Editing Encyclopædia Britannica (section)

== Critical and popular assessments ==
=== Reputation ===
[[File:EB1 Plate 003 lark flower.gif|thumb|upright=0.8|A [[intaglio printing|copperplate]] by [[Andrew Bell (engraver)|Andrew Bell]] from the [[History of the Encyclopædia Britannica|1st edition]]]]
Since the 3rd edition, the ''Britannica'' has enjoyed a popular and critical reputation for general excellence,<ref name="library_association_1996">{{cite book | year = 1996 | title = Purchasing an Encyclopedia: 12 Points to Consider | edition = 5th | publisher = Booklist Publications, American Library Association | isbn = 978-0-8389-7823-8 | author = reviews by the Editorial Board of Reference Books Bulletin; revised introduction by Sandy Whiteley. | url = https://archive.org/details/purchasingencycl00amer }}</ref><ref name="kister_1994" /><ref name="sader_1995">{{cite book | last1 = Sader | first1 = Marian | last2 = Lewis | first2 = Amy | year = 1995 | title = Encyclopedias, Atlases, and Dictionaries | publisher = R. R. Bowker (A Reed Reference Publishing Company) | location = New Providence, New Jersey | isbn = 978-0-8352-3669-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/encyclopediasatl00sade }}</ref> though this reputation has not been without its critics.<ref name="brit-myth" /> The 3rd and 9th editions were pirated for sale in the United States,<ref name="kogan_1958" /> beginning with ''[[Dobson's Encyclopædia]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Arner |first=Robert D. |url=https://archive.org/details/dobsonsencyclopa00arne |title=Dobson's Encyclopaedia: The Publisher, Text, and Publication of America's First Britannica, 1789–1803 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-8122-3092-5 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |language=en}}</ref> On the release of the 14th edition, ''Time'' magazine dubbed the ''Britannica'' the "Patriarch of the Library".<ref>{{cite magazine | url = https://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,732859-1,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071013114612/https://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,732859-1,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 13 October 2007 | title = Patriarch Revised | magazine= Time | volume = XIV | number = 13 | date = 23 September 1929 | pages = 66–69}}</ref> In a related advertisement, naturalist [[William Beebe]] was quoted as saying that the ''Britannica'' was "beyond comparison because there is no competitor".<ref>{{cite magazine | title = A Completely New Encyclopaedia (''sic'') Britannica | magazine= Time | volume = XIV | number = 12 | date = 16 September 1929 | pages = 2–3}}</ref> References to the ''Britannica'' can be found throughout [[English literature]], most notably in one of [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]{{'s}} favourite [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories, "[[The Red-Headed League]]". The tale was highlighted by the [[Lord Mayor of London]], [[Gilbert Inglefield]], at the [[Bicentennial of the Encyclopædia Britannica|bicentennial of the ''Britannica'']].<ref name="EB_bicentennial" />

The ''Britannica'' has a reputation for summarizing knowledge.<ref name="thomas_1992">{{cite book | last = Thomas | first = Gillian | year = 1992 | title = A Position to Command Respect: Women and the Eleventh Britannica | publisher = [[Rowman & Littlefield|Scarecrow Press]] | isbn = 978-0-8108-2567-3 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/positiontocomman0000thom }}</ref> To further their education, some people have devoted themselves to reading the entire ''Britannica'', taking anywhere from three to 22 years to do so.<ref name="kogan_1958" /> When [[Fath-Ali Shah Qajar|Fat'h Ali]] became the [[Qajar dynasty|Shah of Persia]] in 1797, he was given a set of the ''Britannica''{{'s}} 3rd edition; after reading the complete set, he extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the {{lang|la|Encyclopædia Britannica}}".<ref name="EB_bicentennial">{{cite book |title=Banquet at Guildhall in the City of London, Tuesday 15 October 1968: Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and the 25th Anniversary of the Honorable William Benton as its Chair and publisher |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|Encyclopædia Britannica International, Limited]] |year=1968 |location=United Kingdom}}</ref>

