Always trustworthy. Always current. Elsevier Reference Modules. Learn more at www.ReferenceModules.com Knowledge to Fill in the Gaps. The Elsevier Reference Modules are a searchable, up-to-date compilation of the very best content from our Reference Works. › Continuously evolving The modules are under constant review, with articles updated and even time stamped to reflect new research in the field. So the material is never stale, never obsolete. › Eminently trustworthy An independent panel of experts hand-selects only the highest-quality content from Elsevier Reference Works. It’s the very best of the best. The most trustworthy, up-to-date digital content. › Intelligently structured The modules are organized into an intuitive hierarchy. Find the right content fast, together with quick-links to related material. No siſting through 22 separate Reference Books. A cross-disciplinary bridge All articles in the Reference Modules link dynamically (through their citations) to related book and journal content on ScienceDirect. It’s a perfect tool for wider exploration, opening the door to new possibilities for cross-disciplinary research and discovery. The most direct route to the most current content. Elsevier Reference Modules are the very best content from our Reference Works, hand-selected by independent experts and continually updated—even time stamped—to reflect new research in the field. Be in the know with Elsevier Reference Modules. Elsevier Reference Modules. Available on ScienceDirect.
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Always trustworthy. Always current. Elsevier Reference Modules.Learn more at www.ReferenceModules.com
Knowledge to Fill in the Gaps.
The Elsevier Reference Modules are a searchable, up-to-date compilation of the very best content from our Reference Works.
› Continuously evolvingThe modules are under constant review, with articles updated and even time stamped to re� ect new research in the � eld. So the material is never stale, never obsolete.
› Eminently trustworthyAn independent panel of experts hand-selects only the highest-quality content from Elsevier Reference Works. It’s the very best of the best.
The most trustworthy, up-to-date digital content. › Intelligently structuredThe modules are organized into an intuitive hierarchy. Find the right content fast, together with quick-links to related material. No si� ing through 22 separate Reference Books.
A cross-disciplinary bridgeAll articles in the Reference Modules link dynamically (through their citations) to related book and journal content on ScienceDirect. It’s a perfect tool for wider exploration, opening the door to new possibilities for cross-disciplinary research and discovery.
Knowledge to Fill in the Gaps.
The most direct route to the most current content.Elsevier Reference Modules are the very best content from our Reference Works, hand-selected by independent experts and continually updated—even time stamped—to re� ect new research in the � eld. Be in the know with Elsevier Reference Modules.
Elsevier Reference Modules. Available on ScienceDirect.
Figure 2 Per capita energy consumption since 1820, showing a breakdown of the various sources of energy used. Data from The Oil Drum web site,2012.
Figure 3 Atmospheric CO2 concentration measured by NOAA at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, 1974–2013. The concentration of CO2 rose above 400 ppm for thefirst time in recorded history on 27 May, 2013. Data from NOAA (2013).
4 Editor’s Note
oceans, forms part of the Global Water Cycle, another subsection of the Hydrology articles. Freshwater ponds, lakes and streams are
home to many species of plants and animals, as discussed in the Freshwater Biology and Aquatic Ecology articles. These organisms
are greatly affected by changes in Water Chemistry. Finally, Water Resources play a vital role in this world of increasing demand for
fresh water.
Oceanography
The study of the world’s oceans also involves a multidisciplinary group of sciences. Physical Oceanography deals with the physical
properties of ocean water, its currents and circulation patterns, and its mixing properties, aided by tides and currents. The
interactions between the ocean and the underlying sea floor are discussed in the Geological Oceanography section, including
such aspects as geothermal vents on the sea floor and the study of the sediments that accumulate on the sea floor. The history of
the world’s oceans (paleoceanography) is reconstructed from fossils and chemicals preserved in those sediments. Chemical
Oceanography deals with the chemistry of sea water, and the sources and sinks of chemicals that enter the ocean system from
Editor’s Note 5
land. Biological Oceanography considers the organisms (from viruses to whales) that live in the oceans, as well as the birds that
make their living from ocean food resources. Of course the world’s oceans are fed by rivers and streams, and the study of Estuaries,
the places where fresh water comes in contact with the ocean, form another branch of Oceanography. Finally, this section includes
articles on Marine Policy and Management, as we rely so heavily on marine resources to sustain human life in much of the world.
