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330 journals, developing new publication outlets, building a high-profile peer group, training graduate students, and encouraging projects that serve both mainstream disciplinary and SETI interests. All of these would require funding.” Many of the social science research questions have been defined. So far, there has been no systematic effort to commission or fund the research needed to answer them. To make the best use of social science, people involved in the search must recognize its limitations. Although social science may produce many useful findings, it may not yield laws comparable to those in physical science. Some social scientists believe that, at the broadest level, repeated patterns suggest that there are laws of history; others cringe at the idea.”° We can make one prediction now. Social science findings that are driven by ideology or politics will be dismissed by most physical scientists, who will respect only those conclusions based on observable facts. To be credible, social scientists must report human behavior as it is, not as they wish it would be or fear it might be in the future. One of the biggest gaps is the lack of a journal devoted to the search and the consequences of contact. In 1979, Robert Dixon and John Kraus began publishing a quarterly entitled Cosmic Search. Aimed at the educated but nontechnical public, this magazine was one of the best sources for new thinking about the implications of contact. At one point, it had over 3000 subscribers in more than 50 countries. Unfortunately, Cosmic Search lost money and went out of business within a few years. There was a comparable case in the space field, with parallel timing. In the late 1970s, several space advocates founded the Institute for the Social Science Study of Space. That organization—a small invisible college—pub- lished one issue of its journal, The Space Humanization Series, in 1979, then faded from view as its activists pursued less scholarly interests.” Publishing entrepreneur Carl Helmers started SET/Quest in 1994, but stopped publishing that useful periodical 4 years later. At this writing, the SETI League is sponsoring an on line publication called Contact in Context.” In the absence of a specialized journal, the primary media for articles on the probability and implications of contact remain the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and Acta Astronautica, published by the International Academy of Astronautics. Those most active in this field also need places for occasional interna- tional meetings. Although the annual International Astronautical Con- gress once provided a useful forum, the extremely high registration fees charged in recent years have placed that venue out of reach for most inter- What Is Missing Forums for Discussion