See files from previous revision from FROM PHILANTHROPY TO BUSINESS: THE ECONOMICS OF ROYAL SOCIETY JOURNAL PUBLISHING IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Scientific journal publishing has become a lucrative enterprise, for commercial firms and (some) society publishers alike; but it was not always thus. The Royal Society is the publisher of the world's longest-running scientific journal, and for most of the history of the <i>Philosophical Transactions</i>, its publication was a severe drain on the Society's finances. This paper uses the rich archives of the Royal Society to investigate the economic transformation of journal publishing over the course of the twentieth century. It began the century as a scholarly mission activity heavily subsidized by the Society, but ended it as a valuable income stream. Never-before-seen data reveal three phases: the end of the philanthropic model of circulation; the transition to a sales-based commercial model amidst the post-war boom in subscriber numbers; and the challenges facing that new business model once subscriber numbers went into decline in the late twentieth century. The paper does not directly address the open access movement of the twenty-first century, but is essential reading to understand the financial background.

学术期刊出版如今已成为利润丰厚的产业，无论商业出版机构还是部分学会出版社皆是如此；但这一格局并非向来如此。皇家学会（Royal Society）是全球历史最悠久的科学期刊出版方，而在《哲学学报》（*Philosophical Transactions*）的绝大部分出版历程中，该刊的刊印工作都给学会造成了沉重的财政拖累。本文依托皇家学会馆藏的丰富档案，系统探究了20世纪期刊出版业的经济转型轨迹。该产业在世纪之初仍是一项由学会大力资助的学术公益事业，至世纪末则蜕变为一项可观的收入来源。此前从未被系统利用的馆藏数据揭示了这一转型的三个阶段：慈善流通模式的终结；战后订阅用户规模爆发式增长期内，向以销售为核心的商业化模式的过渡；以及20世纪末订阅用户数下滑后，该新型商业模式所面临的诸多严峻挑战。本文虽未直接探讨21世纪的开放获取（Open Access）运动，却是理解学术出版业财政背景的必读之作。