Science professors advance field through publications

Gonzaga professors publish a wealth of material in the sciences, but it's the tail end of a long process. According to Dr. Stephen Warren, chemistry department professor, publishing is one of the last steps a science professor makes upon completion of research.

"Publication is the last part of a significant process of professional activity and occupies maybe 10 percent or less of the effort," Warren said. "To publish you have to have new and valuable scientific information to present in a publication. New information comes from original scientific research. Scientific research requires money, time and instrumentation."

Such obstacles do not inhibit science professors around the University, though. According to Dr. Eric Ross, a chemistry professor, science professors are frequently publishing works on their research.

"Publishing scientific results in peer-reviewed journals is generally an expectation for science faculty conducting research at the collegiate level," said Ross, who has published work seven times. "It's among the most objective measures of scientific progress and helps establish you as an expert in your discipline."

Ross insists that scientific publishing is beneficial to more than just the professors. According to Ross, it helps attract funding for future projects and "agencies like to see that you are producing results with their investment."

Those reaping the benefits of scientific publications are not just limited to professors and agencies. According to many science professors at Gonzaga, students frequently participate and contribute to their professors' scholarly work.

"It's especially great when an undergraduate contributes to the work and gets their name on a paper. For a science major, that's a great demonstration of their early involvement in their field, it looks great on the resume," Ross said.

The biology department doesn't hold back the research and publications either. Biology professor Dr. Hugh Lefcourt recently published a research paper with students involving snails.

"My students and I just had a paper published that shows that a little bit of pollution can actually be good for lake snails," Lefcourt said. "We work on the ecological effects of mining pollution that comes out of Northern Idaho. Snails are our 'lab rat.' "

Indeed, student involvement is invited, if not essential, to most science publications from Gonzaga.

According to Ross, the hardest and most time - consuming part of the scientific publication process is the research itself because much of it does not work.

"But after you've collected and analyzed the necessary data that describes a scientific story it can still be a difficult process to publish the work," Ross said. "You've got to make sure that you've scoured the literature and are up to date on related research, that you've made a compelling argument supported by your data and that everything's referenced properly. Then it has to stand up to the scrutiny of your peers."

This difficult publication process might be the reason why student involvement is necessary.

The need for scientific publications reverberates throughout the community.

"Science publications help scientists communicate with each other," sophomore Dan Carter said. "And that just advances their field."

Asked how scientific publications affected the Gonzaga community, Ross mentioned, "It's completely positive and it's a great indication of scientific productivity."