Download - A Physicist in Scientific Publishing: From Quark Dynamics to Database Publishing Stefan Scherer
Stefan Scherer: A Physicist in Scientific Publishing | 03.11.2011 2
From Quark Dynamics to Database Publishing
Stefan Scherer: A Physicist in Scientific Publishing | 03.11.2011 4
A few Facts about Springer
Source: http://www.springer.com/about+springer/company+information?SGWID=0-174704-0-0-0
• In 1842, Julius Springer founded what is now Springer Science+Business Media in Berlin.
• Merged with Kluwer Academic Publishers (KAP) in 2004.
• Leading global scientific publisher, … provider of local-language professional publications in Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands
• Around 55 publishing houses in about 20 countries in Europe, Asia and the USA
• Consolidated turnover in 2010: EUR 866 million
• More than 5,500 employees around the world – about 500 in Heidelberg
• Springer eBook Collection with more than 45,000 titles available on www.springerlink.com
• Product range across all media: books, journals, newsletters, CD-ROMs, online platforms, protocols, databases …
• Some 2,000 journals and more than 7,000 new book titles every year in the STM (science, technology, and medicine) and B2B (business to business)
• main publishing fields: science, technology, medicine, business, transport and architecture
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Physics at Springer
• Physics & Astronomy is just a part of the global company
• About 20 Physicists working for Springer world-wide, half of them in Heidelberg
Journals Textbooks and Monographs
Reference Works
Zeitschrift für Physik
The European Physical Journal
from
Gerthsen Physik
to
The CBM Physics Book
Landolt-Börnstein
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• “Managing Editor“
organizing peer reviewassisting editorial boardsoverseeing production schedules
• „Commissioning Editor“
looking for new titles,organize editorial boards
No active participation in peer review!
In Publishing, everyone is an Editor …
• Editor for Journals
• Editor for Textbooks and Monographs
• Editor for Reference Works
But what you are actually doing depends on the product you are “editing”
… or a Product Manager
• “Commissioning Editor“, “Planer”
looking for new titles and new authors,organizing review of book proposalskeeping contact with authors,assisting authors
polishing/improving manuscripts can be part of the job
• “Commissioning Editor“, “Planer”
• “Development Editor”
keeping contact with scientific editors and authors,assisting authors,organizing production,polishing/improving manuscripts (“copy editing”)
• “Market analysis”
• “Sales Representative”
There are actually physicists doing this!
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German-Language Publishers in Physics
Company Location Comment
Springer HeidelbergBerlinWiesbaden
Spektrum, Vieweg, Teubner, and Birkhäuserare part of Springer
Wiley-VCH Weinheim Halliday-Resnick,
Physik-Journal
De Gruyter Berlin Jackson
Oldenbourg München Feynman
Harri Deutsch Frankfurt am Main
Landau, Greiner, Bronstein
Hanser München Kuchling
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Publishers in Physics World-Wide (not exhaustive ….)
Type Publisher Comment
Commercial Elsevier Mainly Journals
Taylor & Francis Books & Journals
World Scientific Books & Journals
Nature Journals
McGraw-Hill Mainly Books
…
University Presses Cambridge UP Mainly Books
Oxford UP Mainly Books
Princeton UP Mainly Books
…
Academic Societies APS Journals
IOP Books & Journals
Royal Society Journals
…
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My path to where I am in Publishing…
For example, there was the classic (and, in my experience, largely useless) question about how we each found our current jobs. … The students really wanted to hear stories about how we noticed a posting on Science Careers or Monster.com, answered an ad, and survived competition with 200 random applicants -- …. Instead, each of the panel members talked about how we found our own careers through serendipitous meetings, friends-of-friends, and good old blatant nepotism.
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Saarbrücken, 1995
… was a bit serendipitous
Frankfurt, 1997
Darmstadt, 2006
Heidelberg, 2008
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Albert Einstein:
Die Plancksche Theorie der Strahlung und die
Theorie der spezifischen Wärme
Annalen der Physik 22 (1907) 180-190.
DOI: 10.1002/andp.19063270110
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• 200.000 pages | 150.000 figures | 100.000 online documents
• 250.000 chemical substances | 1.200.000 references to original publications
• systematic and comprehensive critical evaluation of data by renowned authors and
editors (… since 1883)
What is Landolt-Börnstein?
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Landolt-Börnstein is now SpringerMaterials
www.springermaterials.com
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How do I profit from my PhD background?
• Knowing „How physicists tick“
• Experience of teamwork and cooperation with people from all over the world
• Experience in giving presentations
• Practical skills: Working with computer, and computer, and computer …
(Perl, HTML, CSS, XML, LaTeX, mySQL, but even bash and vi …)
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What are „essential skills“ in Publishing?
• You have to communicate a lot:
with authors and editors, vendors, colleagues from other departments, people from
other companies in publishing, with customers and users …
• You should develop an understanding of what topics are profitable and worth the
effort – they might not be your pet topics, but in the end, it should pay your salary!
• You should have a broad knowledge and overview of physics,
and curiosity and openness to learn new things
Stop worrying and learn
to love phyllosilicates!