Writer [[George Bernard Shaw]] has claimed to have read the complete 9th edition, except for the science articles;<ref name="kogan_1958" /> [[Richard Evelyn Byrd]] took the ''Britannica'' as reading material for his five-month stay at the [[South Pole]] in 1934; and [[Philip Beaver]] read it during a sailing expedition. More recently, [[A. J. Jacobs]], an editor at ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine, read the entire 2002 version of the 15th edition, describing his experiences in the well-received 2004 book ''[[The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World]]''. Only two people are known to have read two independent editions: the author [[C. S. Forester]]<ref name="kogan_1958" /> and [[Amos Urban Shirk]], an American businessman who read the 11th and 14th editions, devoting roughly three hours per night for four and a half years to read the 11th.<ref>{{cite magazine | title = Reader |magazine=The New Yorker | volume = 9 | date = 3 March 1934 | page = 17}}</ref>

=== Awards ===
The CD/DVD-ROM version of the ''Britannica'', ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite]]'', received the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award from the [[Association of Educational Publishers]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.edpress.org/awards/04tech.htm | title = 2004 Distinguished Achievement Awards Winners: Technology | date = 1 August 2003 | access-date =11 April 2007 | publisher = [[Association of Educational Publishers]]|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061017162810/https://www.edpress.org/awards/04tech.htm |archive-date = 17 October 2006}}</ref> On 15&nbsp;July 2009, {{lang|la|Encyclopædia Britannica}} was awarded a spot as one of "Top Ten Superbrands in the UK" by a panel of more than 2,000 independent reviewers, as reported by the BBC.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8149460.stm | title = Top Ten Superbrands 2009–2010 | access-date = 15 July 2009 | publisher = BBC | date = 14 July 2009 | archive-date = 17 February 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220217080802/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8149460.stm | url-status = live }}</ref>

=== Coverage of topics ===
Topics are chosen in part by reference to the {{lang|la|Propædia}} "Outline of Knowledge".<ref name="propedia_preface" /> The bulk of the 15th edition of the ''Britannica'' is devoted to geography (26% of the {{lang|la|Macropædia}}), biography (14%), biology and medicine (11%), literature (7%), physics and astronomy (6%), religion (5%), art (4%), Western philosophy (4%), and law (3%).<ref name="kister_1994" /> A complementary study of the {{lang|la|Micropædia}} found that geography accounted for 25% of articles, science 18%, social sciences 17%, biography 17%, and all other humanities 25%.<ref name="sader_1995" /> Writing in 1992, one reviewer judged that the "range, depth, and [[wikt:catholicity|catholicity]] of coverage [of the ''Britannica''] are unsurpassed by any other general Encyclopaedia."<ref>{{cite book |last=Lang |first=J. P. |title=Reference Sources for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries |publisher=American Library Association |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-8389-3406-7 |edition=5th |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=34 |language=en}}</ref>

The ''Britannica'' does not cover topics in equal detail; for example, the whole of [[Buddhism]] and most other religions is covered in a single {{lang|la|Macropædia}} article, whereas 14 articles are devoted to Christianity, comprising nearly half of all religion articles.<ref name="macropaedia_2007">{{Cite journal |last=Goetz |first=Philip W. |year=2007 |title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica |journal=Encyclopaedia Britannica Incorporated |edition=15th edition, {{lang|la|Macropædia}} |location=Chicago, Illinois |bibcode=1991neb..book.....G}}</ref> The ''Britannica'' covers 50,479 biographies, 5,999 of them about women, with 11.87% being British citizens and 25.51% US citizens.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gonzalez Larrañaga |first1=Galder |last2=Perez de Viñaspre Garralda |first2=Olatz |date=16 March 2023 |title=Nor da nor Lur Hiztegi Entziklopedikoan? Euskarazko lehenengo entziklopediaren demografia digital alderatua |url=http://www.uztaro.eus/artikulua/174/nor-da-nor-lur-hiztegi-entziklopedikoan-euskarazko-lehenengo-entziklopediaren-demografia-digital-alderatua/2161 |journal=Uztaro. Giza Eta Gizarte-zientzien Aldizkaria |issue=124 |pages=25–49 |doi=10.26876/uztaro.124.2023.2|s2cid=257423956 |doi-access=free }}</ref> However, the ''Britannica'' has been lauded as the ''least'' biased of general Encyclopaedias marketed to Western readers<ref name="kister_1994" /> and praised for its biographies of important women of all eras.<ref name="sader_1995" />

