Club Spotlight: MATTER Magazine

By CHLOÉ LIND, MARVIN SHIM, JANIBEK SUBKHANBERDIN, and FORREST ZENG

MATTER Magazine, the self-proclaimed “Official Academy Science Magazine,” has long been a valued publication on campus. Having operated for five years and counting, the magazine’s biannual issues span a wide variety of science-related topics.

During each edition cycle, the club coheads work tirelessly to brainstorm topics for the upcoming publication. MATTER provides a unique platform that fosters scientific discourse and sparks ingenuity. The magazine is one of the only opportunities that inserts scientific research into an editorial context on campus. 

Each edition that is publised takes weeks of writing, editing, and compiling. “It takes around 12-13 weeks for writing, publishing, and layout,” described editor and upper Sangwoo Kim.

At the start of an edition cycle, a broad topic is announced. Writers can then choose to write an article based on the edition’s topic. They then spend around a term researching their topics in depth. After receiving edits for their articles, writers then submit a final draft for layout. At the end of the cycle, writers can rest easy knowing their hard work has been published for students, faculty, and alumni to read. 

This edition, MATTER Magazine’s topic was geography, with about five articles concerning key scientific histories and events of each continent. “This decision mostly goes on in the executive board. They talk about what topic would allow for the most broad range of topics. So this time, geography is a pretty broad one. It allows people to encompass the different regions of Earth,” Kim explained. “It’s a perfect way to incorporate different cultures into Matter Magazine, which typically only covers American science.”

Last spring, the magazine collaborated with the Andover Science and Tech Review to create a joint publication. “We highlighted a lot of the science programs that our school offers, and got to learn about the science programs that Andover offers,” described lower Daniel Chen. 

Naturally, MATTER has evolved and underwent much change over the past five years. Kim explained that, compared to last year, the magazine board has expanded. “There’s two as opposed to one editor-in-chief. And then there’s a managing editor, and there’s like three to four sectional editors,” he said. “Then there’s also a chief layout editor, and four sectional layout editors who do the layout stuff all after the article’s been written. Compared to last year, the only real difference is that there’s more people.”

However, the magazine has been facing difficulties lately with generative AI. The magazine editors have put in place policies to prevent the use of artificial intelligence in articles. Chen elaborated. “More people cram the article to the last minute and use ChatGPT to get the article done. As a science publication, we encourage the use of AI for brainstorming and outlining, but that obviously requires both care and proper citation,” he said. 

In terms of community, Chen noted the concentrated scope of collaboration within the magazine. “Around a third of our articles are written by two people, but usually writing is individual,” he said.

As the MATTER community looks to the future of the magazine, writers offered some suggestions for further change or development. Kim, for one, provided a suggestion to increase writer engagement and to grow the MATTER community. 

“I feel like this is my opinion, but, maybe for people who don’t have the time to commit to a full article, we’ll make a more relaxed option,” he said. “For example, like a mini article or like an Instagram post they can use. And also to post a couple slides on the MATTER Instagram just to activate the Instagram account a little more.”

Writers are told to write their articles in “language that everyone can understand,” as Chen noted. “For any technical terms, you must make a glossary for that at the end of the article.” 

For many writers, MATTER is a welcoming community, where they can share their scientific curiosities with others. “It’s a lot of scientifically interested people who like to gather and talk about their work,” Kim concluded. MATTER is both an outlet for writers to explore fascinating scientific topics and to share their work with the broader Academy community.