I was taking a look through J. Dabiri's published journal articles and I was interested to see that though he publishes in a number of different journals they all seem to center around the same thing. Physics, fluids, biology, and invertebrates. Although, there was an interesting article in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics 2. It seems that he doesn't seem to stretch himself very far within a given range of journals to publish in. He works on physics and experimentation of fluid motility with jellyfish, and that's pretty much the only journals he posts in. Not unusual at all. Publish what you know, especially when you're hoping to get your articles published and peer reviewed for journal articles.
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It seems as if there are two types of scientists: those whose research spans across multiple disciplines and others who narrow in on a specific subject. I think both have great merit. The former has the talent of finding connections between seemingly unconnected topics and the latter has the talent of exploring everything they can about a particular subject in order to produce findings that otherwise would go unnoticed. Maybe that's why your scientist focuses on journals that center around the same thing. He is trying to find the most detailed information he can about his topic. Sometimes choosing a few resources that are well respected is better than choosing a wide range of resources that don't have as much expertise or relevance.
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting point "sciencesearch"
ReplyDeleteI think one may also be able to categorize scientists according to the range of journals they publish in, which, and I realize this sounds judgmental, may reflect not the breadth of their work across disciplines but their motivation for publishing.
For instance, I know that my scientist publishes in a very limited # of journals, and primarily in one. She's had a few articles published in "Nature," which for nearly all scientists is a pretty big deal. But mostly she, as well as her peers, publish in the same few journals. To me, it reflects a desire for genuine "scholarly communication," sharing one's research with those that it truly matters to, as opposed to sort of 'racking up' a long list of journals that sounds really impressive.
Like I said, admittedly judgmental. But Dabiri does seem to come from a similar place as my scientist (Sara Seager) in having a real enthusiasm for the work and the science that comes before the desire for prestige and accolades. (NOT that there is anything wrong with the latter, per say, it is perfectly natural to seek those things too.)
Done rambling--
Melissa Caviston - http://caviston.info/blogs