Article ID: CBB001214223

“Keeping in the Race”: Physics, Publication Speed and National Publishing Strategies in Nature, 1895--1939 (2014)

unapi

By the onset of the Second World War, the British scientific periodical Nature -- specifically, Nature's `Letters to the editor' column -- had become a major publication venue for scientists who wished to publish short communications about their latest experimental findings. This paper argues that the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ernest Rutherford was instrumental in establishing this use of the `Letters to the editor' column in the early twentieth century. Rutherford's contributions set Nature apart from its fellow scientific weeklies in Britain and helped construct a defining feature of Nature's influence in the twentieth century. Rutherford's participation in the journal influenced his students and colleagues in the field of radioactivity physics and drew physicists like the German Otto Hahn and the American Bertram Borden Boltwood to submit their work to Nature as well, and Nature came to play a major role in spreading news of the latest research in the science of radioactivity. Rutherford and his colleagues established a pattern of submissions to the `Letters to the editor' that would eventually be adopted by scientists from diverse fields and from laboratories around the world.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001214223/

Similar Citations

Chapter Topham, Jonathan R.; (2011)
Science, Print, and Crossing Borders: Importing French Science Books into Britain, 1789--1815 (/isis/citation/CBB001231565/)

Book Meadows, A. J.; (2008)
Science and Controversy: A Biography of Sir Norman Lockyer, Founder Editor of Nature (/isis/citation/CBB000951848/)

Article Aileen Fyfe; Anna Gielas; (2020)
Introduction: Editorship and the Editing of Scientific Journals, 1750–1950 (/isis/citation/CBB058355189/)

Article M. A. Taylor; (2021)
The unusual printing and publishing arrangements of Hugh Miller (1802–1856) (/isis/citation/CBB717020040/)

Article Riera Climent, Cristina; Pulgarín Guerrero, Antonio; Cobo Bueno, José Miguel; (2009)
El influjo extranjero en la medicina española de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX: una evaluación cuantitativa (/isis/citation/CBB000933136/)

Article Jenkin, John G.; (2011)
Atomic Energy Is “Moonshine”: What Did Rutherford Really Mean? (/isis/citation/CBB001036136/)

Book Remmert, Volker R.; Schneider, Ute; (2010)
Eine Disziplin und ihre Verleger: Disziplinenkultur und Publikationswesen der Mathematik in Deutschland, 1871--1949 (/isis/citation/CBB001220503/)

Article Pladek, Brittany; (2011)
“A Variety of Tastes”: The Lancet in the Early-Nineteenth-Century Periodical Press (/isis/citation/CBB001250087/)

Article Murdin, Paul; (2007)
Learned Societies as Publishers---The Royal Astronomical Society and Monthly Notices (/isis/citation/CBB001000305/)

Article Clarke, Simon; (2005-2006)
Rutherford at Canterbury University College (/isis/citation/CBB000931935/)

Thesis Rectenwald, Michael D.; (2004)
The Publics of Science: Periodicals and the Making of British Science, 1820--1860 (/isis/citation/CBB001561780/)

Authors & Contributors
Gielas, Anna
Watts, Iain P.
Topham, Johnathan R.
Taylor, Michael A.
Schneider, Ute
Riera Climent, Cristina
Concepts
Periodicals; serials
Publishers and publishing
Communication within scientific contexts
Physics
Cross-national interaction
Communication of scientific ideas
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
20th century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Arctic regions
Edinburgh
Sweden
Spain
Institutions
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Macmillan
Royal Society of London
Royal Astronomical Society
Cavendish Laboratory
Cambridge University
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment