Overview

This book investigates more than 350 years of scientific journal publishing through the epic tale of the Philosophical Transactions, from its first publication to full digitisation in the modern era. Unrivalled insights from the Royal Society archives reveal a story of meaning and purpose in a changing scientific community.

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9781800082342

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Reviews

'this book is important as it captures the history of the first ever science journals and their subsequent evolution' Journal of Applied Crystallography 'In this study, four historians recount and analyse the society's publishing history up to 2015 - including the journal Proceedings, launched in 1831 - with erudition and acuteness.' Nature

'This impressive piece of historical scholarship not only makes a significant contribution to the history of scientific publishing but also illustrates the remarkable possibilities of historical collaboration and open- access publication.' Physics Today 'a tour de force of a book that will provide much for historians of science, of the early modern period, of publishing, of materials science, of social interactions and gentlemanly behaviours, of peer review and of the finances of the Royal Society. And much more besides.' British Journal for the History of Science 'this book is important as it captures the history of the first ever science journals and their subsequent evolution' Journal of Applied Crystallography 'In this study, four historians recount and analyse the society's publishing history up to 2015 - including the journal Proceedings, launched in 1831 - with erudition and acuteness.' Nature

'a tour de force of a book that will provide much for historians of science, of the early modern period, of publishing, of materials science, of social interactions and gentlemanly behaviours, of peer review and of the finances of the Royal Society. And much more besides.' British Journal for the History of Science 'this book is important as it captures the history of the first ever science journals and their subsequent evolution' Journal of Applied Crystallography 'In this study, four historians recount and analyse the society's publishing history up to 2015 - including the journal Proceedings, launched in 1831 - with erudition and acuteness.' Nature

Author Information

Aileen Fyfe is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews, UK. She is a social and cultural historian of science and technology, who researches the publication and popularisation of the sciences. She is the author many articles and books, including Science and Salvation (2004), Steam-Powered Knowledge (2012), and the briefing paper Untangling Academic Publishing (2017). She is currently writing about the history of peer review and research evaluation, and the economic models underlying journal publishing. Noah Moxham is a specialist in the histories of early modern science and communication. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in History at the University of St Andrews from 2013-17. He then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in History at the University of Kent. He is the author of several articles on the relationship between scientific publishing and scientific institutions in the seventeenth century, and co-editor of News Networks in Early Modern Europe 1450-1750 (Brill, 2016). Julie McDougall-Waters was a postdoctoral research fellow in History at the University of St Andrews from 2013-17, working on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century book trade and intellectual history. Camilla Mørk Røstvik is Associate Professor in History at University of Agder, Norway. Until Summer 2022, she was a Lecturer in Modern & Contemporary Art History at the University of Aberdeen, UK. She previously held research fellowships in History and Art History at the University of St Andrews; and at the University of Leeds. Her research interests lie in the intersection of the histories of science/medicine, the history of art, and gender studies, particularly in the mid-late twentieth century. She is the author of Cash Flow: The Businesses of Menstruation (2022), and is the founder of the Wellcome Trust-funded Menstruation Network UK, and of the Scottish Government-funded project ‘The Arctic Period: Menstruation and Knowledge across Borders’.

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