A scientific book is a scholarly book designed to publish original research and to stimulate debate among specialists. Scientific book, for the vast majority, are specialized in a particular aspect of a subject: science, technology and medicine (STM) or Humanities and Social Sciences (SHS). The articles are reviewed before publication by a reading committee composed of researchers from the same specialty. A scientific book should not be confused with a magazine article it may publish.
Their impact on the scientific community
The publication of research work in a scientific book can confront the scientific community, and archive results for future reference. In the context of the evaluation of research performance, we try to count the number of publications, the impact of the scientific books in which they are published (that is to say, the potential readership of the articles) and the number of subsequent publications citing each of them. This valuation technique, sometimes criticized for its bias, is called bibliometrics. These journals can be an emanation of Learned Societies (SHS) or academies of science, for example, but may also have been founded independently. Newspaper Publishers specialize in their editing, printing and distribution.
Scientific journals
A copy of a scientific journal usually presents as a collection of articles with different authors. The subjects of these articles are not usually related to each other (except that they all belong to the science journal). There is no general editorial policy for a given sample, the articles being published only when they are ready. Some special issues can however address a more specific theme, or be associated with holding a scientific conference for example.
The articles describe the majority of original research undertaken by their authors. Others may be reviewed describing the state of the art on a given problem. Finally, one can find reports of meetings or reading monographs. The number of authors can be variable. Not only in biology but there can be considerable (often more than ten), because of the workload experiments, and also very hierarchical nature of the research groups, because of the need for greater coordination and the high cost of research undertaken.