Personal Difficulties with the Chemical Literature - ACS Publications

Personal Difficulties with the Chemical Literature M. G. MELLON Department of Chemistry, Purdue University,

Lafayette,

Ind.

Downloaded via TUFTS UNIV on July 27, 2018 at 20:23:55 (UTC). See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles.

In the course of many years of experience in using and producing chemical literature in broad areas of analytical chemistry, several kinds of persistent difficulties have been encountered.

The trouble

some practices relate to titles of papers and other publications,

summaries,

definitions,

tions, symbols, conventions of nomenclature, classification, and

abbrevia

usage, spelling, indexing.

The

people concerned are authors, abstractors, editors, reviewers, indexers, and official usage.

those responsible

for

Present practices will be improved

only as we recognize weakness and error, as we give thought to what can be done to improve the practices, and as we do something about it. the

In

hope of making the criticism constructive,

certain improvements and changes are suggested.

ζ ο m u c h devoted work is being done b y so many earnest workers that the author is hesitant to voice any protest about the product. Yet, there are difficulties w i t h the literature. Furthermore, it should be evident to a scientist that there is likely to be little improvement of the present except as one recognizes weakness and error i n the past, gives thought to what can be done to improve or avoid undesirable practices, and does something about it. T h e Director of Research of General Motors once told a group of senior engineering students that he was interested i n employing them only if they w o u l d come w i t h the expectation of criticizing the products of General Motors. Better products, he said, w i l l be made only if one is dissatisfied w i t h present products, and then tries to improve them. It is i n this spirit that some problems are mentioned here w h i c h have been encountered i n the course of using chemical literature and i n dealing w i t h a score of editors during the past t h i r d of a century. In the hope of m a k i n g the criticism at least partly constructive, certain recommendations are suggested for improving the situation. T h e topics selected concern both producers and users of chemical literature. M o r e specifically, there are involved authors, editors, reviewers, abstractors, i n dexers, and those responsible for recommending official usage, such as abbrevia tions, symbols, and conventions for handling data. 67 SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.

6

A D V A N C E S IN

β

CHEMISTRY

SERIES

Specific items have been chosen for consideration here. Although they have arisen in connection with teaching and research in the author's own area of ana lytical chemistry, their general relevancy seems obvious. Titles A n author introduces himself to a reader through the title of his article or book. Ideally, this title should be attractive, revealing, and adequate for satis factory indexing. Practically, it may be defective i n any or all of these respects. Assuming that a written production is written to be read, the title should attract the reader. Usually the less technical the work, the more urgent is this requirement. Examples w h i c h seemed to catch the eye of the reader are " A n a l yses by the M i l l i o n , " " M a g i c B a r r e l , " " T h e Next H u n d r e d Years," and " T h e Second M i l e . " T h e problem here is primarily that of the indexer. W h a t useful headings could he select for any of these titles? As a matter of economy, i n both time and paper, titles should be short. H o w ever, the title " C h e m i s t r y " alone might refer merely to a definition of the w o r d ; or it could be the title of a multivolume treatise covering all of the known chemical elements and their compounds. A s a book title, "Quantitative Analysis" may apply to anything from a very short book, perhaps w i t h simple gravimetric and titrimetric laboratory exercises, to a treatise sufficiently comprehensive to require a score of volumes to cover all kinds of methods applied to all kinds of materials. A n article entitled "Metallurgical Analysis" might be expected to be broad in treatment, but actually it was a description of a method for the simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of chromium and manganese i n steel. The reader w i l l be left to guess what was included i n two articles, one entitled " C h e m i cal Affinity" and the other "Experimental Results for Some Molecules." The short and/or appealing title, although generally desirable, may suffer from lack of clarity and accuracy. If something must be sacrificed, one must decide between brevity and interest versus clarity and accuracy. Summaries There seems to be increasing editorial recognition of the usefulness of a short digest or summary of an article immediately following the title. Such a resume partly overcomes the deficiencies of a title w h i c h is not revealing or needs amplification or limitation. T h e title, " T h e Determination of Phosphorus," for example, w o u l d interest the present author, but at once questions arise. In what k i n d of material is the phosphorus determined? Is a separation of the element necessary? If so, what k i n d of method is applicable? Is a colorimetric method of measurement used? If so, what is the color-forming reagent? If it is ammonium molybdate, is the system measured molybdophosphoric acid, molybdovanadophosphoric acid, or a heteropoly blue? If the latter, what are the reductant and the conditions of re duction? T o the extent that the title does not answer these and other similar questions, the summary should. In the course of writing reviews on colorimetry, covering many hundreds of articles, the speaker has often been disappointed by the lack of specificity i n both summaries and titles. This necessitated reading at least part of the paper to determine whether it pertained to colorimetry at all. T h e n one finds that Doe's method was used. Unless one is a walking encyclopedia of methods named

SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.

MELLON

Personal Difficulties

69

to honor their originators, he then has to consult the original reference on Doe's method (generally not mentioned). Irritation increases rapidly if it is dis covered that the method of measurement was not colorimetric. This experience is most exasperating i f the original reference is i n a publication w h i c h has to be borrowed from another library, or if a translation has to be made from some language such as Russian or Chinese. Definitions T h e misuse of terms having approved definitions causes the literature chemist to lose time. It is not a major difficulty, but it occurs frequently enough to warrant mention. A few examples w i l l illustrate the nature of the trouble. A title " T h e Analysis of Potassium," ought to mean a procedure for determin ing the minor constituents i n potassium metal, and not a method for the determina tion of potassium. A title, " A M i c r o M e t h o d for C o p p e r , " m a y refer to the use of a very small sample containing copper, or to some method for measuring trace amounts of copper. U s e d i n the latter sense, the speaker has learned to assume that any such title may refer to a colorimetric procedure. It is annoying, then, to find that the summary does not clarify the uncertainty, and consequently to have to read the article, or m u c h of it, i n order to find out what was done. " A Trace M e t h o d for C o p p e r " is just as unsatisfactory for a title, as any one of a halfdozen methods applicable to trace amounts might be described. Colorimetry is another w o r d used i n different senses. T o a physicist it means the measurement of color as color, and as such it has no connection w i t h what the colorant is or its amount. T o a chemist it may mean identification and/or esti mation of the amount of the colorant. T o avoid confusion the author, as a chemist, prefers to use visible absorptiometry. Often the words " l i g h t " and "color" are not used according to approved defi nitions. L i g h t comprises the range of wave lengths of radiant energy w h i c h give rise to the sensation of vision i n the normal human eye. T h e n one does not have black, ultraviolet, or infrared light. Color consists of the characteristics of light other than temporal a n d spatial inhomogeneities. Color has three attributes: hue, lightness, and saturation. Chemists are likely to mean hue when they use the w o r d color. There is, of course, no such thing as colorless color. Symbols and Abbreviations Various kinds of symbols a n d abbreviations are used to save space. W i t h so many different ones employed, authors should conform to recommended practice, if there is one. If not, it is time to agree upon some usable system. A s an example of abbreviations, the usage of Chemical Abstracts for names of journals may be mentioned. If these abbreviations, agreed upon b y the International U n i o n of Pure a n d A p p l i e d Chemistry, serve for abstracting more than 9000 periodicals, they should serve for other chemical purposes. Examina tion of editorial practice shows w i d e variation—for example, instead of simply /. for journal, one may find Jr., Jour., or Journ. Spectrophotometry is an example of decades of confusion i n usage of terms and abbreviations. A t last there is a committee recommendation that logio Po/P = A = abc,, i n w h i c h P and Ρ are, respectively, radiant flux incident on the detector after passage through the standard and the sample; A is absorbance; a is absorptivity; b is thickness; a n d c is concentration. M a n y chemists p a y little or 0


