Press release: Jisc agreement makes philosophy resource openly available

SEP is widely considered amongst the academic community as being an integral part of philosophy teaching and research in the UK. Institutions will have free online access to authoritative peer reviewed material to support those studying philosophy. Jisc’s and the Stanford University’s commitment to open access principles means that the general public can also access these materials for free. 

Jisc funding of membership dues on behalf of UK further and higher institutions contributes to the permanent operating fund securing the SEP’s future. This means that it can continue to be provided on an open access basis as well as being run for the benefit of the global academic community. 

With SEP, staff and students can:

• Download  and store SEP entries for personal use
• Keep up to date with new research as the authors and subject editors work together to constantly revise and review entries to ensure that the SEP remains current and authoritative
• Use SEP across a wide variety of subject disciplines within the sciences and humanities, including aesthetics, ethics, feminism, philosophy of law, logic, metaphysics and philosophy of science
• Access and download certain usage statistics
• Easily find the information they are looking. Users are more likely to find the SEP entries through a web search than any other philosophy reference work

Here’s what some of your colleagues have been saying about the SEP: 

“It's a really great resource, hugely better than any of the published encyclopedias on philosophy.”
Dr David McCarthy, Reader in Philosophy, University of Edinburgh 

“The SEP is a fantastic resource. It has been able to secure the world's top researchers to write its articles. It ensures that they are peer-reviewed and are of a high scholarly standard. But also it ensures that they are clearly and accessibly written, making it an excellent resource for students as well as researchers. The advantages of a resource that can be incrementally improved and updated is also noteworthy.”
Prof Alexander Bird, Professor of Philosophy, University of Bristol 

“SEP is a crucial and very high quality resource for lecturers, researchers and students. Open access needs to be preserved, if possible.”
Dr Sean Crawford, Lecturer in Philosophy, Lancaster University 

“It is one of the most useful of online resources, and all the more welcome at a time of high student numbers when library resources are overstretched.”
Prof Robin Le Poidevin, Professor of Metaphysics, University of Leeds 

“This is a marvellous resource to which I direct all of my students. I really don't know what my institution would do if Jisc did not fund a national agreement…”
Dr Susan Stuart, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Glasgow 

“The usage figures show that people here frequently use the SEP … . The Head of Department says that it is definitely a useful resource for us, providing authoritative articles in a range of central areas of the subject, at a level which is accessible to a number of different types of users.”
Mrs Marion Tattersall, eServices: Collections & User Support Manager, University of Sheffield 

Take advantage of free open access to the SEP today by visiting http://plato.stanford.edu/ to ensure that your institution can benefit from free access to this popular and critically acclaimed online resource.