Scientific Information Services ‘
tion of scientific information is being dieTEcussed mth increasing frequencyby scientificand technical societies and informal groups. Two well-attended conferen- were held in London last summer during the week of the International Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Nahve for November 8, 1947 (p. 649), reported a meeting of the Cambridge Branch of the Association of Scientific Workera devoted to discussions of what should constitute an efficient scientific information service. The British will a p proach the subject on a wider front this summer when a scientific information conference will be held by The Fbyal Society, and, of come, our readers are aware of the plana for the Symposium on Technical Journalism, which will commemorate the 40th a n n i v m of thispublication, to be held at the Chicago A.C.S. meeting this month. Your editor attended the London conferences. He also discussed the broad aspects of the problem privately with a large number of scientistsand technologistsin London, Paris, and other parts of Ewope. He spent a most interesting day with several UNESCO 05cials who are especially concerned with finding ways and means of making it easier for the r e searcherto keep abreast of the advancas made in other labrato&. Scientists and technologists abroad seem to be more interested in the subject than we are. Yet we, too, realize tbat more and more of the researcher’s valuable time is consumed by literature w c h e a and resding as the amount of original research reported increases at an almost bewildering rate. We have attempted to provide a partis1 solution for chemists and chemical ertginaers by initiating annual r e views in both this publication and Analytied ChsmiStty. We suspect there is no simple m e r to this complex problem. We ere surprised at the somewhat u n d i s t i c views of some, indeed many, who wholly disregard such practical considerations a8 costs, production, and manpower. One propom1 tbat we heard abroad M summer, and which 8eem8 to have gained qnite a number of supporters, calls for the elimination of journals aa they are constituted today. In their place an international distribution agency would undertake to provide scientkts with printa according to the indicated desires of each researcher (one can hardly designate tbe service as preprints or reprinta since they would no longer be printed p a w in recognized j o u d ) . Proponents think that the cost to the researcher will be less tbm the journals he now requires and that the plan will eliminate wasted time. Who, in such a plan, determines whether the author has something worth publishing? Approximately one third of the manuscripts submitted to this journal are rejected, some because they do not meet our standards of quality and some because the editor believes that they are more suitable for other publications. Only a small fraction, not more than five or ten papers annually, is accepted exactly in the form originally submitted. The author finds in most instances that the :ncorporation of at least a portion of the reviewers’suggestions
improves the manuscript. What agency would perform this necessary service in the proposed plan? Who would set stendards? Would there be several gradations? Next comes cross-fertilization of knowledge tbat we hear so much about today. If the scientist receives only printa on subjects of immediate concern to him does he not run the chance of missingsomething in an apparently unrelated article that may provide the clue that will sdve hls problem? Overspecialization leads to sterility. The alternative is to order everything; we fail to see that this is any improvement ovep existing means of dissemination. k t l y we touch on 6nancial aspects. We have yet to find a printer who is altruistic enough to turn out scientificjournals without sending a bill at the end of the month, nor paper companies who will supply ca$osds of their product to the printer’s doorstep without mailing invoicesregularly. Much of the scientific literature is financed by advertising. Quite aside many advertise from pro~dingmoneyto~ncepublications, menta provide valuable data to the scientist and technologist. This trend has grown impressively in recent years. If we eliminate the present source of a considerable part of the revenue that makes possible the dissemination of scientific information, where’do we turn for funds? To our m p c t i v e governments or to some international agency formed by governments? If the physical scientista ask the Government for publication money why not the social scientists, why not every group that uses the printed word? We are not unmindful of the answer we received from a member of the paper controls committee of the War Production Board when we suggested that the space allotted to comic strips be curtailed during the past war. In his opinion the funniesare instructive and there fore essential to a large part of the population. Let ua consider thoughtfully before we run to government or some international creation of govemmenta for money if we wish to preserve some semblance of scientific and individual liberty. We have touched very lightly on but one of the many aspects of the question of improving or revamping d t i n g scientificinformation services. Perhaps there is some danger in approaching the problem thinking only in terms of finding some new over-all, master plan for science as a whole. At the Cambridge Branch of the Association of Scientific Workers, Professor R. 9. Hutton, while commentingthat the number of worth-while scientific periodicals is 15,000 and tbat the number of o r i g i i papers they contain is about 75Q,OOO per year, also p i n t s out that one in three is abstracted, with chemistry the most thoroughly abstrsated branch of science Steps that may be necessary in other branches of the phyaica sciences may not be desirable in chemistry. Let ua approach the taak realistidy. Those who have practical working howledge should be heard lest we lose what we bave in a v a i ~ attempt to gain a Utopia. -Frequently the weary travele finds that the Utopia he envisioned in the distance is nothini more thao a mirage.
