What’s the impact of the “impact factor”? Are you satisfied with the current scientific publishing process? Will the internet revolutionize publishing? What are your thoughts on open access publishing and how it will affect the future of scientific publishing? If you are interested in these questions, join the Nature Network forum “”https://network.nature.com/group/harvardpublishingforum">Publishing in the New Millennium" , which is linked to a conference on Friday 9 November 2007, 1:00 – 6:00 p.m., at Harvard Medical School.

The conference is organized by students, and will convene experts from across the world to discuss the state of publishing in the biological sciences. The keynote address will be by Nobel laureate Harold Varmus, former director of the NIH, now head of the Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The State of Publishing will critically assess the impact that scientific publishing has on scientific research, with panellists including Robert Kiley, head of e-Strategy of the Wellcome Library; Isaac Kohane, director of the Countway Library at Harvard University; Emilie Marcus, Editor-in-Chief of Cell Press and Editor of Cell; and professor Stuart Shieber of Harvard University. Publishing 2.0 will examine the future of publishing in an increasingly digital world. Panelists include Moshe Pritsker, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Visualized Experiments; Hilary Spencer of Nature Precedings; John Wilbanks, executive director of Science Commons; and Bora Zivkovic of PLoS ONE.

By joining the Nature Network forum, you can discuss topics before the meeting, receive updates, suggest topics, and see who else is going.