A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic
discipline or profession, or a group of related disciplines or professions.
Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some
qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election.
Most learned societies are non-profit organizations. Their activities
typically include holding regular conferences for the presentation and
discussion of new research results and publishing or sponsoring academic
journals in their discipline. Some also act as professional bodies, regulating
the activities of their members in the public interest or the collective
interest of the membership. History
Some of the oldest learned societies are the Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana, the
Accademia della Crusca, the Accademia dei Lincei, the Académie Française, the
Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Royal Society of London and the French
Academy of Sciences. Significance
Scholars in the sociology of science argue that learned societies are of key
importance and their formation assists in the emergence and development of new
disciplines or professions. Structure
Societies can be very general in nature, such as the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, specific to a given discipline, such as the Modern
Language Association, or specific to a given area of study, such as the Royal
Entomological Society. Most are either specific to a particular
country, often with local branches, or are international, such as the
International Federation of Library Associations or the Regional Studies
Association, in which case they often have national branches. But many are
local, such as the Massachusetts Medical Society, the publishers of the
internationally known New England Journal of Medicine.
Some learned societies have been rechartered by legislation to form
quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations.
Membership Membership may be open to all, may
require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor
conferred by election. This is the case with some learned societies, such as the
Polish Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana, the Italian Accademia dei Lincei, the
Académie Française, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the UK's Royal
Society and Royal Academy of Engineering or the French Academy of Sciences.
Some societies offer membership to those who have an interest in a particular
subject or discipline, provided they pay their membership fees. Older and more
academic/professional societies may offer associateships and/or fellowships
to those who are appropriately qualified by honoris causa, or by submission of a
portfolio of work or an original thesis. A benefit of membership may be
discounted subscription rates for the publications of the society. Many of
these societies award post-nominal letters to their memberships.
Online academic communities Following the globalization and the
development of information technology, in addition to established academic
associations, academic virtual communities have been also organized
that in some cases became even more important platform for interaction and
scientific collaborations among researchers and faculty than traditional
scholarly societies. Members of these online academic communities, grouped by
areas of interests, use for their communication shared and dedicated
listservs, social networking services and academic oriented social networks.
See also List of learned societies
Academic conferences National academy
Professional association Text publication society
Notes and references External links
Scholarly Societies Project from the University of Waterloo
Libraries—database of hundreds of scholarly societies in various fields,
including some of the oldest societies Eclectica, virtual exhibit on the
history of Canadian learned societies.