The Journal des Sçavans and the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London were first published 350 years ago (1665!) in France and England. Both publications were founded with the intent to advance scientific knowledge by building on colleagues’ results and avoid duplication of results. Thus commenced the principles of scientific priority and peer review. Prior to these publications, scholarly communication transpired via written correspondence, society meetings, and books. With this new publishing model, the scholarly journal allowed for a structured format and process to provide broad dissemination of knowledge combined with systematic recording and archiving of scientific findings and knowledge.

Podcast from The Scholarly Kitchen.