FEB. 19, 1921 sosman: distribution of scientific information 83 



the fact that it might even become unprofitable to send the American 

 Machinist to any machinist but a master mechanic. 



In this connection I may note an interesting experiment now 

 being made by the American Chemical Society. Considering the 

 possible profit from advertising as well as the desirability of serving 

 its industrial members, the Society in 1909 founded the Journal of 

 Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, which has advertising and 

 business offices, and an editor who devotes all his time to the Journal. 

 The profit from this journal in 1919 was such that the Society was 

 enabled to do publishing and other work that would have required 

 an increase in dues of $3.00 per year for its 15,500 members, had this 

 aid not been available. 



To summarize: Scientific and technological periodicals and bul- 

 letins reach the producers of information in overwhelming bulk. 

 The extreme heterogeneitv of the material and its subdivision into 

 many units of publication combine with this bulk to make them rela- 

 tively ineft'ective distributors of information even to the producing 

 class. With respect to the general public, their small circulation 

 makes them almost negligible as channels of distribution (with the 

 possible exception of certain Federal bulletins of wide circulation), 

 and public libraries can do little to offset this disadvantage, for the 

 average library has not the facilities for handling them all. The 

 type of periodical which is published for profit is affected in all these 

 respects by its dependence upon advertising. 



Separates. ^^ — In an effort to prevent the complete drowning and 

 submergence of their work in the general current, many investigators 

 during the last half-century have adopted the plan of getting "re- 

 prints" of their published work, and distributing these by mail to 

 persons whom they know to be interested in the subject. In recent 

 years this method has even been adopted by some research institu- 

 tions, such as the Geophysical Laboratory and the Mt. Wilson Observa- 

 tory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the Research 

 Laboratory of Physical Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology. ^^ A few organizations carry stocks of separates 

 for sale {e.g., the Franklin Institute). 



'^ Commonly (but incorrectly) called "reprints" in this country. A better term is 

 "offprints" (separata, extraits, Sonderabdriicke). 



'* Separates from periodicals are occasionally used by the Federal bureaus; for example, 

 separates from the National Geographic Magazine by the U. S. Reclamation Service. Sep- 

 arates from their own periodicals are also distributed; for example, from the Journal of 

 Agricultural Research and the Proceedings of the National Museum. 



