A growing number of researchers contend that the traditional scientific journal--with its peer-review gatekeeping and relatively high printing and mailing costs--is seeing its last days. From now on, they predict, researchers will use the Internet to directly disseminate their papers to each other as part of a more flexible system that will progressively replace print journals--and, perhaps, their publishers. But publishers, while acknowledging the power of Internet distribution, insist they wi

Stock options and an openness to independent personalities are increasing the appeal of small firms for creative, ambitious scientists. The ability of small science-based companies to go head-to- head with much larger firms in attracting top scientific talent is growing, according to researchers and human resources analysts. The traditional recruiting advantages of big companies higher salaries and a greater degree of job security have been effectively offset in recent years by major shifts in

Research psychologist Catherine D. Gaddy has been appointed executive director of the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) in Washington, D.C. Gaddy was associate director of the office of program consultation and accreditation for the American Psychological Association (APA) in Washington before assuming her new post on March 1. She succeeds Betty M. Vetter, who directed the organization for 30 years, until she died of lung cancer in November (The Scientist, Jan. 9, 199

Moves to companies by a small group of HHMI investigators shows the growing appeal of commercial- sector biological research jobs. Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators are acknowledged to be among the most creative and accomplished basic researchers working in academic laboratories today. Yet even these top scientists sometimes feel the urge for a different set of challenges. Some long for the chance to develop useful new drugs and therapeutics based on their ideas or to run a larger,

Floyd E. Bloom, chairman of the neuropharmacology department at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., was named as the new editor-in-chief of Science last month. Bloom replaces Daniel E. Koshland, Jr., a University of California, Berkeley, molecular biologist who edited the journal for 10 years. According to the Washington, D.C.-based American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which publishes Science, the multidisciplinary publication is the largest peer-reviewed

After 22 years at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) the last six as director Samuel Broder will retire in April to become chief scientific officer at IVAX Corp., a Miami-based pharmaceutical company, at a salary reported to be about twice his current pay of $120,000. There is more than money behind Broder's December decision to leave, however. His is a portrait of a scientist frustrated with the politics of government service and increasingly estranged from scientific colleagues, cancer patie

Questions remain about the low-key director's handling of clinical research, Congress, and scientific misconduct Not yet two years into his tenure as head of the National Institutes of Health, Harold E. Varmus is getting high marks from many scientists for his low-key, but thorough efforts to rejuvenate the agency's biomedical research effort. Initiatives to sharpen the basic science being done on campus and to streamline the peer review of proposals from outside researchers are bringing new

University groups work with Clinton administration to rewrite indirect-costs rules but will the new Congress ask for more ? Poorly understood, much maligned, and yet central to the work of research, indirect costs are due for a partial, but welcome, revamping under changes expected to be published this week by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), according to university administrators and association officials. Indirect costs represent that part of a federal research grant that reimbu

Walter Stewart and Ned Feder -- forced into new jobs at the National Institutes of Health in April 1993, ending their decade-long careers as self-styled scientific misconduct investigators -- have quietly but persistently continued their inquiries into research wrongdoing. They do so now, however, on their own time and with non-governmental resources. Should Stewart and Feder be reinstated in their former jobs? Many people familiar with their case -- even some who respect the role Stewart and

Clinton's ban on funds for most studies using fertilized human eggs short-circuits NIH'spolicy-making process Many scientists studying human reproduction and embryology are angry and disappointed over a recent White House move to preclude federal funding for most research involving human embryos--new support that had been recommended by an expert panel. They see the move as an attempt to appease the new conservative ma-jority in Congress, which has threatened legislation against such studies

The digital library--an eagerly anticipated but as yet ill- defined and largely unrealized concept--took an important step toward actualization this past fall with the launching of a new collaborative federal research effort, according to government officials, project investigators, and librarians. Institution: Carnegie Mellon University Funding: $4.8 million Research Focus: Digital video library incorporating math and science materials Major Partners: Bell Atlantic Network Services Digital

Manufacturer Up In Arms Incensed that the terms exclude industrial scientists, Merck announces sponsorship of competing project A powerful new, privately held database of human complementary DNA (cDNA) sequences has become available to researchers eager to test its capabilities to rapidly identify new genes. The proposed terms of access to the database, however, exclude pharmaceutical and other industry-affiliated scientists, angeri