Editing Very Short Introductions (section)

{{short description|Book series}}
{{primary sources|date=May 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox book series
| name = ''Very Short Introductions''
| image = Very Short Introductions.jpg
| image_caption = 
| author = Various
| editors = 
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| discipline = <!-- or |genre= -->
| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]
| pub_date = 1995–present
| media_type = Print (paperback), e-book
| number_of_books = 700+
| list_books = #List of books in the series
| oclc = 911799103
| website = {{URL|https://www.veryshortintroductions.com}}
}}

'''''Very Short Introductions''''' ('''''VSI''''') is a [[book series]] published by the [[Oxford University Press]] (OUP). The books are concise introductions to particular subjects, intended for a general audience but written by experts. Most are under 200-pages long. While authors may present personal viewpoints, the books are meant to be "balanced and complete" as well as thought provoking.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/series/VeryShortIntroductions/|title=Very Short Introductions|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=22 September 2011}}</ref>

The series began in 1995, and by March 2023 there were 730 titles, published or announced.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/v/very-short-introductions-vsi/|title=Very Short Introductions – General Series|publisher=Oxford University Press (UK)|access-date=18 April 2018}}</ref><ref name="oup">{{cite web |url=http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/series/VeryShortIntroductions/ |title=Very Short Introductions |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> The books have been commercially successful,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/academic/series/general/vsi/9780199590599.do?sortby=pubDateAscend&page=32&thumbby=10&thumbby_crawl=10 |title=Languages: A Very Short Introduction |publisher=Oxford University Press (UK) |access-date=2011-12-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224101632/http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/academic/series/general/vsi/9780199590599.do?sortby=pubDateAscend&page=32&thumbby=10&thumbby_crawl=10 |archive-date=24 December 2013 }}</ref> and have been published in more than 25 languages.<ref>{{cite book|last=Glendinning|first=Simon|title=Derrida: A Very Short Introduction|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-280345-0|page=ii}}</ref> Institutions can subscribe to an online service to allow their users to read the books.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.veryshortintroductions.com/ |title=Very Short Introductions |publisher=Oxford University Press (UK) |access-date=2015-02-16}}</ref>

Most of the books have been written specifically for the series, but around 60 were recycled from earlier OUP publications: several had been in OUP's ''[[Past Masters (book series)|Past Masters]]'' series,<ref name="schulz">{{cite magazine |last1=Schulz |first1=Kathryn |title=How to Be a Know-It-All |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/16/how-to-be-a-know-it-all |magazine=The New Yorker |publisher=Condé Nast |access-date=24 January 2023 |date=9 October 2017}}</ref> and numbers 17–24 used chapters from ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain'' (1984).

Each book of the series is numbered on its spine. These numbers broadly, but not exactly, correspond with the publication dates. Two books have been removed from the series: #60, "Shakespeare" by [[Germaine Greer]] was replaced by "William Shakespeare" by [[Stanley Wells]]; and #116, "Anarchism" by [[Colin Ward]] was replaced by "Anarchism" by Alex Prichard.