The Royal Society has made content from its journal archives freely available online – papers published more than 70 years ago are now permanently free access.
The Royal Society is the world’s oldest scientific publisher, publishing the first ever peer-reviewed scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, in 1665. Philosophical Transactions had to overcome early setbacks including plague, the Great Fire of London and even the imprisonment of its editor, and is still published today.
“Treasures in the archive include Isaac Newton’s first published scientific paper, geological work by a young Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Franklin’s celebrated account of his electrical kite experiment. And nestling amongst these illustrious papers, readers willing to delve a little deeper into the archive may find some undiscovered gems from the dawn of the scientific revolution – including accounts of monstrous calves, grisly tales of students being struck by lightning, and early experiments on to how to cool drinks “without the Help of Snow, Ice, Haile, Wind or Niter, and That at Any Time of the Year.”
Opening of the archive is being made as part of the Royal Society’s commitment to open access in scientific publishing. The Royal Society also recently announced its first ever fully open access journal, Open Biology.
Deirdre