Hi to all professors and doctors out there,

I am a SPM 2013 candidate. After SPM, I intend to continue with A levels and subscribe to one of the scientific journals, Nature or Science for personal improvement. In your opinion, which of the 2 is more suitable for the college students like me?

From what I could gather, their publications don't overlap with each other and that most people say that both are equally good and important. I also heard that one of them(can't really remember which, maybe Science) is leaned towards biological sciences. My interests are mainly Physics, mathematics and chemistry and that I am interested in engineering, so which is better for me?

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to post this question.

Err... you might want to consider scientific magazines instead?
ISI-ranking journals (Nature and Science are the top two in terms of citations) are pretty specific in terms of research scope.. most people will not be able to understand what they are about unless if you are within the field itself

Anyway, I don't think Science and Nature covers alot on Physics, mathematics and chemistry

As for subscription, just wait until you enrol in Universities, most will have free library subscriptions

Neither a professor nor a doctor, but I have some questions for you:

1) What is the nature of your 'personal improvement'? You state that you are interested in so many things- that can be a problem because it's not easy reading scientific journals if you don't have the training to dissect, understand and analyze them. This can only come from a uni class tutorial or you find someone in uni to guide you through the jargon. Also, people with years of experience reading lengthy papers don't particularly find them appealing.

2) There are plenty of free journal abstracts/summaries available (Science Direct comes to mind) which have easily digestible information for the layman- they're basically news updates that do the dissecting and summarizing of journals for you.

3) Scientific journals are specialized and people usually read them if they're doing research because they need to cite them in their research. For the casual reader, it's not exactly worth a journal subscription (because they are VERY expensive) unless you know what you're doing and you need to know the details of the research, such as you're an academic looking to keep abreast of the latest research in whatever area of your specialization.

4) "Most people say they're good"- as a scientist (to be or whatever), you're advised to analyze statements like that. What is the nature of this "good"? As opposed to what? How is it 'important'?

Thanks for the thorough reply, I was wondering if I've just asked a very silly question..... and perhaps I did.

For me, the purpose of doing further reading is build up insight in my desired field, engineering which is deeply rooted in chemistry, physics and mathematics. I originally thought that reading such journals may help, but after some further researching I guess I really did ask a silly question after all. So, scientific journals are just not meant for people not in the academic field, right? I guess that I will be much better off reading these instead. Do you agree? As for the "good" and "important", I actually meant influential, i.e impact factor. Sorry for the confusion.

This post has been edited by Intermission: Sep 25 2012, 04:01 PM

It's not a silly question, my dear. Everyone has to start off somewhere, and your quest for knowledge at your age is commendable. Keep it up, we need more intellectually inclined people like yourself. Knowledge is power.

Reading such journals DOES help, but not at your level. Journals can be read by anyone who is able to read them (by read, I mean utilize them) and it's just a waste if you subscribe and can't make use of it. There is no stopping you from downloading them by the truckloads under a free account courtesy of your uni, though *coughs*looksguiltilyaround*coughs*.

Yes, the site you provided looks sound. They're meant for undergrads, but just have a looksee if you are able to understand it. I must emphasize that without a sound understanding of the basics of what you want to read about, it would be immensely tedious and pointless. So brush up on your basic knowledge of terms and jargons in the 3 sciences before investing in something you need to pay cash for.

By influential, they probably mean it contains peer-reviewed journals? If so, then it means that in a way, yes, it is more 'credible', because peer-reviewed journal articles undergo more rigorous scrutiny of their research, and this is important for those who are doing research as it needs to be cited, and peer-reviewed articles have more solid research methodologies. Not so much a concern for you now at this stage.

But always remember: Research is not the gospel truth. They are not facts, they merely shed light on areas that enlightenment.

Will do. Thanks for the advice. I think I've managed to find some books suitable for me. I'll pass Nature and Science until I reach uni. Thanks for spending some time here. Thread closed.