The function of science publishing today is to get information about new findings in science to at least three different communities:
The classic media for science publishing--journals put out by societies and other discipline-oriented organizations--were designed only for Group A, while the media serving Group B are the short news articles in society house organs, such as Chemical Engineering News, Physics Today, and MRS Bulletin, and in such multidisciplinary publications as Science and Nature. Group C is served (very poorly, in my opinion) by the general media--including newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, Omni, and Discover--which tend to overamplify and inappropriately dramatize the "breakthroughs" they consider newsworthy. Since maximum publicity--not accuracy--today serves both the scientist and the journalist, these and other such publications, in my opinion, tend increasingly to fall for exaggeration and hype. Meanwhile, such publications as New Scientist and The Scientist seek to bridge with ...
