115. Melinda Baldwin: A triple history of Nature, scientific journals, and peer review

Jun 24, 2025

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Melinda Baldwin is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland. We talk about her work studying the history of Nature, scientific journals more broadly, what it means to be a scientist, peer review, the Tyndall project, and much more.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps

0:00:00: Melinda's chemistry-history double major

0:03:42: Why Melinda did a PhD on the history of Nature

0:07:06: The glorious beginning of Nature and the history of scientific journals

0:17:00: How Nature became a journal for scientists (rather than the educated general public)

0:19:59: When did scientists start calling themselves 'scientists'? The mergence of science as a profession

0:26:26: The history of peer review: How to get into Nature in the 19th century, and the rise of peer review during the Cold War

0:40:53: Establishing causality in historical research

0:48:33: The future of peer review

1:06:16: Tyndall, why?

1:19:02: A book or paper more people should read

1:22:24: Something Melinda wishes she'd learnt sooner

1:29:05: Advice for PhD students/postdocs

Podcast links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
BlueSky: https://geni.us/pod-bsky

Melinda's links

Website: https://geni.us/baldwin-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/baldwin-scholar
BlueSky: https://geni.us/baldwin-bsky

Ben's links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
BlueSky: https://geni.us/bjks-bsky

References and links

eLife peer review: https://elifesciences.org/about/peer-review

John Tyndall project: https://tyndallproject.com/

Baldwin (2017). In referees we trust? Physics Today.

Baldwin (2018). Scientific autonomy, public accountability, and the rise of “peer review” in the Cold War United States. Isis.

Baldwin (2019). Making" Nature" The History of a Scientific Journal.

Gordin (2012). The pseudoscience wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the birth of the modern fringe.

Poehler (2014). Yes please.

Zuckerman & Merton (1971). Patterns of evaluation in science: Institutionalisation, structure and functions of the referee system. Minerva.