Related:
- Libertarian Papers (About)
- Doug French, “The Intellectual Revolution Is in Process“
- Academic publishers have become the enemies of science: yet more real piracy
- The digital publishing revolution starts now
- Tucker, The Magic of Open-Source Publishing
- Jeff Tucker Free Talk Live Interview on Open Information and IP
- “A Theory of Open” (archived comments)
- B.K. Marcus, Mises.org on iTunes U
- Doug French, The Intellectual Revolution Is in Process (archived blog comments)
- Kinsella, “Teaching an Online Mises Academy Course”
- Gary North, “A Free Week-Long Economics Seminar”
- “up with iTunes U”
- Jeff Tucker Free Talk Live Interview on Open Information and IP
- Mises.org in the Context of Publishing History
- Misesian vs. Marxian vs. IP Views of Innovation (archived comments)
- Tucker, “Authors: Beware of Copyright,” “Books, Online and Off” and “Mises.org in the Context of Publishing History,” in Bourbon for Breakfast (Mises Institute, 2010)
Martin Kulldorff, “The Rise and Fall of Scientific Journals and a Way Forward,” Brownstone Journal (Oct. 14, 2025)
Scientific journals have had enormous positive impact on the development of science, but in some ways, they are now hampering rather than enhancing open scientific discourse. After reviewing the history and current problems with journals, a new academic publishing model is proposed. It embraces open access and open rigorous peer review, it rewards reviewers for their important work with honoraria and public acknowledgement, and it allows scientists to publish their research in a timely and efficient manner without wasting valuable scientists’ time and resources.
The Birth of Scientific Journals
The printing press revolutionized scientific communication in the 16th century. After a few years of thinking and pondering, or maybe a decade or two, scientists published a book with their new thoughts, ideas, and discoveries. This gave us classics that laid the foundation for modern science, such as De Nova Stella by Tycho Brahe (1573), Astronomia Nova by Johannes Kepler (1609), Discours de la Methode by René Descartes (1637), Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton (1686), and Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus (1735). For more rapid communication, scientists relied on handwritten letters to each other.
Until they published a book, which took considerable effort and resources, scientists could only communicate with a few close friends and colleagues. That was not efficient. This gave rise to the scientific journal, an invention with profound impact on the development of science. The first one, Journal des Sçavans (Journal of the Learned), appeared in France in 1665. A decade later, this journal published the calculation of the speed of light by Ole Romer. The fastest thing in nature was communicated at a speed previously unavailable to scientists.
Over the next few hundred years, scientific journals became increasingly important, overtaking books as the primary means of scientific communication. As scientists became more specialized, so did the journals, with subject matter periodicals such as Medical Essays and Observations (1733), Chemisches Journal (1778), Annalen der Physik (1799), and Public Health Reports (1878). Printed journals were sent to scientists and university libraries around the world, and a truly international scientific community was created.
Without journals, science would not have developed as it did, and those early journal editors and printers are unsung heroes of scientific progress.
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