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Research
scientists are the primary audience for the journal, but summaries and accompanying articles make many of the most important papers understandable for the general public and to scientists in other fields. Toward the front of each issue are
editorials, news and feature articles on issues of general interest to scientists, including current affairs, science funding, business, scientific
ethics and research breakthroughs. There are also sections on books and arts. The remainder of the journal consists mostly of research articles, which are often dense and highly technical. Because of strict limits on the length of articles, in many cases the printed text is actually a summary of the work in question with many details relegated to accompanying
supplementary material on the journal's website.
[edit]History
[edit]Scientific magazines and journals preceding Nature
Nineteenth-century Britain was home to a great deal of scientific progress; particularly in the latter half of the 19th century, Britain underwent enormous technological and industrial changes and advances.
[3] The most respected scientific journals of this time were the refereed journals of the
Royal Society, which had published many of the great works from
Isaac Newton,
Michael Faraday through to early works from
Charles Darwin. In addition, during this period, the number of popular science periodicals doubled from the
1850s to the
1860s.
[4] According to the editors of these popular science magazines, the publications were designed to serve as “organs of science,” in essence, a means of connecting the public to the scientific world.
[4]Nature, first created in
1869, was not the first magazine of its kind. One journal to precede
Nature was titled
Recreative Science: A Record and Remembrancer of Intellectual Observation, which, created in
1859, began as a
natural history magazine and progressed to include more physical observational science and technical subjects and less natural history.
[5] The journal’s name changed from its original title to
Intellectual Observer: A Review of Natural History, Microscopic Research, and Recreative Science and then later to the
Student and Intellectual Observer of Science, Literature, and Art.
[6] While
Recreative Science had attempted to include more physical sciences such as
astronomy and
archaeology, the
Intellectual Observer broadened itself further to include literature and art as well.
[6] Similar to
Recreative Science was the scientific journal titled
Popular Science Review, created in
1862,
[7] which covered different fields of science by creating subsections titled ‘Scientific Summary’ or ‘Quarterly Retrospect,’ with book reviews and commentary on the latest scientific works and publications.
[7] Two other journals produced in England prior to the development of
Nature were titled the
Quarterly Journal of Science and
Scientific Opinion, founded in
1864 and
1868, respectively.
[6] The journal most closely related to
Nature in its editorship and format was titled
The Reader, created in 1864; the publication mixed science with literature and art in an attempt to reach an audience outside of the scientific community, similar to
Popular Science Review.
[6] These similar journals all ultimately failed. The
Popular Science Review was the longest to survive, lasting 20 years and ending its publication in
1881;
Recreative Science ceased publication as the
Student and Intellectual Observer in
1871. The
Quarterly Journal, after undergoing a number of editorial changes, ceased publication in
1885.
The Reader terminated in
1867, and finally,
Scientific Opinion lasted a mere 2 years, until June
1870.
[5][edit]The creation of Nature
Not long after the conclusion of
The Reader, a former editor,
Norman Lockyer, decided to create a new scientific journal titled
Nature,
[8] taking its name from a line by
William Wordsworth: "To the solid ground of nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye".
[9] First owned and published by
Alexander Macmillan,
Nature was similar to its predecessors in its attempt to “provide cultivated readers with an accessible forum for reading about advances in scientific knowledge.”
[8] Janet Browne has proposed that “far more than any other science journal of the period,
Nature was conceived, born, and raised to serve polemic purpose.”
[8] Many of the early editions of
Nature consisted of articles written by members of a group that called itself the
X Club, a group of scientists known for having liberal, progressive, and somewhat controversial scientific beliefs relative to the time period.
[8]Initiated by
Thomas Henry Huxley, the group consisted of such important scientists as
Joseph Hooker,
Herbert Spencer, and
John Tyndall, along with another five scientists and mathematicians; these scientists were all avid supporters of Darwin’s theory of evolution as
common descent, a theory which, during the latter-half of the 19th century, received a great deal of criticism among more conservative groups of scientists.
[10] Perhaps it was in part its scientific liberality that made
Nature a longer-lasting success than its predecessors.
John Maddox, editor of
Nature from 1966 to 1973 as well as from 1980 to 1995, suggested at a celebratory dinner for the journal’s centennial edition that perhaps it was the journalistic qualities of Nature that drew readers in; “journalism” Maddox states, “is a way of creating a sense of community among people who would otherwise be isolated from each other. This is what Lockyer’s journal did from the start.”
[11] In addition, Maddox mentions that the financial backing of the journal in its first years by the Macmillan family also allowed the journal to flourish and develop more freely than scientific journals before it.
[11][edit]Nature in the 20th and early 21st centuries
Nature underwent a great deal of development and expansion during the 20th century, particularly during the latter half of the 90s.
[edit]Editors
Norman Lockyer, the founder of
Nature, was a professor at
Imperial College. He was succeeded in 1919 by Richard Gregory, the second editor of the journal.
