A brand new student publication recently appeared on the Hill this semester, but if students didn't pick up a copy within a day or two of its release, they might not have known. The demand for Breakthrough: Tufts' Undergraduate Science Magazine, which covers both Tufts and worldwide scientific news, outstripped supply so greatly that the 500−copy print run of the first issue vanished from the usual student publication repositories almost as quickly as it appeared.
The first issue featured articles ranging from a profile of Biology Professor Barry Trimmer to a piece weighing the pros and cons of using hydrogen as a fuel source to one on the use of plants in creating a new generation of vaccines.
"For each publication, we wanted to have a balance between world science news and science news from Tufts," said senior Sophie Cedola, editor−in−chief of Breakthrough. "Along with that, we wanted … the articles to run the scientific gamut. We don't want to have a magazine that's 75 percent chemistry; that's not what our goal is. We've actually been really lucky that the students that are working with me on this … have ideas for articles that were from different scientific backgrounds."
One of those writers is freshman Catherine Hoar, who joined Breakthrough during the Student Activities Fair last semester. "It just sounded really interesting, and I love science, so I wanted to do something that involved science so it got me hooked," she said.
"We want to try and make everything as accessible as possible to the Tufts community so that everyone reading Breakthrough can understand and be able to enjoy the science facts without being overwhelmed with technical terms."
"The point of everything was that we felt there was a lack of discussion about science on campus," senior Michael Shusterman, the managing editor of Breakthrough, said.
"There [wasn't] a science publication and there really aren't science articles published in a lot of things. The Daily occasionally does articles once in a while, and that's really great, but it's every once in a while." Shusterman is also the current editor−in−chief of TuftScope: The Journal of Health, Ethics, and Policy.
The idea for Breakthrough began in the fall of 2008 as the Tufts Undergraduate Research Journal, a publication that was intended to both describe undergraduate research and inform readers of other scientific news. Breakthrough still technically is a publication of the Tufts Undergraduate Research Journal.
"The idea was to create a publication of undergraduate science research, but unfortunately, it took a year of effort, but we weren't really able to get that off the ground because it was an inherent difficulty in publishing undergraduate science research," Shusterman said.
"We wanted to publish undergraduate research that would normally be published in a peer−reviewed journal," Cedola said. "Senior honors theses, independent research projects, that sort of thing, but the problem that arose was that a lot of undergraduate research is intimately tied to the professors' research which would eventually be published in a peer−reviewed journal. Some of the professors didn't want part of their data or part of their methods … published in this undergraduate research journal before it was published in a peer−reviewed journal, because most journals would want to do a second publishing."
"We decided to for now just go forth with the magazine section and maybe in the future … we could expand," she continued. Cedola noted that other colleges and universities do have undergraduate research journals.
"Michael was originally one of the two editors−in−chief, and I became the editor−in−chief and I pushed forward with the magazine side, and it's done well and I'm really proud of it," Cedola said.
Breakthrough got funding last fall from the Tufts Community Union (TCU) senate. "It was enough for two publications of about 500 in circulation each time," junior Dan Slate, Breakthrough's senior financial officer, said.
The group recently received supplemental funding from the Tufts undergraduate research fund, which allowed it to increase its circulation to 750 copies for the next issue.
"It was really helpful," Cedola said. "Dean [James] Glaser was excited about the project and thought that it was something to invest in, and I really appreciate that."
"We also approached some of the science departments about funding us, but they're all pretty tight on money as it is, so we haven't been really successful in that avenue, but we're kind of hoping that we'll eventually pick up as we get more publications out," Slate said. "TCU funding can obviously come and go, so we want to depend on that as little as possible."
One thing that could complicate matters for Breakthrough in the future is that the group will have to apply for new group funding from the TCU again next year, due to an "administrative glitch" that prevented the group from hearing about funding meetings, according to Slate.
"We basically have to go through the whole new group funding next fall and basically hope for the best there," Slate said. "But we're kind of hoping that with this second issue that we get out we'll be able to take both issues to the science departments and use that as leverage to get them to give us a little bit of money."
The annual budget for three issues, one each for fall, winter and spring, at a print run of 750 issues each, would not be more than $5,000 a year, according to Slate.
Demand far outstripped the original print run of 500 copies. "We under printed in terms of demand," Shusterman said.
According to Shusterman, the admissions office ran out of copies of Breakthrough except for one display copy. One visiting parent who wanted a copy went directly to the Department of Biology.
"[Biology Department Chair] Dr. [Juliet] Fuhrman had to give up her personal copy of Breakthrough to this parent and she joked that she extracted in exchange a pledge that her daughter would come to Tufts and become a biology major," Shusterman said.
Aside from printing more issues to alleviate this problem, Breakthrough hopes to expand its presence online. "If you can't get a print copy, we're going to be talking to the science departments and see if each science department can mail out an online copy of the magazine to their majors' e−list … The magazine will also be on [our] blog on [Tuftsroundtable.org]," Cedola said.
Those eager to get their hands on the next print issue of Breakthrough can expect it to arrive next month.
