Students browsing through the racks of University publications at the campus center will find a new edition come this spring. TuftScope, a biomedical journal, is designed as a forum for the discussion of research, ethics, health, and healthcare.
The first issue of TuftScope will be published after spring break, but a sneak peak is available on the publication's website, www.ase.tufts.edu/TuftScope. The magazine was created by members of the Pre-Medical Society, and is intended to be a source of information about biomedical issues for students and faculty of all fields.
Co-editors Brad Crotty and Kate McGinigle started the project because they felt Tufts lacked a journal that bridges the gap between research, technology, and the civic-minded side of the Tufts community.
"It lets English majors have a glimpse of what's going on in the biomedical world," McGinigle said.
TuftScope's website is an integral part of the publication, allowing students, faculty, staff, and alumni to examine research articles, editorials, and papers, as well as to submit their own. It also gives readers the chance to participate in discussion boards, and submit letters to the editors, which Crotty hopes will allow for a wider array of opinions on the cutting edge biomedical research occurring in and around Tufts.
Submissions and responses can be published immediately on the website, so readers will not have to wait for the next issue to be printed.
For now, TuftScope will be published at least once per semester, and a long-term goal is to make the journal available on each of Tufts' campuses. The publication is relying on the Tufts Community Union Senate for funding through the student activities fee, and has a limited budget to cover printing costs.
The staff believes that there is a market for this type of journal at Tufts, and that readers will be eager to learn about timely issues in the biomedical world.
Crotty came up with the idea for TuftScope after seeing that other schools, like Amherst and Princeton, have similar journals that are well-received by their communities. He proposed the idea at a Pre-Med Society meeting last spring and asked McGinigle to help him launch the project.
TuftScope will not limit its community involvement to the production of the journal and the website; TuftScope editors, along with the Boston University Bioethics Society and Tufts Bioethics, is co-sponsoring a conference that will feature speakers at the top of the biomedical research, ethics, and healthcare fields. The event, called the Greater Boston Bioethics Conference On Genetic Privacy and Gene Patenting, will take place at Tufts on March 14.
