Revue d’Histoire des Sciences–Presentation in English
The Revue d’Histoire des Sciences et de leurs Applications was created in 1947 by Henri Berr (1863–1954) as part of the Centre international de synthèse. The publication is property of the Foundation “Pour la science”–Centre international de synthèse, an institution recognized as promoting the public interest. In 1973, the title was changed to Revue d’Histoire des Sciences (RHS).
To learn more about the history of the journal, see also our “Documents” section.
The journal is supported by the Institut des sciences humaines et sociales of the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) and published with the support of the CNL (Centre national du livre). Its editorial staff is based at the Centre d’archives en philosophie, histoire et édition des sciences (CAPHÉS)–UMS 3610 (CNRS–ENS-PSL).
EDITORIAL POLICY
The Revue d’Histoire des Sciences is a peer-reviewed journal with a comprehensive scope in its field, covering all periods, disciplines, and themes related to the history of science. Its main focus is on the conceptual history of science, but it is also open to other approaches reflecting the evolution of the field.
Articles should present original research findings. The journal is also intended to serve a documentary function, and therefore welcomes unpublished texts, critical translations and reviews, annotated bibliographies as well as book reviews. It publishes both thematic and Varia issues in French or in English.
The Revue d’Histoire des Sciences has been published semi-annually since 2003, in June and December of each year.
EDITORIAL STAFF and BOARDS
Publication Director: Dominique BOUREL, acting president of the “Pour la science” Foundation
Scientific Committee: composition
Editor-in-Chief: Stéphane TIRARD Stephane.Tirard@univ-nantes.fr
Editorial Board: composition
Editorial manager and secretary: Véronique BOURIENNE (CAPHÉS, UMS 3610 CNRS–ENS-PSL) veronique.bourienne@ens.psl.eu
Book reviews: Christian BRACCO, Erwan PENCHÈVRE
Paper selection committee: All members of the journal’s scientific committee and editorial board are de facto members of its paper selection committee. Given the “profile” of the RHS (large number and great variety of disciplines covered, very wide time span of the chronological field of study), it operates on the basis of an “open” paper selection committee and a double-blind expert assessment of submitted articles.
EVALUATION
Only articles that have been carefully written, proofread, and formatted will undergo the process described below after being submitted to the Revue d’Histoire des Sciences.
All articles submitted for publication in the Revue d’Histoire des Sciences are first analyzed using the plagiarism detection software Compilatio.
If the result is not suspicious, the article is then submitted to a double-blind peer review process. Following the editorial board’s assessment, authors are notified within approximately three months of the manuscript being received. Manuscript acceptance may be accompanied by a request for revision of the content, style or presentation of the manuscript.
To review the articles submitted for publication, the RHS relies on an open paper selection committee. This means that the composition of the committee is not pre-established: for each submission, the editorial staff looks for and then appeals to two specialists in the subject, who can either be members of the journal’s committees or, more often than not, outside reviewers.
Below are the English and French versions of the standard letter that is sent to the solicited reviewers, providing the framework for the expected review.
Framework letter (English) Framework letter (French)
AUTHOR GUIDELINES
All texts to be published in the Revue d’Histoire des Sciences must follow the style guidelines set out in our instructions for authors below.
For a manuscript to be published in the Revue d’Histoire des Sciences, each author must first sign a contract with the journal, a template for which is provided below.
Accepted articles will be published within a variable timeframe depending on the journal’s possibilities. Authors will receive a hard copy of the journal issue as well as the electronic offprint of their contribution.
PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION and INDEXING
Since 2006, the Revue d’Histoire des Sciences has been produced and published by Armand Colin, ensuring the simultaneous publication of a double edition in paper and digital form (see the website).
It is distributed by Armand Colin both as single issues and in the form of joint annual paper and digital subscriptions.
It is also available on Cairn.info and Jstor, in electronic form only, mainly as part of larger institutional subscriptions to packages of humanities and social sciences journals and through pay-per-view.
Every article originally published in English, as well as a selection of articles originally published in French but translated into English, are also available on the Cairn International Edition platform.
Open access
All content published by the Revue d’Histoire des Sciences from its creation in 1947 up to and including 2006 is available in open access on Persee.fr under the Creative Commons license
All content published by the Revue d’Histoire des Sciences from 2007 until the beginning of the two-year embargo period can be accessed for free on Cairn.info.
Indexing
The Revue d’Histoire des Sciences is indexed in Hcérès, Erih Plus, Scopus, JournalSeek, JournalBase, ABC-CLIO Historical Abstracts.