From the Editorial Board

One of the unfavorable circumstances hindering the wide dissemination of the scholarly works of Russian investigators in the cultural world is the fact that the majority of representatives of science in Russia have printed their works in the little-accessible Russian language, thereby remaining completely unknown to international science. It has often happened that, following discoveries made in Russia, the same investigations, carried out quite independently in the West, appeared several years later in English, Italian, German, and French journals, and Russian scholarly works did not exert upon the development of knowledge the influence that they might have exerted. Prompted by the desire to take part in international creative work, Russian investigators, while publishing their works in Russia, at the same time printed them in foreign journals, and some even placed their works exclusively in foreign publications. As a result, the entire scientific material became scattered among a number of European journals, often published in different countries, and a survey of everything done in Russia proved extremely difficult. Wishing to facilitate the acquaintance of our western neighbors with the work of Russian scholars in the field of the physical sciences, the Moscow Scientific Institute decided in the spring of 1917 to publish a journal in French for original works in the field of physics and related disciplines, under the title Archives des Sciences Physiques. In order to make translation into French easier for Russian authors, the editorial board of the journal invited translators who, by agreement between the editors and the author, can translate articles if they are written in Russian. The journal is intended to be issued in non-periodical fascicles, ranging in size from 1 to 4 sheets, amounting to about 20 printed sheets per year. Printing in separate issues, while considerably facilitating the technical side of publication, will at the same time make it possible to hasten the appearance of works in print. For the broader acquaintance of Russian readers, in January 1918 a Russian edition of the same works is being issued in parallel with the French one, under the title Archive of the Physical Sciences, issues I and II.

IV

The next unfavorable circumstance hindering the intensive development of scientific activity in Russia is the poverty of the literature on current questions of physics, so that young people embarking on scientific work are deprived of the possibility of following the advances both of Russian and of international science, not being sufficiently prepared for reading specialized journals. Recently, thanks to Fizicheskoe Obozrenie [“Physical Review”], Voprosy fiziki [“Questions of Physics”], and Novye idei v fizike [“New Ideas in Physics”], those interested have been able, to some extent, to satisfy their need for knowledge; and, wishing to contribute to the same aim as that set by the above-mentioned publications, the Scientific Institute has resolved to publish, beginning in 1918, a journal entitled Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk [“Advances in the Physical Sciences”] in Russian, in the amount of 4 issues of 5 sheets per year, intended to acquaint physicists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and teachers with contemporary advances and problems of research in physics and in related branches of knowledge. Being a review journal and comprising articles written by specialists, Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk will also include abstracts of journal articles, a bibliography, and a personalia section. Both journals will be published with the participation of a curatorship consisting of Academician Professor P. I. Walden and Academician Professor A. N. Krylov, under the editorship of Academician Professor P. P. Lazarev.