{{blockquote|It can be stated without fear of contradiction that the 15th edition of the ''Britannica'' accords non-Western cultural, social, and scientific developments more notice than any general English-language encyclopedia currently on the market.|[[Kenneth Kister]]|in ''Kister's Best Encyclopedias'' (1994)}}

=== Criticism of editorial decisions ===
Harvey Einbinder in the ''Myth of the Britannica'' criticised the 11th edition for the inaccessibility of the text for laymen, saying that many of its articles were too technical for people unfamiliar to the subject to understand.<ref name="brit-myth" /><sup>152-153</sup> He made similar criticisms of many of the mathematics and science articles of the then-current 14th edition.<ref name="brit-myth" /><sup>236-250</sup>

On rare occasions, the ''Britannica'' has been criticized for its editorial choices. Given its roughly constant size, the encyclopaedia has needed to reduce or eliminate some topics to accommodate others, resulting in controversial decisions. The initial 15th edition (1974–1985) was faulted for having reduced or eliminated coverage of children's literature, [[military decoration]]s, and the French poet [[Joachim du Bellay]]; editorial mistakes were also alleged, such as inconsistent sorting of Japanese biographies.<ref name="Newsweek_1974" /> Its elimination of the index was condemned, as was the apparently arbitrary division of articles into the {{lang|la|Micropædia}} and {{lang|la|Macropædia}}.<ref name="kister_1994" /><ref name="15th_criticism" /> Summing up, one critic called the initial 15th edition a "qualified failure ... [that] cares more for juggling its format than for preserving."<ref name="Newsweek_1974">{{cite magazine | last = Prescott | first = Peter S. | title = The Fifteenth Britannica | magazine = Newsweek | date = 8 July 1974 | pages = 71–72}}</ref> More recently, reviewers from the [[American Library Association]] were surprised to find that most educational articles had been eliminated from the 1992 {{lang|la|Macropædia}}, along with the article on [[psychology]].<ref name="library_association_1992" /> Harvey Einbinder in ''The Myth of the Britannica'' criticised the practice of condensing entries in the 14th edition, which usually involved simply removing large amounts of the text rather than attempting to condense it by rewriting, resulting in what he considered to be considerable reduction in the quality of the articles.<ref name="brit-myth" /><sup>151-168</sup>

Some very few ''Britannica''-appointed contributors are mistaken. A notorious instance from the ''Britannica''{{'s}} early years is the rejection of [[Newtonian gravity]] by [[George Gleig]], the chief editor of the 3rd edition (1788–1797), who wrote that gravity was caused by the [[fire (classical element)|classical element of fire]].<ref name="kogan_1958" /> The ''Britannica'' has also staunchly defended a scientific approach to cultural topics, as it did with [[William Robertson Smith]]'s articles on religion in the 9th edition, particularly his article stating that the Bible was not historically accurate (1875).<ref name="kogan_1958" />

=== Other criticisms ===
The ''Britannica'' has received criticism, particularly as editions become outdated. It is expensive to produce a completely new edition of the ''Britannica'',{{efn|1=According to Kister, the initial 15th edition (1974) required over $32&nbsp;million to produce.<ref name="kister_1994" />}} and its editors delay for as long as fiscally sensible (usually about 25 years).<ref name="encyclopaedia_1954" />

