A Physicist in Scientific Publishing: From Quark Dynamics to Database Publishing Stefan Scherer

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


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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

http://www.springerlink.com/


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


• “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!


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


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

…


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.


Saarbrücken, 1995

… was a bit serendipitous

Frankfurt, 1997

Darmstadt, 2006

Heidelberg, 2008


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


• 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?


Landolt-Börnstein is now SpringerMaterials

www.springermaterials.com

http://www.springermaterials.com/

http://www.springermaterials.com/


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 …)


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!

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A Physicist in Scientific Publishing: From Quark Dynamics to Database Publishing Stefan Scherer