Abstract:

Published between 1976  and 1991  by the Turkish Physics  Society (est. 1931), the earliest and longest lasting union of Turkish physicists, Çağdaş Fizik (Contemporary Physics) was  considered by the Society as  its most valued  activity. A professional journal aiming to establish communication between  physicists  in Turkey, it  was  planned to serve as  a popular journal covering  actual and interesting topics in physics. Its target readership included physicists, physics teachers, engineers and university students in science. The members of the editorial board and most of the authors  were university professors. Developments in physics, history and philosophy of physics, physics  in both  secondary and higher education in Turkey, Turkish terminology in physics were the most frequently treated issues in the journal. Çağdaş  Fizik is  worthy of attention for those researching  history of physics, since it provides a profile for the Turkish community of physicists in  the 1980s. The present  work introduces  the articles  published within the 22  issues of the journal, analyses those concerning with the history of physics  in  Turkey, and gives  the table of contents in the appendix. It  also discusses  the publishing policy of the editorial board, the financial  difficulties  experienced  and  the  problems  encountered in recruiting  manuscript. The journal can be considered as an important undertaking in science journalism in Turkey around  1980s.

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