The Embryo Project Encyclopedia is a digital and Open Access publication of the Embryo Project. Begun in 2007, the Encyclopedia and the Embryo Project are funded by the US National Science Foundation in Washington D.C., and by Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. The Embryo Project is a collection of researchers who study the historical and social contexts of developmental and reproductive biology.
Embryo Project researchers pursue three broad goals. They work to communicate with inclusive audiences about reproductive medicine, developmental biology, and embryology. They also research those sciences with historical and computational methods. Finally, they develop university classes and programs in which students can learn and employ those methods to make products of lasting value. Most Embryo Project researchers work at Arizona State, but some work in Canada, Australia, and in several countries in Europe. Since 2007, hundreds of scholars and researchers have participated in the Embryo Project.
The Embryo Project Encyclopedia publishes the highest quality work from Embryo Project researchers. The Encyclopedia aims to show readers how to think scientifically—how to identify evidence, how to generate it from experiments, how to relate it to theories, and how to change beliefs and revise theories in light of new evidence. The Encyclopedia also aims to show readers how societal contexts influence people as they evaluate evidence and theories.
To pursue those goals, items published in the Encyclopedia use historical narratives to show how people pursue and interpret science, how science is part of society, and how society is part of science.
Within the Encyclopedia, you can find hundreds of descriptive articles about reproductive medicine, developmental biology, and embryology. You can also find thousands of objects such as photographs, microscope slides, and videos. Next, you can find dozens of items such as animations, graphics, and timelines that help users visualize topics. Finally, with EP Essays, users can find longer articles that help them interpret and apply the history of reproductive medicine, developmental biology, and embryology.
All items published in the Encyclopedia receive rigorous peer and editorial reviews. The descriptive articles in the Encyclopedia are written, peer reviewed, and edited to be factual, non-evaluative, and when possible, to connect users to Open Access versions of scientific and governmental documents, which enable users to verify the claims in the articles. Published EP Essays receive scholarly peer review, the same process used by research journals. Finally, all items are archived according to Dublin Core Metadata standards.
The Embryo Project Encyclopedia is a publication with an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) of 1940-5030. All items published in it are archived in the Digital History and Philosophy of Science Repository. All items are Open Access, freely accessible, and are published with a Creative Commons license BY-NC-SA 3.0.
The Encyclopedia publishes several new items per week. You can explore the Encyclopedia by using the search box, by browsing with the toolbar, or by clicking ton highlighted terms.
You can interact with the Embryo Project using social media. Follow the project on Facebook, on Twitter, or with our RSS feeds to receive news about people who contribute to the project, improvements to the project, and new items in the Encyclopedia. If you see an item in the Encyclopedia that you like, please share it using the social media buttons at the bottom of every page. And if you see an error, please use the contact us link at the bottom of each page to notify us so that we can correct it.
