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Issue 08 is supersized. This is partly due to a rare collection of papers gathered under a Museums theme. These are authored by senior curators and museum directors (Dirk Van Delft, Peter Donhauser, Martha Fleming, Jennifer Landry and Robert Bud) who were involved in experimental responses to a perceived crisis in science museums at the turn of this century. In other articles, Charlotte Sleigh looks at the cultural history of the wireless through a work by science-fiction author E C Large, and Barry Murnane et al use a study of Dr Nelson’s Inhaler to explore the growth of inhalation therapy in the mid-nineteenth century. Meanwhile, Sophie Goggins et al return to museum practice by considering how museums display prosthetics. The issue also includes three articles by entrants to the Journal’s first annual writing competition for early career scholars: John Kannenberg, Joshua Butt, and Jean-Francois Fava-Verde. And it presents an experimental type of article – ‘Reflections on Research’ (see Tim Boon et al). But issue 08 starts and finishes with articles questioning the nature of modern scholarship and scholarly publication. In his Editorial, Justin Dillon considers what open-access journals can do to encourage generous scholarship, while the Journal’s new Reviews Editor, Geoff Belknap, asks what readers want from a modern reviews section.

In this issue:

Editorial
Justin Dillon
Museums theme – Adventures in Museology: category building over a century, and the context for experiments in reinvigorating the Science Museum at the turn of the twenty-first century
Robert Bud
Museums theme – Quest for Absolute Zero: A Human Story about Rivalry and Cold
Dirk van Delft
Museums theme – Science vs technology in a museum’s display: changes in the Vienna Museum of Technology with a focus on permanent and temporary exhibitions and new forms of science education
Peter Donhauser
Museums theme – making Split + Splice: Fragments from the Age of Biomedicine
Martha Fleming
Museums theme – Beyond the Black Box: reflections on building a history of chemistry museum
Jennifer Landry
Adapting to the emergence of the automobile: a case study of Manchester coachbuilder Joseph Cockshoot and Co. 1896–1939
Joshua Butt
A tale of two telegraphs: Cooke and Wheatstone’s differing visions of electric telegraphy
Jean-Francois Fava-Verde
Prosthetic limbs on display: from maker to user
Sophie Goggins, Tacye Phillipson and Samuel J M M Alberti
Towards a more sonically inclusive museum practice: a new definition of ’the ‘sound object
John Kannenberg
‘Great ease and simplicity of action’: Dr Nelson’s Inhaler and the origins of modern inhalation therapy
Barry Murnane, Darragh Murnane, Mark Sanders and Noel Snell
‘Not one voice speaking to many’: E C Large, wireless, and science fiction fans in the mid-twentieth century
Charlotte Sleigh
‘Organising Sound’: how a research network might help structure an exhibition
Tim Boon, Annie Jamieson, John Kannenberg, Aleks Kolkowski and James Mansell
A symposium on histories of use and tacit skills
Tim Boon, Roger Kneebone, Peter Heering, Klaus Staubermann and Yves Winkin
Review: what should reviews do in an online journal? Towards a New Format
Geoffrey Belknap
Review: More than colours (or why some Austrian school children might not want to eat red Gummy Bears anymore)
Toria Forsyth-Moser