Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information Two Volumes (1959) / Chapter Skim
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Study on the Use of Scientific Literature and Reference Services by Scandinavian Scientists and Engineers Engaged in Research Development
Study on the Use of Scientific Literature and Reference Services by Scandinavian Scientists and Engineers Engaged in Research Development
Pages 19-76
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From page 19... ...
During the past three decades several studies have been carried out to determine the characteristics of the subject literatures used by scientists and the relative importance of different kinds of publications, especially journals in various fields. These earliest studies as well as the great majority of later ones were based on analysis of library records, tabulation of published material covered by abstract journals and bibliographies, or on reference counting, that is tabulating footnotes and other literature references injournals, dissertations, and books.
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From page 20... ...
correlated the relative value placed on specific journals by specialists with the value of these journals as measured through reference counting and came to the conclusion that the latter method is untrustworthy. Not until recently have studies on the use of literature and other means of communication, directed to the working scientist rather than to his products, entered the scene.
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The rank correlation between the scientists' list and those obtained through reference counting was low, the corresponding correlation between reference counts from annual reviews and the journals was also low. The reference counting method appeared untrustworthy.
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Results. Tabulated by institutional affiliation and use made of the publication, address of the customer, etc.
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The average number of journals subscribed to was 2. The reference services furnished by the library were used more than twice as much by applied as by pure scientists.
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The second phase dealt with the personnel makeup of research teams, and with the extent of"multidisciplinary" group research. The third phase consisted of field investigations of nine selected research and development groups in five organizations, and of interviews with research administrators and research workers in some 40 laboratories.
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To study the correlation between company's earning records and library services as well as use of literature. Method.
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A total of 1,661 persons were studied. Of this number, 1,087 were in the New York and Philadelphia Naval Shipyards, 46 were in the Bureau of Ordnance in Washington, D.C., and 528 were in industrial firms in metropolitan Philadelphia.
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From page 27... ...
There was also an increase with a rise in civil service grade. Among the various subject fields, the chemists were the most active in selfeducation, the physicists were second, the electrical engineers were third, the chemical engineers fourth, and the mechanical engineers fifth.
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To follow up the stucly by investigating the role of suppliers and the reasons why they are successful in imparting technical information and to stimulate the use of existing technical information services on the management level.
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Only 67 respondents had suffered because of inability to read another foreign language. 299 respondents stated that tong delays in publication of the work of others had hampered their research.
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of the sample. Translations from foreign languages needed by ca.
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(2) About half the references taken from abstract journals were for the past 12 months.
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II. BIBLI OGRAPHY O F EARLIER S T UDIE S ON THE U SE OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE AND REFERENCE SERVICES ARRANGED BY SUBJECT FIELD (with references to the section above)
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Reference counting. Results.
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Reference counting in American and foreign journals. Results.
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Reference counting in 5 journals. Results.
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Reference counting in 6 American journals for 1927, 1928, and 1929. Results.
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Reference counting in about 20 periodicals. Result.
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Method. Reference counting in the subjects soils and dairying in the agricultural field and mechanical and metallurgical engineering in the technical field.
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Reference counting method was selected. ~ Results.
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5. What foreign languages are necessary to civil engineers?
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Method. Reference counting in periodicals and books.
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Method. Reference counting in representative doctoral dissertations.
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a , Through the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences (ATV) its Junior Scientists Committee was approached.
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TABLE ~ Distribution' of respondents by field of research and institutional Affiliation (Questions 1 and 2; based on 188 responses) Field of research classif ed by UDC 51 /53 54 55/59 61 62 63/65 66/664 6651669 6741678 2 2 3 2 10 6 14 1 2 1 5 3 14 1 1 2 14 4 17 6 3 3 14 9 22 18 13 18 17.5 9.5 51/53 mathematics, astronomy, physics 54 chemistry 55/59 geology, meteorology, biology J 61 pharmaceutical technology 62 engineering (excluding chemical engineering)
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TORNUDD Use of Information in Scandinavian Research and Development 45 cat t—~ 00 0 ~ ~ t— ~ ~ ~ st .~ ,o Is .~ ~ qua use .