More than two-thirds of all humans live within 60 km of a coast, and this percentage is increasing (Halpern et al., 2008).
Concluding Remarks
The Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences on ScienceDirect contains thousands of articles that fall within
the major sections described above. The editorial board charged with the oversight of this electronic publication share a common
passion: the use of science to better our understanding of the world around us, and to inform the decision making process at all
levels of governance. As we have seen in this article, there are many pressing environmental issues that we must face in today’s
world. We firmly believe that ignorance of the facts surrounding these issues is not the way forward.
References
Balonov M and Bouville A (2011) Radiation exposures due to the Chernobyl accident. In: Nriagu JO (ed.) Encyclopedia of environmental health, pp. 709–720. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Barnosky AD, Matzke N, Tomiya S, et al. (2011) Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? Nature 471: 51–57.Dobson A, Lodge D, Alder J, et al. (2006) Habitat loss, trophic collapse, and the decline of ecosystem services. Ecology 87: 1915–1924.Halpern BS, et al. (2008) A global map of human impact on marine ecosystems. Science 319: 948–952.Jasanoff S (1994) Learning from disaster: Risk management after Bhopal (law in social context). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Meeson, B. (2010). Earth system science. NASA web site: http://education.gsfc.nasa.gov/esssproject/ess_definition.html visited 24 May, 2013.NOAA (2013). Trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide: Weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/weekly.html visited 29 May, 2013.Shiklomanov IA (1993) World fresh water resources. In: Gleick PH (ed.) Water in crisis: A guide to the world’s fresh water resources, pp. 13–24. New York: Oxford University Press.The Oil Drum web site (2012). http://www.theoildrum.com/node/9023#more visited 29 May, 2013.
The Elsevier Reference Module includes continuously updated articles from 15 Elsevier Major Reference Works
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› International Encyclopedia of Public Health
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› Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition, 3rd Edition
› Encyclopedia of the Neurological Sciences, 2nd Edition ›
› Pathobiology of Human Disease
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“Biomedical science is an interwoven web of di� erent disciplinary threads that connect di� erent � elds and require that we have access to information in disciplines that are far outside our area of expertise.”
– Michael CaplanEditor-in-Chief for Reference Module in Biomedical Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
“The module covers the complete spectrum of biology and biomedical aspects integrated in a very well-organized fashion. As scientists we rely on correctness and something being up-to-date, so the module is important because it provides this level of knowledge.”
– Ralph BradshawSubject Editor for Reference Module in Biomedical Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
The Elsevier Reference Module in Biomedical SciencesOur expert researcher team has compiled the most trustworthy and current content available today, from the essentials of biomedical knowledge to the very latest scienti� c research.
Our expert researcher team has compiled the most trustworthy
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Editor’s NoteMJ Caplan, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
ã 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Biomedical Sciences 1Physiology 2Pathology 2Cell Biology 2Genetics 3Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 3Developmental Biology 3Cancer Biology 3Microbiology, Infectious Disease and Immunobiology 3Neurobiology 4Pharmacology 4Biotechnology 4Nutrition 4Toxicology 5Epidemiology and Public Health 5
Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Biomedical Sciences
Fueled by the unbridled energy of the Enlightenment, in 1750 the French scholar Denis Diderot undertook the task of producing an
Encyclopedia whose goal was no less ambitious than the compilation of the full corpus of human knowledge in the arts and
sciences. As I contemplate what might seem to be the comparatively miniscule undertaking of assembling an Encyclopedia of that
very limited subset of human endeavor that is encapsulated within disciplines of the Biomedical Sciences, I cannot help but think
that Diderot had it easy. After all, while I am in no position to diminish the extraordinary deluge of insight and creativity that
swelled during the Enlightenment, it seems to me that by today’s standards the font of knowledge available to even the
Enlightenment’s deepest thinkers was rather shallow. Modern science was in its infancy, and the shelves in its storehouse of
verified facts were just beginning to be stocked.
