As of the latest update to this page on 13 May 2013, the encyclopedia contains 13,911 entries totalling 4,095,324 words. There are 146,305 internal hyperlinks between entries, corresponding to cross-references in the book editions. (At this third edition's launch in October 2011, the figures were 12,230 entries, 3,222,920 words and 113,492 hyperlinks.) For comparison, the second print edition (1993) had 6571 entries totalling 1,311,108 words, with 41,712 internal cross-references; the slightly expanded CD-ROM (1995) had 6732 entries totalling 1,378,261 words, with 43,302 internal links. The first edition (1979), assembled without word processors, ran to 3574 entries and an estimated 730,000 words; no one has been able to face counting the internal cross-references.
The entry count for each edition includes many cross-reference entries which have little or no actual content but refer readers to other entries where their subject is covered. Many such cross-references are author pseudonyms such as "French, Paul / Pseudonym of Isaac Asimov."; see Editorial Practices for more. Thus the entry count breaks down to 2865 full and 709 cross-reference entries in the first edition; an estimated 4360+ full and 2100 cross-reference entries in the second edition; 4530 full and 2202 cross-reference entries in the CD-ROM edition; and 9382 full and 4529 cross-reference entries in the current state of this third edition.
Of the major contributors, John Clute again leads the pack with 4959 entries written solo and 909 more in collaboration, many of the former (he wishes to emphasize) being short, and the latter generally being updates to already existing entries. The figures for other contributors of 30 or more solo entries, with joint credits added in parentheses, are:
For the purposes of this "league table" we give credit for each separately signed section within large omnium-gatherum entries like Batman Films and Tarzan Films, which seems only fair.
For the sake of sanity, this "Statistics" entry is not necessarily updated for every small change or correction to the encyclopedia's text. The total number of images in the Picture Gallery archive is automatically updated on that page [see links below] whenever new material is added.
links
Previous versions of this entry