[12] Gregory helped to establish
Nature in the international scientific community. His obituary by the Royal Society stated: "Gregory was always very interested in the international contacts of science, and in the columns of
Nature he always gave generous space to accounts of the activities of the International Scientific Unions."
[13] During the years 1945 to 1973, editorship of
Nature changed three times, first in 1945 to A.J.V. Gale and
L.J.F. Brimble (who in 1958 became the sole editor), then to John Maddox in 1965, and finally to David Davies in 1973.
[12] In 1980, Maddox returned as editor and retained his position until 1995.
Philip Campbell has since become Editor-in-chief of all
Nature publications.
[12][edit]Nature’s expansion and development
In 1970, Nature first opened its Washington office; other branches opened in New York in 1985, Tokyo and Munich in 1987, Paris in 1989, San Francisco in 2001, Boston in 2004, and Hong Kong in 2005. Starting in the 1980s, the journal underwent a great deal of expansion, launching over ten new journals. These new journals comprise the Nature Publishing Group, which was created in 1999 and includes Nature, Nature Research Journals, Stockton Press Specialist Journals and Macmillan Reference (renamed NPG Reference).
In 1997,
Nature created its own website, www.nature.com, and in 1999 Nature Publishing Group began its series of
Nature Reviews.
[12] Some articles and papers are available for free on the Nature Web site. Others require the purchase of premium access to the site.
Nature claims a readership of about 424,000 total readers. The journal has a circulation of around 53,000 but studies have concluded that on average a single copy is shared by as many as 8 people.
[14][edit]Publishing in Nature
Having an article published in
Nature is very prestigious, and the articles are often highly cited, which can lead to promotions, grant funding, and attention from the mainstream media. Because of these
positive feedback effects, competition among scientists to publish in high-level journals like
Nature and its closest competitor,
Science, can be very fierce.
Nature's
impact factor, a measure of how many citations a journal generates in other works, was 34.480 in 2009 (as measured by
Thomson ISI), among the highest of any science journal.
As with most other professional scientific journals, articles undergo an initial screening by the editor, followed by
peer review (in which other scientists, chosen by the editor for expertise with the subject matter but who have no connection to the research under review, will read and critique articles), before publication. In the case of
Nature, they are only sent for review if it is decided that they deal with a topical subject and are sufficiently ground-breaking in that particular field. As a consequence, the majority of submitted articles are rejected without review.
It is intended, FIRST, to place before the general public the grand results of Scientific Work and Scientific Discovery; and to urge the claims of Science to a more general recognition in Education and in Daily Life; and, SECONDLY, to aid Scientific men themselves, by giving early information of all advances made in any branch of Natural knowledge throughout the world, and by affording them an opportunity of discussing the various Scientific questions which arise from time to time.
—20, 20
This was revised in 2000 to:
First, to serve scientists through prompt publication of significant advances in any branch of science, and to provide a forum for the reporting and discussion of news and issues concerning science. Second, to ensure that the results of science are rapidly disseminated to the public throughout the world, in a fashion that conveys their significance for knowledge, culture and daily life.
—20, 20
[edit]Landmark papers
Many of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in modern history have been first published in Nature. The following is a selection of scientific breakthroughs published in Nature, all of which had far-reaching consequences, and the citation for the article in which they were published.
- First molecular protein structure (myoglobin) — J. C. Kendrew, G. Bodo, H. M. Dintzis, R. G. Parrish, H. Wyckoff and D. C. Phillips (1958). "A three-dimensional model of the myoglobin molecule obtained by X-ray analysis". Nature 181 (4610): 662–666. doi:10.1038/181662a0.PMID 13517261.
- Pulsars — A. Hewish, S. J. Bell, J. D. H. Pilkington, P. F. Scott & R. A. Collins (1968). "Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source".Nature 217: 709–713. doi:10.1038/217709a0.
- The ozone hole — J. C. Farman, B. G. Gardiner and J. D. Shanklin (1985). "Large losses of total ozone in Antarctica reveal seasonal ClOx/NOx interaction". Nature 315 (6016): 207–210. doi:10.1038/315207a0.
[edit]Peer review anomalies
A series of five fraudulent papers by
Jan Hendrik Schön were published in
Nature in the 2000–2001 period. The papers, about
superconductivity, were revealed to contain falsified data and other scientific fraud. In 2003 the papers were retracted by
Nature. The Schön Scandal was not limited to
Nature. Other prominent journals such as
Science and
Physical Review also retracted Schön's papers.
[17]Before publishing one of its most famous discoveries,
Watson and Crick's 1953 paper on the structure of DNA,
Nature did not send the paper out for peer review at all.
John Maddox,
Nature's editor, stated that "the Watson and Crick paper was not peer-reviewed by
Nature... the paper could not have been refereed: its correctness is self-evident. No referee working in the field ... could have kept his mouth shut once he saw the structure".
