Essays from the Editors
Richard Gallagher, current editor of The Scientist, reflects on how far we've come and where we're headed in the years ahead. Read his essay.
Barbara Spector, editor of The Scientist from 1995 to 1998, recalls a period of excitement and transition. Read her essay now. Read her essay now.
Tabitha Powledge, who served as The Scientist's first editor, reflects on the publication's beginnings in Washington, DC, and its reception by the scientific and publishing communities.
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The Present and Future By Richard Gallagher
It is one of our strengths that The Scientist is recognizably the same publication today that Gene Garfield strove to create in the 1980s. Now, as then, we aim to be readable, topical and relevant to the professional lives of researchers and others involved in the life sciences.
And while the faces have changed at the magazine, the spirit of excitement and togetherness that was apparent from day one persists. I think that this has to do with the intimacy of working in a small team and the privilege of being able to create something unique.
There have of course been some dramatic changes, largely in response to the opportunities presented by technology. Chief among these have been developments on the web. The Scientist was an early adopter. In fact, we have a reasonable claim to be the first regularly published science periodical available in full text on the Internet. This was in 1992, when a text file for each issue was made available through an NSF gopher site.
Our first foray into web-only content was a news service, realizing Gene Garfield's dream of a daily newspaper for scientists, and begun in 2002 by Ivan Oransky, who is now deputy editor. We currently offer a rich array of multimedia content, including daily news, podcasts, slide shows, interactive polls and the opportunity for readers to engage in live discussion on all our content. There's a lot more in the works too, including videos, virtual career fairs and online seminars—a whole suite of services that will position The-Scientist.com at the center of an active and interactive community of scientists.
In response to the changes we've made, the industry is noticing. The Scientist recently was awarded a gold ‘Azbee' in the 2006 American Society of Business Publication Editors' National Editorial Awards for our 2005 supplement on pain. We are also a finalist for an ‘Eddie' in the best B-to-B magazine in science category by FOLIO magazine, and will find out how we fare just after this 20th anniversary material debuts.
Of course, to win a place in the hearts of the scientific community, technology is not enough. The content has to be interesting, novel and useful. Generating this content is a true team effort. It involves all of the staff, most of their partners and friends, the recently re-invigorated editorial board, former colleagues, the two co-owners of the company and, most importantly of all, the readers.
The development of the web has allowed us to take the magazine in new directions. Now a monthly, our aim is to provide "serious entertainment" for life science professionals, with a rich mix of content in every issue. Sometimes, that means pieces that challenge the status quo, such as our recent features on "Are We Training Too Many Scientists?" and "Sizing Up Bush on Science." Sometimes it's practical information for the modern job hunt, including our Best Places to Work series and Salary Survey. And sometimes it's uniquely accessible overviews from the leaders of science such as Craig Venter, Kenneth Chien, Alain Fischer and Paul Greengard.
We'd be delighted to hear about content and services that you'd like to get from us. A recent letter said "We receive The Scientist in our lab, and when it arrives, everyone fights to read it first." That's what we're after.
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