Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

"The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society", or "Phil. Trans.", is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society.

Begun in 1665, it is the oldest scientific journal printed in the English-speaking world and the second oldest in the world, after the French "Journal des sçavans". It is still published, making it the world's longest running scientific journal. The use of the word "philosophical" in the title derives from the phrase "natural philosophy", which was the equivalent of what we would now generically call "science".

History

The first issue, dated 6 March 1665, was edited and published by the society's secretary, Henry Oldenburg, some six years after the Royal Society had been founded. ["History of the Journal" at http://publishing.royalsociety.org/index.cfm?page=1244] Over the centuries, many important scientific discoveries have been published in the "Philosophical Transactions". Famous contributing authors include Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and Charles Darwin. In 1672, the journal published Newton's first paper "New Theory about Light and Colours", which can be seen as the beginning of his public scientific career. The position of editor was sometimes held jointly and included William Musgrave (167 - 178) and Robert Plot (144 - 178) A. J. Turner, ‘Plot, Robert (bap. 1640, d. 1696)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 ] .;"

Current publication

In 1887 the journal expanded to two separate publications, one serving the Physical Sciences: and the other focusing on the life sciences: . Both journals now publish themed issues, and individual research articles are published in the sister journals "Proceedings of the Royal Society".

Footnotes

Free issues now available

All content older than 12 months is available free online (back to 2000).

Philosophical Transactions A, cited as Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A :
All theme issues can be accessed [http://publishing.royalsociety.org/index.cfm?page=1570 here] .

Philosophical Transactions B, cited as Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B :
All theme issues can be accessed [http://publishing.royalsociety.org/index.cfm?page=1571 here] .

See also

*
*
*Proceedings of the Royal Society
*Journal of the Royal Society Interface
*Biology Letters
*Royal Society

External links

* [http://publishing.royalsociety.org/philtransa Philosophical Transactions A homepage]
* [http://publishing.royalsociety.org/philtransb Philosophical Transactions B homepage]
* [http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/link.asp?id=102021 Philosophical Transactions A content]
* [http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/link.asp?id=102022 Philosophical Transactions B content]
* [http://publishing.royalsociety.org/ Royal Society Publishing]

Archive journals

*JSTOR|name=Abstracts of the Papers Communicated to the Royal Society of London|no=03650855 (1800-1843)
*JSTOR|name=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London|no=03701662 (1854-1905)
*JSTOR|name=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A, Containing papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character|no=00804630 (1905-1934)
*JSTOR|name=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B containing papers of a biological character|no=09501193 (1905-1934)
*JSTOR|name=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B containing papers of a biological character|no=00804649 (1934-1990)
* [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 50-67 (1757-77)] at the Bodleian Internet Library of Early Journals

* [http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/royalsociety/ A visualization of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (A & B) from 1665 to 2005]