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A Conversation with Mike Greenberg,
Ninth Editor of The Biological Bulletin
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Michael Greenberg
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On December 31, Michael J. Greenberg will retire as editor-in-chief of the MBL’s scientific journal, The Biological Bulletin. Greenberg held the post for 15 years, and his friends and colleagues will miss his sharp eye and quick wit. We spoke with him recently—about The Bulletin, what he calls his “so-called life,” and his retirement plans.
Q. How did you change the Bulletin during your editorship?
A. I guess I saw it as my experimental object and used it to test my general ideas about improving journals. And some of these experiments were actually useful. For example, in June, 1997, we started producing illustrated color covers and explaining them in detail inside the journal. And, of course, we started taking ads to help pay for the new covers. I also appointed associate editors, which spread the workload and accelerated the review process. We also experimented for 13 years with presentations from the MBL’s General Scientific Meetings: In the October issue—only two months after the meeting—we’d publish peer-reviewed short reports of the presentations (rather than abstracts). This innovation didn’t live up to its promise, so we’re trying a different approach to rapid publication.
Q. What about the move to online publication?
A. Online publication and ready access to the literature were challenges that arose on my watch. First we tried publishing special online products, like the Marine Models Electronic Record, an electronic journal that appeared on the MBL’s Web site. We also encouraged authors to refer, in their papers, to supplementary materials (such as videos), which are also hosted on the Web site. By 2000, it was clear that The Bulletin would be more accessible to readers if it were published online, and that HighWire Press would be the best outfit to do it. So I encouraged that step, and as I slip into oblivion, the entire 100+ years of The Bulletin are about to be archived for eternity by JSTOR and HighWire.
Q. What’s your scientific background?
A. I grew up in Brooklyn and learned about nature in Prospect Park, the Botanic Gardens, and summer camp in the Borscht Belt. Later I earned degrees from Cornell (BA, zoology), Florida State (MA, physiology), and Harvard (Ph.D., biology). At Harvard I encountered the clam heart, the pharmacology of which I studied assiduously for many years. My interests spread to the rectum (which runs through the heart in this animal, and thus could not be avoided), and finally to the rest of the offal. Lately, I mostly think about gills.
It’s hard to see how someone could spend a significant portion of his life on clams. When you first look at a clam inside its shell, what you see is chaotic goo. Nothing is recognizable. Most folks can’t tell the front from the back. But there is something challenging about sorting through the tissues, understanding how they are packed into that box, and studying how the whole assemblage works. (Editor’s note: Greenberg and the clam received a MERIT award from the NIH to study the action of FMRFamide and other neuropeptides on clam hearts.)
Q. When did you first come to the MBL?
A. I first came to the MBL in 1953 as a student in the Marine Ecology course, came back the following year as a course assistant, and returned about ten years later as an investigator. I taught in the Invertebrate Zoology course from 1969 to 1974, and was course director (the last course director, I regret to say) from 1975 to 1977. Then, about a decade later, I signed on as editor of The Bulletin.
Q. What was editing The Bulletin like?
A. I wanted to be editor of The Bulletin for years. I had published in the journal, liked reading it, and was a member of the editorial board for about four years in the 80s. When I became editor, I spent lots of time actually copy editing. I enjoy improving articles—from sentence structure to macro-organization.
Q. What is your editorial background?
A. I’ve edited since working on my high school literary magazine, and at college, I was on the editorial board of the humor magazine, The Cornell Widow. And when I became a professional academic scientist, I did a lot of editing, as we all do.
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the functional morphology of scientific papers. Each paragraph in a paper has its predictable place, purpose, and relationships with paragraphs in other sections of the paper. And when the organization is optimized, information flows smoothly from beginning to end. My favorite writing manual is Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Joseph M. Williams.
Q. How do you feel about leaving The Bulletin?
A. I’ve enjoyed being editor, but I’m ready to leave the race. Fifteen years comes to plenty of laps, and it’s time for somebody fresh to pick up the pace. Our new editor is Jim Olds; he’s in the passing zone; he’s eager and ready to run; and he’ll be off on January 1. It’s a new, exciting era, and I’m pleased as Punch to be cheering from the sidelines.
Q. What’s next?
A. I have plenty to do, once I catch my breath. I’m planning a booklet on how to write a scientific paper; I’ve arranged some freelance editing (particularly of articles in need of an extreme makeover); I’ll continue my modest participation in a research project on clam gills, and will try to do lots of biking. And then there is the long-standing urge to learn Chinese. It’s an interesting language, and I’d like to see how it works.
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