Episode Details

Eric Topol (00:00):

Hello, this is Eric Topol, and I'm thrilled to have a chance to have a conversation with Magdalena Skipper, who is the Editor-in-Chief of Nature. And a historic note. Back in 2018, she became the first woman editor of Nature in its 149 years, and only the eighth editor of all times. Having taken over for Philip Campbell, who had been previously the editor for 22 years, we're going to ask her if she's going to do 22 or more years, but we're going to have a fun conversation because there's so much going on in medical publishing, and I think, you know, that Nature is the number one cited science journal in the world. So, welcome, Magdalena.

Magdalena Skipper (00:41):

Thank you very much. Real pleasure to be here and chatting with you today, Eric. Thank you.

How COVID-19 Affected Nature

Eric Topol (00:47):

Well, you know, we're still, of course, in the pandemic world. It's obviously not as bad as it had been, but there's still things going on with new variants and Long Covid, and it's not, the virus isn't going away. But first thing I wanted to get into was how did Nature handle this frenetic craziness? I mean, it was putting out accelerated publications on almost a daily or weekly basis and putting out like a speed, velocity of the likes that we've not seen. This must have been really trying for the whole crew. What, what do you think?

Magdalena Skipper (01:29):

It was! And, you know, the first thing I, I think I will recognize two things at the same time. So the first one, as you say, at a time, such as the pandemic, but actually at any point when there is a, a new health emergency that is spreading, especially something as unknown, as new as, as it was the case with SARS-CoV-2. And of course, in the beginning, we really knew nothing about what we were facing if speed is of the essence, but equally what's truly important is of course, the rigor itself. So that combination of needing to publish as quickly as possible, but at the same time as rigorously evaluating the papers as possible, that was actually quite a challenge. And of course, you know, what we sometimes forget when we talk about, well, researchers themselves, but also editors and publishers is of course, as individuals, as human beings.

(02:33):

They are going through all the trauma, all the constraints associated with various lockdowns concerns about the loved ones, perhaps those ones who are in the care. You know, in many cases of course there would've been the elderly who are individuals would've been concerned by or indeed children, because of course, schools in so many places were. And all the while, while we were dealing with these very human, very ordinary daily preoccupations, we were very focused on the fact that we had a respo