Today, academic publishing follows a certain formula. Scientific papers are sent to the editors and they have to pass a peer review to be published. Usually, editors and referees require authors to follow certain criteria: an abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion and references.220 This chapter examines the process which led to these modern practices of academic publishing. First, the international development of scientific journals is considered and then the publishing activities of four Finnish societies under study.
In the early decades of modern science, research results and discoveries reached the reading public via two channels. The author could publish work as a monograph, which usually meant distribution of a few hundred copies. The woodcut illustrations, typical of sixteenth century works, made publishing quite expensive, and printers financed only books they assumed would sell well – something usually not expected of a scientific book. Therefore, an author often needed a patron who provided fund-ing for printfund-ing and illustrations and, in return, had his noble name immortalised in a dedication page. The Renaissance academies seldom published, but their members could increase the authority of their texts by using their names. For instance, Galileo proudly used the title Linceo in print.221 If funding was not available, or the research findings were not extensive enough to be published in a monograph, scientists dis-seminated the results of their work to their colleagues by correspondence. Unlike usual letters, scientific news was not of a private nature. Letters were read, copied and sent to others, according to the rules of openness with information in the Republic of Letters.222
In the course of the seventeenth century, commerce de lettres increased, which led to efforts to organise and formalise the flow of scientific information. The first secretary of the Royal Society Henry Oldenburg, together with Marin Mersenne in Paris and some others, collected, copied and redistributed letters to erudites all over Europe.
Oldenburg was soon to realise his task too laborious, and to ease the burden, he launched a new type of publication, a journal entitled Philosophical Transactions, in May 1665. It was a revolutionary step in many ways. Appearing at regular intervals,
220 Meadows 1998, pp. 11-13.
221 Knight 1980, pp. 24-25, 28-30; Gibson 1982, pp. 145-146; Kusukawa 2000, p. 97.
222 Kronick 1976, pp. 56-57; Manten 1980, pp. 3-4; Gibson 1982, pp. 146-148; Broman 2000, p. 228;
McClellan 1985, p. 44.
the journal encouraged scientists to publish research results in the form of a short article, instead of a slow and expensive process of printing a monograph. Published papers guaranteed scientists priority for their discoveries better than letters, whose copying and distributing could not be controlled. Of equal significance was the refereeing mechanism. At the beginning, the editor of the Philosophical Transactions, with the help of the members of the Royal Society, reviewed the papers but in 1752 a special committee was appointed for this purpose. Moreover, texts written in the vernacular connected academics and laymen, thus promoting discussion on scientific questions.223
Philosophical Transactions has often been regarded as a prototype of scientific jour-nals, but it was not the first. Four months earlier a Frenchman, Dennis de Sallo, had published the first number of his Journal des Sçavans, whose ambitious aim was to describe the books printed in Europe, to present biographies, to make known scien-tific experiments and instruments, to record new meteorological and anatomical data and to transmit to readers all current scholarly events in Europe. Although originally founded for similar purposes, these two journals had some fundamental disparities and their development led to various types of publications. Journal des Sçavans was a commercial venture of a private publisher, whereas Philosophical Transactions was closely connected to the Royal Society. Transactions became a forum for scientific studies which, except for some first numbers, excluded the findings of antiquarian or philological research. De Sallo’s effort to follow development in all fields of research proved impossible to fulfil, and soon his Journal would concentrate on humanities topics.224
Journal des Sçavans soon had its successors, such as Giornale de Litterati d’Italia (1668) and Pierre Bayle’s Nouvelles de la République des Lettres (1684), whose primary mission was to present current literature, although articles were sometimes includ-ed, too. Their readership consisted of scholars and laymen (including women), who wished to follow developments in the Republic of Letters. The growing production of books and the limited availability of many works in the European market increased the popularity of journals which summarised the contents of new books. For a pub-lisher, a journal offered an opportunity for advertising. Although subscription fees did not always cover the costs of these journals, they were worth publishing because they increased the sales of books. The scientific journals sponsored by societies and academies were rarer in the seventeenth century. In addition to the Royal Society, a renaissance-type academy, Collegium Naturae Curiosorum in Altdorf, published the journal Miscellanea curiosa, which concentrated on medicine and natural sciences.225 At the end of the seventeenth century, the form of the journal and its position in the scientific work was still somewhat unestablished. Unlike monographs, journal articles were not considered as a final form of a research report. Libraries restricted their acquisitions to books, whereas the economic base of journals depended on
pri-223 Katzen 1980, pp. 180-185; Manten 1980, pp. 7, 11-12; Gibson 1982, p. 148; Broman 2000, pp.
228-229.
224 Manten 1980, pp. 5-7; Meadows 1998, pp. 6-7; Broman 2000, p. 229; Kronick 1976, pp. 77-79.
Kronick divides the scientific journals into two types: substantive journals and society proceedings.
225 Manten 1980, pp. 7-8; McClellan 1985, pp. 53-55; Goldgar 1995, pp. 59-70; Broman 2000, pp.
229-233.
vate subscribers. The conservative voices criticised this new medium as superficial.
Letters remained an important communication channel because the publication and distribution of journals was often too slow to satisfy the readers. As the number of journals increased, correspondence was gradually adapted to the new situation and letters became a medium for the more informal exchange of information.226
A dozen journals launched at the end of the seventeenth century formed a prelude to a vast enterprise of academic publishing. In the next century, the growth became exponential, doubling in number every 15 years. It has been estimated that up to the end of the eighteenth century, there were 755 scientific journal titles, of which 401 were published in Germany, 96 in France, 50 in the United Kingdom, 43 in the Netherlands and 37 in Switzerland.227 Kronick argued that the reason for the leading position of Germany was the shorter duration of periodicals there. The growth of the reading public, the wide area where the German language was understood and the remarkable number of scientific institutions were other contributory factors.228 Academic publishing spread on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean when the newly founded American Philosophical Society launched its Transactions in 1771. Its first volume contained the results of the American observations of the transit of Venus across the sun’s face, in 1769 – something which was sure to arouse interest in Europe.
Despite the success of the first volume, the stormy years of revolution delayed the publishing of the next volume for fifteen years. New titles did not appear until 1785 when the American Academy of Sciences in Boston launched its Memoirs.229 Also, most European societies published serials after long intervals, although their activities provided abundant material for journals. Many of them could not afford journals, and of all journals published in the eighteenth century, only 25% were supported by societies or academies. Their serials were, however, usually more long-lived than the journals of the private publishers.230 The idea of seriality became rooted in science as well as in the society in the late eighteenth century. It connected the scholarly jour-nals to the conversational culture of salons, stressing the novelty and discoveries but simultaneously changing scientific findings to perishable commodities which in the next volume might be replaced by new studies.231
The Humboldtian ideal of the university emphasised that professors should also be researchers – something which was conveniently proven by the number of
pub-226 Kronick 1976, pp. 64-65; Manten 1980, pp. 8-9; Goldgar 1995, pp. 57-59; Broman 2000, p. pub-226;
Csiszar 2010, pp. 403-405.
227 Manten 1980, pp. 8-10; Price 1986, pp. 5-8; Kronick 1976, p. 78. Manten’s estimation of 755 titles is based on F. H. Garrison’s inventory, “The Medical and Scientific Periodicals of the 17 and 18 Centuries”. It is impossible to give exact figures because the field was in constant transition – new journals were launched, while others were discontinued or divided into subseries or merged to form new titles. Price’s estimation is remarkably lower, and Kronick has calculated that in 1790, the total number of scientific periodicals was 1052. He included almanacs and abstract publications in this figure.
228 Kronick 1976, pp. 88-94. Kronick’s table on substantive serials indicates that 62% were pub- Kronick 1976, pp. 88-94. Kronick’s table on substantive serials indicates that 62% were pub-lished in Germany.
229 Gwinn 1996, pp. 42-49; McClellan 1985, pp. 142-144.
230 Kronick 1976, pp. 121-123; Manten 1980, pp. 9-10. See the list of the societies and their publica-See the list of the societies and their publica-tions in McClellan 1985, pp. 261-280.
231 Hopwood, Schaffer and Secord 2010, pp. 261, 278.
lished papers. The eighteenth-century professor was an erudite, who published about ten papers in various forums – even sermons were counted when he applied for a professorship – but his nineteenth-century counterpart had to demonstrate his abili-ties by writing constantly for scientific journals.232 The competition of salaried posts increased the submitting of academic papers. The exponential growth of scientific research led to the formation of new disciplines and to new journals with a more restricted readership. The specialisation of the learned journals began in the second half of the eighteenth century. Many of the early specialised journals, such as Lorenz von Crell’s Chemische Annalen, were published by private editors. The share of the learned societies widened in the nineteenth century when the number of specialised societies increased and they became a central forum for young and active researchers.
For societies, the role of journals was twofold. On the one hand, they were a means of informing their members and, on the other hand, they afforded scientists an academic career and admission to the international scholarly community. The societies seldom had professional skills for publishing and distributing journals. The publishing had to conform to their traditions and social life. Also, funding was a constant problem.
As a consequence, the time lag between two volumes or between the submission of a paper and its publishing was often many years.233
The shortages of societies meant more opportunities for private publishers, who had greater skills adapting to increasing volumes of research, the professionalising and specialising of scientific work and the changes brought about by improved construc-tion of roads, railroads and steam ships. Unlike societies, which had to tread a fine line between establishing their reputation in the eyes of the international scientific com-munity and keeping their members informed of developments, the commercial pub-lishers could launch highly specialised journals directed only at professional scientists and scholars, as well as popularised magazines and textbooks for laymen. The growing branch of professional publishing gradually displaced the old system of patronage, but there was still plenty of room for the non-commercial publishers, such as soci-eties and the governmental bodies. An increasing number of serials were launched by new research institutions such as museums, botanical gardens or geological surveys.
The university presses, which for centuries had served faculties as printers of theses, programmes and academic miscellanea, entered the serial publishing branch in the nineteenth century. The traditions of publishing varied from country to country. In France, the research institutions, well funded by government were active publishers while in Germany, the most common method of producing articles was collaboration between individual scientists and commercial publishers. In the United Kingdom, the amateur tradition remained strong, which together with limited government support amplified the role of the societies. The position of university presses was remarkable in the United States where they published all kinds of scholarly literature, including peer reviewed journals.234
232 McClelland 1980, pp. 83-85, 122-123; Kronick 1976, p. 92; Csiszar 2010, pp. 402-403.
233 Manten 1980, pp. 9-14, 18-21; McClellan 1985, pp. 257-258; Broman 2000, pp. 234-235; Mead-ows 2004, pp. 87-91.
234 Manten 1980, pp. 12-13; Shaw 1980, pp. 149-152; Meyer and Phillabaum 1980, pp. 213-217; Edel-man 1994, p. 172; Topham 2000, pp. 581-586; Jagodzinski 2008, pp. 1-6.
In the course of the nineteenth century, the field of scholarly publishing grew continuously in size as well as in diversity. It is worth noting that the attitude of the time was quite open and tolerant. Publishers did not compete fiercely and public and commercial journals completed one another. The time of information flow had not yet really begun, rather new forums were needed and welcomed in the new specialised branches of scholarship.