Unlike most of the literature on the contributions of refugees from Nazism to the contemporary intellectual and cultural life of the West, the role of the expatriates in creating today's large biomedical publishing industry has generally been neglected. In fact major scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing came about via this route. In doing so, it was instrumental in changing the international language of pre-World War Two science from German to English. This remains true as the industry evolves (...) rapidly into new corporate and electronic modes. (shrink)

It has been quite a year so far(!) and as the wenches we are, we have been taking our time to collect our thoughts and reflections before sharing them at the start of this issue of the journal. In this editorial we think through the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on the world, on our lives and on our editorial processes. We renew our commitment to improving our operations as a journal and its health along with our own as (...) we deploy wench tactics to restore, sustain and slow down to negotiate this new reality, this new world. We conclude with an introduction to the fascinating contents of this issue along with a collaborative statement of values on open access as part of a collective of intersectional feminist and social justice editors. Through all of the pain and suffering we focus our gaze on hope: hope that we can come through this global crisis together engaging in critical conversations about how we can be better and do better as editors, academics and individuals for ourselves, our colleagues and our journal. (shrink)

Background: Health researchers must weigh the benefits and risks of publishing their findings.Objective: To explore differences in decision making between rural health researchers and managers on the publication of research from small identifiable populations.Method: A survey that investigated the attitudes of Australian rural general practitioners to nurse practitioners was explored. Decisions on the study’s publication were analysed with bioethical principles and health service management ethical decision-making models.Results: Response rate was 78.5% . 84–94% of GP responders considered it to be (...) undesirable for nurse practitioners to initiate referrals to medical specialists , to initiate diagnostic imaging and to prescribe medication .Bioethical analysis: It was concluded that the principle of beneficence outweighed the principle of non-maleficence and that a valid justification for the publication of these results existed.Decision-making models of health service managers: On the basis of models of ethical decision making in health service management, the decisions of the area’s health managers resulted in approval to publish this project’s results being denied. This was because the perceived risks to the health service outweighed benefits. Confidentiality could not be ensured by publication under a regional nom de plume.Conclusions: A conflict of interests between rural researchers and health managers on publication of results is shown by this case study. Researchers and managers at times owe competing duties to key stakeholders. Both weigh the estimated risks and benefits of the effect of research findings. This is particularly true in a rural area, where identification of the subjects becomes more likely. (shrink)

“Poland 2050” Report is a publication of a distinctive sort. While the idea of producingthis report has a long history, it began to take shape about two years ago. It isbased on the two tenets. The first, raised at numerous conferences held in the past underthe auspices of the “Poland 2000 Plus” Committee, is the conviction that economicgrowth does not transpose automatically into societal (or more broadly “civilizational”)advancement. Indeed, the preliminary analysis has indicated that the two processes are,in fact, divergent. (...) While there have been convergent processes evident in Poland’s andthe EU’s economic domains, no such convergence is significantly evident in the case ofsocietal progress. This gave rise to the vision set forth in this Report, formulated as“minimizing Poland’s developmental gap with respect to the more advanced EU states.”The second tenet upon which this Report is based is even more important. Numerousanalyses carried out by the Committee indicate that quantitative changes cannot bepredicted four decades in advance with great likelihood. And so, we did not base ourReport on existing quantitative trends, but rather on analysis of the pathways that willmake it possible to minimize Poland’s developmental gap with respect to the advancedEU states. The Report also strives to highlight threats that exist in the social and “civilizational”sphere.The Report was based on the materials published in the three volumes of the publicationWizja przyszłości Polski – Studia i Analizy [A Vision of Poland’s Future—Studies and Analyses], vol. 1: Społeczeństwo i państwo [Society and State], vol. 2: Gospodarkai środowisko [Economy and Environment], and vol. 3: Ekspertyzy [ExpertStudies]. (shrink)

Publishing as a Vocation places publishing in its politicaland commercial setting. It addresses the political implications ofscholarly communication in an era of new computerized technology.Horowitz examines problems of political theory within the context ofproperty rights versus the presumed right to know and he explores thespecial strains involved in publishing as commerce versus informationas a public trust. This book offers a knowledgeable and insightful viewof publishing and makes an important contribution to the study ofmass culture in Western (...) societies. (shrink)

“Poland 2050” Report is a publication of a distinctive sort. While the idea of producingthis report has a long history, it began to take shape about two years ago. It isbased on the two tenets. The first, raised at numerous conferences held in the past underthe auspices of the “Poland 2000 Plus” Committee, is the conviction that economicgrowth does not transpose automatically into societal (or more broadly “civilizational”)advancement. Indeed, the preliminary analysis has indicated that the two processes are,in fact, divergent. (...) While there have been convergent processes evident in Poland’s andthe EU’s economic domains, no such convergence is significantly evident in the case ofsocietal progress. This gave rise to the vision set forth in this Report, formulated as“minimizing Poland’s developmental gap with respect to the more advanced EU states.”The second tenet upon which this Report is based is even more important. Numerousanalyses carried out by the Committee indicate that quantitative changes cannot bepredicted four decades in advance with great likelihood. And so, we did not base ourReport on existing quantitative trends, but rather on analysis of the pathways that willmake it possible to minimize Poland’s developmental gap with respect to the advancedEU states. The Report also strives to highlight threats that exist in the social and “civilizational”sphere.The Report was based on the materials published in the three volumes of the publicationWizja przyszłości Polski – Studia i Analizy [A Vision of Poland’s Future—Studies and Analyses], vol. 1: Społeczeństwo i państwo [Society and State], vol. 2: Gospodarkai środowisko [Economy and Environment], and vol. 3: Ekspertyzy [ExpertStudies]. (shrink)

