other editors, Jaucourt was independently wealthy and asked for no payment for his full-time labours. He employed a group of secretaries, out of his own pocket, to help with the effort and to take his dictation. Most of his works consisted of summarising full books and other longer works into encyclopaedia articles, with much content copied verbatim from existing sources, earning him the derision of some contributors that favored more original thought.

Jaucourt did not consistently create original articles expressing his own opinions