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VOLUME 33, NO. 1, JANUARY 1996
a
VARIATION IN CONTENT ACCORDING TO USE'
OF
ABSTRACTS
MICHAEL FLEISCHER and MARJORIE HOOKER U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.
T H E ever increasing amouut of literature being published in all branches of science-far more than the individual scientist can hope to skim, much less to read-has focused more and more attention on the role and importance of the abstract, and has emphasized the need for study of the numerous problems ronnected with all phases of abstracting. Among the most obvious of these problems are what should be abstracted, who should prepare the abstracts, and what they should contain. According to E. J. Crane ( I ) , an abstract is something that comprises or concentrates in itself the essential qualities of a larger thing or of several things. Wood (9) states that "an abstract should therefore be a concise but comprehensive summary of the significant contributions to knowledge contained in a report."
Other definitions are fairly similar. All agree that the essential ingredient of an abstract is information. Briefly stated, this information should answer the five questions: Who? Where? When? What? W h y ? The first three present no particular perplexities; the main point is accuracy of citation. But examination of abstract journals shows a great variation in the treatment of what and why. It is our purpose in this paper to consider how the content of an abstract should vary with and be influenced by the scope and character of the abstract journal and by the training, experience, occupations, and interests of its users. There are two distinct types of abstract, although in actual preparation and form they grade into each other. One type is the indicative abstract or annotation. I t may be only an elaborated or extended title, or it may describe the scope of an article and its significant con'Presented before the Division of Chemical Literature a t the clusions. The other type is the informative abstract; 122nd Meetine of the American Chemical Societv. ., Atlantic Citv." , this does much more than indicate what information is September, 19% Publication suthorieed by the Director, U. S. Geological given; it gives the information itself. There have been many discussions on the relative value of indicative and Survey.
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informative abstracts, and a recent study of physics abstracting by Gray (3) showed considerable diversity of opinion. A similar lack of agreement is shown by the comments that are scattered through the published proceedings of the Royal Society Scientific Information Conference (4). Even an indicative abstract, though it does not give as much information as an informative abstract, is certainly useful. Confronted with a title like "Research a t the crossroads," who would not wish to get some idea of its content? But with either type of abstract, it is still true that the content will vary according to the end use. Many abstract journals are intended to cover single fields, like chemistry, physics, or geology. No one field of science, however, can be absolutely set apart from the others and when an editor has to decide mhere to draw the boundaries of the field of interest of his journal, many problems appear. Writers of scientific papers have as little regard for the boundaries between specific fields as mineral occurrences have for political boundaries. That is as it should be. For example, no one would advocate that an author who present, new chemical data should be required to publish his discussion of the geological implications in a separate article just to keep the fields separate. The editor may also be influenced in establishing policy by the number of users of his journal from the borderline fields. This number can be both a cause and a result. If mineralogists find many of the abstracts they want in a chemical abstract journal, more of them will tend to use it. Conversely, if it is known that mineralogists are using the journal, the editor will tend to include as much in their field as possible. The editor, therefore, is very likely to include material extending into several borderline fields. Evidence in support of this course appears in Gray's report (5). Once the editor has settled on the scope of his abstract journal (and we doubt that he would be foolhardy enough to give a very definite answer as to where he has drawn the line) he still must establish a policy as to how much information will be included in the abstracts. The major factor in the editor's decisions should be end use. In the single-field abstract journal, whether its abstracts are of the annotative or informative type, material is being presented to a group of specialists in one particular field, though some of it may be of interest to workers in closely related fields. What information and how much depends on the needs and interests of the scientists in both the main and the bordering fields. Abstracts for a single-field journal should either indicate or summarize all the factual data given in the paper that lie within a particular field and should omit data clearly outside that field. The material in the abstracts will remain as specialized as in the original paper; there is no need to explain, interpret, or simplify. The point of the abstract is to extract the meat, not to convert it. This means also that ideally the
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length of the abstracts will vary with the amount of information given in the article. In actual practice, however, an informative abstract may grade into an annotation. It is not feasible, for example, to list hundreds of localities or specimens; the abstract can merely indicate that they are described in the article. The terminology of the abstract can correspond with that of the article since these abstracts are written for other scientists in the same field. They are familiar with special terms,. generic names, abbreviations, formulas, etc. The Bibliography and Index of Geology Exclusive of North America., nublished annuallv " bv " the Geoloaical Society of America, is a good example of a single-%eld abstract journal of annotatcd citations. The annotation is, generally, the briefest mention of who, where, whm, what, and why that suffices to indicate scope. If, for example, an article with a brief nondescriptive title deals with the mineralogy of an area in France, the annotation might indicate the location and extent of the area, the type of mineralization, and what detailed mineral descriptions and economic data are given. If, on the other hand, a full descriptive title is given, the abstract might merely give a brief statement of the author's conclusions. Such annotations fall within the carefully set scope of this journal and meet the space limitations imposed by cost. They are obviously prepared for geologists who are actively engaged in geologic research and familiar with the subject matter. Chemical Abstracts is an example of an abstract journal that contains informative abstracts covering a broad field with many borderline phases. It is used chiefly by chemists but also by a large number of readers having various interests outside of chemistry. The pamphlet, "Directions for Assistant Editors and Abstractors of Chemical Abstracts,'' states its policy succinctly (5):
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Since Chemical Abstmcts is intended to be a complete and permanent record of all chemical work it is very important that abstracts should contain or make specik reference to all theinfonnationinavtieles that is suitablefo~indezentries. This wouldinclude every measurement, ohservetion, method, apparatus, suggestion, and theory that is presented as new and of value in itself. All new compounds and all elements, compounds, and other substances for which new data are given should be entered in ahAuthors' conclusions from their work should he restraets. . ported in abstracts. . . Abstracts should he informational rather than descriptive whenever this is possible within reasonable space limits.
