Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Online peer-reviewed encyclopaedia
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History
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. By the 2010s, the general editors were philosophers James Fieser and Bradley Dowden (since 1999), with a staff of thirty faculty members as subject-area editors plus numerous volunteers. The entire website was redesigned in 2009, transitioning to the open source and content management system known as WordPress. In 2025, it contained about 900 articles.
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Organization
The general editors supervise thirty subject-area editors, who help recruit authors and referees. The area editors supervise the blind-refereeing process. 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.
Usage
During any twelve month period, it receives 8.2 million unique viewers, making it the most visited encyclopedia of professionally written philosophy articles. Similarweb analytics, as well as Google Analytics, say 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.
Recognition
The IEP is included by the American Library Association in its listing of Best Free Reference Sites; listed as an online philosophy resource by the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations; listed by EpistemeLinks as one of the "outstanding resources" in philosophy on the internet; and listed as a reliable resource in many university philosophy guides.