17, 18th Century British Royal Society "Philosophy" And Physical Science

The method of history of science is used to mainly research the1,613physical science papers and investigate the form and communication mechanism of the first science journal of the world, which bases on the statistical analysis of the4,166papers in90volumes or580issues Philosophical Transactions during the136years between1665and1800.The research shows that the Philosophical Transactions which was started publication by the Royal Society on March6th1665in London is the first science academic journal. Besides the short suspension because of the death of the chief editor, it has been350years successive publication since1665. There had been10chief editors before1752, then the committee on papers took the place of the chief editor for publication of journal. There were1,613physical science papers,208formal science papers,523biological science papers,441physiological science papers,714geonomy papers and478medical science papers in4,166papers of the Philosophical Transactions during1665-1800. It is observed that the number of physical science was the highest in17th&18th century. There are4physical science papers in the5featured articles during the history of the Philosophical Transactions, which shows that the physical science is also the most important content of communication. Newton and Halley are the representative physical scientists in the17th&18th century. The letter from Newton to Oldenburg including13propositions and one crucial experiment which illustrated his theory of color light was published in the6th volume of the Philosophical Transaction, which had generated controversy including26papers about optics for5years. Newton reacted to the query and criticism by publishing papers which perfected his theory of color light. Then as Newton felt disturbance, Newton stopped publishing paper on journal because of. As the physical scientists who published the most papers on Philosophical Transactions in17th and18th century, Halley published75papers including49.3%astro-observation and astrophysics papers,28%geonomy papers, and others concerning many fields.1684-1698was the first peak when Halley published35physical science papers and geonomy papers as he made several explorations. The peak of Halley’s astro-observation and astrophysics research was1702-1726. During this period, he published29papers concerning about calculating the period of Halley’s Comet by using Newton’s law of universal gravitation. Then he organized an unprecedented sun eclipse observation all over the Europe. The Baily’s Beads phenomenon was described for the first time by his paper including20groups of the observed data, which was one of the5featured articles in the history of Philosophical Transactions.(1) In a conclusion, the350years history of Philosophical Transactions can be divided into3important periods:①1665-1752During this period, the secretary of the Royal Society worked as chief editor who was responsible for refereeing and publishing.②1752-1886The Paper Committee of the Royal Society was set up to take place of chief editor, which means that the peer-review system of science journal was established.③1886-today As the range of scientific discovery extending, the Philosophical Transactions was divided into two, Philosophical Transactions A and B, covering the physical sciences and the life sciences respectively.(2) The basic form and element of the evolution of the first science journal is put forward. The internal motivation is the tradition that the Royal Society thought highly of experiment and made great amount of excellent academic achievements. The external conditions was that scientific community needed a timely, consecutive, open, objective scientific evaluation system, and there appeared the potential form such as correspondence and aperiodic pamphlet. The motivation of scientist publishing papers on journals was as follows.①Scientists hope to gain recognition through academic exchanges.②Scientists realized that the academic priority.③Scientists and science communicators owned the consciousness and responsibility for inheriting scientific culture.(3)The important creation of the Philosophical Transactions was summarized as follows.①The Philosophical Transactions created the model and operating paradigm of the symbiotic relationship between science journal and scientific community. Science journal was determined as one of the elements of scientific institutionalization, together with the group of scientists, professional higher education and systematic science community. The status of science journal as one of the main medium of science communication was established.②The Philosophical Transactions formed a real sense of peer-review system of science journal, including the preliminary review and the choice of reviewer by the paper committee, peer review by the fellows of the Royal Society, the final review by the paper committee. The system they called Gatekeeper was established.③The Philosophical Transactions mainly communicated physical science since it was started publishing, which showed that the physical science was the frontiers of science from the17th century. It is observed that the Philosophical Transactions guide the development direction of science through selection of topic, solicit contributions, review, special report and so on.