70

ADVANCES IN CHEMISTRY SERIES

no attention to this recommendation. Consequently, one finds I, /, E (energy), or instead of P; E (extinction), D , or OD instead of A; k, K, e, or c instead of a; and d or I instead of b. Such indulgence i n rugged individualism may satisfy the users inner urges or reflect his early conditioning, but it makes the product difficult to use. Conventions Adherence to certain editorial and technical recommendations makes for efficiency and ease i n handling various details, i n both producing and using p u b l i cations. One example is citation of references to periodicals. There seems no very sound reason for editors of chemical publications not to follow the practice of Chemical Abstracts. Abbreviation of names has already been mentioned. Here reference is to the characters used and the order of citing series, volume, number, page, and year. If all of these are necessary, one working i n a library wants them i n the order given. If a volume is continuously paged, the number is superfluous. T o put the year first serves for journals having no volume numbers. However, it is not definite for journals, such as Die Annalen der Chemie, w h i c h may have five or six volumes per year. T w o editors might use the following two forms for a citation: V o l . X V I I I , N o . 6, A r t . 2, pages 81-191, F e b . 10, 1948, and 18, 81—191 ( 1 9 4 8 ) . T h e second has 29 less characters than the first, and yet is just as adequate, if the periodical is continuously paged. Incidentally, from a library viewpoint, there seems little excuse for not using continuous paging for editorial material. Another example is plotting of experimental data. I n general, engineers follow the code of recommended practice of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. If so, abscissa values are plotted increasing from left to right, and ordinate values increasing from the bottom to the top. Curves constructed from separately determined readings should show the points w h i c h determine the posi tion of the curve. Thousands of spectrophotometric curves do not conform to either of these simple recommendations. Also ordinate values should be the de pendent variable, and abscissa values the independent variable. Authors, review ers, and editors a l l seem involved here. In another direction, words ending i n -tion, such as absorption, reflection, ra diation, transmission, and diffraction, are process terms. A s such, they should not be used for the entity absorbed, radiated, or transmitted, nor for the corresponding measured values, such as absorptance, absorbance, reflectance, and transmittance. Spelling Variations i n spelling words, although not a major difficulty, do represent inconsistency i n usage or failure to follow official recommendations. A common inconsistency is the coordinate use of acid and basic. It w o u l d seem that the first term should be acidic if the second is basic. Another example is the use of reflectometer and absorptiometer. A s the process terms are reflection and absorption, it seems that the names of the instruments should be spelled con sistently. Reflectometer has long been used. Absorptometer (or absorptimeter) is the obvious, consistent term. The Committee on Nomenclature, Spelling, and Pronunciation of the A m e r i can Chemical Society years ago recommended the spellings, "buret" and " p i p e t . " SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.

MELLON


71

Nevertheless many writers persist i n using burette and pipette, a n d current adver tising has almost completely reverted. This item is covered i n R u l e 104, " D i r e c tions for Abstractors and Section Editors of Chemical Abstracts'' Inadequate Data In reporting something new, such as a method for making a compound, a procedure for an analysis, or a process for making a physical measurement, the authors description should be adequate to enable one interested, if he so desires, to repeat the work. In the case of U . S . patents, one requirement of patentability is to have the description sufficiently explicit and detailed that "one skilled i n the art" can make or use the object patented. Famous legal cases have involved this point. A s an example of this k i n d , w e may turn to spectrophotometry again. T h e numerical value of the absorptivity for a given solution, for instance, m a y be de pendent u p o n at least the thickness of the absorption cell, the concentration of the solution, the wave length of measurement, the spectral b a n d w i d t h passed, the temperature, and the solvent. I n addition, the reliability of the value may be re lated to the type of instrument used—that is, whether it was photographic, visual, or photoelectric. Most current work is done photoelectrically, b u t older work was not. Authors seldom omit a l l such details, but one stated only that the measure ments were made i n a certain professors laboratory. Unfortunately, the omission of part of the details is common. Thus, i n one issue of one of our best journals 36 articles contained data involving absorption spectra. Thirty-one specified the solvent, b u t five d i d not. None stated the nature of the reference m e d i u m , a l though one must have been used. Twenty-five papers gave adequate information concerning the length of the absorption oell, the concentration of the solution, and the readings obtained. T h e other 11 gave only part of these data, or none at a l l . Twenty-three papers either stated that the data were obtained w i t h a continu ously recording instrument (or implied this b y naming the instrument) or marked the points read on a nonrecording instrument. T h e other 13 were inadequate i n this respect. Seven papers d i d not mention whether visual, photographic, or pho toelectric instruments were used. None of the papers specified spectral band w i d t h , but i n 18 it could be estimated from a knowledge of the instrument used. A l l of the information lacking i n these papers must have been available to the authors. If they forgot it, reviewers should have noted the deficiency. Nomenclature T h e general objective of systematic nomenclature is to facilitate communica tion b y means of words. A w o r d , as a particle of speech, symbolizes an idea. Ideally, each w o r d stands for a single idea—that is, it has only one meaning. T h e advent of modern chemistry, w i t h its expanding products a n d concepts, has resulted i n a corresponding multiplication of the words necessary to designate all that is new. It is a matter of common sense to have clear-cut functional nomen clature to keep at a m i n i m u m our problem of vocabulary. W e have two duties i n this direction. T h e first is to use great care i n adopt ing the most generally useful new terms. Oxygen seems to have been w e l l chosen nearly two centuries ago for one of the elements. V e r y early a compound of oxygen w i t h another element was designated as an oxide. T h e ending -ide came SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.