Whereas Diderot and his contemporaries inhabited a world that had yet to see smart phones or widespread indoor plumbing,
we live in an age of information whose density might best be described as fractal. The closer one looks into any defined body of
current knowledge, the more one is (or should be) daunted by its undiminished enormity. In today’s compendium, every subtopic
in any organizational hierarchy seems to possess a dimensionality, richness and complexity that is comparable to that of the parent
topic from which it was spawned. This presents any modern day would-be encyclopedist with an enormous challenge, and it is
probably not too self-serving to posit that the Biomedical Sciences exemplify this challenge as well as does any contemporary
intellectual endeavor.
Within the last half century, the information density of the Biomedical Sciences has quite literally undergone the sort of
exponential growth that bacteria experience when cultivated in a nutrient rich environment. Furthermore, the density of this
information extends across biological disciplines and across scales of biological resolution. Whether one endeavors to understand a
single protein’s functional properties by defining its structure at atomic resolution or focusses instead on the physiological
implications of that protein’s function in the setting of a cell, tissue, organ or organism, one must of necessity assimilate a body
of knowledge whose magnitude might well have caused even the indomitable Diderot to question the wisdom of trying to unite
that knowledge within a single resource. Furthermore, that body of knowledge is not static. It transforms with remarkable rapidity
and in thoroughly unpredictable directions.
How then, can we be so presumptuous as to propose that the present project of assembling a useful Encyclopedia of Biomedical
Sciences is not doomed by its own enormity? The editors of the present work have been continually conscious of this question, and
been inspired by it to think about designs that ensure that this Encyclopedia’s value will transcend the challenges that are imposed
by its scope. The structure that we have developed is built, first and foremost, upon an enormous foundational body of knowledge
that has been assembled and curated by leading experts representing Biomedical Science’s many and diverse disciplines. At its
inception, this Encyclopedia of Biomedical Sciences is constituted of many thousands of individual entries. Furthermore, and
perhaps more importantly, the experts that have assembled this work’s foundation will continue to refine, expand, revisit and revise
their contributions. The work will grow and evolve along with the fields of knowledge that it explores.
As a child I believed that the massive, multivolume set of encyclopedias that proudly occupied a substantial fraction of our
bookshelves was complete and authoritative, and that it was an infallible and timeless source of everything that was knowable.
I was blissfully unaware of the fact that, with each passing moment, that encyclopedia was one moment closer to becoming
Reference Module in Biomedical Research http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801238-3.07825-9 1
a charming antique. To be useful, the currency of any resource devoted to the Biomedical Sciences must be monitored and
maintained to ensure that incorporates all of the latest information and sheds those concepts that have become outmoded. It is not
enough, however, to simply permit any such resource to be continually and uncritically fed from the gushing spring of new
information. Unfiltered information may be contaminated with noise that that drowns out essential messages and central themes.
All of the foundational content that has been included in the present Encyclopedia of Biomedical Sciences has been subjected to
rigorous editorial review for validity, currency and importance. Furthermore, the Editors and authors of this work will remain
engaged in the process of ensuring that it remains up to date through the addition of new information whose relevance and validity
have been vetted by recognized experts. Thus, the work promises to maintain an organic and vital connection to the fields that it
chronicles.
Finally, the boundaries that define the subdisciplines that together constitute the Biomedical Sciences grow ever less distinct.
Thus, any reference work that compartmentalizes its content into categories defined by historical convention rather than current
understanding risks rendering itself unwieldy. Furthermore, such a ‘classical’ design fails to reveal the threads that interconnect
nodes of information within a discipline and across disciplinary borders. One of the principal complications in designing the
present work has been to create an architecture that celebrates rather than conceals this web. Ideally, this architecture should allow
its users both to exercise their ingenuity and to enjoy the pleasure of serendipitous discovery as they crawl along these threads. The
philosopher of science Jacob Bronowski suggested that creativity in any discipline might be described as the act of revealing a
connection that had not been previously recognized. We hope to produce a reference work that serves as a catalyst for creativity
according to this definition. Furthermore, at the risk of revealing myself to be a curmudgeonly anachronism, I must confess that
I feel that the extraordinarily sophisticated search tools that power the internet, and thus our access to most of the information that
we can readily exploit, deny us the joy of accidentally finding things that we were not looking for. Some of the most interesting
things that I have found in libraries resided in the volume that sat next to the one that I was originally seeking. We hope to continue
to refine the interface for this Encyclopedia of Biomedical Sciences so that it reveals the intrinsic connectedness of its content and
thus allows a user to appreciate unanticipated connections that might never have been uncovered in a simple directed search. This
architecture is a work in progress, and its ongoing creation constitutes one of the most exciting aspects of this major project.
