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Science (journal)
Encyclopedia
Science is the academic journal
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
and is one of the world's top scientific journals.
The peer-reviewed
journal, first published in 1880, is circulated weekly and has a print subscriber base of around 130,000. Because institutional subscriptions and online access serve a larger audience, its estimated readership is one million people.
The major focus of the journal is publishing important original scientific research
and research reviews, but Science also publishes science-related news, opinions on science policy
and other matters of interest to scientist
s and others who are concerned with the wide implications of science
and technology
. Although most scientific journals focus on a specific field, Science and its rival Nature
cover the full range of scientific disciplines. Sciences impact factor
for 2010 was 31.364 (as measured by the Institute for Scientific Information
).
Although it is the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, membership in the AAAS is not required to publish in Science. Papers are accepted from authors around the world. Competition to publish in Science is very intense, as an article published in such a highly cited journal can lead to attention and career advancement for the authors. Fewer than 10% of articles submitted to the editors are accepted for publication and all research articles are subject to peer review before they appear in the journal.
Science is based in Washington, D.C.
, United States, with a second office in Cambridge
, England.
Science was founded by New York journalist John Michaels in 1880 with financial support from Thomas Edison
and later from Alexander Graham Bell
. However, the magazine never gained enough subscribers to succeed and ended publication in March 1882. Entomologist Samuel H. Scudder
resurrected the journal one year later and had some success while covering the meetings of prominent American scientific societies, including the AAAS. However, by 1894, Science was again in financial difficulty and was sold to psychologist James McKeen Cattell
for $500.
In an agreement worked out by Cattell and AAAS secretary Leland O. Howard
, Science became the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1900. During the early part of the 20th century important articles published in Science included papers on fruit fly
genetics
by Thomas Hunt Morgan
, gravitational lens
ing by Albert Einstein
, and spiral nebulae by Edwin Hubble
. After Cattell died in 1944, the ownership of the journal was transferred to the AAAS.
After Cattell's death, the magazine lacked a consistent editorial presence until Graham DuShane became editor in 1956. Physicist Philip Abelson
, the co-discoverer of neptunium
, served as editor from 1962 to 1984. Under Abelson the efficiency of the review process was improved and the publication practices were brought up to date. During this time, papers on the Apollo program missions and some of the earliest reports on AIDS
were published.
Biochemist Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.
served as editor from 1985 until 1995. From 1995 until 2000, neuroscientist Floyd E. Bloom
held that position.
Biologist Donald Kennedy
became the editor of Science in 2000. Biochemist Bruce Alberts
took his place in March 2008.
In February 2001, draft results of the human genome
were simultaneously published by Nature and Science with Science publishing the Celera Genomics paper and Nature publishing the publicly funded Human Genome Project
.
In 2007 Science (together with Nature
) received the Prince of Asturias Award
for Communications and Humanity
An article published in Science in 2002 on the neurotoxicity of the drug MDMA ("ecstasy") caused some controversy when a mix-up of vials caused the paper to be retracted in 2003 (see Retracted article on dopaminergic neurotoxicity of MDMA).
Science encountered another controversy in 2006 when papers by Hwang Woo-suk
on cloning
human embryos were withdrawn by Seoul National University
due to apparent scientific fraud
. A committee set up by Science to study the matter found that the journal's procedures had been followed, and the journal could do little in the face of deliberate fraud. The committee recommended that papers received should henceforth be classified as non-controversial or controversial; controversial papers should be looked at more thoroughly. Science also suggested that Nature may want to take up the same standards it was adopting.
Kennedy defended the peer-review system, pointing out that catching fraud would require "costly and offensive oversight on the vast majority of scientists in order to catch the occasional cheater".
and recent articles older than 12 months are available via ProQuest
. In addition, AAAS membership includes full access to the Science archives at the Science website, where it is called "Science Classic". Institutions can opt to add Science Classic to their subscriptions for an additional fee.
Other features of the website include a ScienceNow section with "up to the minute news from science," and access to the Science of Aging Knowledge Environment (SAGE KE
). Knowledge Environments are an attempt to utilize Internet-based technologies to enhance access to scientific information and improve the effectiveness of information transfer. The former Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE) is now known as Science Signaling
.
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
and is one of the world's top scientific journals.
The peer-reviewed
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
journal, first published in 1880, is circulated weekly and has a print subscriber base of around 130,000. Because institutional subscriptions and online access serve a larger audience, its estimated readership is one million people.
