Scientific Information Transfer: The Editor’s Role: Proceedings of the First International Conference of Scientific Editors, April 24–29, 1977, Jerusalem

652 Pages·1978·23.605 MB·English

by  Klaus-Dieter Lehmann (auth.), Miriam Balaban (eds.)

Scientific Information Transfer: The Editor's Role
Scientific Information
Transfer:
The Editor's Role
Proceedings oft he First International Conference of
Scientific Editors, April 24-29, 1977, Jerusalem
edited by
Miriam Balaban
National Council for Research and Development, Jerusalem
Center for Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University
Editor of Desalination
D. Reidel Publishing Company
Dordrecht : Holland / Boston: U.S.A. / London: England
library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
International Conference of Scientific Editors, 1st, Jerusalem, 1977.
Scientific information transfer.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Information storage and retrieval systems-Science-Congresses. 2. Communication in
science-Congresses. 3. Editing-Congresses. 4. Technical writing-Congresses.
1. Balaban, Miriam. II. Title. III. Title: Information transfer.
Z699.5.S3I56 1977 029:9'5 78-16120
ISBN-13:~m et'lSiml\l;J)~)~6
001: '<lU<IIJ1719~~Ql.MGJ(i6
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company,
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All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 1978 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1978
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
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UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF
Ephraim Katzir, President of the State of Israel
The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
SPONSORS AND PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS
National Council for Research and Development, Jerusalem
Institut fur Dokumentationswesen, Frankfurt/Main
Bureau National de l'Information Scientifique et Technique, Paris
Commission of the European Communities
UNESCO
Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
Jerusalem International Book Fair
Center for the Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University
The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
Biological Abstracts - BIOSIS
Nordic Publishing Board in Science, Oslo
The Ciba Foundation, London
European Association of Editors of Biological Periodicals (ELSE)
Council of Biology Editors (CBE)
Association of Scientific Journals (ASJ)
Editerra
Association of Earth Science Editors (AESE)
Editeast
Aliterra
IUB Committee of Biochemical Journals (CEBJ)
Association of Philosophy Journal Editors
Ad hoc Council of Social Science Editors
Committee on International Publication in Anthropology (CIPA)
Commission of Editors of Journals Concerned with Clinical Chemistry (CEJCCC)
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Miriam Balaban, Chairma:n
National Council for Research and Development, Jerusalem;
Center for the Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University
Martin Cremer, Institut fur Dokumentationswesen, Frankfurt/Main
Knut Faegri, International Union of Biological Sciences. President;
Botanical Museum, Bergen University
Karl Heumann, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology,
Rockville, Md.
Ernest Mann, Commonwealth Bureau of Dairy Science and Technology,
Shinfield, Reading, Berks.
Jacques Michel, Bureau National de l'Information Scientifique et Technique,
Paris
Gillian Page, Cambridge University Press, London
Udo Schutzsack, Institut fur Dokumentationswesen, Frankfurt/Main
v
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Joseph Agassi, Boston University and Tel-Aviv University
William G. Askew, The Institution of Electrical Engineers, Stevenage, Herts
Paul Nijhoff Asser, International Group of Scientific, Technical and
Medical Publishers, Amsterdam
*
James Barsky, Academic Press, New York, N.Y.
Robert N. Beck, Clark University, Worcester, Mass.
Uri Bloch, Scientific Department of Defense, Haifa
Edward E. Booher, National Enquiry into Scholarly Communication,
Princeton, N.J.
*
D. H. Michael Bowen, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C.
*
Robert A. Day, American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C.
Patricia Wood Dickerson, Gulf Research and Development Co., Houston, Texas
Elwood Gann~tt, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
New York, N.Y.
Michael Harris, Wiley-Interscience, New York, N.Y.
Yitzhak Katznelson, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Stanford University
*
H. Edward Kennedy, Biological Abstracts - BIOSIS, Philadelphia, Pa.
Claude Liebecq, University of Liege
James Lufkin, Honeywell, Minneapolis, Minn.
Anders Martinsson, University of Uppsala
James L. McCartney, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.
John Metcalfe, Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, London
*
Kenneth Metzner, American Institute of Physics, New York, N.Y.
