Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy: a dynamic reference work

The primary goal of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy project $< $http://plato.stanford.edu/$>$ is to produce an authoritative and comprehensive reference work devoted to the academic discipline of philosophy that will be kept up to date ally so as to remain useful to those in academia and the general public. To accomplish this goal we have designed and implemented web-based software by which academic philosophers can collaboratively write and maintain such a `dynamic reference work'. Our implementation has features that are not found in any other online reference work in any discipline, and that enable the profession of philosophy to maintain such a reference work without the cost or level of staff support required for traditional reference work publishing.