Topham, JR orcid.org/0000-0002-1860-8001 (2016) The Scientific, the Literary, and the Popular: Commerce and the Reimagining of the Scientific Journal in Britain, 1813–25. Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 70 (4). pp. 305-324. ISSN 0035-9149
Abstract
As scientists question the recent dominance of the scientific journal, the varied richness of its past offers useful materials for reflection. This paper examines four innovative journals founded and run by leading publishers and men of science in the 1810s and 1820s, which contributed to a significant reimagining of the form. Relying on a new distinction between the ‘literary’ and the ‘scientific’ to define their market, those who produced the journals intended to maximize their readership and profits by making them to some extent ‘popular’. While these attempts ended in commercial failure, not least because of the rapidly diversifying periodical market in which they operated, their history makes clear the important role that commerce has played both in defining the purposes and audiences of scientific journals and in the conceptualization of the scientific project. It also informs the ongoing debate concerning how the multiple audiences for science can be addressed in ways that are commercially and practically viable.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | Scientific Journals, Popular Science, Science and Literature, Scientific Publishing, Late Georgian Britain |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > School of Philosophy (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) AH/J011320/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Aug 2016 15:32 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 22:11 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2016.0027 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | The Royal Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1098/rsnr.2016.0027 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:103367 |