The Life Sciences Recent Progress and Application to Human Affairs The World of Biological Research Requirements for the Future (1970) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 411-418
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From page 411... ...
Such listings are provided in special fields, for example, through a collaboration between the American Society of Plant Taxonomists and the International Organization of 'Plans Biosystematists, and in a more general way through the federally sponsored Scientific Information Exchange of the Smithsonian Institution. The latter records both federally and privately sponsored research projects actually ir1 progress and covers much of primary life sciences research, distributing abstracts upon request to scientists, policy-makers, administrators, and reporters.
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From page 412... ...
Most scientists are frustratingly aware that, however diligently they try to keep up with the literature, they can never read all that is potentially valuable or germane to their own interests. Although they may be concerned, few bench scientists are actually alarmed by this situation; most consider that they remain reasonably au courant with the leading edges of their own disciplines through a combination of regular reading, attendance at meetings, seminars in their own institutions, and the informal operation of "invisible colleges." This is particularly true of those whose research can be confined to a relatively narrow specialty, be it renal disease, virus structure, or resistance to smut infection.
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From page 413... ...
The editor's task is to decline work that is duplicative, incompetent, incorrect, or totally pedestrian. This set of editorial judgments is the backbone of the scientific information system; it protects the inexpert reader and those who provide research funds while assuring scientists in the field that published work has been performed with competence and that the Endings are probably reliable.
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From page 414... ...
Since federal granting agencies have agreed that publication is intrinsic to research projects, these charges are legitimately defrayed from research grants, thus lessening the burden upon institutional
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From page 415... ...
An attractive alternative is publication of volumes containing only summary abstracts, as tried by the new publication, Communications in Behavioral Biology~; after scanning the abstracts, readers order complete texts of the articles of interest to them. Future Forms of Primary Publication Rapid development of computer technology and the prospect that scientists eventually may have computer consoles on their desks suggests that the days of printed journals are numbered.
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From page 416... ...
The volume of the biological literature and its range of subject matter are such that, without some qualitative judgments, a simple count of the number of primary journals or the number of papers is an insufficient criterion of the contribution of the life scientists of a given nation to the development of the science. To make some assessment of the American contribution to the world literature, the Biological Sciences Communication Project of the George Washington University was commissioned to undertake a limited study, some of the results of which are summarized in Tables 65 through 68.
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From page 417... ...
(Source: Biological Sciences Communication Project, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.) Spot checks were made in four disciplinary areas: aquatic biology, pediatrics, biochemistry, and pharmacology and toxicology.
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From page 418... ...
% No. % TOTALS 177 100.0 194 100.0 696 100.0 829 100.0 Societies 65 36.7 92 47.4 196 28.2 348 42.0 Government 18 10.2 18 9.3 450 64.7 53 6.4 Commercial Publisher 83 46.9 71 36.6 49 7.0 258 31.1 Relevant Industry 11 6.2 1 3 6.7 1 0.1 1 70 20.5 Source: Data from the Biological Sciences Communication Project of the George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
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