Çağdaş Fizik : A popular periodical of the Turkish Physics Society

Meltem Akbaş

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.

Key words : Çağdaş Fizik, history of physics, periodicals, physics, Turkey; Anahtar kelimeler:Çağdaş Fizik, fizik, fizik tarihi, süreli yayın, Türkiye.