like to thank the following people: Nathan Tawil,Ben Wolfson, Tamar Lando, Matthew Barrett, and Arezoo Islami haveprovided, and in some cases continue to provide, valuable editorialand document-editing assistance. Kirsta Anderson (M.A./Philosophy)served as Assistant Editor during the 2003–2004 academic year,and did an outstanding job in SEP communications and control, offeringmany suggestions on how to improve our workflow system. DanielMcKenzie served as Assistant Editor during the 2004–2005academic year, and did a great job juggling communications/control andcopy-editing. Meica Magnani served as Assistant Editor from2013–2017 and helped handle many tasks from communications tocopyediting through a period of significant growth. Others, includingMatthew Barrett and Justin Pront, have helped on a smaller scale withSEP editorial duties. Benjamin Patrick Przybocki also helped convertentries to HTML/MathJax.

Fund-Raising Assistance

We are especially indebted to the O.C. Tanner Company for a generousgift to the SEP in 2022, as well as The Byrne Foundation for agenerous gift to the SEP in 2007, creating the John Perry Fund. We arealso deeply indebted to Michelle Wachs (J.D., Harvard, 1993) of GivingSolutions, whose tireless and enthusiastic efforts as the SEP'sfund-raising consultant during the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007academic years helped us achieve our fund-raising goals for thoseyears. We were able to hire Michelle with funds from a generous grantby the Hewlett Foundation. We would also like to acknowledge thecontribution of Javier Ergueta (M.B.A., Stanford, 1980), for hisefforts and work in developing a business plan for the StanfordEncyclopedia of Philosophy during the first six months of 2002.Javier's time was paid for through a generous grant by the MellonFoundation. Thanks go the following students in John Perry's Fall2004 Proseminar, for their help and assistance in implementing animportant element of the SEP's fund-raising plan: Dan Giberman,Tomohiro Hoshi, Alistair Isaac, Daniel Long, Lindsay McLeary, SarahPaul, Josh Snyder, Quayshawn Spencer and Johanna Wolff.

Programming Assistance

The Associate Editor (Colin Allen) and the Senior Editor (UriNodelman) have been the Principal and Associate Perl Programmers,respectively, on this project since 1998.Paul Daniell not onlydeveloped a customized search engine for the SEP, butalso developed the software that administers theFriends of the SEP Society. During the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 years, Jesse Alama has contributed his programming skills, in addition to his document editing skills. Eric Hammer (Expedia.com) programmed on the project in its early years, from 1995 to 1997. During the 2000–2001 and 2001–2002 academic years, David James Anderson (M.A./Philosophy) wrote important Perl programs and made other contributions to the project. We'd also like to thank John MacFarlane for developing a program that produces PDF versions of SEP entries in two-column landscape mode.

Web Design Assistance

In March 2014, the SEP launched a new website design. We areindebted to the team atStanford Web Services,and especially Sara Worrell-Berg, Megan Miller, Anna Cobb, and BrianYoung. They did a terrific job with the new design. In thisconnection, we are also indebted to Scott Stocker, Zach Chandler, LisaLapin, and John Etchemendy, for playing a role and helping tofacilitate this initiative.

New Technologies Assistance

TheEncyclopediawould like acknowledge and thank the researchers and programmerswho are contributing to SEP-enhancement initiatives being pursued by theInternet Philosophy Ontology project(InPhO), directed by Colin Allen. Special thanks go to:Cameron Buckner,Ruth Eberle, Nubli Kasa, andJaimie Murdock,Mathias Niepert,Scott Weingart.Using a combination of text mining, human feedback, and machine reasoning,the InPhO project is enhancing such critical functions as cross-referencingthe SEP, classifying topics, and organizing its bibliographic database. We alsoindebted to the InPhO team for hosting a backup server for the SEP.

We are grateful for theMathJax project which we are now starting to use for mathematical formatting in our entries.And we would also like to acknowledgeJohn MacFarlane's work onpandoc, which has become an important part of our workflow in converting LaTeX document to HTMLwith MathJax.

General Assistance

TheEncyclopedia would like to acknowledge the volunteerservices of Gintautas Miliauskas, Greg Stokley, Jason Wu, Yong WeiChong Gabrielle, and Emily Fox-Penner for carefully reading andcopy-editing SEP entries and notifying us about typographical andother errors found therein. We'd like to thank Nathan Tawil, whohelped design theEncyclopedia entry format when the projectstarted in 1995, and who has assisted the Principal Editor in editingcertain entries. We're also indebted toDavid Barker-Plummer, Mark Greaves,Emma Pease,Susanne Riehemann, and Lynn Allen for their many helpful suggestions concerning theEncyclopedia project and the construction of this Web site.