In 1665, the Royal Society in London published its first installment of Philosophical Transactions. This new journal signaled a novel commitment to the idea that all new scientific discoveries should be circulated as widely and freely as possible and that secrecy slowed progress. This was open science, the first defense of the idea that scientific knowledge is nonproprietary and a public good, like clean water or highways.
Over the next 350 years, this commitment has been chipped away at. The production of science has been commercialized, often to protect information rather than disseminate it, and the publication of scientific knowledge has likewise become big business. The current annual subscription price for Philosophical Transactions, amazingly still in print, is about $6,000, mostly paid for by library-based subscriptions, although subscribers get access to the journal online now, as well.
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