Comptes Rendus

Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences (English: Proceedings of the Academy of sciences), or simply Comptes rendus, is a French scientific journal which has been published since 1666. It is the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences. It is currently split into seven sections, published on behalf of the Academy by Elsevier: Mathématique, Mécanique, Physique, Geoscience, Palevol, Chimie, and Biologies.

The journal has had a complicated naming history, with several name changes and splits over the years.

Comptes rendus was initially established in 1835 as Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences. It began as an alternative publication pathway for more prompt publication than the Mémoires de l'Academie des Sciences, which had been published since 1666. The Mémoires, which continued to be published alongside the Comptes rendus throughout the nineteenth century, had a publication cycle which resulted in memoirs being published years after they had been presented to the Academy. Some academicians continued to prefer publishing in the Mémoires because of the strict page limits in the Comptes rendus.

After 1965 this title was split into five sections:

Series A and B were published together in one volume except in 1974.

The subject areas of the series were rearranged as follows:

The physical and chemical sciences series were reshuffled between 1989 and 2000, creating considerable confusion. Series IIB united the physical and chemical sciences (as Mécanique, Physique, Astrophysique et Chimie) until the July 1989 issue, with which chemistry was separated in Series IIC. Series IV was created in March, 2000, but for two more months, Series IIB was published as Mécanique, Physique et Astrophysique. From May 2000 on, Series IIB was renamed Mécanique and limited to (applied) mechanics, as opposed to Series IV. Series IIC and IV started with issue number 1, the others continued their issue numbers (which by then had reached the 320s).

The present naming and subject assignment was established from 2002 on: