Why Bylines?

From its beginnings in 1995, UniSci has had two main goals: to communicate research findings to as wide an audience as possible and to showcase fine science writing.

Since our primary "beat" is American universities, our principal sources are university science writers, many of whom are as good as they get.

When one of their releases stands on its own feet and needs no major editing or amplification by our editorial staff, the writer deserves recognition, so we run it with a byline. Usually, that byline is in the form of a "mailto:" link, so that UniSci readers can ask for more information right from the source -- or just say "well done" for a good writing job.

Occasionally, even in a bylined story, we'll add an Editor's Note. Such a note will tell our readers where further information or illustration can be obtained on the web, or provide links to one or more recent stories UniSci has run on the same topic. (Editor's Notes are always clearly identified: they are set in italics and placed within parentheses.)

With larger, more general news services running links to our stories on a daily basis, more and more people are reading them, which led us to run this clarification of policy and of style. As always, your comments are invited. -