The major focus of the journal is publishing important original scientific research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
and research reviews, but Science also publishes science-related news, opinions on science policy
Science policy
Science policy is an area of public policy concerned with the policies that affect the conduct of the science and research enterprise, including the funding of science, often in pursuance of other national policy goals such as technological innovation to promote commercial product development,...
and other matters of interest to scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
s and others who are concerned with the wide implications of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
. Although most scientific journals focus on a specific field, Science and its rival Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
cover the full range of scientific disciplines. Sciences impact factor
Impact factor
The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...
for 2010 was 31.364 (as measured by the Institute for Scientific Information
Institute for Scientific Information
The Institute for Scientific Information was founded by Eugene Garfield in 1960. It was acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare in 1992, became known as Thomson ISI and now is part of the Healthcare & Science business of the multi-billion dollar Thomson Reuters Corporation.ISI offered...
).
Although it is the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, membership in the AAAS is not required to publish in Science. Papers are accepted from authors around the world. Competition to publish in Science is very intense, as an article published in such a highly cited journal can lead to attention and career advancement for the authors. Fewer than 10% of articles submitted to the editors are accepted for publication and all research articles are subject to peer review before they appear in the journal.
Science is based in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, United States, with a second office in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England.
History
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
and later from Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
. However, the magazine never gained enough subscribers to succeed and ended publication in March 1882. Entomologist Samuel H. Scudder
Samuel Hubbard Scudder
Samuel Hubbard Scudder was an American entomologist and palaeontologist.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Scudder may be most widely known for his essay on the importance of first-hand, careful observation in the natural sciences...
resurrected the journal one year later and had some success while covering the meetings of prominent American scientific societies, including the AAAS. However, by 1894, Science was again in financial difficulty and was sold to psychologist James McKeen Cattell
James McKeen Cattell
James McKeen Cattell , American psychologist, was the first professor of psychology in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania and long-time editor and publisher of scientific journals and publications, most notably the journal Science...
for $500.
In an agreement worked out by Cattell and AAAS secretary Leland O. Howard
Leland Ossian Howard
Leland Ossian Howard, Ph.D., M.D. , was an American entomologist.-Biography:He graduated from Cornell University in 1877. He was later employed by the Department of Agriculture, and became chief of the Bureau of Entomology in 1894...
, Science became the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1900. During the early part of the 20th century important articles published in Science included papers on fruit fly
Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...
genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
by Thomas Hunt Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries relating the role the chromosome plays in heredity.Morgan received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in zoology...
, gravitational lens
Gravitational lens
A gravitational lens refers to a distribution of matter between a distant source and an observer, that is capable of bending the light from the source, as it travels towards the observer...
ing by Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, and spiral nebulae by Edwin Hubble
Edwin Hubble
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer who profoundly changed the understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way - our own galaxy...
. After Cattell died in 1944, the ownership of the journal was transferred to the AAAS.
After Cattell's death, the magazine lacked a consistent editorial presence until Graham DuShane became editor in 1956. Physicist Philip Abelson
Philip Abelson
Philip Hauge Abelson was an American physicist, a scientific editor, and a science writer.-Life:Abelson was born in 1913 in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Washington State University where he received degrees in chemistry and physics, and the University of California, Berkeley , where he earned...
, the co-discoverer of neptunium
Neptunium
Neptunium is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactive metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element and belongs to the actinide series. Its most stable isotope, 237Np, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutonium production and it can be used as a...
, served as editor from 1962 to 1984. Under Abelson the efficiency of the review process was improved and the publication practices were brought up to date. During this time, papers on the Apollo program missions and some of the earliest reports on AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
were published.
Biochemist Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.
Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.
Daniel Edward Koshland, Jr. reorganized the study of biology at the University of California at Berkeley and was the editor of the leading US science journal, Science, from 1985 to 1995...
served as editor from 1985 until 1995. From 1995 until 2000, neuroscientist Floyd E. Bloom
Floyd E. Bloom
Floyd E. Bloom is an American medical researcher specializing in chemical neuroanatomy.He received an A.B., cum laude from Southern Methodist University in 1956 and an M.D., cum laude from the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine in 1960...
held that position.
Biologist Donald Kennedy
Donald Kennedy
Donald Kennedy is an American scientist, public administrator and academic.Donald Kennedy was born in New York and educated at Harvard University...
became the editor of Science in 2000. Biochemist Bruce Alberts
Bruce Alberts
Bruce Michael Alberts is an American biochemist known for his work in science public policy and as an original author of the Molecular Biology of the Cell...
took his place in March 2008.
