The book traces major concepts including: the creation of the visual effects of accuracy through careful action and training; the development of visual judgment and connoisseurship; the role of a network in the production of knowledge; balancing readers’ expectations with representational conventions; and the effects of acts of collecting on the creation and circulation of knowledge. On the one hand, this study uncovers that approaches to knowledge production were different in the seventeenth century, as compared with in the twenty-first century. On the other, it reveals how the early modern struggle to sort through an overwhelming quantity of visual information - brought on by major changes in image production and circulation - resonates with our own.

A comprehensive history of scientific publishing and its impact on scientific discourse.

Modern scientific research has changed significantly since the days of Isaac Newton, with professionalized, collaborative, and international networks that engage a more diverse community of researchers. Yet, the long history of scientific publishing reveals a deep mutual relationship between how academic discourse develops and what (and how) research is published. With unique insights from the Royal Society of London’s comprehensive archives spanning 350 years of scientific journal publishing, A History of Scientific Journals illustrates the entangled histories of scientific publishing and professional discourses. This volume provides insights into the editorial management, business practices, and financial difficulties of journals such as Philosophical Transactions, which was first published in 1665 and has published papers by Newton, Darwin, Dorothy Hodgkin, and Stephen Hawking.  Highly illustrated with photographs of historic archived documents, including early publications and editorial annotations, this history extends to the present day and includes a look at digital journal publication and the open-access movement, making the book's publication through UCL Press both appropriate and symbiotic.