40 Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 40, Number 1 (2015) SCIENCE AND POLITICS: A CASE STUDY OF THE CROATIAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL Nenad Raos, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, P.O.B. 291, HR- 10001, Zagreb, Croatia,
[email protected] Introduction diately after the “Great War“ (on December 1, 1918). The kingdom was ruled by the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty. It is not unusual for a scientific journal to change its On October 3, 1929, the new state changed its name to name. The Journal of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Yugoslavia, after King Aleksandar enforced his personal found in 1955, changed its title to Polyhedron in 1982, dictatorship. The new name implied that all the subjects Chemistry World was first published in January 2004 to of King Aleksandar belong to the same (Yugoslav) nation. replace Chemistry in Britain, which ran from 1965, etc. Accordingly, the territory of Yugoslavia was divided into However, it is very unusual that a chemical journal in new administrative units (banovina) with virtually no less than three decades (1927-1955) has changed its name reference to historical, i.e. national borders (8). six times—nearly as many times as Liebigs Annalen, All the subjects of the Yugoslav king were “Yugo- which was continuously published under seven titles, slavs,” but Croats and Serbs had quite different percep- but in the period of 165 years (1832-1997). This journal tions of their new state, and even more of the nature of is Croatica Chemica Acta (1-6), the leading chemical Yugoslav nationality. A similar political constellation journal in Croatia.