An earlier error occurred when
Enrico Fermi submitted his breakthrough paper on the weak interaction theory of
beta decay.
Nature turned down the paper because it was considered too remote from reality.
[18] Fermi's paper was published by
Zeitschrift für Physik in 1934, and finally published by
Nature 5 years later, after Fermi's work had been widely accepted.
[19][edit]See also
[edit]Publication of Nature and related journals
Nature is edited and published in the United Kingdom by
Nature Publishing Group, a subsidiary of
Macmillan Publishers which in turn is owned by the
Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. Nature has offices in
London,
New York City,
San Francisco,
Washington, D.C.,
Boston,
Tokyo,
Hong Kong,
Paris,
Munich, and
Basingstoke. Nature Publishing Group also publishes other specialized journals including
Nature Neuroscience,
Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, the
Nature Clinical Practice series of journals,
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology,
Nature Chemistry, and the
Nature Reviews series of journals.
Presently, each issue of
Nature is accompanied by a
Nature Podcast[21] featuring highlights from the issue and interviews with the articles' authors and the journalists covering the research. It is presented by Adam Rutherford and Kerri Smith, and features interviews with scientists on the latest research, as well as news reports from Nature's editors and journalists. It also incorporates regular slots called the 'PODium', a weekly 60-second opinion slot, and the 'Sound of Science', a regular slot featuring science-related music or other scientific audio recordings. It was formerly presented by
Chris Smith of
Cambridge University and
The Naked Scientists.
In 2007, Nature Publishing Group began publishing Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, “the official journal of the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics” and Molecular Therapy, the American Society of Gene Therapy’s official journal, as well as the International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME) Journal. Nature Publishing Group launched Nature Photonics in 2007 and Nature Geoscience in 2008. Nature Chemistry published its first issue in April 2009.
Nature Publishing Group actively supports the self-archiving process and in 2002 was one of the first publishers to allow authors to post their contributions on their personal websites, by requesting an exclusive licence to publish, rather than requiring authors to transfer copyright. In December 2007, Nature Publishing Group introduced the Creative Commons attribution-non commercial-share alike unported licence for those articles in Nature journals that are publishing the primary sequence of an organism's genome for the first time. In 2008, a collection of articles fromNature was edited by John S. Partington under the title H. G. Wells in Nature, 1893-1946: A Reception Reader and published by Peter Lang.
[edit]Bibliography
- (1953). "Richard Arman Gregory, 1864–1952." Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 8(22).
- (1970). "The 'Nature' Centenary Dinner." Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 25(1).
- (2006). "Nature Publishing Group: History." Retrieved November 15, 2006, from NPG.nature.com
- (2006). "About the journal: Nature." Retrieved November 20, 2006, from Nature.com
- Barton, R. (1996). "Just Before Nature: The Purposes of Science and the Purposes of Popularization in Some English Popular Science Journals of the 1860s." Annals of Science 55: 33.
- Browne, J. (2002). Charles Darwin: The Power of Place. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
- Partington, John S. (2008). H. G. Wells in Nature, 1893-1946: A Reception Reader. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
- Siegel, R. S. a. G. E. (2006). "A Cooperative Publishing Model for Sustainable Scholarship " Journal of Scholarly Publishing 37(2): 13.
[edit]References
- ^ Nature.com
- ^ Journal Nature
- ^ Siegel, "A Cooperative Publishing Model for Sustainable Scholarship," p. 88
- ^ a b Barton, "Just Before Nature," p. 3
- ^ a b Barton, "Just Before Nature," p. 7
- ^ a b c d Barton, "Just Before Nature," p. 6
- ^ a b Barton, "Just Before Nature," p. 13
- ^ a b c d Browne, Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, p. 248
- ^ Poem: "A Volant Tribe of Bards on earth are found"
- ^ Browne, Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, p. 247
- ^ a b "The Nature Centenary Dinner," p. 13
- ^ a b c d "Nature Publishing Group: History", retrieved November 15, 2006
- ^ "Richard Arman Gregory, 1864–1952," p. 413
- ^ Demographics: Nature, a profile of Nature's readership.
- ^ Nature: America's choice
- ^ Weekly science journal Nature endorses a presidential candidate: Barack Obama
- ^ "Retractions' realities". Nature 422 (6927): p. 1. 2003-03-06.doi:10.1038/422001a. PMID 12621394.
- ^ Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Touchstone, New York, 1986. ISBN 0-671-44133-7
- ^ Fermi, E (1934).' Versuch einer Theorie der beta–strahlen', Zeitschrift für Physik, vol. 88, p. 161.
- ^ "Coping with peer rejection". Nature 425 (6959): p. 645. 2003-10-16. doi:10.1038/425645a. PMID 14562060.
- ^ "Nature.com". Nature Podcast.
[edit]External links
