September 1993

pp.4 Gray Matter Parasitology Opportunities A Very Good Month? Poster Session Art Imitates Death Why Publish? Because It's There Gray Matter Added to the chorus of voices expressing concern over the Clinton administration's health-care reform is a coalition of 67 national research, health, and senior citizen organizations calling itself the Task Force for Aging Research. In a statement released over Labor Day weekend through the Washington, D.C.-based National Alliance for Aging Research, whic

(Among those publishing more than 300 papers, January 1981-June 1992) RANK INSTITUTION NUMBER TOTAL CITATIONS OF PAPERS CITATIONS PER PAPER 1 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 1,342 20,094 14.97 2 McMaster University 418 5,284 12.64 3 Brigham & Women's Hospital 1,559 19,233 12.34 4 Stanford University 1,207 14,791 12.25 5 Harvard University 3,037 34,412 11.33 6 University of Pennsylvania 1,292 14,070 10.89 7 University of Virginia 639 6,871 10.75 8 University of California, Los Angeles

processors and earlier versions is that now they have so much built-in functionality that users rarely need to go to another program to prepare documents. In the past, users would have generated text and tables in the word processor, then called up a separate program to prepare graphs and perhaps a third to create equations. Each part would have been printed separately, and the user would assemble the document by hand. Today's high-end packages--priced at about $500--not only include tools for

ideas, loves teaching, is up to date in his or her field, and writes well need not expend much effort in finding a publisher--publishers do the finding. Scores of publishers' sales representatives fill the halls of academia every fall and spring, hawking their wares, but also carefully scouting for promising authors. Editors also come a-hunting. "I knock on doors, ask questions, and see if professors are interested in writing a text," says Ron Pullins, chemistry editor at West Publishi