Top Encyclopedia Sites for Student Research Papers

There are tons of encyclopedia sites online that offer instant access to the information you need to complete your research paper. Here is a list of the best encyclopedia sites to get you started.
1.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online

The online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica is a trusted source used by more than 4,755 universities worldwide, including Oxford, Yale and Harvard. The site includes access to all 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a dictionary, a thesaurus, newspaper and magazine articles and a world atlas. You'll have to work fast though. You can only use this source for free for seven days. After that, you'll need to pay $69.95 a year for full access.

2. Encyclopedia.com

Encyclopedia.com is a free online encyclopedia that allows you to search more than 57,000 articles from the Columbia Encyclopedia. Each article contains links to images, as well as magazine and newspaper pieces. Encyclopedia.com also includes other reference works, such as the Oxford Dictionaries and the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.

3. Bartleby

Bartleby.com has a great collection of free reference materials, books and verse. Searchable encyclopedias include the Columbia Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia of World History, the Columbia Gazetteer of North America, and the World Fact Book.

4. Infoplease

Pearson Education's Infoplease provides free access to more than 57,000 articles from the Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition.) Other references, such as an almanac, dictionaries and a thesaurus make this site a good all around tool for research papers.

5. Questia

The free encyclopedia from Questia includes more than 52,000 entries from the Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition.) There are also loads of supplemental goodies in the reference library, such as full-text books and articles from journals, magazines and newspapers.

6. LoveToKnow Classic Encyclopedia

The LoveToKnow Classic Encyclopedia is a new Internet project that revives the renowned 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. In some circles, this edition is considered to be one of the best encyclopedias ever written. Most entries have been updated with links and new information.

7. Encyclopedia of Life

Encyclopedia of Life is a relatively new Internet venture. Launched in May of 2007, the site's goal is to document all species of life on Earth. The collaborative and constantly updated encyclopedia is free for everyone to use and perfect for students who are writing research papers on science or biology.

8. Scholarpedia

The Scholarpedia site is similar in format to Wikipedia, but it is a much better free resource for research papers. All of the entries have been written and approved by an actual scholar, which means you will have no problems when it comes time to cite sources. Featured encyclopedias cover topics like computational neuroscience, dynamical systems, computational intelligence and astrophysics.

9. MSN Encarta

MSN Encarta is a fantastic online encyclopedia and would rank much higher on this list of you could use it for free. As it is, you must pay $4.95 per month or $29.95 per year for the subscription service that lets you view most encyclopedia entries. Other tools that are available on the site include a thesaurus, homework tools and message boards.

10. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites in the world, but it is not without its problems. Anybody can write and edit Wikipedia entries. This means that you can't always count on the site for factual information. You also can't cite Wikipedia as a source for most student research papers. Nevertheless, Wikipedia is worth visiting because it is free and it can lead you to more valuable and reliable sources of information.