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This ideal is not attained in actual practice, and Chemical Abstracts, along with other journals that aim for completely informational abstracts, publishes many indicative ones as well. This is largely because some compromise is necessary, especially in covering borderline fields, and the journal prefers publishing a brief indicative abstract to publishing no abstract a t all. The abstract of a chemical paper in Chemical Abstracts, where it will be used and consulted primarily by chemists, should be a precise and detailed summary of the facts. Other considerations, such as cost, space,
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the language and availability of the original paper, and indexing requirements may modify the length or style but will not substantially change the material in the abstract. End use is not so definite a matter for ahstracts of articles dealing with more than one field or with borderline fields. Recognition of this fact is important in defining the scope of an abstract. This may be illustrated by problems arising in the section of Mineralogical and Geological Chemistry in Chemical Abstracts. This section is read by 10.3 per cent of the 22,000 subscribers to Chemical Abstracts (6). Because both space and money are a t a premium, it is necessary to restrict the abstracts in this section to those geological articles all or part of which have real chemical interest. The geologist uses Chemical Abstracts accordingly. Generally, therefore, the abstrarts should contain information from the chemical part of the paper, and a brief indicative statement about the remainder. The follom-ing abstract of an imaginary paper illustrates this point:
matter, and are pointed to specific users who in turn have the privilege of designating what they require in the abstracts. The end use is clearly and concisely defined. Considerations such as the length of the abstract, time required for preparation, and promptness of abstracting after publication are secondary. The abstracting service maintained by many private companies in connection with their research activities may consist of abstracting the company's own reports in order to provide better coordination of the work of various departments and quicker access t o a wide variety of data. It may also involve keeping abreast of current published literature on subjects of interest to the company. I n either case, the type of subject matter to be included in the abstracts and the individuals for whom the ahstracts are intended are precisely predetermined. The abstracting activities of the Texas Company described by Stork and Cousins (8) furnish a typical example. The company maintains a separate department a t Beacon, New York, to make, classify, reproduce, and distribute abstracts of the research reports from its four laboratories. Since The Jurassic stratigraphy of southeastern Alabama. Hugh the abstracting is centered in one department and is Lightly Pick and 0. Y. Hammer. J. Southeastern Geol.,. 3, 65191 (1955).-The stratigraphy, structure, tectonics, and petrog- done by people expert in such work, rather than by the raphy are described in detail, with 14 chem. snslpses of lime- researrh people who write the original reports, the stones, whose Mg content increases from south to north in the ahstracts are more usable in a standardized form. area. So far we have considered the abstract iournal dealing with a specific scientific field and its borderline Obviously this abstract would be completely un- relatives, and used mainly by scientists working in satisfactory to a stratigrapher, but it is not written for those fields. The problems confronting the editor of an those interested in stratigraphy and structure. They abstract journal dealing with many and varied fields must look in an abstract journal that aims to answer are far more complex. Diversity of subject matter their needs. This accounts for the well known situa- obviously makes i t hard to decide on the scope of the tion in which some papers are abstracted by a variety journal. Compared with the journal dealing with a of journals, each with a different emphasis. single field, the choice of material for the multipleI n a class by themselves are abstracting activities field journal is more flexible. It depends less on the organized for a purpose so specific that their boundaries subject matter and more on what the users want. can be defined with precision. Among such projects The annotated Arctic Bibliography, covering all mould be those carried on by certain government phases of Arctic research, is an excellent example of a agencies, by trade associations, and by industrial con- multiple-field journal. The first three volumes of this cerns. Usually the scope of such projects is narrow bibliography, issued in 1953, covered the period 1800compared with that of Chemical