Science introduces new format on "research articles"

An editorial titled "Approaching Science" [318 Science 715] announces a new format for "research articles" in the journal Science, the first example of which appears at 318 Science 766 (2007) in the paper "Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells."

IPBiz thinks it is a good start, but it is not yet sufficient to overcome the issues identified on page 715. The interested reader is invited to peruse page 766 and determine what it was that the authors have discovered. The new format creates a single page "Authors' Summary" which precedes the "Full-Length Article." Donald Kennedy said the summary was to give "what the paper reports and what its conclusions are." The interested reader will look at vain in the first three paragraphs on page 766 to find what the paper reports and what its conclusions are. The "Authors' Summary" was a good idea, very poorly executed in the first paper utilizing the format.

IPBiz is still waiting, in vain, for Science to correct the sad errors made by Eli Kintisch writing on continuing applications. Now that the substantive issues of continuing applications are to be addressed by the ED Va, one may have an additional authority negating what the journal Science falsely claimed.