Transactions is the flagship academic journal of the Royal Historical Society. First published in 1872, Transactions has been publishing the highest quality scholarship in history for 150 years.
The journal welcomes submissions dealing with any geographical area from the early middle ages to the very recent past, and is interested in articles that cover entirely new ground, thematically or methodologically, as well as those that engage critically on established themes in existing literatures. In line with the RHS’s commitment to supporting postgraduate and early career historians, the journal encourages submissions from younger scholars and seeks to engage constructively and positively with new authors
From 2021 Transactions has welcomed proposals from all historians — not just (as previously) those who gave lectures to the Society. If you’re currently working on a research article, please do consider Transactions as one of the journals in which you might publish your work.
Contributing to Transactions
We welcome submissions of scholarly articles for publication in future issues of the journal. Please read our Guidelines for Authors which provide information on the journal and the format in which to submit an article. CUP also provides information concerning its Open Access policy for Transactions.
For enquiries regarding submissions to Transactions, please email: trhs@royalhistsoc.org.
Latest issue, volume 31 (2021)
Transactions is currently published each November as a collected volume, by Cambridge University Press. The latest volume (31 in the Sixth Series) was published in November 2021 and is available here.
Volume 31 includes articles by Shahmima Akhtar on revisiting race, ethnicity & equality; Andrew Arsan on an Ottoman Arab man of letters; Linda Colley, on printing written constitutions; Simon Ditchfield on ‘Baroque around the Clock …. Uses of Global History’; Sarah Hamilton on medieval sacred spaces; and Margot Finn on material turns and cancel cultures.
Transactions from 2022
After the recent move to submissions, Transactions sees further development in the coming months. From early 2022 the journal will be overseen by a new team, led by its two new Editors, Dr Harshan Kumarasingham (Edinburgh) and Dr Kate Smith (Birmingham). They are supported by newly-created UK-based and international editorial boards, further details of which will be announced in early 2022.
Transactions also seeks to broaden its range of article formats and the subject areas it covers, including studies in historical methodologies, pedagogies and policy debates. In this way Transactions will better reflect the interests of the RHS as a learned society with a membership from within and beyond higher education. There’s more on the Transactions future in the latest issue of the Society’s Newsletter (November 2021).
Transactions since 1872
Now published for the RHS by Cambridge University Press, the complete collection of Transactions from 1872 is available on Cambridge Journals Online. The back list is also available on JSTOR with a five year moving wall. An archive selection of articles from Transactions was published by CUP in 2018 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Society’s foundation.
- TRHS Sixth Series (1991-present)
- TRHS Fifth Series (1951 – 1990)
- TRHS Fourth Series (1918 – 1950)
- TRHS Third Series (1907 – 1917)
- TRHS Second (New) Series (1884-1906)
- TRHS First (Old) Series (1877-1882)
Reprint Permissions
- For permission to reproduce copyrighted material from pre-1993 volumes of Transactions please contact the RHS Office: administration@royalhistsoc.org.
- For permission to reproduce material from post-1993 volumes and all digital permissions please contact the Rights Department at Cambridge University Press.
- Authors of papers in Transactions wishing to reproduce their own work in subsequent volumes should also email Cambridge University Press.