While the boundaries that separate the core disciplines within the biomedical sciences progressively blur, these core disciplines
nonetheless constitute useful intellectual frameworks around which to organize the editorial task of assembling and curating the
content of the Encyclopedia of Biomedical Sciences. Our Editorial Board is composed of experts drawn from each of these
disciplines, and they bring to this project their insights into the major tenets and questions that motivate these fields. It is
worthwhile, therefore, to introduce several of these disciplines and to provide very brief overviews of their primary foci.
Physiology
Depending upon how it is defined, physiology is perhaps the oldest and most interconnected of the disciplines within the
Biomedical Sciences (in the interest of full disclosure I should point out that I am a Physiologist and thus may be betraying just
a wee bit of chauvinism). In the broadest sense, physiology is the study of how the body maintains a constant and hospitable
internal milieu. This concept was first formulated in the nineteenth century by French physiologist Claude Bernard. American
physiologist Walter Canon subsequently coined the term ‘homeostasis’ to summarize the multitude of processes that are required
to ensure that an organism is able to maintain a composition that differs dramatically from that of its surrounding and often hostile
environment. These processes occur at the level of cells, tissues, organs and organisms. They involve the generation and expenditure
of metabolic energy, and they are controlled by networks of signals and elegant feedback loops. Many of these signals and feedback
loops are the province of the Endocrine System, which serves as a master control system that monitors, modulates and integrates
physiological function. Physiology explores the molecules, messages and mechanisms through which homeostasis is maintained
and that determine its parameters.
Pathology
Any machine as exquisitely complex as a human body must, of necessity, be subject to all manner of malfunctions. Much of what
we have learned about normal human physiology derives from efforts to understand the causes and effects of these malfunctions.
Human disease arises when extrinsic or intrinsic forces alter or interrupt the local or systemic mechanisms that maintain
homeostasis. Pathology is a discipline that endeavors to understand how and why normal function is perturbed, and what
consequences result from such perturbations.
Cell Biology
The cell is the fundamental building block of the human organism. Furthermore, each tissue and organ is constituted of collections
of highly specialized cell types whose physical and biochemical properties are exquisitely well adapted to their particular jobs.
Consequently, any sophisticated understanding of Biomedical Science must be predicated upon an appreciation of the structures
Editor’s Note 3
that constitute cells and themeans through which these structures are deployed both tomaintain the cell’s viability and to ensure its
utility to the larger organism. Cell biology explores this relationship between cellular form and function.
Genetics
Every nucleated human cell carries within it a nearly complete set of the instructions required to assemble a complete human being.
Furthermore, these instructions, which are embodied in the genome, are constantly referenced in order maintain cellular structure
and to permit cellular responses to physiological stimuli. A large subset of human diseases arise from inherited or spontaneous
alterations in the genome or in the machinery that tends it. Genetics seeks to understand how these instructions are encoded,
reproduced, interpreted and enacted. Recent technical advances and concerted efforts have produced an extraordinarily detailed
insight into the nature and dynamics of the human genome. Genetics endeavors to understand the mechanisms that govern the
structure and stability of the genetic material, and that control the expression of the genes that it encodes.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Every biological process is, in essence, an orchestrated collection of chemical reactions. Biological structures, from the level of single
molecules to the level of complex systems, have evolved to ensure that these reactions take place efficiently, in the right place and at
the right time. The metabolism of nutrients, the generation of energy from that metabolism, and the exploitation of that energy to
build, maintain and regenerate all of the structures of the cell all exemplify the chemical nature of biological processes.
Biochemistry endeavors to understand the structures of biological molecules, to understand how those structures define their
chemical properties, and to establish how those chemical properties are employed and controlled. In many ways, molecular
biology can be seen as the engine that has driven the remarkable progress in the Biomedical Sciences that has occurred over the last
four decades. The insight it has provided into the nature and expression of the information contained in the genome has been
fundamental in efforts to understand the mechanisms and machinery of life. The tools it has provided have permitted the
mechanisms and machinery of life to be explored, manipulated and repaired with remarkable precision.