72


to mean a binary compound—e.g., a carbide, nitride, sulfide, or hydride. After many decades of such usage, suddenly the words lanthanide and actinide ap peared, but not meaning a binary compound of lanthanum or actinium w i t h another element. Unless this perversion is stopped, beginning students must now learn two utterly different meanings. Similarly, oxidation once meant a process involving the action of oxygen w i t h another substance. N o w it often means the loss of one or more electrons, a process w h i c h might m u c h better have been deelectron at ion. Another w o r d usage m u c h perverted is acid. The early sense still persists i n analytical chemistry, but this sense has become so indefinite i n other areas that now one must define the environmental conditions to determine whether a compound, such as tin ( I V ) chloride, is an acid. This seems unfortunate for beginning students, many of w h o m have at best m u c h difficulty w i t h the language and concepts of chemistry. T h e authors most pressing interest i n this direction is a usable system for naming methods of quantitative chemical analysis. Several years ago a survey of well k n o w n reference works revealed some 20 different ways of designating such methods. In most cases little or nothing of the processes or operations i n volved was indicated by the names. T h e situation remains the same i n 1960. W h a t is needed is a functional system, i n w h i c h the name indicates something, at least, of what is done to make a determination b y the given method. Thus, the familiar Kjeldahl method for nitrogen might be designated as a volatilization-titrimetric method, as the nitrogen is separated b y volatilization and measured by titration. One need for such a nomenclature is suggested i n the section on subject indexes. Abstracting Journals Abstracting journals, of both general and specialized coverage, are the chief means of keeping abreast of the constantly accumulating mass of new chemical developments. F o r the present purpose the author is concerned only w i t h what is contained i n analytical abstracts and where they are segregated i n a periodical covering all of chemistry, such as Chemical Abstracts. If a title is self-explanatory and adequate for indexing purposes, there is no abstract or annotation i n Chemical Abstracts. Such cases are rare for analytical methods. In general one wants to know what was done, how, and the results ob tainable for given substances or conditions. The information desired may be m u c h the same as that suggested for a satisfactory summary. F o r example, the method may be for small amounts of silica. The reader wants to k n o w if the procedure is colorimetric. If so, was the colored species developed a heteropoly acid? If so, what was the color-forming reagent? Too often these and similar questions are not answered. T h e n there arises the question of where the abstract is to be located i n a journal. Chemical Abstracts, i n its over-all abstracting services, is today the out standing periodical of this k i n d . E v e n so, it c o u l d be used more efficiently, issue by issue, if all abstracts dealing w i t h analytical chemistry were segregated i n Sec tion 7, Analytical Chemistry. This w o u l d not mean, of course, the inclusion of the purely inorganic or organic chemistry of each particular reagent of possible use. In general, methods as methods are i n this section, along w i t h many w h i c h deal w i t h materials. M a n y of the latter, however, are likely to be i n sections dealing w i t h the materials, such as steel (Section 9) or dyes (Section 2 5 ) . Abstracts on analytical instruments, such as automatic devices or photometers, may be i n Section SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.

