About the journal
Berkeley Scientific is the undergraduate science journal of the University of California, Berkeley.
Mission
An official forum for undergraduate research.
Every semester, our undergraduate staff publishes independent research done by undergraduates at UC Berkeley, interviews with faculty members, and articles on current issues in science. All research papers are faculty-reviewed, and all interviews are conducted by the staff.
The initial purpose of the journal was to provide an official forum in which Berkeley undergraduates could publish their independent research. Since its start in 1996, it has expanded to give the Berkeley scientific community a more in-depth understanding of itself, and a broader understanding of how events at Berkeley affect the world, and vice versa.
The focus of the journal is deliberately broad, spanning disciplines from ecology to engineering and from astronomy to biochemistry. Every issue is written, edited, illustrated, and typeset by undergraduates, and is archived permanently in eScholarship, the University of California's open access repository.
History
Nearly three decades in print.
Spring 1996
The debut issue appears, featuring an interview with the Berkeley chemist and Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg.
Spring 1997
The journal wins the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Medal Award for outstanding publications.
1998 – 2005
Themed special reports run each semester — astrobiology, neuroscience, forensic science, space exploration — alongside faculty interviews with Alex Filippenko, Carolyn Bertozzi, Mina Bissell, Bruce Ames, and John Searle, among others.
2007 onward
Volumes 12 through 29 are deposited with eScholarship, where they remain openly available: 35 issues and more than 500 articles.
Today
A full editorial organization of writers, interviewers, research editors, copy editors, and designers, publishing in print and online each semester.
How an issue is made
Five departments.
Every staff member joins one of BSJ's departments for the semester. Together they research, write, edit, interview, illustrate, and typeset the issue from the ground up.
Features
Long-form articles on current issues and developments across the sciences — from emerging technology to public health — written to make complex work legible to a general audience.
Interviews
Staff research and conduct in-depth interviews with UC Berkeley faculty and researchers about their work. Every interview in the journal is conducted by the staff.
Research
Reviews and edits independent research submitted by UC Berkeley undergraduates. Research papers are reviewed by faculty before publication.
Blog
Shorter pieces, opinion, and commentary on science and science policy, published online between print issues.
Design and copy
Designs and typesets each issue, and gives every piece a final line-by-line pass for clarity, accuracy, and consistency before it goes to print.
Read the work.
Thirty-five issues and more than five hundred articles, with every table of contents.