How can RMS members support the Journal of Microscopy? infocus #78 June 2025

The Journal of Microscopy, published by Wiley on behalf of the Royal Microscopical Society, is the world’s oldest journal dedicated to the science of microscopy. The Journal is critical to the RMS, as almost all the income it generates comes back into the society to help support our activities.

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.292

It was first published as ‘The Microscopic Journal and Structural Record’ in 1841, shortly after the society was formed in 1839. It then became ‘the Transactions of the Microscopical Society of London’, then ‘the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Sciences’, and finally, the Journal of Microscopy in 1878.

All of these issues are available online in the backcatalogue, and are a fascinating read, including articles from some very famous microscopists such as Ernst Abbe, who published several articles in the journal, and was made an honorary fellow by the society. Interestingly, even then, part of the aim of publishing the Journal was to provide a source of income for the society, over and above subscriptions from members, and of course, this is still true today.

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