The Steering Committee of the ARS recommends Gregory Salmieri’s “An Introduction to the Study of Ayn Rand” as an overview of Rand’s thought for academic audience. This piece is the introduction to A Companion to Ayn Rand (Wiley-Blackwell 2016), edited by Allan Gotthelf and Gregory Salmieri, which is the most extensive reference volume on Rand. Prior to the publication of this work, the Society featured a revised (and occasionally updated) version of Gotthelf and Salmieri’s earlier entry on Rand for A Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers (Thoemmes Continuum, 2005) as an “Overview of Objectivism“; we will continue to maintain that piece online. We also maintain a bibliography of Rand’s works and of the most significant reference works concerning her. A more extensive annotated bibliography can be found in the Companion.
There are entries on Rand in both the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, both of which were written by philosophers who have spoken on ARS panels.
The Ayn Rand Institute hosts the Ayn Rand Lexicon (edited by Harry Binswanger), which is a topically organized compendium of excerpts by Rand (and a few associates).