ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Ownership and control of scientific journals: British perspectives in the 1960s and 1970s

• In Event: Researchers and the Management of Scientific Journals in the Mid-20th-Century: Franco-British Perspectives

English Abstract

Until the twentieth century, scientific journal publishing in Britain had been largely a non-profit affair, supported by learned societies, their members and patrons, and, from the 1890s, by the UK government. That changed in the mid-twentieth century: society publishers adopted more ‘businesslike’ practices; and both commercial firms and university presses moved enthusiastically into journal publishing. Did it matter whether journals were run by academic institutions or by commercial firms? This paper will explore the British discussions around the control and management of scientific journals in the 1960s and 1970s, drawing upon reportage and comment in Nature and New Scientist, as well as the discussions at the regular conferences of learned society editors hosted by the Royal Society through this period. In 1963, the conference of editors discussed a set of ‘safeguards’ for scientific journals, recommending not only that ‘scientific and editorial policy should be in the hands of a board of responsible scientific editors’ but also that the board should be involved in the formulation of ‘financial policy’. In this paper, I will explore what happened next.

Author

• Aileen Fyfe, University of St. Andrews