EDITORIAL
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1974 Table I. Papers Proceased, 1974 vs. 1973
New appointments to the JCD Advisory Board for 1975-1977 are: Mr. Bruno M. Vasta, National Library of Medicine Dr. Paul N. Craig, The Franklin Institute Dr. Emma-June Tillmanns, IC1 United States Inc. Retiring members are Dr. James E. Rush and Dr. Russell J. Rowlett, Jr., two extremely valuable members whose advice and counsel I shall continue to seek. Mr. Bruno M. Vasta, who was to retire also a t the end of 1974, fortunately for me will serve another three-year term by virtue of his election to the office of chairman-elect of the Division of Chemical Literature. The most important item of business considered by the Advisory Board in 1974 was the desirability of changing the name of the Journal. Everything being equal, changing a name is a dangerous business. But we have been aware for several years that things were not equal. Although I introduced the term “chemical documentation” more than 20 years ago to designate the discipline of chemistry practiced by literature chemists, I did so for the want of a better descriptor. A better descriptor did not arise, so when the Amerian Chemical Society introduced this Journal I proposed that it be called the Journal of Chemical Documentation. Documentation, semantically, is a weak word from our viewpoint, primarily because its meanings emphasize documents. A priori, chemical documentation does not denote nor connote what the majority of literature chemists do, particularly in the area of R&D. Most discouragingly, the term chemical documentation has been anathema to those whose work is associated with computer science. Consequently, with this issue, we are changing the name to the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences. Ostensibly, the new name is not the best of all possible names. I t is longer than we would like it to be, yet two words shorter than Journal of Information Science and Computer Science in Chemistry, which is what the new name really means. The new name has the advantage that the two terms, “information science” and “computer science,” can mean almost anything one wants it to mean. Thus the new name is considerably less restrictive than the concept of “chemical documentation.” The change of name in no way is meant to exclude any part of the scope of papers that we have been publishing over the past 14 years. Rather, it is to encourage the submittal of papers covering a broader scope, most importantly to include more papers oriented to computer science, e.g., those concerned with computerized information systems, data acquisition and analysis, data manipulation and display, pattern recognition, automation, etc. Two other factors influenced our name change. Also wrestling with its name during 1974 was the Division of Chemical Literature which, beginning in 1975, will be known as the Division of Chemical Information. In 1974, the ACS Division of Computers in Chemistry was formed on a probationary basis. In anticipation of the formation of the new division, two founding members, Dr. Lykos and Dr. Wipke, were appointed to my Advisory Board. In the light of these two developments, the name change of this Journal is timely and meaningful.
1974
Received At printers, Jan 1 I n process, Jan 1 Published At printers, Dec 31 I n process, Dec 31 Rejected
1973
61
81 8
10
16
_
87
12
47 19 4 17 _ 87
52 10
16 -
101
23
-
101
Table 11. Origin of Papers Published in 1974 Papers, no.
Employment Industry University Government Others Nation Canada Czechoslovakia England Germany Holland India Japan Mexico United States
16
17 3 11
Authors, no.
26 34 7 26
1 2
3
3
10 7 2
2 1 3 1 1
33
3
9 2 1 56
Table I summarizes the statistics on papers received and processed in 1974 vs. 1973, and Table I1 shows the origin of the published papers by nation and authors. That this Journal is truly international is shown by the increasing number of papers received from outside of the United States. In 1974, 14 of the 47 papers published came from eight countries other than the United States with three papers each from England and India, two each from Czechoslovakia and Germany, and one each from Canada, Holland, Japan, and Mexico. Although papers from university people led by one over those from industry, no paper originated from graduate research. Surprisingly, the contents of the papers were undifferentiated regardless of the location ‘of the authors. Indeed, several of the papers from universities read as though they originated from information services. Whereas there were 74 different individual authors associated with the 47 papers, 14 authors were associated with two or more papers: 23 papers had one author; eight had two; 11 had three; four had four; and one had five authors. The average number of authors per paper was two. The number of papers received was uncomfortably low, and again the number originating from the Division of Chemical Literature’s program was disappointingly low, only 12. Papers from other ACS meetings, such as the regionals, were lower than experienced in past years. I t looks as though many people feel that the presentation of a paper is sufficient and that publication is not worth the extra effort. I think they are wrong, but the choice is theirs. Hopefully, with the change in name, I expect the submittal of good papers to increase appreciably. Although I am not looking for more work, I do want this Journal to continue to grow in value and to make a maximum contribution t u chemical information and computer sciences. HERMAN SKOLNIK
2
Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences, Vol. 15, No.
1, 1975
