NEWS AND NOTES Letter to the Editor
SLA Meeting
Dear Sir: Kean and Ronaynel attribute to me a position I have never taken and certainly not in the paper cited.2 I have frequently stated that citation analysis can measure either the short-term or long-term impact and, as a consequence of the latter, its relative importance. It seems to me that these authors have confused “impact” with “immediacy.” It is interesting to note that the two journals they studied have impact factors that are well above average. Their immediacy factors are lower than one might expect for preliminary letters or communications journals. But they are still much higher than average. Incidentally, many review journals have very high immediacy factors. For example, Reviews of M o d e r n Physics has an incredibly high immediacy factor as well as high impact factor. The same is true for Accounts of Chemical Research but certainly not for all review journals. Advances i n Chemistry shows up very poorly in both factors. However, the immediacy factor is sensitive to small variations in publication schedules. If a “1969” issue does not appear until 1970, it obviously cannot be cited in the last quarter of 1969. It remains to be seen whether the variations in review journals are due to their thought-provoking nature as with Reviews of M o d e r n Physics or Accounts of Chemical Research or their value as bibliographical surrogates as may be the case for Advances i n Chemistry. As support for the main point of Kean’s paper it is interesting to observe that the immediacy factor for Chemical Communications, now Journal of t h e Chemical Society, D., is lower than its other sections. Surely if the authors of most “communications” do not cite them later it may not be surprising that few others have found them worth citing either.
“Wide Angle View of the Future” is the theme of the 64th Annual Conference of Special Libraries Association to be held June 10-14, 1973 at the Pittsburgh Hilton, Pittsburgh, Pa. Plenary Sessions are planned around the main theme. Plenary Session I, “Expectations for the Future,” features speakers on future demands in research, academia, the international scene, and law. Plenary Session I1 is scheduled as “Planning for the Future.” Maurice J. Mascarenhas (Executive Consultant, Sewickley, Pa.) will speak on “Planning Ahead”; Allen Kent (Office of Communications Programs, University of Pittsburgh) will speak on “Fitting the New Library Technology into the Old Library Budget”; Ed O’Connor (Welton Becket and Associates, Los Angeles, Calif.) will speak on “Buildings and Architecture”; Robert Pease (Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Pittsburgh) will speak on “Redevelopment.” A third general session is the Contributed Papers session-six concurrent sessions on various phases of prospects for the future in librarianship.
Irnpacta Factor
Journal
Chemical Physics Letters Reciews of M o d e r n Physics Physical R e u i e u Letters Astrophysical Letters J E T P L e t t e r s (USSR) Applied Physics Letters Jrni. of t h e Chemicai Society, D. Chemical Communications Tetrahedron Letters A d c a n c e s i n Chemistry Series A c c o u n t s of Chemical Research Median of all SCI Journals
Immediacyb Factor
2.48 4.51 5.11 6.78 2.24 3.69
0.13 3.00 0.79 0.64 0.49 0.38
3.63 3.00 1.11 17.17 0.57
0.25 0.08 0.02 0.84 0.08
a Impact is obtained by dividing t h e total number of citations in 1969 (last quarter) by the total number of papers published in 1967 a n d 1968 a n d multiplying by four to provide a yearly extrapolation. bImrnediacy is calculated by dividing total 1969 citations by source publications Sor 1969.
EUGENE GARFIELD Institute for Scientific Information Philadelphia, Pa. 19106
LITERATURE CITED Kean, Pauline, and Ronayne, Jarlath, “Preliminary Communications in Chemist.ry,”J. Chern. Doc. 12,218-20 (1972). Garfield, E., “Citation Indexing for Studying Science,” Nature 227,669-71 (1970).
CA Indexing Publications
Chemical Abstracts Service now has available two publications on its chemical substance indexing nomenclature policies for the Chemical Abstracts ninth collective indexing period (1972-76). “Selection of Index Names for Chemical Substances,” a 120-page reprint from the CA Volume 76 Index Guide, outlines the principles followed in naming chemical substances for indexing in CA and summarizes the specific changes in nomenclature practice instituted for the ninth collective period. This pamphlet, which is priced at $5.00 per copy, contains sufficient information on indexing nomenclature for most users of the CA indexes. For those with more specialized interests in indexing nomenclature, the Chemical Abstracts Service Chemical Substance N a m e Selection M a n u a l for t h e Ninth Collective Period, a 1900-page compilation of the detailed internal documentation that guides the CAS staff in assigning index names, is available for $100 per copy. Orders or inquiries should be directed to the Marketing Department, Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio 43210.
NASA
Contract with AIAA
The NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office has contracted with AIAA to continue the world-wide published literature input to the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System and the publication of International Aerospace Abstracts (IAA). The new contract retains the data base at its present level of approximately 35,000 accessions per year. Microfiche (“A” series) will be prepared, distributed, and sold as before. Coverage of non-U. S.sources will continue at its present comprehensive level. Starting with issue 17 of IAA, dated September 1, 1972, changes in treatment of material accessioned for IAA will take effect. Involving modifications in the print functions of the abstract and the Notation of Content, the changes have been implemented in order to maintain the input data base in the face of severe economic restrictions.
Journal of Chemical Documentation, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1973
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