Abstracts. A large 1950; since then, annual supplements have been issned. amount of searching and an equally large amount of In subject matter the range is broad; it includes selection and discard are geuerally required to obtain geography, geology, nleteorology, oceanography, hotthe precise information desired. any, zoology, anthropology, medicine, government, In 1949, a Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Research Es- general exploration, and mauy smaller fields of intablishment (SIPRE) was created by the Chief of terest (9). Engineers, U. S. Army. A program of library research The abstracts are annotative, hut they indicate the is heing pursued that includes the preparation of an scope of each paper in as much detail as possible, with annotated bibliography on snow, ice, frozen ground, particular emphasis on geography. For this reason and allied subjects, for the use of the SIPRE staff. some of the annotations may be lengthy, particularly From SIPRE Report 12 we quote (7) : those of renorts of exnloratorv exneditions. Other The abstracts are intended to be informative rather than de- examples of' multiple-field journals that contain inscriptive. An attempt has been made to digest and summarize formative rather than indicative abstracts are Ceramic the articles rather than to present merely a brief indicative state- Abstracts of the American Ceramic Society, Building ment of content. Sufficient factual information is included in science~b~~~~~~~of the ~ ~ i l nesearch d i ~ ~~~~~d of the abstract to enable the investigator to evaluate the article with Great Britain, and the Journal of the Society of Glass reference to his own work. Technology. These journals cover not only several These ahstracts, therefore, cover definite subject fields of science but also material pertaining to in"
A
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dustrial arts and trade. The scope of the abstracts in these publications is even more of a problem and more important than the scope of the multiple-field journal. The users represcnt a wide varietj of backgrounds. Ceramic Abstracts, for example, is presumably consulted by chemists, mineralogists, architects, designers, shop foremen, and even salesmen. The abstract of an article that may he of interest to any of these people must be so worded and constructed as to be useful to all of them. This can be done, for instance, by using a minimum of chemical formulas and terms which will not make an abstract less useful to the chemist hut will make it more useful to the nonchemist. The same holds tiue for other specialized terminology. Abbreviations, also, should be used as little as possible. To specialists certain terms are so universally understood that their abbreviation creates no difficulties, but to anyone outside the field they can be confusing and ambiguous in meaning. C. A. means Chemical Abstracts to the chemist, Ceramic Absfracts to the ceramist, and it is also the accepted abbreviation for Central America. An abstract stating: "Analysis of feldspar showed a composition Abs6AnloOrp"makes sense to a mineralogist, hut not to most chemists. As a rule, the hroader the scope of an abstract journal and the more varied the backgrounds of its users, the less technical should be the terminology used, and the more general the information in the abstracts. The following three abstracts of a single article show the difference in content according - to end use. The one for Mineralogical Abstracts includes the names of the minerals but generalizes the chemical data; the one for Ceramic Abstracts even omits the names of the minerals; the one in Chemical Abstracts gives more detailed and specific chemical data. The examples chosen are for the article entitled, "Clay minerals of the montmorillonite group: their mineral and chemical relationships a n d ~ t h efactors controlling base exchange," by Ross and Hendricks published in the Proceedings of the Soil Science Society of America, Volume 6,pp. 5 8 4 2 , 1942.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION from Hector, Calif., ssponite and 2 members of the nontronite series are derived from the analyses of 100 specimens of the montmorillonite group of clay minerals. For examples: saponite is writ,ten
I n these formulas the replaoeable ion is placed above the ion whose presence occasions the valency deficiency which i t b d ances. In some members of the group, base exchange is a result of renlacement of Si in tetrahedral coordination with resneet to 0 by k,in others of replacements among ions having octahedral eoordination. Several new analyses are given. J. R. Aditms
Another example of distinctive differences can he seen in the following two abstracts of a single article. In the one for Ceramic Abstracts, it is merely noted that data are given for 18 salts, whereas in the one for Chemical Abstracts, the 18 salts are actually listed.
