Britannica has been a global leader in information since 1768. We’ve gone from publishing encyclopedia sets to selling CD-ROMs (which may seem even more quaint today than books) to going fully digital. What hasn’t changed is our commitment to being clear, fair, accurate, and relevant.
Why should you trust what you read at Britannica?
That’s a very fair question, and the fact that you thought to ask it means that you know that not all information is created equal. So consider:
- Britannica’s editorial staff is made up of writers and editors who have extensive knowledge in their fields, which range from geography to botany to technology and beyond.
- Britannica commissions work from experts, including leading thinkers in academia and journalism. Notable contributions have come from Nobel laureates and world leaders. Think we’re blowing smoke? Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Madeleine Albright, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, among others, have all written for Britannica.
It’s about our process as much as our people
- Once an article is written, it is reviewed and revised by a team of editors.
- Articles are edited to make sure that they cover the important points a reader needs to know, are written in an engaging way, and are fair, making clear not only what is known about a topic but also what may still be in dispute.
- They are fact-checked according to a 14-point checklist to ensure that we have not only captured the big picture of a topic but also verified all the details.
Making sure it stays right
Unlike the days when the encyclopedia was printed and couldn’t be changed for upwards of a year, today editors at Britannica are continuously updating and revising content.
- When news happens, the relevant Britannica articles are updated by our staff editors or supplemented by a feed from our news partners. Our goal is to go deeper than the who, what, and when of a news event. We want Britannica to be the authoritative source for the context and history you need: the why and the how.
- When we hear from readers about possible mistakes, we investigate and, when necessary, correct. (Mistakes happen, even with a highly exacting process. We are human, after all.) If you have feedback, let us know at [emailprotected]or by clicking on the feedback button that appears on articles.
Trust, but verify
If after reading all this, you’re still not sure about our process, know that we make it transparent to readers and users how, why, and when we revise articles. Just click on Article History in any article to see what has been done—from adding media to fixing the way an article appears on your phone to updating for developments and more.
FAQs
Trust Britannica Library as a reliable source with objective, fact-check, and unbiased content that is written by experts and vetted through rigorous editorial process. Take a look at our editorial process which serves as the backbone of our products, experiences, and content.
Has anyone ever read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica? ›
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World is a book by Esquire editor A. J. Jacobs, published in 2004. It recounts his experience of reading the entire Encyclopædia Britannica; all 32 volumes of the 2002 edition, extending to over 33,000 pages with some 44 million words.
Can anyone edit a Britannica article? ›
Once returned to Britannica, the article, with any changes supplied by the author, may again be edited and reviewed by content and supervisory editors and by copy editors. The article will then be published, and the author's name will be associated with it in the article's history.
Who is the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica? ›
Tracy Grant is editor in chief of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Is Britannica an acceptable academic source? ›
The Encyclopedia Britannica contains carefully edited articles on all major topics. It fits the ideal purpose of a reference work as a place to get started, or to refer back to as you read and write. The articles in Britannica are written by expert authors who are both identifiable and credible.
How trusted is Britannica? ›
Britannica has been widely recognized as the ultimate reliable source for comprehensive deep research with Britannica School, Britannica Academic, and Britannica Library. Our image library is second to none, with ImageQuest featuring 3.25 million images from over 62 collections.
Did Elon Musk read the Encyclopedia Britannica? ›
It's said that he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica at age nine and would pore through science fiction novels for more than 10 hours a day. When asked how he learned about rockets, Musk reportedly said, “I read books.” His voracious reading habit was essential to launching his history-making career.
Did Elon Musk read Britannica? ›
Long before he became the CEO of Tesla, and even before he cofounded PayPal, a young Elon Musk was reading science-fiction novels for up to 10 hours a day. He also reportedly read through the entire Encyclopedia Britannica when he was 9 years old. He still credits a love of books for his vast knowledge about rockets.
Is Britannica more credible than Wikipedia? ›
Encyclopædia Britannica also argued that a breakdown of the errors indicated that the mistakes in Wikipedia were more often the inclusion of incorrect facts, while the mistakes in Britannica were "errors of omission", making "Britannica far more accurate than Wikipedia, according to the figures".
When was Britannica last edited? ›
The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition.
Encyclopedias are considered a scholarly source because the content is almost always written by scholars on the subject. However, the entries are not written for other scholars but for a general audience. Entries are reviewed by an editorial board, but they are not “peer-reviewed”.
When was Britannica last modified? ›
Its first edition was published in 1768-1771 in 3 volumes, a second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810) it had expanded to 20 volumes and was published in 1929, and has been revised with reorganization till 1973. The last print version was its 2010 edition.
Is Britannica owned by Merriam Webster? ›
In 1964, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., acquired Merriam-Webster, Inc., as a subsidiary.
How long does it take to read the Encyclopedia Britannica? ›
If one were to read the entire printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (2002), consisting of 32 volumes, 33,000 pages, and 44 million words, it would take a reader 153 days.
Does the Encyclopedia Britannica still exist? ›
In 2012, after 244 years, Britannica ended the print editions, with the 32 volumes of the 2010 installment being the last on paper; future editions have been published exclusively online since.
Is Encyclopedia Britannica citable? ›
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed., s.v. “Internet.” Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009. If you are citing the entire encyclopedia/dictionary and not a specific article, exclude the following parts of the citation: the authors, the article title, and the “s.v.” abbreviation. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed.
Is the encyclopedia a reliable source? ›
If you need background information on a topic, or need to find out who the major theorists are in a field, you can find that information in encyclopedias. Note: While encyclopedias are reviewed and edited before being published, they are not peer reviewed and should rarely be cited in scholarly writing.
