The editor´s role in the survival of the broad technical journal

Journals covering a broad field of specialties face a period of weeding out. This process will bring to the fore the journals which demonstrate a better understanding of the needs of readers. Journals that survive will in all likelihood be those which see their role as making understandable to readers a significant selection of the insights of specialists: To fulfill this mission, the editor will need to have the appetite and the ability to continue learning; he must have the interpersonal skills to make effective use of a board of expert advisers; and he must wage a tireless campaign for all the elements of good communication. For the multispecialist technical journal, these are the dimensions of survival. The format of the surviving journals will emphasize refinement of the mature communications techniques, at least for the next 10 or 15 years. Few, if any, of today´s journals exploit the full scope of good writing and editing, functional drawings, photography, typography, page design, and offset printing.