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| Discipline | History of science |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by |
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| Publication details | |
| History | 1913–present |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press for theHistory of Science Society (United States) |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| 1.070 (2017) | |
| Standard abbreviations ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt) NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt  ) | |
| ISO 4 | Isis |
| Indexing CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt) MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus · W&L | |
| CODEN | ISISA4 |
| ISSN | 0021-1753 (print) 1545-6994 (web) |
| LCCN | 14020981 |
| JSTOR | 00211753 |
| OCLC no. | 1638942 |
| Links | |
Isis is a quarterlypeer-reviewedacademic journal published by theUniversity of Chicago Press for theHistory of Science Society. It covers thehistory of science,history of medicine, and thehistory of technology, as well as their cultural influences. It contains original research articles and extensivebook reviews andreview essays. Furthermore, sections devoted to one particular topic are published in each issue inopen access. These sections consist of the Focus section, the Viewpoint section and the Second Look section.
The journal was established byGeorge Sarton and the first issue appeared in March 1913.[1][2] Contributions were originally in any of four European languages (English, French, German, and Italian), but since the 1920s, only English has been used.[3][4] Publication is partly supported by an endowment from theDibner Fund. Two associated publications areOsiris (established 1936 by Sarton) and theIsis Current Bibliography.
The publication of the journal was interrupted in 1914 by the German invasion of Belgium duringWorld War I, and resumed in 1919. DuringWorld War II, the publication was interrupted again in 1940 and in 1945. Since then, each year four issues (sometimes double issues) of one volume have appeared in print, and since 2002 the journal has also been published in full-text electronic format.
TheIsis Current Bibliography started asCritical Bibliography and was published from the very first volume onwards. Since 1969, theCritical Bibliography was published as the fifth issue of a volume. In 1989, the name was changed toIsis Current Bibliography to reflect that, since Sarton's retirement in 1953, the bibliography had not been truly critical in the sense that each citation was commented on by an expert. It then also became a separate publication fromIsis. It includes citations to publications in the history of science and related fields, including books, book reviews, journal articles, and more. The bibliography is the oldest and largest bibliography in the field, going back to the first issue ofIsis in 1913. TheIsis Current Bibliography is freely available at the website of the University of Chicago Press[5] and the IsisCB Explore website.[6][7]
In 1924, theHistory of Science Society[8] was founded by George Sarton andLawrence Joseph Henderson to secure the future ofIsis.[9]
In a paper,Why Isis, Sarton explains that the choice of the name for his journal was made rather unconsciously, after having been introduced toEgyptology during a visit to the Egyptian section of theRijksmuseum van Oudheden in The Netherlands.[10] In his paper, Sarton elaborates on the misunderstandings the nameIsis can generate: in the early years,Isis was often linked tofreemasonry, because some of their rites are purported of Egyptian origin. Another misinterpretation was thatIsis referred totheosophy, most likely caused by the book entitledIsis Unveiled (1877) byHelena Blavatsky, who was the leader of the theosophic movement at that time.Isis has also been assumed to be a journal devoted to Egyptology. It is sometimes incorrectly writtenISIS, but using all upper-case letters suggests that the title is an acronym, which it is not; this is a particularly unfortunate mistake, since it could create an association with the militantIslamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The following persons are or have beeneditors-in-chief:
The journal is abstracted and indexed in:
According to theJournal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2017impact factor of 1.070, ranking it 11th out of 61 journals in the category "History and Philosophy of Science" (Science edition).[19]