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THE CURRENT RESEARCH EFFORT IN THE UNITED STATES, RUSSIA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES BENJAMIN T. BROOKSL New York. N.Y.
IN
THE present discussion of the relative scientific efforts and attainments in this country and Russia fewfacts hpve been brought out except some allegations as to the number of "scientists and engineers" presently being trained in this country and Russia. It has seemed that an objective approach would be to examine the recent record as shown by Chemical Abstracts, noting the number of articles abstracted and the inches of space for these abstracts as being a fair measure of the amount of work done and the new data presented. A kind of Gallup poll method has been employed. A random selection of five 'recent issues of Chemical Abstracts in 1957 and 1958 was studied. Six subjects were selected, two as being almost wholly in funda mental research., (aeneral and uhvsical chemistrv and .. organic chemistry), one as representing an industrial subject (metallurgy and metallography), electronics and nuclear phenomena, and also general biological chemistry and pathology. The comparisons for electronirs and nuclear phenomena are not as significant as the other subjects since it is known that much of this material is "classified" in the United States and withheld from publication, and it is safe to assume that this is true also in Russia. Although the accuracy of the comparison would probably be increased by examining a larger number of issues and perhaps for a year or more, the present inquiry covers a total of 6494 abstracts, divided as follows: metallurgy and metallography 755, general and physical chemistry 896, organic chemistry 1364, electronics and nuclear phenomena 2151, general biological chemistry 713, and pathology 615. The conclusions that may be drawn from the results are quite definite, and the relative amounts of research effort expended on these subjects in the countries listed is unmistakable. The space in Chemical Abstracts is important since only new data are reported. Organic Chemistry. The United States is far ahead of all other countries in both the number of published researches and the amount of new data, as shown by Chemical Abstracts.
Organic Chemistry, Abstracts Country United States England Germany Japan Russia Franoe All others (total)
I t is apparent that in this field Germany stands in third place and rather close to Japan, although Germans continue to publish many outstanding and important researches, as all organic chemists know. Also the other countries, not separately listed, contribute many individually important researches, especially Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium. General and Physical Chemistry. The United States and Russia show substantially the same number of published researches and amount of new data and the present figures slightly favor the Russians, but the difference is not significant. The interesting fact is that in this field Russia definitely does more than is done in other countries, including England and Germany. General and Physical Chemistry, Abstracts Countw Number Inches of sonce (I) Russia (2) United States (3) Eneland (4)Germany 15) Japan (6) Fmnw 17) Others (total)
Metallurgy and Metallography. In this field Russia is definitely ahead in current research effort. The space required for new data is significant since Chemical Abstracts gives no space t o review material. Metallurgy and Metallography, Abstracts Counlrg Number Inches o j space ( I ) Russia 254 410 (2) United States 183 266 (3) Japan 75 312 (4) Germany 71 128 (5) England 55 85 (6) France 38 138 (7) Others (total) 79 112
I t should be kept in mind that these figures do not reflect the degree of technical excellence of this industry in the several countries hut the current research effort. In the past, England, Germany, and the United States were in the forefront with respect to important technical developments. Electronics and Nuclear Phenomena. As noted above, the close relation of much research in these subjects t o national defense vitiates any real comparison of activities in these fields. However, the data show that the United States either has a more liberal policy with respect to publication of such work or Consulting Chemist, 405 Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N. Y.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
that the number of theoretical researches or industrial applications not ronsidered vital to national defense produced by research workers in this country greatly exceeds that of Russia and other countries. Eleotronics a n d N~uolearPhenomena, Abstracts Countrq .?rumbe7 Inches of space (I) United States 953 (2) Russia 294 211 (3) England (4) Japan 146 119 (5) France (6) Germany lli ( i )Others (botal) 311
Relatively small differences in the above figures are probably not really significant, as for example the data, for this field, of England, Japan, France, and Germany; however, as in the other summaries, the major results are meaiingfnl. General Biological Chemistry and Pathology. The relative amounts of nublished research in these fields is of interest as being outside of Russia's industrial program, and much of the work, as in the general field of medical research, is done for the love of science and for the good of the public. The results are as follows, for five issues of Chemical Abstracts. Japan's position in second place is noteworthy. Biological Chemistry-General (1) United States (2) Japan (3) Germany (4) England (5) Russia (6) France Others
38 33 147
Pathology 188 55 55 50 36 25 206
Eol~on'sNOTE: The Editor, mindful of the fact that the most recent discussion of this subject in print was the Priestley Medal .4ddress by E. J. CRANE,Director, Chemical Abstracts Service, which appeared in Chemical and Engineering News, 29, 4250 (1951), asked Dr. Crane to read the manuscript of the paper here 34, 585 (1957).) His enpresented. (See also J. &EM. EDUC., dorsement adds interest and value to the discussion. We appreciate permission to quote from his letter as follows: "I do not question Brooks' conclusions beyond the suspicion that his sampling has not been extensive enough. I say this because we know of certain irregulilrities with which he would not be familiar. For example, for a while we have been short on abntrnctorn who are familiar with the field of metallurgy and know the Russian language. This sort of thing sometimes mema that when we succeed in getting help in a field, like metallurgy, there is a spurt from catching up. Some of the numbers chosen may show such a spurt. This is not necessarily true, however. I believe the Russians have been placing emphasis on metallurgy instead of biochemistry. abstrarts of ouhlication~ "It is true that we allot more soaee f o ~ in Russian or Japanese than we do for more readily available publications. We have a rule in our Directions which reads as follows:
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VOLUME 35, NO. 9,SEPTEMBER, 1958
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CONCLUSIONS
Certain inaccuracies in the method used here are freely admitted, but it is believed these inaccuracies do not vitiate the comparisons in cases showing unmistakable relative research efforts. Thus some scientists sometimes publish their results in other countries, as for example Japanese in American chemical journals, Americans in English publications, and vice versa, and a few journals are conspicuously international in character, as for example Helvetica Chimica Aeta in Switzerland and the new journal of organic chemibtry Tetrahedron, published in England. Russians formerly published their work very frequently in German journals. However, the over-all summaries probably well reflert the national efforts. Patents were not counted in this survey. The present summaries obviously make no comparisons with the past, but Germany evidently shows some of the effects of the Nazi regime and the last two world wars. Japanese scientists are taking an increasingly important position in these chemical fields, and the Russians obviously so. If relative size of population were taken into account, England's position would he much higher. Another fact apparent from this survey of Chemical Abstracts is the large number of Russian chemists who are now doing research. This means that most of this number must have started their scientific training at least six or eight years ago. Also it is apparent that many of the Russian chemists are interested in basic or fundamental research in much the same way, or with the same mental attitude, that has characterized much of the German work. However, even a very casual survey of Chemical Abstracts should quickly convince anyone that much important scientific research is being done in all countries.
34. The source of a paper is of importance in deciding the amount of detail to include in the abstract. E.g., papers should he abstracted in some detail when they are available to relatively few American chemists, either because the journal in which they appear is a rare one or because the language is one not read by many in this country. Papers in the American Chemical Society's own journals should be abstracted more briefly, yet in sufficient fullness for purposes of the index.
"However, inasmuch as Chemical Abstracts believes in making all abstracts complete from the indexing paint of view, the difference here is not so very great. In some countries there is a tendency to publish more often and more briefly than in others so that both counts and space measurements are only rough indications in making national comparisons. I know of no significant differences in practice of this sort as between Russia and the United States. "Our present belief is that Russia is second among nations in scientific research activity (about 14% of the total) with the United States a strong first at about double the Russian activity of this kind."