Chemists do not interpret the world in various ways; their point is to change it. This variation on Karl Marx’ Feuerbach thesis came to my mind while reading the new Philosophy of Chemistry volume.The 11th thesis originally sounds like this: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it”. The thick book contains more than forty studies related to the relatively new field. In this short review, it would be too much even (...) to list all the authors and subjects touched in these pages. The volume was originally intended to be the proceedings of a workshop held in Paris in 2010, but the organizer and editor, Jean-Pierre Llored, also invited authors who had not participated in the conference to contribute a paper. The papers are organized under seven subtitles, such as “Historical Approaches”, “Analytical Approaches”, “Transcendental Approaches” and others, but the material is much richer than the grouping would suggest.The editor’s idea was t. (shrink)

In the second half of the 19th century, anthropology rode the coat-tails of modernity, adopting new printing technologies, following new travel networks, and gaining increasing access to Indigenous people as colonialism spread and new policies were developed to contain and control people in settler-colonial states. The early innovator in kinship studies Lewis Henry Morgan and his two greatest proteges, Lorimer Fison and A. W. Howitt, working respectively in the United States, Fiji, and Australia, epitomised this conflation of governance, technologies (...) of representation, and anthropology. They corresponded on the alterity of kinship systems across increasingly regularised postal routes, and developed new forms of collecting and new diagrammatic representations of kinship using developments at the press. Nineteenth-century kinship studies were focused exclusively on relationships formed through biology and descent, and there was little recognition of kinship making beyond these forms. This was especially significant for Howitt, whose closest Aboriginal interlocutor, Tulaba, claimed him as a brogan (brother), according to Gunaikurnai kinship paradigms. This article tracks the links between the collection and publication of kinship material in the questionnaires and the books of the latter part of the 19th century across the English-speaking world and the outcomes for Indigenous peoples, as arguments for distinctive kinship systems helped define their ‘primitiveness’ and dismissed Aboriginal attempts to forge kinship links across the settler/Indigenous divide. (shrink)

Editorial independence is a bedrock principle of academic publishing. The growing domination of academic publishing by large, for-profit corporations threatens this independence. There is alarming evidence that large companies too often serve their own business interests and those of powerful clients rather than serving the scientific community and the general public. This evidence includes the publication of infelicitous commercial science and concealing scientific misconduct. We present two case studies in which the UK-based publisher Taylor & Francis interfered (...) in the editorial process by blocking publication of legitimate criticism that had been reviewed and approved for publication by its specialized editors. The integrity of science depends in part on the transparency and intellectual honesty of all stakeholders. The widely acknowledged inadequacies of English libel law are reviewed as context for some of Taylor & Francis’s fearful decisions. (shrink)

Quando se fala em património cultural, uma área que costuma ficar na penumbra é a dos arquivos históricos. De entre estes, um dos conjuntos mais vulneráveis é o dos arquivos de editoras e outros agentes da edição. Este artigo propõe uma reflexão em torno do património arquivístico em geral e dos arquivos das editoras em particular, a nível internacional. Tal digressão analítica e problematizante serve, em boa medida, para ajudar a repensar o caso português, cujos atrasos e impasses urge solucionar, (...) sob pena de se perderem irremediavelmente fontes preciosas para o conhecimento da nossa contemporaneidade. Em complemento, e a partir de um encontro específico organizado pelo autor, segue-se um conjunto de reflexões de distintos agentes do meio cultural, da autoria de José Pacheco Pereira, João Corregedor da Fonseca e José Antunes Ribeiro. (shrink)

This article documents the existence of a vibrant republic of letters stretching from Cairo to Karachi in the middle of the twentieth century. On the basis of private letters, memoirs, and modern editions of classical texts, this article recreates the scholarly and personal commitments of a new class of professional editors. These editors were responsible for the emergence of some of the most influential publishing houses in the Islamic world, and their contribution to the production and circulation of pre-modern (...) texts has had a profound impact on the intellectual development of Islam in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. They believed that cultivating a republic of letters was necessary because it served the world of learning and scholarship. In this way was fashioned a virtual community, separated by national and political borders, but united by visions of history and a shared sense of moral and intellectual duty. (shrink)

By publishing its third edition, the Aoristo – International Journal of Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and Metaphysics reaffirms its commitment to contribute to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and to the growth of phenomenological philosophy, hermeneutical philosophy and metaphysics at the Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná – Unioeste, as well as in a modest way in the Brazilian and international philosophical scene. As affirmed in its editorial project, this journal reinforces its purpose of being a welcoming space to both national (...) and international partners. The objective is to bring together institutions and researchers that not only promote the mutual strengthening of academical bonds but also the incitement and the consolidation of a research ambience propitious to the internationalization and the qualification of the intellectual production within the aforementioned thematic fields. (shrink)

Ernest Gellner's final book, first published in 1998, is a synoptic interpretation of the thought of Wittgenstein and Malinowski.

