The problem of priority in the question of the appearance of the scientific journals

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of priority in invention of the important means of modern academic communication – scientific journal. In the first part of the article the author gives a critical analysis of the arguments of the both sides of the discussion and shows their contradictions. In the second part the author develops the approach which can serve as a basis for the solution of the dispute.  In this regard, the article demonstrates that the basis for the solution of the dispute lies in the correct definition of the social demand which catalyzed the search for the new means of the scientific communication and led to the creation and further development of the scientific journals. The author points out that because of the universality of the socio-economic processes this demand appeared common to the whole European sciences of the early Modernity. In this regard, the author concludes that the first scientific journals (««Philosophical transactions», «Journal des sçavans») appeared in the atmosphere of the struggle and competition for the leadership in the invention of the new forms of scientific communication. The article arrives at a conclusion that the genesis of the modern scientific article as a form of communication cannot be understood linear. The early journals were a means creating a new idea of scientific communication which is understood through the Kantian distinction of the public and private application of reason.