Science has been named one of the top 100 journals that have led the way in and biology and medicine over the last century, by the Biomedical and Life Sciences Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA).
Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the nonprofit science society.
The top 100 list is the result of a poll, conducted as part of the SLA's celebration of its 100th anniversary. The SLA is a professional group of librarians, information center managers and publishing industry executives.
To compile the list, the SLA Biomedical and Life Sciences Division polled its 686 members, asking them to propose the most 100 most influential biology and medical journals of the past century.
An international panel of nine subject-expert librarians in biology and medicine screened thousands of journals, selecting over 500 for inclusion on the ballot. The membership then voted in the 100 finalists.
Science did so well, according to the poll's Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Tony Stankus of the University of Arkansas, because it consistently publishes significant advances in all three of the main interest groups encompassed by the Division: Molecular and Cellular Biology; Natural History including Human Evolution and Paleontology, and Clinical Investigation.
"This is truly an honor," said Alan I. Leshner, Chief Executive Officer of AAAS and Executive Publisher of Science. "We thank the members of the SLA Biomedical and Life Sciences Division for their recognition of our efforts to publish groundbreaking scientific news, commentary, and research, and we appreciate their holding us in such high esteem."
The poll was intended to be international in scope, to consider journals over the entire last century, and to provide the next generation of SLA members with a list of important working titles.
The DBIO will narrow down this list to announce their top 10 picks, plus the "journal of the Century," at an awards ceremony in Washington DC on June 16th.
The full list of the top 100 journals and more information about the competition is available at http://units.sla.org/division/dbio/publications/resources/dbio100.html
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal Science (www.sciencemag.org), Science Signaling (www.sciencesignaling.org), and Science Translational Medicine (www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million. The nonprofit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.