Ceramic Abstracts: 21,110 (1942). Hydrolysis of salts in solution. H. F. Brown and J. A. Cranston. J . Chem. Soc. ( L o d u n ) , 1940, 578. An apparatus for the preparation of solutions and the measurement of their pH values using a glass electrode without exposure to the atmosphere is described. Atmospheric contamination must be guarded against when the pH is less than two units removed from 7. A table of pH values obtained by interpolation a t selected dilutions is given R. A. G. for 18 common saks in water.
Chemical Abstracts: 34.5727 (1940).
detd. at. &&temp. (about 16") a t ooncns. of 10-1000 1. per mol. The first 8 salts were used in COX-freewater. Cornoarison of the results for NaOAc and ZnSO. obtained without o k a u t i o n s to ovoid :11111. c:~r.~nruinsrion with thv mwlrr w i t h ('0,-htr i;dr>s. 4 ~ n v ts h iu~pw1:inw01 prw:turiom i f the pH wlw i q wilhirt 2 a,r .\. FIvi*vlw 3 ur1112o i 7 .
One of the most important problems that ronfront an editor of any abstract journal is the choice of ahMineralogical Abstracts: 9 , 7 9 (1944). stractors. The most essential prerequisite for an abA discussion of the chemical formulae of montmorillonite, stractor, of course, is knowledge of the subject and beidellite, saponite, nontronite, and aluminian nontronite based familiarity with current developments in the field. upon chemical analyses of a hundred mineral specimens. Base- He should also have a good understanding of the exchange can be due either t o replacement of ions in octahedral policies of the journal. An abstractor's awareness of F. A. B. co-ordination or to replacement of Si by Al. the end use will directlv affect the content of his abstracts. His judgment'is always the big factor conCeramic Abstracts: 22, 182 (1943). tributing to their success. Good abstracts are adThe molecular structure of the montmorillonite clay minerals is justed to the level of knowledge of the users. ~ ~ diacussed with the aim of explaining base-exchange properties. for instance, the abstract by I. K. Phelps in Chemical From the structure and from the chemical analyses of 100 specimens, definite formulas were given t o many of the m~ntmoril- Abstracts, 3,3216 (1909) : W' R'B' lonite minerals. Iron Chloride a s a Ring Test for Acetoacetic Acid. W ~ s s m -
Chemical Abstracts: 36, 6449 (1942). Representative formulas for montmorillonite, beidellite, a clay
THAL. Poliklin. Prof. Strausrr. Zentr. p a . Phys. Path. Stoffwechsels, 3,369; through Biochem. Cenlr., 8,250.-The test mentioned in the title is recommended.
k
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Or, from Chemical Abstracts, 1, 1660 (1907), what today would probably be abstracted simply as "Polemic" drew this much more precise statement:
that his main job is to furnish information. Contrast the following ahstracts of a single article. The first is from Chemical Abstracts, 33, 453g6, (1939) :
Answer to H. C. Jones. W~LHELM BILTZ. Z. physik. Chem., 58, 250-252.-A reply by Bilts to Jones' reply to Bilta' reply to G. N. Lewis Jones. (See C. A , , 1907, 389.)
Origin of color in some inorganic salts. Josef Hoffmann. Chem. Erde, 12, 208-220 (1939). The changes in color of CuSO, with the degree of hydration are sssacd. with the degree of ionization; the verystable hydrate with lH10 is best formulated Cu.0H.HS04. A salt which was said to have been found in a n old telegraph battery, hut which more probably really originated in a hath for cleaning brass and Ni alloys, is described in detail; with a analysis gave its compn. as Cu(NH.).S04~NiS04~7H20 trace of Cu(NH3)S04. The reasons far the color changes in CuCl mused by light are discussed. The effects of irradiation with 0- and ?-rays from Re on KISO, NasPO,, Na2HP04,Na horates, tincal, sodelite, and noselite are described, and mecha, nisms to explain the changes connected with their structures are suggested.