The blogosphere is full of personalities with masks, or pseudonyms. Although not a desired state of public communication, one could excuse the use of pseudonyms in blogs and social media, which are generally unregulated or weakly regulated. However, in science publishing, there are increasingly strict rules regarding the use of false identities for authors, the lack of institutional or contact details, and the lack of conflicts of interest, and such instances are generally considered to be misconduct. This is because (...) these violations of publishing protocol decrease trust and confidence in science and bring disrepute to those scientists who conform to the rules set out by journals and publishers and abide by them. Thus, when cases are encountered where trust and protocol in publishing are breached, these deserve to be highlighted. In this letter, I focus on Neuroskeptic, a highly prominent science critic, primarily on the blogosphere and in social media, highlighting the dangers associated with the use of pseudonyms in academic publishing. (shrink)

The history of the concept of “religion” in Western tradition has intrigued scholars for years. This important collection of eighteen essays brings further light to the ongoing debate. Three of the invited participants, W.C. Smith, M. Despland and E. Feil, has each previously written impressive books treating this subject; the last two acknowledged the impact and continuing influence of Smith’s work, The Meaning and End of Religion. An introduction and a recapitulation of Smith’s contribution as a scholar set the stage (...) for a retrospective look at the published literature. Contributors then examine the transformation of words (the classical religio to the modern religion), particularities of religion in nineteenth-century France, Troeltsch’s concept of religion, the study of religion from an Asian point of view and the categorization of “World Religions.” The concluding essays elaborate contemporary anthropological, cross-disciplinary, semiological, deconstructive and psychoanalytical methodological approaches to the concept and study of “religion.” Exploring critically different aspects of the concept and study of religion, these provocative essays typically reflect the methodological pluralism currently existing in the field of Religious Studies. Of interest to scholars and students alike, this collection also contains a complete bibliography of W.C. Smith’s publications. (shrink)

Volume 17, Issue 4, September 2020, Page 470-473.

Political discourse studies presuppose a necessary integration of the conventionally dichotomized analytical paradigms through inter- or intro-disciplinary endeavors. Interdisciplinary integration...

‘Process Theology enables us to establish a robust relationship to Jewish scriptures and practice in a context of personal integrity, with openness to contemporary knowledge and insight and with an emphasis on spiritual depth and social engagement’ (61). ‘ …a process approach makes the centrality of love clear…’ (62)Rabbi Artson is Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and VP of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. It is important to know, I think, that his interest in (...) process theology is because he has a profoundly personal commitment to Judaism and his calling as a Rabbi. In his credo online, he writes that he refuses ‘to read halakhah or the Torah in such a way that it makes God seem cruel…’ He turns to process theology not to escape or dilute his Jewish faith, but because it helps him to articulate Judaism in a way which he believes allows greater integrity and a deeper understanding of the love and justice of God and Torah.Artson has the gift of writing clearly. (shrink)

Guillermo E. Rosado Haddock's critical introduction to the philosophy of Gottlob Frege is based on twenty-five years of teaching Frege's philosophy at the University of Puerto Rico. It developed from an earlier publication by Rosado Haddock on Frege's philosophy which was, however, available only in Spanish. This introduction to Frege is meant to steer a path between the two main approaches to Frege studies: on the one hand, we have interpretations of Frege which portray him as a neo-Kantian and (...) thus as some kind of idealist; on the other, we have writings like those of Dummett in which Frege is portrayed as a type of ‘philosophical Adam’, i.e., as completely separated from his philosophical tradition. Rosado Haddock succeeds in placing Frege's thinking into a broader philosophical context — mainly by reference to his contemporary Edmund Husserl — while also avoiding a Kantian reading of Frege's work.The structure of the book follows Frege's writing chronologically. In this way, Rosado Haddock leads the reader through the whole of Frege's philosophy while highlighting important changes and developments in Frege's thought from the Begriffsschrift to his Grundgesetze and other later writings. Chapter 1 introduces us to the core philosophical themes of Frege's Begriffsschrift with a special emphasis on Frege's notions of ‘conceptual content’ and ‘judgeable content’. Here, Rosado Haddock anticipates further discussion and points towards changes and developments of Frege's core notions of ‘identity’, ‘function’, and ‘content’. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on Frege's Grundlagen der Arithmetik. Chapter 2 discusses Frege's methodological principles as outlined in Frege's introduction and his criticisms of psychological, naturalistic, and Kantian approaches to the philosophy of mathematics. Chapter 3 focuses exclusively on Frege's own logicist account of arithmetic while emphasizing differences between Frege's views and Kantian …. (shrink)