Developmental Biology
The union between sperm and egg sets in motion a program through which a single cell gives rise to a fully formed organism. This
developmental program employs highly orchestrated cell division, differentiation, death, movement and communication to
assemble a human being according to the instructions that are encoded in its genome. Considering its complexity, and its intrinsic
requirement for tremendous spatial and temporal precision, development is a remarkably robust process. Despite this robustness,
however, development is susceptible to intrinsic and environmental perturbations that underlie a wide range of human diseases.
Developmental biology investigates the processes which through all of the structures that constitute a human are generated and the
causes and consequences of errors in these processes.
Cancer Biology
Normally, cell growth and replication are tightly controlled, so that these processes occur only when and where they are needed.
Cancer is caused by a breakdown in this control, resulting in dysregulation of cellular proliferation and loss of differentiated
cellular identity to create neoplastic growth. Furthermore cancerous transformation can create cells that lose their attachment to
their normal tissue architecture and can travel through the body to metastasize, which is to say they invade and take up residence in
other tissues. Neoplasms develop through a wide variety of mechanisms, take many forms and can exert an enormous number of
profound effects on their local environments and on the physiological functioning of their host organism. Cancer biology
endeavors to understand the mechanisms through which cancer develops, the varieties of its forms, and its vulnerabilities that
render it susceptible to therapy.
Microbiology, Infectious Disease and Immunobiology
We tend to think of microorganisms as enemies. Certainly, we are subject to constant assault by a rogues’ gallery of microorganisms
that wish to do us harm. Bacteria, viruses, protozoans and parasites endeavor to exploit our nutrient rich internal environment and
to subvert our metabolism to their own nefarious ends. It is becoming ever clearer, however, that this view of microorganisms is
overly simplistic and negative. We co-exist with massive populations of commensal organisms that colonize our every nook and
cranny and that appear to participate in defining who we are and how we interact with our environment. Microbiology is a
discipline that focusses on understanding the nature of those microorganisms that cause disease and those that help to keep us
4 Editor’s Note
healthy. Our bodies employ numerous defenses in our efforts to prevent microorganisms from producing infectious diseases. The
persistent threat of infectious diseases, even in our present era of hygiene and antibiotics, provides ample evidence that microor-
ganisms have developed and continue to develop remarkably clever tools with which to subvert our best defenses. The immune
system constitutes our most sophisticated defense against infection. The immune system employs sophisticated surveillance
methods to recognize elements in our bodies that do not belong to us, and deploys manifold defenses to isolate or destroy
those elements. Not surprisingly, deficits in immune function can render us susceptible to the malevolent intentions of infectious
microorganisms. Conversely, however, an overly exuberant immune system can produce disease by attacking and destroying our
own healthy tissue. Immunobiology investigates the mechanisms through which themany cell types that contribute to the immune
system collaborate with one another to mount and regulate a response to foreign invaders.
Neurobiology
Since the time of Rene Descartes in themid seventeenth century scholars have debated how the physical entity of the brain is able to
endow us with our conscious and unconscious minds. The nervous systems endows us with our capacity to interact in sophisticated
ways with our environments, with each other and with ourselves. Our every thought, action, emotion and sensation derives from
signals that ricochet among the almost unfathomably complex network of interconnected neurons in our brains. Furthermore, the
nervous system monitors and regulates almost every aspect of our physiological functioning. Not surprisingly, therefore, neuro-
biology is a vast topic. It ranges in scope from the cell biology and biochemistry of individual neurons to the behaviors that emerge
from massive neuronal ensembles. It employs tools in its investigations that range from the analysis of single molecules to studies
that explore the neuronal activity that underlies human thought and behavior. As might be expected of such a complex entity, the
nervous system is subject to myriad varieties of pathologies that are important both for their impact on the lives of those that
endure them and for what they teach us about how the nervous system functions.
Pharmacology
Most people’s primary interaction with the fruits of the Biomedical Sciences occurs when they visit a pharmacy to fill a physician’s
prescription for a drug to treat some ailment. Some of those drugs derive from natural substances, while some are entirely synthetic.
