Not all journals grab the same readers

I always enjoyed stopping by this doctor’s desk because he had a passion for forensics, and the academic journals he collected featured articles like "Heroin Fatality Due to Penile Injection," and "Sudden Death After a Cold Drink." Compared to those titles, "Apoptosis in Nontumorous and Neoplastic Human Pituitaries: Expression of the Bcl-2 Family of Proteins" didn’t stand a chance of holding my attention. Wouldn’t you rather read "Suicide by Pipe Bomb: A Case Report"? I would—and I did.

Judy Melinek, M.D. & T.J. Mitchell, Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (New York: Scribner: 2014), p. 15.