Sixty Years of BYU Studies Quarterly, 1959–2019 The Narrative and the Numbers

Authors

Brad Wilcox
Timothy G. Morrison
Kyle C. Lyons
Jake M. Robins

Keywords

history, science, journals, traditions, studies

Abstract

Publishing for scholarly audiences has a long history. Some propose that the first learned society on record was founded in Toulouse, France, in 1323. The Royal Society of London was established in 1660 and published Europe’s first scholarly journal five years later. In 1848, the American Association for the Advancement of Science published the journal Science, and since that time, the number of academic journals has proliferated. According to Philip G. Altbach and Hans de Wit, over thirty thousand academic journals are in circulation today; Ben Mudrak mentions the appearance of many free open-access journals on the internet since 2006. Professional journals provide means for expanding the world’s knowledge base as scholars communicate ideas and research with one another. Latter-day Saints have made contributions to such journals since the University of Deseret was started in Utah by Brigham Young in 1850. However, professional journals have traditionally been reluctant to publish Latter-day Saint perspectives on topics of interest to a Church audience. Until BYU Studies began, there was no publication that invited Latter-day Saint authors to explore correlations between their secular studies and their religious convictions.

Recommended Citation

Wilcox, Brad; Morrison, Timothy G.; Lyons, Kyle C.; and Robins, Jake M. (2021) "Sixty Years of BYU Studies Quarterly, 1959–2019 The Narrative and the Numbers," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 60: Iss. 4, Article 12.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol60/iss4/12