Scientific Societies and their Journals: Biomedical Scientists Assess the Relationship

Abstract

This paper represents a preliminary attempt to re-examine traditional assumptions about the importance of the scientific society as journal publisher. It is based on an exploratory study, conducted in 1975, which investigated the opinions and practices of biomedical scientists regarding: their memberships in scientific societies; their use of journals and other information sources; their publications in journals; their professional activities in general; and their understanding of the social system of science. The scientists in this sample seemed to consider journal publishing independent of their membership in a society and viewed the society as one of many publishers contributing to scientific communication.