Autumn 2017

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.