We surveyed 751 readers to find out what their ideal occupation would be other than science. The most popular choices were writer (18.3%), doctor (13.0%), and musician (10.7%). More than three times as many readers would prefer to be teachers than lawyers. Of the 32.4% of readers who opted for the ubiquitous "Other," the most popular careers among 143 alternatives listed were artist, photographer, and cabinetmaker/carpenter. And, yes, we do have readers who would like to be professional surfer

We surveyed 323 readers to find out how many peer-reviewed research papers they have published in the past year, and in their careers. Readers published a median of 2.1 papers in the past 12 months, and in a median career length of 12.5 years, they published 27.0 papers. That's an average of 2.2 papers per year throughout their research careers. Not surprisingly, a moderate linear correlation (r2=0.49) exists between career length and number of papers published. More than 10% of our readers ha

Snapshots | How do scientists spend their time? For the 335 readers of The Scientist who filled out a Web survey on how they spend their nonscience time, watching television, spending time with family members, and cooking at home topped the list. Taking part in an organized sport came in last, but a little higher on the list was watching a sporting event. Complete results are available at www.the-scientist.com/surveys/snapshotresults_030113.htm. Every issue we plan to survey our readers

We have recently achieved two significant steps in the development of The Scientist on the Web. In the past few weeks, we have launched a new design for our Web site at www.the-scientist.com, and the 16-year online full-text archive of The Scientist back issues has been completed. Our newly designed site is, effectively, the fourth generation of The Scientist presence on the Web. In 1992--almost prehistory in "Internet time"--The Scientist launched an experiment in cooperation with the Nation

The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) may not have quite the same historic import as the Theses of Martin Luther or the US Declaration of Independence, but it has the potential to shake up the world of academic publishing in a profound way. The BOAI was proposed at a meeting sponsored by the Open Society Institute in Budapest in December 2001, attended by supporters of open access to researcher-generated literature, and was released in final form on Feb. 14 (www.soros.org/openaccess). The O

This issue, Oct. 29, 2001, marks the beginning of the 16th year of publication of The Scientist. It is remarkable and sobering to look back over these relatively few years and to see how much has changed in the landscape of science, and even more remarkable how many things have stayed the same. Public awareness of the life sciences has dramatically increased. Stem cell research, the human genome project, and now the grisly threat of bioterrorism mean that life scientists are now more than ever i

Life science researchers like working in industry for "career development opportunities" and "financial rewards"; they like working in academia for "creative freedom" and a "stronger learning environment." These are some of the conclusions from a recently conducted study of readers of The Scientist who have held research positions in both academia and industry. The survey gathered opinions and impressions from 159 life science researchers with such dual experience. Opinions on which environment

Career Development Advice "Every research scientist needs to develop leadership skills." This was the take-home message of a breakfast seminar cosponsored by The Scientist and Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute for attendees of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics meeting in Boston, June 6. The seminar panel consisted of Michelle Graham, director of leadership development and strategic plan

Scientific Information Proliferates Are you keeping up? Keeping up with the literature can be hard for scientists, but keeping up with developments in electronic publishing in the life sciences is even harder. The plethora of new names, Web sites, and services has grown dramatically in recent months. Here are a few highlights: * PubMed Central is the barrier-free National Institutes of Health repository for peer-reviewed primary research reports in the life sciences. It began accepting journal

Those who have read The Scientist for more than a few years have witnessed changes both great and small in the publication. The change from newsprint to glossy paper, the introduction of controlled unpaid circulation to qualified life scientists, and the increased focus on life scientists can all be counted as major changes. With this issue, we are introducing a new look to The Scientist, in both size and design. Our page size is now two inches shorter than previously, making a more compa

In 1974, the editorial board of Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, at the time and still the world's largest journal of biochemistry, gathered in Amsterdam to celebrate the journal's 25th anniversary at a lavish party hosted by ier-North Holland Biomedical Press. Attending the gathering were such legendary figures in biochemistry as Sir Hans Krebs, Nobel Prize-winning discoverer of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, Fyodor Lynen, Nobel Prize-winning discoverer of fatty acid synthetase, Alex Bangham, "inv

Observant readers may have noticed a small but significant change on the front page of this issue of The Scientist --we have changed the subtitle of our publication from "The Newspaper for the Life Sciences Professional" to "The News Journal for the Life Scientist." While this change is of no earth-shattering importance in the greater scheme of things, it has significance to our editors and writers, and it affects the way we present ourselves to the world. The content and appearance of The Scie