292 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



Louise Kelley served as Scientific Assistant until February 1946, at which 

 time L. H. Farinholt, formerly Technical Aide in Division 8, was given 

 this appointment. By November 1946, when Farinholt left OSRD, prac- 

 tically all the manuscripts and illustrations for the Summary Technical 

 Reports had been submitted by the divisions and panels. From then on the 

 Executive Secretary in his capacity as contracting officer was directed to 

 exercise supervision of the contract, which is to continue until publication 

 of the reports is completed early in 1948. 



2. Articles in Periodicals. Up to June 22, 1945, OSRD referred proposals 

 for publication of specific articles relating to work under NDRC auspices 

 to the War and Navy Departments, which were asked to state whether the 

 publication would assist in the war effort. Unless such a positive affirmation 

 was made by one or the other Service, privilege of publication was with- 

 held. This policy, desirable in the first part of the war, stemmed publication 

 to a trickle, for it was only in rare instances that so positive a statement 

 could or would be made. By June 1945, it was evident that a more aggres- 

 sive policy was desirable in order to start a flow of properly publishable 

 material, both in the popular and in the scientific press. Accordingly, at a 

 meeting on June 22, 1945, the Committee on Publications recommended a 

 change in policy to the Director. After details of procedure had been worked 

 out, the new policy was made effective on August i, 1945. 



This new policy frankly set out to get as much useful and appropriate 

 scientific information into the regular technical journals as could be properly 

 done before the floodgates were finally opened. It encouraged employees of 

 OSRD contractors to prepare technical papers on their own time whenever 

 they felt that the subject was one with which they would, as scientists, have 

 wished to deal under normal conditions. These papers were submitted to 

 the Committee on Publications by Division Chiefs and Panel Chiefs who 

 indicated their views as to whether publication was in the public interest 

 and as to whether the papers were fair to other workers in the field, espe- 

 cially those of our Allies. Each paper was reviewed in the Office of the 

 Chairman of the Committee on Publications to be sure that it could be 

 published without prejudice to Government patent rights or to the over-all 

 publication program of OSRD; at the same time the office of the Chairman 

 of NDRC referred the paper to the Army and the Navy with a request for 

 a ruling on publishability based solely on the criterion of military security. 

 Under this policy a number of papers were passed for publication covering 

 a wide variety of fields. 



This was, of course, only a drop in the bucket; and it was highly desirable 

 as declassification of fields progressed, as patent applications were filed, and 

 as men returned to their home bases outside any jurisdiction of OSRD that 

 the entire system of controls be eliminated and publication be restored to a 

 close approximation of a peacetime basis. This situation had been reached 

 by late January 1946, and at a meeting on January 24, 1946, the Committee 



