The roots of scholarly scientific publishing can be traced to 1665, when Henry Oldenburg of the British Royal Society established the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Oldenburg was motivated, in part, by a desire to remove himself as diplomatic interlocutor between the dispersed, independent scientists of the time with whom he communicated individually. The aim of the new publication was to create a public record of original contributions to knowledge and to encourage scientists to “speak” directly to one another. By providing intellectual credit publicly for innovative claims in natural philosophy, the journal encouraged scientists to disclose knowledge that they might otherwise have kept secret.
The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society created a sense of competition among scientists to be the first to publish a new scientific finding, an incentive that is continued in modern scientific journals. If the journal is a prominent one, publication endows the author with an extra measure of prestige. In addition, as Cell editor Vivian Siegel and other workshop participants noted, publications also yield indirect rewards. For example, they affect a researcher’s job prospects and ability to be promoted or gain tenure. Publishing a scientific paper can result in fruitful new scientific collaborations, including financially profitable arrangements for authors in academe, as a result of commercial overtures for collaboration or consultancy.