Nehemya Meyers, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
Anthony Michaelis, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, London
Shigeo Minowa, University of Tokyo Press
Maeve O'Connor, The Ciba Foundation, London
Moshe Prywes, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva
Aart Rutgers, PUDOC, Centre for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation,
Wageningen
Nathan Sharon, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
E.C. Slater, University of Amsterdam
*
George Trigg, Brookhaven National Laboratories, L.I.
Alvin Weinberg, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Alfred B. Willcox, Mathematical Association of America, Washington, D.C.
Peter Woodford, Institute for Research into Mental and Multiple
Handicap, London
* U.S. Program Committee
PREFACE
It was Faraday who in 1821 said that there are three necessary stages of
useful research. The first to begin it, the second to· end it, and the third
to publish it.1
There has since indeed been so much research and publication that we
have become increasingly alarmed by the galloping proliferation of scientific
information produced in relation to the user's ability to retrieve and consume
it effectively, conveniently and creatively.
In 1948, to deal with this concern, the Royal Society Scientific Infor
mation Conference held in London1 spanned the whole realm of scientific in
formation. Sir Robert Robinson, President of the Royal Society, in his open
ing address noted that "the study of scientific information services in all
its ramifications has enormous scope", and the London conference dealt with
scientific publication, format, editorial policy, subject grouping, organiza
tion, abstracting, reviews, classification, indexing and training of infor
mation officers.
It was about this time that information science began to develop more on
the retrieval end, so it seems logical that the first editors' group founded
in 1949 was ICSU AB, the International Council of Scientific Unions Abstract
ing Board.
In 1958 the National Academy of Sciences International Conference of
Scientific Information in Washington2 limited its interests and expanded on
the later phases of the life cycle of information - storage and retrieval.
As Sir Lindor Brown, Senior Secretary of the Royal Society said in his open
ing address there, whereas in London they had dealt with the subject from
cradle to the grave, here (he dare not say), they were dealing with burial
and disinterring. He further said that "the three parties in the cycle of
information are the maker, the storer and the supplier, and the user who is
often the maker also."
In the intervening years we have come to elaborate on these parties
(links, estates or stations as they are alternatively called) as author,
editor, publisher, librarian, documentalist (archivist, information scien
tist), and user
Although at the Royal Society editorial quality as well as technicali
ties were discussed in depth and detail, no mention is made of the editor's
role. Somehow the editorial function is incorporated as an integral part of
the process. The editor is swallowed whole. That scientists should strive
to improve and maintain quality of writing and presentation is stressed but
the role of the editor, methodology and training are not considered. And of
course, in Washington the meeting, as declared, was devoted not to input but
to output.
It has been just since 1958, however, that we have seen editors' asso
ciations spring up in various disciplines and regions. It was about that
time that the National Science Foundation's Office of Science Information
Services and the American Institute of Biological Sciences founded CBE, the
Council of Biology Editors. Out of.my attendance at the 1962 CBE annual
meeting, the late Fred Cagle's encouragement, with CBE's blessings and
vii
viii PREFACE
UNESCO's aid sprouted ELSE in 1964. UNESCO initiated the creation of edi
tors' associations and cooperation of editors in Europe in various disci
plines: life sciences, earth sciences, chemistry, physics, engineering and
mathematics, and with the ultimate aim of a world information system, UNISIST
was established in 1972.
In the earth sciences we.have Editerra in Europe, the American Earth
Sciences Editors (AESE) , Alegeo in Latin America and Editeast in the Far
East, strongly biased towards the earth sciences although dealing with sci
ence in general. There is the IUB International Committee of Editors of
Biochemical Journals (CEBJ), the Commission of Editors of Journals Concerned
with Clinical Chemistry (CEJCCC) and an embryo EdEuChem in Europe. The Amer
ican Chemical Society and the Chemical Society in the UK, are ever experi
menting and pioneering and are concerned with editors' affairs, and IUPAC is
considering the formation of an international group for chemistry editors.
Although there are no organizational structures for mathematics and physics
editors, the American Mathematical Society, American Institute of Physics
and UK Institute of Physics are actively involved in styles, standards and
practices of editing and publishing, and the European Physical Society has a
well-founded scheme for standards of Europhysics journals. In engineering
the IEEE - Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers has sponsored
important conferences in the US and the AEEP in Europe has been suggested
but not activated. The Association of Philosophy Journal Editors has an ac
tive program, and anthropology and sociology editors' associations are enthu
siastically forming as the Committee on International Publication in Anthro
pology (CIPA) and the ad hoc Council of Social Science Editors, Psychology
editors have a strong reference point in the American Psychological Associa
tion.
