Congresses of natural scientists and mathematicians in the “Bulletin of experimental physics and elementary mathematics” (1886–1917): Analysis of publications

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study of publications in the “Bulletin of Experimental Physics and Elementary Mathematics”, about the organization, conduct and results of domestic and foreign congresses of mathematicians and natural scientists, published in Kyiv and Odesa during 1886–1917. The magazine was an unofficial periodical printed publication of the mathematical department of the Novorossiysk Society of Naturalists. The research was conducted with the aim of carrying out a meaningful and quantitative analysis of the texts of journal publications, which highlights the materials of such meetings of scientists and teachers. The authors used scientific methods for meaningful analysis of the research subject, and in the process of quantitative analysis – text quantification, collection of empirical data, their generalization and mathematical and statistical processing. As a result of the research of the magazine’s materials on congresses of mathematicians and natural researchers during the entire period of its publication, the authors came to the following conclusions. The magazine’s materials on conventions and congresses for all the years of its publication accounted for slightly more than 4% of its total area. All National Congresses of Natural Scientists and Mathematicians, which met during the period of publication of the journal, were covered on its pages (this is almost 2/3 of the entire volume of information in the journal about such meetings of scientists and teachers). At the same time, the methods of presenting information and its volume differed significantly in different meetings, depending on the presence of motives of both members of the editorial board. The main motives for placing information were: a) the presence of a pedagogical component in the work of meetings; b) scientific (or pedagogical) significance of reports and meeting participants; c) availability of quality materials about meetings; d) availability of magazine space. International congresses were irregularly covered by the newspaper, the motives for placing information about such meetings in the magazine were similar. Starting in 1901, the editors of the Bulletin introduced the scheme developed during the previous years of the magazine’s existence into the practice of presenting materials about scientific and pedagogical congresses: a) announcement of the event; b) publication of the regulation (statute, program) of the event; c) description of preparation for the event; d) overview of the features of the event; e) presentation of the texts of important speeches. Such a scheme of presentation of meetings was introduced for the first time in popular science and educational periodicals of the Russian Empire. The pedagogical component was the most important motive for both staffs of the Bulletin editorial board when deciding on the features and scope of coverage of materials on the work of domestic and foreign congresses. The materials of Bulletin (and other similar publications of that time) covering the work of domestic and foreign congresses of teachers and researchers of nature and mathematics, which reveal the content of the educational activities of famous scientists and teachers, are an important element of the source base of biographical studies, which conducted by historians of science.