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% .No. ~0 Danish Academic 5 18 19 70 3 12 27 Research institutes 2 7 19 66 8 27 29 Industrial 6 16 26 68 6 16 38 Total Danish 13 14 64 68 17 18 94 Finnish Academic 10 53 9 47 19 Research institutes 6 21 22 79 28 Industrial 16 34 31 66 47 Total Finnish 32 34 62 66 94 Both groups 45 126 17 188 a No correlation was found between estimated success in keeping up with advances and location of institution: in the large cities or at a distance from these centers.
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Cumul., % Total Danish cumul., % Finnish Academic, no. Cumul., % Research institutes, no.
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The greatest use of literature was made by pure mathematicians and physicists, pure chemists, and pharmaceutical scientists, and there was a very small, statistically insignificant, difference between these groups and the other subject groups in contrast to the findings of Herner (8~. In all subject groups save the earth scientists and biologists the dependence on literature as opposed to verbal sources was greater than that found in the American study (8~.
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From page 49... ...
the relatively high dependence on literature as a source of information as opposed to verbal sources, (b) by far the greatest part of literature is in some foreign language and is likely to require somewhat more reading time; (c)
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(2.1~. Institutional affiliation did not appear to affect personal subscriptions.
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The order of importance of these publications was: journals, books, abstracts and indexes, reviews, research reports as individual publications, and patents in both national groups and in ah sections save the Danish industrial one in which patents and research reports changed places. The fact that there was little difference in the relative importance laid on the various publications among workers in different organizations and that monographs, handbooks and compendia were rated as nearly equally useful as journals is most interesting.
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From page 52... ...
that references in journal articles and books were uses! more frequently than abstract publications in the John Crerar Library cannot be compared with Urquhart's finding, because it excluded references to recent material which macle 50% of the citations in Urquhart's sample.
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LIST THE FOREIGN LANGUAGES THAT YOU CAN READ (QUESTION 8) Table Il shows that ad the Scandinavian respondents are able to read technical literature in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German, and English.
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Bernal (~) found that 47~0 of the British research workers did not easily read any foreign language, and Shaw (17)
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Opportunity to use reference and information services of a library (Question 10; based' on 188 responses) Institution N'`mber cad Danish Academic 19 70 Research institutes 26 90 Industrial 32 84 Total Danish 77 82 Finnish Academic 11 58 Research institutes 19 68 Industrial 39 83 Total Finnish 69 73 Both groups 146 78
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From page 56... ...
Academic Research institutes Industrial Total Finnish Both groups a Percentage frequently using the a, loan and photocopy services; b, quick reference service; c) brief literature searches; d, comprehensive literature searches; e, critical searches with an evaluation of the information reviewed;f, continuous scanning of the literature and "feeding" relevant items; g, translations of foreign language publications; h, abstracting papers specified by the client; i, translation of the client's publication into a world language and checking the linguistic form;3, editorial assistance; k, guidance by the library staff.
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(11) Comprehensive literature searches on request belong to less self-evidently needled services, because it can be claimed that a research worker gains substantially more by performing a large part of the search himself.
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(g) Translations offoreign language publications into mother tongue were obtained by 17% in the Danish sample and by 29% in the Finnish group.
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The other services that were checked as needed were in this order: brief literature searches, translation of manuscripts into world languages, translation of foreign language publications, critical literature surveys, and abstracting specified articles. Quick reference service was missed by only 2 respondents, TABLE IS.
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The publishing record in the industrial section is lower than that in the academic and research sections. It must be pointed out that only about one-half of the publications were actual research papers, and the rest articles in trade journals.
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The percentage of Finnish contributions published in world languages was certainly higher than the 25% published in non-domestic periodicals because several Finnish journals containing both Finnish and foreign language articles were specified.
