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RESEARCH RESULTS SERVICE TO BE EXTENDED TO NONSUBSCRIBERS Success of experimental program to make research results available f a s t also leads to switch to permanent status ince 1962, when I&EC was reorganized into a edition and three specialized research quarterlies, we have been offering as an experimental service to subscribers the opportunity to purchase unedited copies of manuscripts being reviewed for publication. This Research Results Service (in this issue, it appears on page 93) provides to our subscribers a rapid, informal literature service at the cost of copying and mailing the manuscripts. This experimental program can now be termed, we feel, a success. I n the first 33 months of operations, RRS has listed almost 770 papers. We have received orders for more than 8100 copies, an average of more than 10 per manuscript. This is an impressive response, in our opinion, when you consider that the service has not been “merchandised” and that its value resides in the often very narrow time period between listing in I&EC monthly and subsequent publication. We are, therefore, changing RRS from experiment to permanent program in 1965. We are, at the same time, making it available to nonsubscribers, although at a n additional cost. Mechanical details of handling will not change, beyond the creation of a dual price structure. Authors will continue to be asked to approve the listing of their papers, to approve the R R S summary of the paper, and to permit us to make the paper available to readers for some time after rejection or withdrawal, should the article not be published. Prospective users of the service will continue to be cautioned that they are ordering unreviewed, unedited manuscripts which should be treated as private communications and which cannot be
S monthly
referenced without the author’s approval. Orders will continue to be processed within 24 hours. Other Feedback. At the Chicago ACS meeting in September, Stella Anderson, Manager of the Research Results Service, and Joseph Kuney, Director of Business Operations for the ACS Applied Publications, presented in the Symposium on Methods of Alerting Chemists to New Developments (by the Division of Chemical Literature) a summary of RRS results. I n addition to the points mentioned above, they pointed out that manuscript prices range from $1.00 to as high as $10.00, with most being $3.00 or $4.00 ($1.OO per 10-page increment). Unit price does not seem to be a sales factor, as the longer, and therefore more costly, manuscripts sell as readily as short, inexpensive ones. Symposium participants responded with great interest to the Anderson-Kuney report. Unlike most of the other papers, it discusses a service in being, rather than an untested proposal. It represents the first concrete step within the ACS to tailor literature availability to the precise needs of the industrially employed chemist and chemical engineer caught up in the twin vises of deadlines and the expanding volume of knowledge. And, it works. At the moment, the ACS is considering the possibility of extending the concept of Research Results Service to other Society journals. Since each journal represents a different set of needs and problems, some time will undoubtedly elapse before any action will be taken. But in the meantime, I&EC will continue to make this service available-and starting in two months, to nonsubscribers as well as to subscribers.
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