Learned Societies and the Circulation of Knowledge, c.1750-2000
Call for Expressions of Interest: Learned societies and the circulation of knowledge, 1750-2000
From Aileen Fyfe and Jenny Beckman
*Please cross-post and circulate*
Are you interested in the history of the
publications of a learned society or national academy – or do you know
someone who is? We are planning to seek funding for a research network
to compare the roles of different learned societies and
national academies in the circulation of knowledge. From our own work
on Britain and Sweden, we know that societies and academies have long
been key players in the publication and circulation of research
(especially in journals); and that these institutions
typically organised their publishing operations in a manner quite
different from that of the regular publishing trade. Societies and
academies were motivated by a variety of non-financial goals, such as
institutional reputation, national glory and the allegedly
disinterested advancement of scholarship; and they used distribution
methods that were quite distinct from those of the regular trade, such
as gift programmes and institutional exchanges. In these days of debates
about Open Access, and the growing desire to
create a sustainable, non-profit-driven model for academic publishing,
it seems appropriate to take a closer look at the ways in which learned
societies and academies managed this in the past.
We seek collaborators with knowledge of the
publishing programmes of other scholarly institutions, in Europe or
elsewhere; and we are particularly interested in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries (say, 1750 onwards). Our hope is to
acquire funding for a couple of research workshops in 2017 and 2018,
where we can compare the experiences of different countries and
institutions, and consider changes over time. We are not (currently)
intending to seek major funding to support new research,
so we are looking for people who already know something about learned
societies and their publications.
Issues we would like to investigate include:
• How was the production managed? (Did
the academy have a printing press in the basement? Or did it contract
with a local bookseller? Did it have special printing privileges?)
• What type of publication(s) did the
institution produce (format, periodicity), carrying what type of content
(preliminary results, lengthy papers, letters, news, reviews)?
• How was the editorial process
managed? (By a sole editor or a committee? Seeking referees’ opinions in
person, or in writing, or not at all? Did fellows/members of the
institution have special access to the journal?)
• How were the publications circulated,
in what numbers, and to where? (Through the book trade? Free to
fellows/members? Donated to educational institutions? Exchanged with
libraries of other academies? Locally, nationally or
internationally?)
• How was the publishing programme
supported financially? (By members’ fees or the institutional endowment?
By government grants or industrial donors? By sales?)
• Were there other ways in which the
societies and academies promoted the circulation of knowledge? (e.g. by
facilitating correspondence between scholars, thanks to state-granted
postal privileges? Or by negotiating exemptions
from customs import duties on international scientific journals and
correspondence?)
If you are potentially interested in being involved in this project, please get in touch with us before August 31. You are very welcome to forward or cross-post this message, or to suggest people we should contact.
We also hope to include representatives of
contemporary society/academy publishing programmes, so suggestions of
suitable individuals (and an indication of why their perspective would
be valuable) would also be appreciated.
Dr Aileen Fyfe (St Andrews), akf@st-andrews.ac.uk
Dr Jenny Beckman (Uppsala), Jenny.Beckman@idehist.uu.se