In February 2001, draft results of the human genome
Human genome
The human genome is the genome of Homo sapiens, which is stored on 23 chromosome pairs plus the small mitochondrial DNA. 22 of the 23 chromosomes are autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex-determining...
were simultaneously published by Nature and Science with Science publishing the Celera Genomics paper and Nature publishing the publicly funded Human Genome Project
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional...
.
In 2007 Science (together with Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
) received the Prince of Asturias Award
Prince of Asturias Awards
The Prince of Asturias Awards are a series of annual prizes awarded in Spain by the Prince of Asturias Foundation to individuals, entities or organizations from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, and public affairs....
for Communications and Humanity
Controversies
In 2002, Science withdrew eight papers authored by Jan Hendrik Schön after it was shown that he had fabricated much of his data.An article published in Science in 2002 on the neurotoxicity of the drug MDMA ("ecstasy") caused some controversy when a mix-up of vials caused the paper to be retracted in 2003 (see Retracted article on dopaminergic neurotoxicity of MDMA).
Science encountered another controversy in 2006 when papers by Hwang Woo-suk
Hwang Woo-Suk
Hwang Woo-suk is a South Korean veterinarian and researcher. He was a professor of theriogenology and biotechnology at Seoul National University who became infamous for fabricating a series of experiments, which appeared in high-profile journals, in the field of stem cell research...
on cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
human embryos were withdrawn by Seoul National University
Seoul National University
Seoul National University , colloquially known in Korean as Seoul-dae , is a national research university in Seoul, Korea, ranked 24th in the world in publications in an analysis of data from the Science Citation Index, 7th in Asia and 42nd in the world by the 2011 QS World University Rankings...
due to apparent scientific fraud
Scientific misconduct
Scientific misconduct is the violation of the standard codes of scholarly conduct and ethical behavior in professional scientific research. A Lancet review on Handling of Scientific Misconduct in Scandinavian countries provides the following sample definitions: *Danish definition: "Intention or...
. A committee set up by Science to study the matter found that the journal's procedures had been followed, and the journal could do little in the face of deliberate fraud. The committee recommended that papers received should henceforth be classified as non-controversial or controversial; controversial papers should be looked at more thoroughly. Science also suggested that Nature may want to take up the same standards it was adopting.
Kennedy defended the peer-review system, pointing out that catching fraud would require "costly and offensive oversight on the vast majority of scientists in order to catch the occasional cheater".
Availability
Online versions of full-text archive articles are not generally made available to the public. Full text is available online to AAAS members from the main journal website. Individual and institutional subscriptions are also available for a fee (though it is significantly less expensive to simply join the AAAS and receive the magazine for free). The Science website also gives free access to some articles (principally original research articles and editorials) as well as the complete table of contents of the current and past issues, a year after their publication. Access to all articles on the Science website is free if the request comes from an IP address of a subscribing institution. Articles older than 5 to 6 years are available via JSTORJSTOR
JSTOR is an online system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995. It provides its member institutions full-text searches of digitized back issues of several hundred well-known journals, dating back to 1665 in the case of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society...
and recent articles older than 12 months are available via ProQuest
ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based electronic publisher and microfilm publisher.It provides archives of sources such as newspapers, periodicals, dissertations, and aggregated databases of many types. Its content is estimated at 125 billion digital pages...
. In addition, AAAS membership includes full access to the Science archives at the Science website, where it is called "Science Classic". Institutions can opt to add Science Classic to their subscriptions for an additional fee.
Other features of the website include a ScienceNow section with "up to the minute news from science," and access to the Science of Aging Knowledge Environment (SAGE KE
SAGE KE
The Science of Aging Knowledge Environment was an online scientific resource provided by the American Association for the Advancement of Science .-History and Organization:...
). Knowledge Environments are an attempt to utilize Internet-based technologies to enhance access to scientific information and improve the effectiveness of information transfer. The former Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE) is now known as Science Signaling
Science Signaling
Science Signaling is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published weekly by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The journal publishes perspectives, reviews, and protocols, that are original, and most of these are solicited by the editors...
.
See also
- American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
- Breakthrough of the YearBreakthrough of the YearThe Breakthrough of the Year is an annual award made by the journal Science for the most significant development in scientific research. Originating in 1989 as the Molecule of the Year, inspired by Time's Man of the Year, it was renamed the Breakthrough of the Year in 1996...
- List of scientific journals