The Royal Society is celebrating the 350th anniversary of Philosophical Transactions, the world’s first science journal.

Philosophical Transactions, first published in 1665, pioneered the concepts of scientific priority and peer review which, together with archiving and dissemination, provide the model for almost 30,000 scientific journals today.

Landmark papers that have been published in Royal Society journals include:

• The gruesome account of an early blood transfusion (1666)
• Sir Isaac Newton’s landmark paper on the nature of light and colour (1672)
• Benjamin Franklin’s account of flying a kite in a storm to identify the electrical nature of lightning – the Philadelphia Experiment (1752)
• Han’s Sloane’s account of inoculation with small pox (1755)
• A scientific study of a young Mozart confirming him as a musical child genius (1770)
• The discovery of a comet by the first recognized female scientist, Caroline Herschel (1794)
• Maxwell’s discovery of the electromagnetic properties of light (1865)
• The paper that proved Einstein right (1920)
• Stephen Hawking’s early writing on black holes (1970)

To celebrate the anniversary, the Royal Society is holding a series of events looking back at the history of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and forward to the future of scientific publication. If you happen to be planning a trip to England, visit the exhibition of archives in London, or, if not, just check out the exhibition’s brochure. You can also just read more about the history of Philosophical Transactions here.

As part of their 350th anniversary celebrations, all Royal Society journals content is free to access until the end of March 2015.