For example, despite continuous revision, the 14th edition became outdated after 35 years (1929–1964). When American physicist [[Harvey Einbinder]] detailed its failings in his 1964 book, ''The Myth of the Britannica'',<ref name="brit-myth" /> the encyclopaedia was provoked to produce the 15th edition, which required 10 years of work.<ref name="kister_1994" /> Editors have struggled at times to keep the ''Britannica'' current: one 1994 critic writes, "It is not difficult to find articles that are out-of-date or in need of revision", noting that the longer {{lang|la|Macropædia}} articles are more likely to be outdated than the shorter {{lang|la|Micropædia}} articles.<ref name="kister_1994" /> Information in the {{lang|la|Micropædia}} is sometimes inconsistent with the corresponding {{lang|la|Macropædia}} article(s), mainly because of the failure to update one or the other.<ref name="library_association_1996" /><ref name="sader_1995" /> The bibliographies of the {{lang|la|Macropædia}} articles have been criticized for being more out-of-date than the articles themselves.<ref name="library_association_1996" /><ref name="kister_1994" /><ref name="sader_1995" />

In 2005, a 12-year-old schoolboy in Britain found several inaccuracies in the ''Britannica''{{'s}} entries on Poland and wildlife in Eastern Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|date=26 January 2005|title=Schoolboy spots errors in Encyclopaedia Britannica|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/jan/26/schools.uk2|access-date=10 April 2021|website=[[The Guardian]] |archive-date=15 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815161000/https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/jan/26/schools.uk2|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2010, an entry about the [[Irish Civil War]], which incorrectly described it as having been fought between the north and south of Ireland, was discussed in the Irish press following a decision by the [[Department of Education (Ireland)|Department of Education and Science]] to pay for online access.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.ie/national-news/britannica-errors-spark-unholy-row-2045150.html |title=Britannica errors spark unholy row |work=[[Irish Independent]] |date=3 February 2010 |access-date=30 August 2010 |first=Grainne |last=Cunningham |archive-date=13 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413151752/http://www.independent.ie/national-news/britannica-errors-spark-unholy-row-2045150.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Sheehy |first=Clodagh |date=4 February 2010 |url=https://www.herald.ie/news/are-they-taking-the-mick-its-the-encyclopedia-that-thinks-the-civil-war-was-between-the-north-and-south-27940930.html |title=Are they taking the Mick? It's the encyclopedia that thinks the Civil War was between the north and south |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112010448/https://www.herald.ie/news/are-they-taking-the-mick-its-the-encyclopedia-that-thinks-the-civil-war-was-between-the-north-and-south-27940930.html |archive-date=12 November 2020 |url-status=dead |work=[[The Herald (Ireland)|Evening Herald]] |location=Dublin}}</ref>

Writing about the 3rd edition (1788–1797), ''Britannica''{{'s}} chief editor George Gleig observed that "perfection seems to be incompatible with the nature of works constructed on such a plan and embracing such a variety of subjects."<ref>{{cite book|title=Supplement to the Encyclopædia or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Miscellaneous Literature|year=1803|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=g3YBulnow6IC&pg=PR4 iv]}}</ref> In March 2006, the ''Britannica'' wrote, "we in no way mean to imply that ''Britannica'' is error-free; we have never made such a claim".<ref name="fatally_flawed" /> However, the ''Britannica'' sales department had previously made a well-known claim in 1962 regarding the 14th edition that "[i]t is truth. It is unquestionable fact."<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Information Storage and Retrieval |first=Foster |last=Stockwell |page=116}}</ref> The sentiment of the 2006 statement was also reflected in the introduction to the first edition of the ''Britannica'', written by its original editor [[William Smellie (encyclopedist)|William Smellie]]:<ref>William Smellie in the [[s: Preface to the 1st edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica|Preface]] to the 1st edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>

{{blockquote|With regard to errors in general, whether falling under the denomination of mental, typographical or accidental, we are conscious of being able to point out a greater number than any critic whatever. Men who are acquainted with the innumerable difficulties attending the execution of a work of such an extensive nature will make proper allowances. To these we appeal, and shall rest satisfied with the judgment they pronounce.}}