Scientific journal
A periodical of learned news in which each report is dated and addressed to everyone at once. Two such periodicals appeared in 1665: the Journal des sçavans in Paris (5 January, Denis de Sallo) and the Philosophical Transactions in London (6 March, Henry Oldenburg).
The second was run by Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society, as a private venture at his own expense, turning his European correspondence into a printed monthly sold for a shilling. Until then discoveries were reported by letter.
A printed report with a date and an address 'to everyone at once' at a stroke fixed priority with the author. Systematic refereeing came much later, in the 1830s.
Why this date
exact: Journal des sçavans, Paris, 5 January 1665 (Denis de Sallo); Philosophical Transactions, London, 6 March 1665 (Oldenburg)
What it grew from
-
Movable-type printing press
influenced · Confidence: medium
The journal is a printed monthly: in March 1665 the Council of the Royal Society ordered that the Transactions "be printed the first Monday of every month", and before print learned news travelled by letter.
Dispute: No historian has been found who literally calls the printing press a prerequisite of the scientific journal; the link follows from the journal being by definition a printed periodical. A caveat: the Royal Society registered priority without print as well, through its manuscript Register Book (Biagioli, BJHS 2012, on the risks of publication and priority), so print was necessary for the journal as a publication but not for the journal as a rule of scientific life.
Link sources
- Royal Society Council Minutes, 1 March 1664/5 (1665) Verified 20 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
the Philosophical Transactions...be printed the first Monday of every month
- Gross A. G., Harmon J. E. «Scientific Journal, History», Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication (SAGE) (2010) Verified 20 Sep 2026
It is understandable that letters were the first means chosen for the rapid dissemination of scientific discoveries.
- Royal Society, «History of Philosophical Transactions» (Publishing 350) (2015) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Oldenburg spun his wide-ranging network of European natural-philosophical contacts, the activity of the Royal Society, and his skills as a linguist and scientific editor into a new form of print intended to promote the enterprise of early modern science and perhaps make some money on the side. The journal appeared monthly, selling for one shilling.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong. "Assembled from fragments" means the words do not stand together on the page: we found each fragment separately and joined them with an ellipsis.
- Royal Society Council Minutes, 1 March 1664/5 (1665) Verified 20 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
The format of the first issue of the Journal des sçavans comes from the Wikipedia article. A verbatim quotation is needed from the work it cites: Brown H., «Scientific Organizations in Seventeenth Century France», 1972, p. 368.
Node sources
- Royal Society, «History of Philosophical Transactions» (Publishing 350) (2015) Verified 20 Sep 2026
It was launched in March 1665 by Henry Oldenburg (c.1619-1677), the Society's first Secretary, who acted as publisher and editor
- Moxham N., Fyfe A. «The Royal Society and the prehistory of peer review, 1665-1965», Historical Journal 61(4) (2018), 5 Verified 20 Sep 2026
The Transactions was run by the Society's secretary, Henry Oldenburg, as a private venture.
- Hall M. B. «Oldenburg and the Art of Scientific Communication», British Journal for the History of Science 2(4) (1965) Verified 20 Sep 2026
acting as an intermediary between scientists and, through the Philosophical Transactions, providing a medium for the publication of short scientific papers.
- Gross A. G., Harmon J. E. «Scientific Journal, History», Encyclopedia of Science and Technology Communication (SAGE) (2010) Verified 20 Sep 2026
In the same year, 1665, Denis de Sallo began publishing his Journal des Savans (Journal of the Learned) and Henry Oldenburg initiated the Philosophical Transactions.
- Wikipedia, «Journal des sçavans» Verified 20 Sep 2026
The first issue appeared as a twelve-page quarto pamphlet on Monday, 5 January 1665.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.