Oxford Reference (OR) is a research website launched by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

(OUP) in 2012 which provides entries from

reference works A reference work is a document, such as a paper, book or periodical (or their electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information is intended to be found quickly when needed. Such works are usually ''referred'' ...

largely published by OUP, such as

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

, encyclopedias, and companions. It was preceded by Oxford Reference Online (ORO), which was launched in 2002.

History

Oxford Reference Online

Oxford Reference Online (ORO) was first launched in 2002, including such titles as

Concise Oxford English Dictionary The ''Concise Oxford English Dictionary'' (officially titled ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary'' until 2002, and widely abbreviated ''COD'' or ''COED'') is one of the best-known of the 'smaller' Oxford dictionaries. The latest edition contains o ...

and Fowler's Modern English Usage. Subscription costs started at £175 per year for schools, £500 for libraries and FE colleges, and £2,500 for large universities. The amount of titles in ORO increased from the initial 13 to 31 titles by 2009.

Relaunch

In Autumn 2012, OUP decided to relaunch the website as Oxford Reference, incorporating the previous Oxford Reference Online as well as Oxford Reference Online Premium and Oxford Digital Reference Shelf into a single platform.

Content

Oxford Reference draws from over 300 reference works to provide its entries, ranging from dictionaries, encyclopedias, quotation books, companions. With more than 2 million individual entries and new ones added monthly, sourced works primarily include publications by OUP, in addition to a small number of partner publications. As with its predecessor, pricing varies depending on the subscribing institution, although specific prices are not publicly available.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Refend British online encyclopedias Oxford University Press