In addition to "completing an experiment," publication in scientific literature serves as a means to secure knowledge ownership claims and is an efficient vehicle for communicating this knowledge.2 Bruce Lewenstein, associate professor of communication and science and technology studies, Cornell University, expounds, "Scientific knowledge is a communal resource that only exists because it's available for others to judge and affirm as important."
Other experts have a more pragmatic perspective. "Researchers publish for economic self-interest, ... it provides visibility and is evidence of productivity," comments Ed Huth, editor emeritus of the Annals of Internal Medicine and author of a book on publishing in medicine.3 Jeremy Flower-Ellis, associate professor, department for production ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, who has taught a course on how to write and publish a scientific paper since 1968, succinctly agrees, "No publications, no funds; no funds, no job."
Lewenstein, who is also editor of the journal, ...
