Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Title	Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Discipline	History of science; Philosophy of science
Language	English
Publisher	Elsevier
Country	Netherlands
Frequency	Quarterly
Firstdate	1970
Issn	0039-3681

Contents

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science is a peer‑reviewed academic journal that publishes research on the historical development and philosophical analysis of the natural and social sciences. The journal appears quarterly and has featured contributions engaging figures such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr and institutions such as Royal Society, Max Planck Society, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Harvard University. Its remit bridges archival scholarship related to collections at Royal Society, debates framed by texts like Principia Mathematica and On the Origin of Species, and analytic work connecting to traditions represented by Imre Lakatos, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend.

Overview

Founded in 1970, the journal emerged contemporaneously with institutional developments at University of Cambridge, California Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University that expanded historical and philosophical studies of science. Early editors drew on networks around Royal Institution, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques and Needham Research Institute. The journal’s scope explicitly encompasses work on individual practitioners like René Descartes, Antoine Lavoisier, William Harvey and Robert Boyle as well as analyses of organizations such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Imperial Chemical Industries, Rockefeller Foundation and Wellcome Trust. It also publishes scholarship on episodes including the Manhattan Project, the Higgs boson discovery, the Green Revolution and the polio vaccine campaigns.

Regular thematic strands include the history of experimentation exemplified by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke, the philosophy of measurement linked to John Dalton and Andrei Kolmogorov, and the historiography of disciplines such as physics, biology, chemistry and medicine with case studies involving John Maynard Keynes (economics contexts), Claude Bernard (physiology), Hans Krebs (biochemistry) and Edward Jenner (vaccination). Special issues have focused on topics tied to institutions and events such as CERN, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Cold War science agendas, the Industrial Revolution’s scientific infrastructure, and anniversaries of works by Galileo Galilei, Antoine Lavoisier, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Contributors have included historians and philosophers affiliated with University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Columbia University, Stanford University and University of Toronto.

The editorial board has comprised scholars associated with organizations such as British Academy, American Philosophical Society, Royal Society of Canada and research centers like Centre for History and Philosophy of Science at various universities. Manuscripts undergo anonymized peer review by reviewers drawn from departments and institutes including Institute for Advanced Study, London School of Economics, École Normale Supérieure, Sorbonne University and University of Melbourne. The journal follows standard protocols for editorial oversight used by publishers such as Elsevier, coordinating handling editors with subject specialists on topics ranging from the history of medicine (e.g., work on Florence Nightingale or Hippocrates) to philosophy of physics (e.g., work on Paul Dirac or Werner Heisenberg).

The journal is widely cited in scholarship touching on figures like Imre Lakatos, Thomas Kuhn, Karl Popper, Paul Feyerabend and Nancy Cartwright, and in historiographical debates involving Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour, Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer. It has informed curricula and reading lists at departments such as History of Science Society, Philosophy of Science Association, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (UCL), and policy‑facing bodies including World Health Organization panels on historical lessons in public health. Reviews and meta‑analyses in journals like Isis, British Journal for the History of Science and Philosophy of Science engage with its contributions to debates about scientific change, ontology and method.

The journal is indexed in major services such as Scopus, Web of Science, JSTOR and ProQuest and appears in library catalogs from institutions including Library of Congress, British Library and National Library of Medicine. Impact metrics reported by indexing services compare citations to journals like Isis, British Journal for the History of Science and Philosophy of Science. Quantitative indicators such as journal impact factor, CiteScore and h‑index are used by university assessment frameworks including Research Excellence Framework and grant agencies such as National Science Foundation and European Research Council when appraising publication records.

Category:Academic journals in history of science