Important meetings have been held by the Association of Scientific Jour
nals (ASJ) in the US, and there is a proposal circulating to convert this
into a US Association for Scholarly Publishing. Its meetings in 1973, 1975
and 1977, as its chairman James Lufkin introduced' were to "unite people who
share a common interest in scientific journals but who are ordinarily sepa
rated by differences in their professional or business points of view."
There are regional and national groupings such as the Nordic Publishing
Board in Science (NOP) , the Japanese Association of Scientific Editors, and
others interested in editors' affairs such as the German GID - Gesellschaft
fur Information und Dokumentation (formerly IDW), the French Bureau National
de l'Information Scientifique et Technique (BNIST), the Commission of the
European Communities (EEC), National Science Foundation (NSF), European Sci
ence Foundation (ESF) and the Pacific Science Association. Various ICSU
groups such as lUGS, IUB, IUBS, IU Crystallography have been involved, and
private companies such as the Institute for Scientific Information (lSI) and
foundations such as the Ciba Foundation.
It is also interesting that the publishing counterpart at our input end
of the cycle, STM - the International Group of Scientific, Technical and
Medical Publishers, was founded in 1968, during this same later period of
the development of infrastructures for parties involved in scientific infor
mation.
We see a continuing process of integration and subdivision in our field
as in the disciplines of the journals we edit.
Lately there has been more and more cooperation between some of the
groups in the same region or discipline such as ELSE's disciplinary relations
with CBE or regional liaison with Editerra. The spark for this conference
was indeed lit at Ustaoset, Norway at the ELSE General Assembly when I wit
nessed American and European biology editors trying to collaborate on style,
PREFACE ix
a seemingly innocent unemotional subject. It occurred to me then and there
that for this and for similar subjects, we had to have a flag which would
join regions and disciplines and not confine our discussions to our inner
sanctums nor to this particular detail, though basic and important, but to the
myriad of matters where conmon ground was essential for. loosening the clogs
in the flow of information and reducing the cost and effort resulting from
confusion, redundant effort and fragmentation.
ELSE's 1974 council meeting in Israel sealed the mandate to charge ahead,
the organizing committee was formed, and we were off.
While each group would continue to deal with its own specific needs, and
retain loyalty to its own sub-club, we aimed to find the common ground which
was indicated for interdisciplinary and international cooperation to ease the
system from the outset, set standards, practices and philosophies to intro
duce to authors and secondary systems for quicker and better service to users.
There was much self criticism and question of who is an editor and what
is his role. There are many kinds of editors and many functions. He may be
a career scientist devoting some of his time for some period of his life to
editing. It has been expressed here that once he becomes full time editor,
he is no longer a scientist nor an editor since editing is not a profession
- not yet at leastl This,despite his devoting full time to editing where
his functions range from encouraging, inspiring scientists, identifying
fields, creating and developing publications, moderating, monitoring, exer
cising fair discerning judgement, scientific and technical preparation of
language and presentation of the author's creative efforts for publication,
suitable, timely and economic production and dissemination of literature,
and other essential functions. An editor can inspire, mediate, kill, encou
rage, discourage, transform, delay, advance, promote, hamper or help.
Only recently has there grown up a literature of communications on edi
tors' problems by editors. Courses are given and degrees awarded. We are
not yet subjected to the publish-or-perish syndrome although a few journals
have already been founded. Thus at first we were reluctant to plan for pub
lication even of these proceedings, but the interest expressed made it clear
that we, whose primary function it is to communicate, should not fail to
communicate. And perhaps now that we have the trappings of courses, degrees
and publications of our own, ours too will be considered a profession. We
hope always to maintain strong involvement of those career scientists among
us as authors and editors and users.
In this conference we perhaps have had an overabundance of papers, but
we wanted to give an opportunity to participants to express views and open
up the various concerns as far as possible to lay the groundwork for conti
nued dialogue towards cooperation. And we had no clear cut criteria for
these as yet. At the next conference we can concentrate more on specifics
and group interests and hold workshops to hammer out practical recommenda
tions, criteria, and agendas for the future.
And indeed the conference did not cease its activity in Jerusalem.