The medical utility of some of those drug substances were recognized several centuries ago, while some are the products of the
most recent efforts to fight disease. Pharmacology is the science that focuses on discovering new drug substances, understanding
how they work and defining their interactions with the body. In its modern incarnation, pharmacology seeks to identify drug
targets—that is, activities or processes that are relevant to a disease state and that are accessible to selective biochemical
manipulation. This requirement for selectivity is extremely important, since the goal in developing a new drug substance is to
find an agent that affects only its designated target without off target actions and with a minimum of side effects. Thus,
pharmacology integrates an enormous body of knowledge about normal physiology and pathobiology in order to develop
novel approaches to treat disease that are both safe and effective.
Biotechnology
When most people think of the products of engineering, they probably visualize highways, bridges and dams or microchips and
high definition video screens. There is another field of engineering, however, whose efforts are devoted to applying technology to
provide new tools with which to treat disease and ease discomfort. As its name implies, biotechnology seeks to engineer solutions
to biomedical problems. Some of these solutions are often seen and widely known, such as artificial limbs and hearing aids,
whereas others are much less visible, such as nano-encapsulated drug delivery systems and implantable electrodes that treat
neurological diseases. In each of these cases, the goal is to find novel ways to interface the tools of technology with human biology
in order to address a substantial biomedical problem.
Nutrition
Our metabolism requires fuel, and that fuel is provided by our diet. The science of nutrition explores the nature of our metabolic
needs and themeans through which dietary substances satisfy them. While for millennia the human diet was viewed as a beneficent
source of sustenance, the past few decades have revealed that the diet can also be significant source of pathology. Excessive or
unbalanced nutrient consumption is the primary cause of obesity and its associated pathologies, whose prevalence throughout the
world has reached epidemic proportions. Understanding the factors that lead to obesity and developing strategies to reverse them is
one of the great challenges of modern nutrition science and one that will impact the Biomedical Sciences for decades to come.
Editor’s Note 5
Toxicology
We live in a world that is rife with poisons. Nature has developed all manner of toxic substances that have the capacity to do us
harm. Our own scientific progress has added substantially to this arsenal of compounds that have the capacity to interfere with vital
aspects of our fragile biochemistry. Toxicology endeavors to understand these compounds, how we come into contact with them,
how they perturb our normal function and how we can prevent or treat exposure to them. Understanding the mechanisms through
which individual toxins damage us also provides new insights into our normal physiology.
Epidemiology and Public Health
Disease effects individuals and populations. While other components of the Biomedical Sciences teach us about the mechanisms
through which disease perverts an organism’s normal function, Epidemiology and Public Health teaches us how disease develops
in, spreads through and impacts a community. Clearly in the context of infectious conditions it is critically important to understand
how a community’s living conditions and practices facilitate or impair the spread of disease. This statement is just as true, however,
in the context of all manner of human pathologies ranging from malnutrition to obesity and from birth defects to cancer. Our
societies are the sources of both major weapons in the war on disease and major causes of its propagation. Understanding the
interface between the Biomedical Sciences and human communities is at the forefront in the efforts of Biomedical Scientists to
improve the health of the world.
Provide the up-to-date information your researcher’s are looking for from 8 of our comprehensive Reference Works in one resource:• EncyclopediaofAgricultureandFoodSystems
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Reference Module in Food ScienceStimulateresearchandinnovationatyourinstitutionbyequippinguserswiththelatestdevelopmentsintherapidlyevolvingfieldofFoodScience.
Valentina TrinettaSubject Editor for Reference Module in Food Science Ecolab,Eagan,USA
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A Note from Elsevier’s Acquisition Editor, Rachel Gerlis, on the new Reference Module in Food Science
With rapid advances in areas of food science such as technology, chemistry, safety and consumer behaviour, it is vital that we as publishers are able to keep up with the demand for the latest research on these topics.
The Reference Module in Food Science is an exciting new initiative from Elsevier that will allow food science students and researchers to discover comprehensive, time-stamped content quicker and more easily than ever before.
Working with our fantastic Editor-in-Chief, Geoff Smithers (former Director of International Business at Food Science Australia and now an independent Food Industry Consultant with close links to the Institute of Food Technologists), I’ve recruited 15 Subject Editors who are leading experts in their fields and who, between them, are responsible for reference content across the whole breadth of the food science discipline.
