It is immensely important scientific journals should be widely accessible,
and it is very easy to assume that "the public" is scientifically naive.
Within the public, which includes scientists in other fields and
professionals in other disciplines, there are many who would appreciate and
make good use of facilitated "unrestricted access to scientific research
ideas an discoveries", and it would be of very great value if a concise
summary were produced by a writer (or even by the authors) to penetrate the
jargon (rather than the concepts) which make many papers unintelligible even
to scientists in other disciplines.
Eric Albone
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Norman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2003 4:41 PM
Subject: [PSCI-COM] Scientific journals and the public
: In December I posted a message about the Public Library of Science
: (PLoS) and their aim of making scientific journals more available to
: the general public. In reply to my message it was suggested that
: this was not a proper aim for scientific journals. I see that they
: have now developed a set of principles, number 9 of which says:
:
: From http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org/about/principles.html
: "Public resource. Our mission of building a public library of science
: includes not only providing unrestricted access to scientific
: research ideas and discoveries, but developing tools and materials to
: engage the interest and imagination of the public and helping non-
: scientists to understand and enjoy scientific discoveries and the
: scientific process. "
:
: They now promise that "a concise synopsis of every paper will be
: written by a professional science writer. This will help to explain
: the significance of the work to readers outside the scientific
: community."
:
: Interesting to see that the current BMJ issue is entirely devoted to
: and aimed at patients. Lynn Eaton, the guest editor says they have
: "experimented with the most effective delivery for a journal which
: might, by 2013, engage not only doctors but interested non-medics as
: well".
: http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7402/1275
:
: I think we are seeing the early stages of an evolution in the role of
: journal literature.
:
:
:
: Frank Norman, Librarian. National Institute for Medical Research
: The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK
: tel 020 8816 2227 fax 020 8816 2230 email [log in to unmask]
:
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