MELLON

73


1 (Apparatus, Plant Equipment, and U n i t Operations). References to spectro photometers, for example, may be i n this section, i n Section 2 (General and Physi cal C h e m i s t r y ) , or i n Section 3 (Electronic Phenomena and Spectra). Unless one waits on the annual subject index, or can use the new Chemical Titles, during the year all of the sections must be searched w h i c h are likely to contain abstracts on the subject of interest. Those interested i n materials want methods dealing w i t h their particular m a terials i n the appropriate section. Such individuals outnumber analytical chem ists, of course. If analytical methods, both as such and as applied to materials, cannot be i n Section 7, one alternative is f u l l coverage b y cross references i n Section 7. A t present this is not being done adequately. Another alternative, helpful to the analyst, w o u l d be segregation of abstracts on analytical methods i n each of the sections on applied chemistry. Subject Indexes M a n y subject indexes are defective i n being too m u c h indexes of words rather than of subjects. Although this criticism does not apply to present subjeot indexes of Chemical Abstracts, they are deficient for the most effective searching for par ticular kinds of analytical methods. It is here that w e find one of the greatest needs for a suitable nomenclature or classification for analytical methods. A s an illustration, w e may consider the fourth decennial index of Chemical Abstracts. U n d e r the heading, " N i c k e l , detn.," there are 70 entries; and under the subheadings, detn., " i n i r o n , " " i n iron and steel," and " i n steel," there are, respectively, 7, 14, and 59 entries. Table I shows the nature of the information found i n the index and i n the title and annotation for the 150 abstracts. Table I.

Indication, in Chemical Abstracts, of Kind of Analytical Methods Used in 150 Papers Dealing with Determination of Nickel

Index Heading Entry Number N i , detn. 70 In iron 7 Iron and steel 14 Steel 59 Total 150

Method Indicated in Index Abstract Title

Photometric Methods

0 0

41 5

55 5

9 0

given 7 0

0 0 0

8 38 92

9 53 122

5 10 24

5 6 18

Found

Thus, the subject index for these 150 entries shows nothing of the k i n d of analytical method used. T h e titles are adequate for 92, and the abstracts for 122, papers. This means that one must examine the 28 papers for w h i c h no information is given. It is significant, too, that one fourth of the abstracts for the 24 photo metric methods do not give the ehromogenic reagent used. Consequently, if con cerned w i t h this detail, one must look up at least six more papers. Conclusions T h e difficulties in using the chemical literature that have been mentioned are of general importance to all chemists and technologists who employ the written records of others' work. There are at least two aspects to the importance of i m proving these present practices. SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.

74


In the first place, it is economically important. T i m e lost or wasted means economic loss. M o r e important, it means that so m u c h of our allotted years is unproductive. Industry goes to great effort to achieve efficient mechanical opera tion. Should we be satisfied w i t h less i n our literature? Also industry is spending large sums to equip a n d maintain libraries. Surely there must be concern for improving our written products i n order to decrease the time spent i n using them. In the second place, it is psychologically important for at least two reasons. Better performance i n the directions suggested, w o u l d reduce disappointment, irritation, and even frustration. This w o u l d be to the good i n the modern w o r l d , for ones tolerance of such tensions is l i m i t e d . Perhaps most important of all, there should be an increased sense of satisfaction i n the producer of the products. W e take great pride i n our machines and i n the care given to making measurements out to so many decimal places. It is a curious fact that so f e w devote equally meticulous care to writing about their work. One of the chief satisfactions i n any work is the inner personal feeling that comes when the worker knows that it has been done to the best of his ability. BASED on paper presented before the Division of Chemical Literature, Symposium on Searching the Chemical Literature, 130th Meeting, A C S , Atlantic City, N . J., September 1956. Revised 1960.


Personal Difficulties with the Chemical Literature - ACS Publications

Recommend Documents