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.

学术期刊出版现已成为利润丰厚的产业，无论是商业出版机构还是部分学会出版社均是如此，但这一格局并非始终如此。英国皇家学会（Royal Society）是全球历史最悠久的科学期刊的出版方，而在《哲学汇刊（Philosophical Transactions）》的绝大多数出版历程中，该期刊的出版曾长期严重拖累学会的财政状况。本研究依托英国皇家学会的丰富档案，探究了20世纪期刊出版的经济转型轨迹：20世纪之初，期刊出版仍是一项由学会大力资助的学术公益事业，而到世纪末则转变为极具价值的收入来源。首次披露的详实数据揭示了该转型的三个阶段——公益流通模式的终结、战后订阅用户数量激增背景下向以销售为核心的商业模式的转型，以及20世纪末订阅用户数量下滑后这一新商业模式所面临的多重挑战。本研究虽未直接探讨21世纪的开放获取（Open Access）运动，却是理解学术期刊出版财政背景的必读之作。