On Scientific Publications and Journals

Abstract

In the academic circles, “times have changed” dramatically since Källén’s days. To better or to worse? We leave the answer to this question to our readers. In this chapter we would like to present some of Källén’s views on a number of academic issues. As mentioned before, the great majority of distinguished scientists of the last century did not publish much. Consider for example an early-starter, the great Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958). A glance at publications, as defined and listed by Web of Science, shows that his first paper carried the title “The theory of the gravitation and electricity by Hermann Weyl” and was published in Physikalische Zeitschrift, Volume 20 (1919) 457–467 when he was still a teenager! When he died in December 1958 he had “only” about 40 publications! Some of these were not even research papers but articles honoring other scientists such as Niels Bohr, Arnold Sommerfeld and Janne Rydberg. Nevertheless, several of Pauli’s publications are true jewels and worth reading even now. Paul Dirac (1902–1983) lived much longer and, by the same measure, produced less than 100 papers, not all research papers but again quite a few of historical nature. From Källén’s generation, we could mention John S. Bell (1928–1990) who published about 70 papers, among them many talks and lectures. Again these papers made an impact, not by their number but by their originality and quality. Pauli, Dirac and Bell are only three examples among a large number of such great scientists.