These Proceedings also include in the sequel suggestions reSUlting from a
workshop sponsored by the Ciba Foundation in London on the consolidation and
adoption of a rational system for references where we got down to the brass
tacks appealed for at the conference. In June. August and November, the
organizing committee met to plan founding of IFSEA, the International Federa
tion of Scientific Editors' Associations at UNESCO in Paris in June 1978.
Proposed statutes, still undergoing change, are presented here, as well as
the current version of suggestions for reference practices. An lSI-hosted
workshop for scientist-editors on primary journal-secondary service inter
face is envisioned, and plans for the Second International Conference in
Amsterdam are underway for 1980 fostered by Elsevier and colleagues in Holland.
x PREFACE
This volume is thus dedicated to the diverse aspects of editing towards
advancing scientific information transfer - technical and sociological norms ..
and practices. quality. refereeing and judgement. impact of new mechanical
and organizational techniques. copyright, standards and style, economics,
society and commercial publishing, primary-secondary-tertiary literature and
their interfaces. and the philosophy and sociology of science. Scientists,
editors. publishers and others concerned with information transfer have laid
bare some of their !It·titudes, policies, practices. prejudices and problems.
Besides being of interest to full or part-time scientist-editors and
technical scientific editors of all sorts. these Proceedings, we hope. will
open insights into this developing discipline for research scientists as
authors and users, for librarians and documenta1ists, students, publishers,
printers, sociologists, philosophers, communication and management scientists,
scientific administrators, forecasters and planners in universities, societies,
government and industry.
The very structure of this book illustrates some of our problems. Since
we were reluctant to publish, we didn't send out standard forms ahead of time.
Once sent, styles spontaneously submitted were original from paper to paper.
Economics dictated that we try to keep down the number of pages and cost, so
we have a compact volume. Scientists are used to writing about original
research and not about innovation or description of editorial practice, so
much of what has been said had to be deciphered and interpreted from tapes.
We do hope, however, that we have achieved the aim of making all the infor
mation available, and that this book can serve as a reference to the state
of-the-art of various facets of editi~g and scientific information transfer
and provide a stimulus to change what should be changed and promote what
should be promoted.
There are exciting prospects ahead!
February 1978 Miriam Balaban
Jerusalem
1. The Royal Society Scientific Information Conference, June 21 -
July 2, 1948. Reports and Papers Submitted, London, 1948.
2. Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific Information,
November 16-21, 1958, National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council,
Washington, D.C., 1959.
3. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, PC-18 (3), September
1975. (See also PC-20 (2), September 1977).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In addition to the special appreciation expressed in my introduction
which follows to those who made this conference possible, I wish to thank
all those who came for their active involvement and session chairmen for
guiding their ships.
Thanks to Robert S. Cohen, Chairman of the Center for Philosophy and
History of Science, Boston University for his kind support and keen advice,
to Joseph Agassi of Boston and Tel-Aviv Universities for his inspiring con
fidence and for perspectives, to Ephraim Katzir, President of Israel and of
the Weizmann Institute of Science and Shneior Lifson of the Institute for
faithful guidance, and to Wayne A. McRae, Vice President of lonics, my very
personal thanks.
Viewing in this acknowledgement a link to the future, and in appreciation
of foresight and implementation, I wish to thank R.E.M. van den Brink, Chairman
of Elsevier Publishers for readily ensuring continuity in setting sites for
our second conference, to Maeve O'Connor, senior editor of the Ciba Foundation
for her initiative in organizing an international interdisciplinary wo~kshop
on references lending practical expression to the momentum spun in Jerusalem
and ELSE, and to Eugene Garfield, president of lSI for a prospective workshop
for scientist-editors on primary-secondary interfaces, to Wolfgang LOhner of
UNESCO for hosting IFSEA.
My appreciation to Adina Basson for intelligent typing, to Eileen
Ginsburg, Anne Biderman, Leora Amira and Gwenn Cohen for devoted assistance,
and to Larry Lester and Paul Greenberg for proofreading some of the discussions.
Special thanks to Janine Pellerin and Paula for help and warm cheer, and to my
daughter Naomi for encouragement, criticism and comfort.
Again thanks to all who extended their moral, intellectual and financial
support, and again and again my unlimited gratitude to ELSE and the organizing
committee for past present and future.
Pelham, NH and Jerusalem MB