Genre:

Editorial

Subjects:

Specialization, Publishing, Science Communication, Periodicals, Societies

Publications cited:

Blake 1891–94 Official Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of Great Britain and Ireland Index Medicus

    Reports that 'Scientific workers are complaining of the ever-increasing difficulty of keeping abreast of current scientific literature, even the literature of one particular science. As Dr. Armstrong said, in a recent address to the Chemical Society, even the specialist can never be certain that some one whom he had never heard of had years before thought his thoughts, made his experiments, and arrived at his conclusions. Yet no one has invented a Scientific Review of Reviews, and those devoted to science are compelled to make shift as best they may with such Year-Books and "Transactions" of societies as are published from time to time'. Surveys the inadequate attempts that have been made to provide an index of scientific work, noting that the 'Catalogue of the Royal Society, too, must have turned out very incomplete and unsatisfactory, judging by the circular letter of March 22, 1894, on the question of an International Catalogue of Scientific Publications, stating that the Society had appointed a committee to inquire into and report upon its feasibility through international co-operation, and that the proposed new catalogue would not commence till January 1, 1900'.