I am only able to attend bits and pieces of the Innovation Journalism conference. After all, I'm not a journalist, I'm a blogger and have a business to run.
An impressionistic transcript of a talk by Donald Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief Science Magazine, Stanford President emeritus.
Science publishes news and publishing academic papers. Members of the open access movement says its a way to generate money for their association, which is partially true. Competes with Nature head to head for the same global audience. Science is a competitive activity and the eagerness for scientists to publish is important to them -- for both the dollar economy and influence economy.
10k submissions each year, publish 9%. Rejection hard especially in a collegial network. The worst thing for us to do is to inform the unsuccessful author who may be successful in the lab an their next paper may go to Nature.
Typical subscriber looks for a paper by themselves or a friend or college and then turns back to the news section at the beginning. Scientists form a community that lives and subsists on gossip, so its no surprise they like following news. News covers rival journals. Often have to report difficult political confrontation (interaction with government apparatus such as when the union of concerned scientists sent a critique of repression by the Administration, neither side will like how we cover it).
New problems. Commercial activity involving people in basic research activities requires disclosure of conflict if interest, full disclosure. Commercial ventures has changed the normal flow of scientific communication. This will assure further scientific progress by funding development. There is a knowledge commons, but some believe that it will be constrainted by intellectual property and may turn it into a knowledge anti-commons (ref)
Reporters are part of the community, requires sensitivity in coverage, but also understanding and forgiveness by the scientists.
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