Scientific Literature A Guided Tour

The scientific article has been a hallmark of the career of every important western scientist since the seventeenth century. Yet its role in the history of science has not been fully explored. Joseph E. Harmon and Alan G. Gross remedy this oversight withThe Scientific Literature, a collection of writingsexcerpts from scientific articles, letters, memoirs, proceedings, transactions, and magazinesthat illustrates the origin of the scientific article in 1665 and its evolution over the next three and a half centuries. Featuring articlesas well as sixty tables and illustrations, tools vital to scientific communicationthat represent the broad sweep of modern science,The Scientific Literatureis a historical tour through both the rhetorical strategies that scientists employ to share their discoveries and the methods that scientists use to argue claims of new knowledge. Commentaries that explain each excerpt's scientific and historical context and analyze its communication strategy accompany each entry. A unique anthology,The Scientific Literaturewill allow both the scholar and the general reader to experience first hand the development of modern science.Harmon, Joseph E. is the author of 'Scientific Literature A Guided Tour', published 2007 under ISBN 9780226316567 and ISBN 0226316564.