Springer has announced the launch of a new peer-reviewed journal called NanoEthics: Ethics for Technologies that Converge at the Nanoscale. Supported by an international editorial board, the journal will provide a multidisciplinary forum for exploration of ethical issues related to nanotechnology. The first issue will appear in early 2007.
NanoEthics: Ethics for Technologies that Converge at the Nanoscale will contain a philosophically and scientifically rigorous examination of both the ethical and societal considerations as well as the public and policy concerns inherent in nanotechnology research and development. With the central focus on ethical issues, topics will include, among others, environmental and health aspects, social and economic consequences, threats to culture and tradition and to political and economic stability. The journal will be of interest to researchers, scholars and students; scientific and technological policymakers as well as decision-makers in corporations involved in nanotechnology.
"The steep growth of nanotechnology demands a critical view of its effects on society," said Alexander Schimmelpenninck, Vice President of Publishing, Human Sciences at Springer. "With the launch of this new journal, Springer aims to provide an academic platform to counterbalance popular discussion and fragmented representations on the ethical and societal implications of nanotechnology."
Professor John Weckert of the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, part of Charles Sturt University, ANU and the University of Melbourne, will be Editor-in-Chief. He adds, "New technologies are necessary to help solve many of today's problems, but they must be the right technologies and equally important, used in the right way. Nanotechnology seems to offer enormous potential benefits, but scientists, philosophers, social scientists and lawyers, among others, need to collaborate in order to maximize these benefits and minimize potential harms. NanoEthics will support this collaboration."
NanoEthics will be published three times a year online and in print. The journal will be available on Springer's online platform www.springerlink.com and will include Online FirstTM, Cross Reference Linking, and Alert services. In addition, all NanoEthics authors, via the Springer Open Choice program, have the option of publishing their articles using the open access publishing model.
Springer is the second-largest publisher worldwide in the science, technology, and medicine (STM) sector. Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media, one of the world's leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. The group owns 70 publishing houses, together publishing a total of 1,450 journals and more than 5,000 new books a year. The group operates in over 20 countries in Europe, the USA, and Asia, and has some 5,000 employees.