In the run up to launch in December 2015 these editors are reviewing thousands of encyclopedic and comprehensive reference articles for currency, updating them where necessary, and commissioning new content to ensure the continued growth of the module. They’re also creating an intuitive, interdisciplinary subject hierarchy to organise all the articles into a coherent, user-friendly framework. These are all momentous tasks but the editors are doing a superb job and we’re on track for a really successful launch.
The benefits of a Reference Module in Food Science are huge. It will provide researchers with access to thousands of cutting-edge articles in their area of expertise, up-to-date introductions to any areas they need to be brought up to speed on, and an accurate overview of the whole discipline. The Reference Module will also allow them to easily find authoritative and citable research on a specific subject, rather than having to wade through less reliable information available elsewhere on the internet.
Authors benefit by having their research made available online as soon as it’s been approved by the editors so, unlike a traditional book process, they don’t have to wait for the last author to finish writing before their article is published. As articles can be updated as and when necessary, each author also has the opportunity for their work to remain perpetually relevant in the field.
As an Acquisitions Editor, I’m always on the look-out for new opportunities to commission Major Reference Works in Food Science in order to provide the academic community with the information they need, when they need it. The Reference Module in Food Science is exciting because its interdisciplinary nature will allow me to spot gaps in our existing content and quickly and easily fill them, thus staying ahead of the latest trends in the field. Having such a comprehensive network of editors and authors connected to the project means that I can fully engage with the subject community, and fulfil their research needs more accurately and efficiently than ever before.
The Editor-in-Chief’s Note will be available when the Reference Module is live on ScienceDirect in December 2015
Provide the up-to-date information your researcher’s are looking for from 13 of our comprehensive Reference Works in one resource:• ComprehensiveBiomaterials
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Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials EngineeringStimulateresearchandinnovationatyourinstitutionbyequippinguserswiththelatestdevelopmentsintherapidlyevolvingfieldofMaterialsScienceandMaterialsEngineering.
Shahjahan Mridha, Ph.DSubject Editor for Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering Glasgow,Scotland
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A Note from Elsevier’s Acquisition Editor, Ruth Ireland, on the Reference Module in Materials Science & Materials Engineering
Research in Materials Science and Materials Engineering moves very quickly, and it is also a truly interdisciplinary field with relevance across a wide range of academic studies and professional industries. As such, there is a high demand from researchers at all levels for up-to-date and high-quality reference material.For publishers, it can be a huge challenge to meet that demand when the discipline is so fast-moving and when reliable, peer-reviewed reference publications can take years in the making.
The Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering is an innovative new solution to that challenge. Researchers from undergraduates to industry experts will be able to find the information they need and at the same time know that it is both current and of the highest standard.
As Acquisitions Editor on the project, it’s really exciting for me to work with an extremely knowledgeable and energetic Editorial Board of 14 Subject Editors, led by indomitable Editor-in-Chief Saleem Hashmi (School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, Dublin City University). The Editors’ powerful collective expertise and experience as researchers, teachers and industry professionals is making it possible for us to build a very dynamic and comprehensive resource. It’s also wonderful to already have contributions from expert authors from all over the world.
As we gear up for launch of the Module in December 2015, the Editors are hard at work reviewing articles and building the subject hierarchy that will enable users of the Module to search thousands of articles and quickly get to the information they want. Users will be able to see when each article was last checked for currency as well as its update history. This will give researchers the confidence in the material that they require, and teachers can point their students to a quick source of reliable, citable, up-to-date information from entry-level to expert detail. A key point is that we are developing this Module so that it will be of maximum use to researchers both within and outside of materials science. Linking tools within ScienceDirect will enable researchers to find authors who they can perhaps collaborate with on interdisciplinary projects.
Article authors benefit by no longer having to wait until the end of a long multi-article book production cycle: their work will lose none of its currency as it will publish online in the Module just as soon as it has been reviewed by the appropriate Editor and is production-ready. Authors later have the opportunity to review and update their own work as appropriate, so that their articles always remain relevant and utilized in the long term.
I’m confident that working on the Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering will help me to engage ever better with authors and researchers across the many subject areas it covers. I am always keen to discuss trends in materials science and to talk to prospective editors about developing new Encyclopedias and Comprehensive Major Reference Works.
The Editor-in-Chief’s Note will be available when the Reference Module is live on ScienceDirect in December 2015