Research Guides: Quick Reference Guide: Encyclopedias

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General Encyclopedias

Purpose Statement: Provide a list of key authoritative, free, or UCI-licensed, web-based English-language encyclopedias and finding tools for encyclopedias, which provide instructors and students in the major disciplines at UCI with easy access to frequently updated, comprehensive overviews of relevant topics, as well as bibliographies.

Columbia Encyclopedia 6th ed.
Brief, factual entries on a variety of topics.
Wikipedia
This free encyclopedia contains entries and contributions by volunteers that are not refereed and should be verified. Most contain extensive information with references in a short essay format.

Subject Encyclopedias

Artcyclopedia
The Fine Art Search Engine.
Encyclopedia of Life
This encyclopedia contains images and videos of different animals, plants, and species with descriptions provided.
HyperHistory
HyperHistory is an expanding scientific project presenting 3,000 years of world history with an interactive combination of synchronoptic lifelines, timelines, and maps.
Medical Encyclopedia
This Encyclopedia is known as Medlineplus from the National Library of Medicine.

Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Scholarly music encyclopedia that includes the essential New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Use this to find factual information about composers, performers, genres, geographic-specific music, instruments, etc. Equally important are the lengthy bibliographies on each topic and the composer works listings, which are the standard index to find pieces in the collected works of each composer.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Oxford Art Online is an online reference resource for art and art history. It includes articles that span ancient to contemporary art and architecture including topical overviews and detailed artist biographies with bibliographies for further research. It also includes some images and artist signatures. Oxford Art Online combines Grove Art Online (scholarly art encyclopedia), and the Benezit Dictionary of Artists (artist biographies).
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary reference database that searches across Oxford's Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias. In addition to topic or subject searching, it offers timeline searching.
SAGE eReference This link opens in a new window
A social sciences platform for SAGE and CQ Press resources. Access eBooks, debates, dictionaries, handbooks, and encyclopedias with an easy search by subject discipline or collection options.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
This is an open access encyclopedia which UCI supports monetarily. Edited by Edward N. Zalta.
Wex Legal Encyclopedia
Wex is a free legal dictionary and encyclopedia sponsored and hosted by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School. It is a collaboratively-edited legal dictionary and encyclopedia and is intended for a broad audience of people referred to as "law novices." Potentially, anyone qualified can contribute content, but access to the Wex authoring apparatus is limited as a way of ensuring that the quality of material remains high.
More information about Wex can be found in the Wex FAQ. Here's a list of all pages.. Wex limits who can be an author or editor as a way of ensuring that the quality of material remains high and free of vandalism of various kinds.