Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

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Cover of Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Cover of the first volume of Phil. Trans., published in 1665

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, which makes it the world's longest running scientific journal.

1 History
2 Current publication
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

The first issue was published by Henry Oldenburg in 1665, six years after the Royal Society had been founded. 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 scientific career.

[edit] Current publication

Today, two series are being published: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (covering mathematical, physical and engineering sciences) and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (covering biological sciences). Nowadays, Phil. Trans. publishes theme issues and discussion meeting issues, while individual research articles are published in the sister journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.