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Technique (DGRST), and the Direction des Industries Chimiques also are represented on the association’s governing body. Pierre Creyssel, administrative and financial director of C N R S , is president of C N I C . C N R S will have the primary responsibility for managing and administering activities under the agreement and will work with ARDIC to develop and introduce new services derived from the C A S database. AFDAC will continue to provide search services based on CAS-produced computer-readable files, as it has for the past several years, and will be the principal interface with industry for all services offered within the framework of the agreement. BNIST and DGRST will provide financial support for C N I C activities under the agreement. CAS will continue to handle sales and distribution of its publications and services in France until such time as C N I C is ready to take over those functions. C A S and C N I C have been cooperating since 1972 on the development of chemical information retrieval methods. An ARDIC research group a t the University of Paris under the direction of Professor Jacques-Emile Dubois has converted the C A S computer-readable structure notations for more than 500,000 substances into the topological code used to represent structures in the French DARC computer-based system and has developed computer programs for conducting searches of the structure notations in combination with searches for associated information on properties contained in the abstracts in CAS’S Chemical-Biological Activities computer-readable file. C N I C expects to make this integrated text-structure search system available for general use in France during 1978. C A S officials believe the French experience with this unique search system will be of considerable value to C A S and to others in the U S . and abroad. WLNs for the Merck Index CIMIR has announced the availability of Wiswesser Line Notation ( W L N ) records for those structures covered in the latest edition (9th) of the Merck Index. The machine-readable file contains the Merck number and W L N for approximately 10,000 compounds. CIMI (41 1 Route 70 East, P.O. Box 2740, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08034) received authorization from Merck to produce this unique file which can be either integrated with other files or used separately for structure studies. IS1 Library Grant Program The Institute for Scientific Information@ ( I S @ ) has announced that its program of grants will be continued and expanded in 1978. The program, begun in 1970, assists small libraries in improving their reference services. IS1 expects to award more than $600,000 this year toward the purchase of IS1 indexes to the literature of the sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities. In 1977, fifty libraries received new grants totalling more than $200,000 for the purchase of new and back-issue years of these indexes. In addition, 365 libraries received over $400,000 in continued assistance from previously awarded grants. Through the grant program, IS1 has been giving financial support to a wide range of colleges offering limited degree programs. The grant program also assists libraries in developing countries and research organizations with limited acquisitions budgets. For libraries that qualify, the program provides a 50% reduction in purchase price for three of ISI’s major indexing services: the Science Citation Index@;the Social Sciences Citation IndexTv; and the new Arts & Humanities Citation IndexTM. Science Citation Index@Database Leased by NSF The Institute for Scientific Information (ISP) announced
NEWSAND NOTES the signing of a n agreement with the National Science Foundation for leasing of ISI’s Science Citation Index database. The agreement gives NSF, its grantees and contractors access to the complete database for program planning and science policy studies, and studies of the sociology and history of science and scientific communication. The agreement, the first of its kind with a U S . government agency, comes as a result of increased use of citation data in a variety of NSF-supported studies. The increased recognition of the need for development of quantitative measures to aid in program planning and for developing data for science policy was a major factor in the decision by N S F to enter into the leasing agreement with ISI. The statistical information that can be obtained from the S C I provides quantitative tools for conducting a variety of studies of scientific activity, especially when combined with other kinds of information such as funding or demographic data. In particular, citation data have been shown to correlate highly with other measures of quality and recognition of scientific work. An illustration of this is the relationship between high citation rates honorific awards in science such as the Nobel Prize. Under the terms of the agreement, NSF staff and researchers supported by N S F grants and contracts will be able to obtain data from the Science Citation Index tapes without being charged a database fee. Users will be charged only for costs of programming and computer time necessary to extract the data they desire, costs which, according to NSF, can be line items in budgets of proposals submitted to NSF. Definitions: Synthetic and Homocreate The following definitions of the terms synthetic and homocreate are recommendations of the International Committee on Technical Terminology, 1974, composed of representatives from major s$entific_and engineering societies. Synthetic (sin-thtt’-ik) n. a man-made chemical compound or material formed by processes that combine separate elements or constituents so as to create a coherent whole; a product so formed. -adj. pertaining to, involving, or of the nature of synthesis; produced by synthesis; especially not of natural origin (from the Latin synthesis, from the Greek sunthetikos, skilled in putting together, component; from sunthetos, put together, compounded, composite; from suntithenai, to put together). Usage: Synthetic applies to a substance designed to appear or function like a natural or original substance, often with certain advantages, such as in durability, strength, cost, availability, size, etc. It admits but does not require the substance to be a counterpart of the natural. Many synthetics are prepared by synthesis that never existed in nature, and a number have properties that make them purely laboratory products. Homocreate (ha-m6k’-re-&t) n. a man-made substance (solid, liquid, or gas) whose chemical and physical properties are within the range of those possessed by the specific variety of the natural substance that the homocreate is intended to duplicate. -adj. synthetic and possessing chemical and physical properties that are essentially the same as those of its natural counterpart; created the same as (from the combination form homo- of the Greek, homos, same, and the Latin, creare, make). Usage: Homocreates comprise a highly restricted subdivision of synthetics. Examples: nylon is a man-made material having no natural counterpart and is, therefore, synthetic but not homocreate; synthetic “leathers” are common, but there are no homocreate leathers; only a few synthetic minerals possess the essential chemical, physical, and optical properties to qualify additionally as homocreate. Guide: any homocreate is synthetic, but few synthetics are homocreate.