People use abstracts either as current reading material or as a guide to the past literature. The data obtained by Gray (5) showed that 22 per cent of the 1628 responding physicists used abstracts of physics papers as current material, 30 per cent used them for reference, and 48 per cent used them for both purposes. A similar survey made in 1950 of 6840 users of Chemical Abstracts showed that 62.1 per cent used the abstracts for current information, 15.7 per cent for retrospective searching, and 22 per cent for both purposes. Abstracts to be used for rapidly surveying the current literature can be more general and perhaps briefer than abstracts to be used as guides to reference material. The literature is usually searched for specific data, and it is essential to have detailed information in the ahstracts in order to limit the search to relevant material. Gray also found that only 6 per cent used abstracts as a substitute for original papers, whereas 46 per cent used them principally as reference guides, and the remaining 48 per cent used them in both ways. If we can generalize somewhat on the basis of Gray's study, it appears that the data in the abstract should be specific arid detailed, because most users are likely to be searching for such information. Should ahstracts include critical appraisal, supplementary information, or corrections of evident errors? We feel that errors that are obviously typographical or inadvertent should be unobtrusively corrected. If they are not, they are often needlessly perpetuated to everybody's confusion. Most common of these errors are misspellings. The librarian's practice of adding the correct spelling and an exclamation mark in brackets is cumbersome. More recent practice tends to correct the small errors simply but only after it is absolutely certain that they are errors. More than one editor has changed sulfite to su&te or sulfide without first making sure which one the author meant. Critical comments or evaluation and supplementary related data can be extremely valuable to the user, but the matter of including such is a ticklish one unless the abstractor has the technical competence to he sure of his ground. If such material is included it should be clearly separated from the main part of the abstract and should be fairly brief. Many feel, however, that if critical comments are included, the author should have an opportunity to answer them before publication. This procedure plays havoc with promptness of publication, particularly if authors are out of reach. Criticism or evaluation that is lengthy should be reserved for its more rightful place in review articles. There is also the danger that the abstractor may forget
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The second abstract of this same paper is from Neues Jahrb. Mineral. Gaol. u. Palaontol., 1940, Ref. I , p. 118: Recht unexakte und unsystematische Beobaehtungen gehen Verf. Anlass su ebenso unklaren wie unzuliinglichen Ansichten uber die Farhungsursachen einiger ionogen gefmhter Minerslssleen.
A reader of the original article may he inclined to sympathize with the serond abstractor, but what he wrote, giving no indication of what was done or what compounds were studied, could hardly be classed as an abstrart. Excellent examples of brief critical remarks that add greatly to the value of abstracts may he found in several publications, for example, "Structure Reports for 1947-1948" (10) and early volumes of the Annotated Bibliography of Economic Geology. The suggestion has been advanced, and a t least one large-scale attempt has been made to carry i t out, that a single abstract journal for all scientific literature be established. The mere contemplation of volumes so large that they are unwieldy and hard to use, so expensive that very few libraries can afford them, and so full of information that the index stretches limitlessly, makes us shudder. We are in thorough agreement with the memorandum submitted on behalf of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Committee of Management of Scienre Abstracts which recommends (4) that:
. . .the provision of abstracts should be in the hands of those in close touch with the users, that is, the members of the professional societies, engineering institutions and research associations a t present responsible for their production; any attempt to centralize production into a single comprehensive system would lead to ahstracts whose approach disregarded the special points of view of particular speciaht users. Holding this view, the Committee do not regard some overlapping of the fields of interest of different abstracting organizations as a had thing in itself, as i t enables different points of view t o be catered for. -ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We are indebted to Robert P. Ware for many useful suggestions, and to Frank C. Calkins of the U. S.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION port," The K y w l Swi,-ty, Londnr~,1948. 723 pp. and ,\lwtr:~ctor~ 01 Chrrnc t I .il~rtractr,"hmeriwrt ('lmnirnl %~v~ctv, (?olunlb~a, Ohio, 1952, 46 pp. LITERATURE CITED (6) EMERY, A. H., E. J. CRANE,AND G. G. TAYLOR, Chem. Eng. News,28, 2517-20 (1950). .... ., ~ ~ . . . ~, (7) YERG,D. G., SIPRE Report No. 12, 1951, p. iii (226 pi)). ( 2 \ . 1 ,t i o to urhorii of P:~ywrrSubmirtvd for PuI,lw~rion I,? t hc Luited S r a w ~ (~vologiu~l S B N Q ~ , ' (8) ' STORK,L. G. AND K. C. COUSINS,J. CHEM.EDUC.,25, ixn-? 1~4x1. . . .. (\----,. Ith wl., wviwd I)? I$. 11. I.AXE, I:. $. CeoIwiv~I311rwy. (9) TREMAINE, MARIE,Arctic, 1, 84-7 (1948). Washington, D. C., 1935, 126 pp. (10) WILSON, A. J. C., C. S. BARRETT, J. M. BIJYOET,A N D J. M. (3) GRAY,D. E. "Study of physics abstracting; final report," ROBERTSON, '(Structure Reports for 1947-1948," A. Officeof Naval Research, No. NR 390-006, 1950. Oosthoek, Utrecht, 1951, Vol. 11, 779 pp. (4) "The Royal Society Scientific Information Conference Re-
Geological Survey for many improvements in language and clarity of expression.
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i '.l)in.rtiona for .Assistaut Klitors
