Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
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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. 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" (and hence the highest degree in science is also called the Doctor of Philosophy).
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[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
In 1887 the journal expanded to become two separate publications, one serving the Physical Sciences: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (covering mathematical, physical and engineering sciences) and the other focusing on the life sciences: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (covering biological sciences). Nowadays, both journals publish theme issues and discussion meeting issues, while individual research articles are published in the sister journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.
[edit] See also
- Proceedings of the Royal Society
- Journal of the Royal Society Interface
- Biology Letters
- Royal Society