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followed by lack of access to published material (23%) , lack of suitable abstract journals and reviews (logo)
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Diffrulties mentioned (frstfour problems given in the questionnaire) Time limitations Lack of access to published material Slowness of publications Lack of suitable abstract journals and reviews Time lag in abstracting Too many duplicating abstract journals Inadequate documentation of theses Lack of library services and loans Lack of experience of and belief in library services Slow deliveries of loans & photocopies from central libraries and from abroad Too large field and too much published, rehashes Inadequacy of content of published material, untrustworthiness Inadequacy of presentation of material: frequent use of block diagrams Isolation from colleagues at home and abroad Danish group Finnish group 64 53 16 18 8 1 13 11 2 3 2 2 6 1 1 2 1 6 6 1 7 3 1 Both, To of respondents 71 23 6 3 1 1 8 1 3 2 4 Long delays in publication no doubt increase the probability of undesirable duplication of research.
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TABLE 20. Specific cases of undesirable duplication of research carried out because information was not readily available (Question 16; 19 cases)
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Building Technology Moisture in cast roofs was studied simultaneously and independently by two Scandinavian research institutes. Table 21 presents the number of affirmative answers to the question of unnecessary research performed.
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CAN YOU RECOMMEND IMPROVEMENTS WHICH MIGHT MAKE THE LITERATURE AND REFERENCE SERVICES MEET YOUR NEEDS MORE ADEQUATELY; (QUESTION 17) Fifty-four suggestions listed in Table 22 for the improvement of literature and reference services were put forward.
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Information services a. Tailor-made abstract services with international coverage supplying abstracts from a specified field (9~.
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Concerning reviews, the need for critical reviews for horizontal subjects to supplement reviews of special fields was mentioned. The concrete suggestions concerning libraries and information services covered the need for more subject specialists to carry out reference services in libraries and the improvement of subject catalogs.
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From page 69... ...
Off rmative i~egati`'e l'~st~tut.on answer, % answer, ~ Total Danish Academic 44 66 27 Research institutes 71 29 28 Industrial 67 33 33 Total Danish 61 39 88 I::innish Academic 58 42 19 Research institutes 55 45 22 Industrial 36 64 47 Total Finnish 45 55 88 Both groups 53 47 176 No correlation was found between the need for improving skill and the school of graduation. Summary and conclusions The 72 studies summarized above furnish valuable information on the manner in which scientific literature and library services are used.
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From page 70... ...
The few studies which have attempted to throw light on the influence of institutional affiliation have concerned research workers and revealed that the greatest difference is probably to be found between scientists working in academic institutions on the one hand and those employed by industrial, government, and other research establishments, on the other. Whether the preference for performing all literature work personally, common in the first-mentioned group, is clue to the environment or to the lack of adequate service facilities cannot be determined from the available data.
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From page 71... ...
Thus the exceptional features found in the Scandinavian group, such as the great amount of time devoted to literature, the large number of perioclicals regularly react, the kinds of cliff~culties encountered in keeping abreast of new developments, and the small extent to which library services were ciemancled, may stem from the difference in emphasis laid on information gathering in connection with academic studies ant! the scarcity of information services, rather than on actual national factors.
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From page 72... ...
The author wishes to express her thanks for the cooperation of the Junior Scientists Committee of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences ant! their Finnish colleagues who were queried and who responded, sparing no trouble to bring the response rate up to nearly 100~o Last, but not least, an acknowledgment is due to the Scandinavian Council for Applied Research for their interest in the project.
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From page 73... ...
The use of scientific and technical literature and reference services The rapid growth of the flow of literature has several harmful effects on technical progress: valuable research results often remain unexploited, research and development work is duplicated, and searching for as wed as reading the professional literature requires more and more time of the busy research worker. To help to improve the situation attempts have been made to find out how research workers obtain the necessary information and which are the greatest difficulties involved.
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Other publications, namely journals journals journals 8. List the foreign languages that you can read: 9.
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: 15. What are some ofthe difficulties you have in obtaining required information and keeping up with advances in your field (such as time limitations, lack of access to published material, slowness of publications, and lack of suitable abstract journals)
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