This doctoral dissertation is a study of the first seventy years of the journal Nature, today arguably the world?s most prestigious and influential scientific journal, from its first issue in 1869 until the onset of World War II in 1939. This time period covers the careers of Nature's first two editors, Sir Norman Lockyer (editor from 1869-1919) and Sir Richard Gregory (editor from 1919-1939). The project seeks to answer three major questions about Nature's foundation and development. First, what did Lockyer seek to accomplish by starting the journal, and how did the journal's goals change over time as editorial control increasingly passed to Lockyer's assistant Gregory? Second, what image of science did Nature portray? Which disciplines and practitioners did the journal admit to its pages? Finally, why did this British journal, a commercial publication unaffiliated with any scientific society, become one of the world?s highest-status science publications? What drew scientists from not just the United Kingdom but also Germany, Russia, France and the United States to read and contribute to Nature, and why did publishing one?s work in Nature come to be an internationally recognized indicator of scientific status? This dissertation will explore Nature's transformation from a popular science magazine to an internationally prestigious scientific journal, and will examine how scientists in Britain and eventually throughout the world came to see Nature as the embodiment of an idealized "scientific community."
A close study of Nature's contents will reveal much about nineteenth-century British science, including the importance of publication and priority, the development of the debate about scientific naturalism, the position of social sciences and engineering in the British scientific hierarchy, and the challenges women faced in seeking membership in the British scientific community. The project will also contribute significantly to the literature on early twentieth-century scientific internationalism by examining how Nature helped create an image of a scientific community that crossed national borders, and how the international crises of World War I and National Socialism affected the journal's treatment of science and scientists in Germany. Finally, by examining the development of a publication that became one of the world's most important scientific journals, this project will shed new light on the historical context in which the journal became the primary form of scientific communication.
This project engages with several issues that remain central to modern science, such as the conflict between naturalism and religious faith, the effects of political interests and war on the development of science, and the changing definition of what constitutes a "science." By examining such issues through the lens of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century science, this dissertation will enhance understanding of the current structure of the scientific community among scholars and the public. Lastly, a study of the rise of a highly influential medium of international scientific communication, the journal, may shed light on how scientists adjust to the changing landscape of publication?-an issue relevant to current concerns about review processes, priority and editorial control in a new medium, on-line publishing.
