The Economist has announced that it is to launch an online archive of over 600,000 pages of articles called The Economist Historical Archive.

The archive covers all the articles and analysis from the 1843-2003 issues and will allow users to either browse the back issues or search by date. A trial of The Economist archives is now available, with the full archive launching in December.

The archive is aimed predominantly at colleges, schools, public libraries, government organisations, corporations and financial institutions. The Economist hopes that as the internet grows, the online archive will revolutionise the way research is conducted.

The Economist’s decision follows the Guardian and Observer’s announcement to make all back issues of both papers available through a similar digital archive. The first phase of the archive, containing the Guardian from 1821 to 1975 and The Observer from 1900 to 1975, is set for launch on November 3.

However, while anyone can subscribe to the Economist archives, individuals are unable to pay for a subscription to the Guardian/Observer archives. Prices start from £1,500 per year for small academic institutions but prices will vary depending on the size of the institution.