Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences.[1] The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, education and public engagement and fostering international and global co-operation. Founded on 28 November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as The Royal Society and is the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world.[2]
This article is about the national academy of science in the United Kingdom. For other uses, see Royal Society (disambiguation).Formation
28 November 1660
- ~1,600 Fellows
- ~140 Foreign Members
- 6 Royal Fellows
Council
~225
Motto: Nullius in verba
("Take nobody's word for it")
The society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the society's president, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of Council and the president are elected from and by its Fellows, the basic members of the society, who are themselves elected by existing Fellows. As of 2020, there are about 1,700 fellows, allowed to use the postnominal title FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society), with up to 73 new fellows appointed each year from a pool of around 800 candidates.[3] There are also royal fellows, honorary fellows and foreign members. Up to 24 new foreign members are appointed each year (from the same pool of 800) and they are allowed to use the postnominal title ForMemRS (Foreign Member of the Royal Society). The Royal Society president is Adrian Smith, who took up the post and started his five-year term on 30 November 2020,[3] replacing the previous president, Venki Ramakrishnan.
Since 1967, the society has been based at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, a Grade I listed building in central London which was previously used by the Embassy of Germany, London.
Charter book[edit]
Fellows and foreign members are required to sign a book when they join the Royal Society. This book is known as the Charter Book, which has been signed continuously since 1663. All British monarchs have signed the book since then, apart from William and Mary, and Queen Anne.[53] In 2019, the book was digitised.[53]
Motto[edit]
The society's motto, Nullius in verba, is Latin for "Take nobody's word for it". It was adopted to signify the fellows' determination to establish facts via experiments and comes from Horace's Epistles, where he compares himself to a gladiator who, having retired, is free from control.[54]
Kavli Royal Society International Centre[edit]
In 2009 Chicheley Hall, a Grade I listed building located near Milton Keynes, was bought by the Royal Society for £6.5 million, funded in part by the Kavli Foundation.[85] The Royal Society spent several million on renovations adapting it to become the Kavli Royal Society International Centre, a venue for residential science seminars. The centre held its first scientific meeting on 1 June 2010 and was formally opened on 21 June 2010.[86] The Centre was permanently closed on 18 June 2020[87] and the building was sold in 2021.[88]
Through Royal Society Publishing, the society publishes the following journals:[89]
The society introduced the world's first journal exclusively devoted to science in 1665, Philosophical Transactions, and in so doing originated the peer review process now widespread in scientific journals. Its founding editor was Henry Oldenburg, the society's first secretary.[90][91]
It remains the oldest and longest-running scientific journal in the world. It now publishes themed issues on specific topics and, since 1886,[92] has been divided into two parts; A, which deals with mathematics and the physical sciences,[93] and B, which deals with the biological sciences.[94]
Proceedings of the Royal Society consists of freely submitted research articles and is similarly divided into two parts.[95] Biology Letters publishes short research articles and opinion pieces on all areas of biology and was launched in 2005.[96] Journal of the Royal Society Interface publishes cross-disciplinary research at the boundary between the physical and life sciences,[97] while Interface Focus,[98] publishes themed issue in the same areas. Notes and Records is the society's journal of the history of science.[99] Biographical Memoirs is published twice annually and contains extended obituaries of deceased Fellows.[100] Open Biology is an open access journal covering biology at the molecular and cellular level. Royal Society Open Science is an open access journal publishing high-quality original research across the entire range of science on the basis of objective peer-review.[101] All the society's journals are peer-reviewed.
In May 2021, the society announced plans to transition its four hybrid research journals to open access[102]