Osiris (journal)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Osiris is an academic journal with a double life. It was born in 1936, went quiet for nearly two decades, and then came back. The question the rest of this documentary will answer is: what kind of publication earns that kind of revival, and who were the people behind it?

  The journal was named after the Egyptian god of the dead and resurrection, which turns out to be fitting. George Sarton, a lecturer and later professor at Harvard University, founded Osiris alongside the History of Science Society in 1936 with a specific gap in mind. Isis, the Society's existing publication, could not accommodate longer papers. Osiris was built to hold what Isis could not.

  Sarton oversaw fifteen issues before the journal fell silent. It would not publish again until 1985, when the History of Science Society brought it back as an annual publication. That revival has continued ever since, with one exception: no issue appeared in 1991.

• 2. George Sarton's Vision

  ›

  George Sarton shaped Osiris for more than three decades. His role at Harvard gave him standing in the academic world, and he used Osiris as a venue for the kind of extended scholarly work that shorter journals could not support.

  Sarton oversaw fifteen issues between 1936 and 1968. That span covers more than thirty years, meaning the journal's early life was defined almost entirely by one person's editorial judgment. What Sarton considered worth publishing in the history of science, medicine, and technology is what the early Osiris became.

  The journal's founding premise, that important scholarship sometimes requires more space than a standard article slot allows, remained the core reason for Osiris's existence long after Sarton stepped away. Isis, the partner publication, continues alongside Osiris today, with the two journals sharing the same institutional home in the History of Science Society.

• 3. The Long Silence and Revival

  ›

  After 1968, Osiris published nothing for seventeen years. The gap was not a sign of failure so much as an absence of a driving hand. Sarton had been that hand, and without him the journal simply stopped.

  In 1985, the History of Science Society made the decision to revive Osiris and shift it to an annual schedule. That change in frequency was a significant choice. A yearly publication can build a sustained readership and establish thematic coherence across issues in ways that irregular publishing cannot.

  The University of Chicago Press eventually became the journal's publisher, placing Osiris within one of the most established academic press networks in the United States. The only interruption to the annual schedule since 1985 was 1991, when no issue appeared. The reasons for that gap are not detailed in the available record, but the journal resumed the following year and has continued publishing annually since.