The Skeptic (British magazine)
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ISSN 0959-5228 | |
The Skeptic is a British non-profit
History, format and structure
The Skeptic was founded in 1987 by
In the end of 1986, Grossman visited the headquarters of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (still named Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, CSICOP) in Buffalo, NY. She had crossed paths with the skeptical movement more than five years earlier, after attending a lecture by stage magician James Randi and reading Martin Gardner's Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus. Ever since this first contact, she became a reader of CSI's publication, Skeptical Inquirer. On that day at CSI, the executive director, Mark Plummer, suggested her to start a newsletter.[4]
Even after stepping aside from The Skeptic's editorial board, Grossman has expressed a great satisfaction for all the magazine's accomplishments over the years and credits it to the sum of the work of many individuals in a common goal: "The thing I am actually proudest of in fact is not my own contribution in starting The Skeptic. What I am proud of is that it has attracted so many persistent supporters who have worked far harder to keep it alive and make it prosper than I ever did myself: Chris French and his Goldsmiths students; Hilary Evans, who has contributed both illustrations from the Mary Evans Picture Library and his own writing for so many years; cartoonists Donald Rooum and Ted Pearce; Toby Howard and Steve Donnelly, who edited the magazine for eight years and did the brutally hard work of growing the subscriber base; Peter O’Hara, my partner in getting the magazine out when it was photocopied and posted by hand; Michael Hutchinson; and the many, many contributors of articles and other features to the magazine who are too numerous to list. It is not a great thing to start a newsletter, but it is a great thing 20 years later to see it still alive and not dependent on its founder for its survival. That is really the key, because for something to have real, longterm impact it must be a community effort".[4]
Since 2020 magazine has been edited by Michael Marshall and Alice Howarth,[5] and published by the Merseyside Skeptics Society. Regular columnists and authors contributing articles to the publication have included Mark Duwe, Chris French, Wendy M Grossman, Mike Heap, Paul Taylor and Mark Williams. Neil Davies routinely provides artwork for the cover. Centerfold pieces have been contributed by Crispian Jago. Other artwork is routinely contributed by Donald Rooum, Tim Pearce, Andrew Endersby and Barbara Griffiths.[6]
The magazine is also supported by an Editorial Advisory Board which as of 2015 included, among others: James Alcock, Susan Blackmore, Derren Brown, David Colquhoun, Brian Cox, and Richard Dawkins.[7]
Podcast
In 2008, an independent,
Ockham Awards
The Skeptic magazine annually awards the Ockham Awards, or simply the Ockhams, at
The name refers to
See also
- Scientific skepticism
- Skeptical Inquirer
- Skeptic (U.S. magazine)
- The Freethinker journal
- The Skeptic's Dictionary
References
- ISBN 978-1-317-59526-7.
- ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
- ^ "Weird ... or what?". Goldsmiths, University of London. September 18, 2008.
- ^ a b Grossman, Wendy. "When The Skeptic came of age: a 2011 reflection on the first 21 years of the magazine". The Skeptic. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
- ^ "Editorial Board". The Skeptic. September 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
- ^ "Regular Contributors". April 1, 2009.
- ^ "Editorial Advisory Board". The Skeptic. Archived from the original on March 16, 2015.
- ^ "Miro Guide – Little Atoms". www.miroguide.com. Archived from the original on September 11, 2012.
- ^ Marshall, Ben (Jan 17, 2007). "Why blogs are going straight to video". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
- ^ Marshall, Ben (February 27, 2007). "Weekly web trawl: ephemera, anger and smut". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
- ^ Korteweg, Leon (2 December 2016). "QED 2016 – verslag van een lang weekend tussen skeptici". Skepter (in Dutch). 29 (4). Stichting Skepsis: 45–46. Archived from the original on 2017-10-18. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
- ^ a b Hyde, Deborah (2012). "The Skeptic Magazine Awards 2011: Winners". The Skeptic. Vol. 23, no. 4. Archived from the original on 2017-10-23.
- ^ a b Hyde, Deborah. "The Ockham Awards". The Skeptic's website. Archived from the original on 2017-10-23. Retrieved 18 October 2017.