Multiple Editing Challenges Scientists love multi-author books, a fact easily seen by how worn such volumes are in libraries. Each offers varied perspectives on a research topic. "In putting together a multi-author book, it is important to choose a theme, and to choose contributors who are doing interesting work," explains Rudolf Raff, a professor of biology at Indiana University in Bloomington, who has edited two such books.
The tone and pace of the articles contained within the covers of multi-author books contrast with those of journal reports. "Articles like these allow one to put discoveries into an historical context, and to speculate a bit more than in original research articles," says David Shub, a professor of biology at the State University of New York, Albany. "Writing such an article is an opportunity to put together a review that synthesizes material in a way that adds something for people to think ...
