Very Short Introductions

Very Short Introductions (VSI) is a book series published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) since 1995. Books in the series offer concise introductions to particular subjects, intended for a general audience but written by experts in the field. (For example, authors of VSI entries in philosophy include A. J. Ayer, Roger Scruton, A. C. Grayling, and Peter Singer.) Individual titles range from 96 to 224 pages in length, with most between 120 and 180, and nearly all contain suggestions for further reading. While authors may present personal viewpoints, the books are meant to be "balanced and complete" as well as thought provoking.

As of February 2017, there are over 510 titles in the series. The publisher states that "the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library."

The VSI series has been very commercially successful. By 2011, OUP was giving sales figures for the series as over five million copies worldwide, and VSI books have been published in more than 25 languages.

OUP provides an online subscription-based service for institutions where users can read VSI titles. The website allows users to perform cross-searches of the entire series, and the Oxford Index provides integration with other OUP content. The website also allows users to save chapters, books or searches on their profiles, and highlight or make annotations on the text.

Most of the books were written specifically for the VSI series, but around 60 first had life as previous OUP publications. For example, several of the earlier VSI volumes were initially published as part of OUP's Past Masters series, or (in the case of numbers 17–24) as chapters by different authors from The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain (1984).

Six boxed sets, each with a different theme, were released in 2006. Five books from the series on the given theme were included, plus the series' promotional volume A Very Short Introduction to Everything.

The body text is set in Miller in some books, and others are set in OUP Argo; the front page title (and other book titles within the book) is set in Lithos; the sanserif used for headings and in other places is OUP Argo.

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