55o^ 



NATURE 



[June 30, 192 1 



Letters to the Editor. 



\T]ie Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous cotnmunications.] 



Co-operative Indexing of Periodical Literature. 



The following remarks refer to the periodical litera- 

 ture of science alone. The present lack of system in 

 indexing this leads, we all know, to a huge waste of 

 energy. If this could be saved by intelligent co- 

 operation it might be set free for more profitable 

 work. The leading article in Nature of June 9 may 

 help towards this both by the information that it 

 gives and by that which it may elicit. For example, 

 it recognises that a necessary preliminary is a survey 

 of tl-e periodicals in the libraries, and it states that 

 for the United Kingdom such a survey was prepared 

 ill 1914-15 and is in MS. at the British Museum, 

 'i his. can scarcely have been within the knowledge 

 of the Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies when it 

 issued a recent appeal for this information to the 

 scientific libraries of London, nor can it have been 

 known to the Zoological Record Committee of the 

 Zoological Society when it still more recently in- 

 structed its editor to make a similar survey for its 

 own purposes. If Nature can help forward the pub- 

 lication of a complete survey it will do good service. 



The next step, so far as this country is concerned, 

 will be to fill up gaps and to render all the periodical 

 literature of any consequence accessible to the in- 

 dexers. Your article does not touch on this, but it is 

 surely more important for us that a paper should be 

 accessible than that an index-slip for it should be 

 sent from Bulgaria or Bolivia. 



Vou consider the publication of abstracts before 

 that of the index to be indefensible. This is not clear. 

 It is possible to publish an abstract at the same time 

 as (or even before) the original paper ; the abstract 

 is complete in itself, and, since it is in the natur; 

 of news, the sooner it is distributed the better. The 

 index-slips can also be issued at the same time ; but 

 they have little ineaning until arranged in an index, 

 and the more complete the index Is, and the larger 

 (within limits) the period it covers, the better. Con- 

 sequently, the index volume falls to be published later 

 than the abstracts. The index material is of no use 

 to the abstractor, and the indexer should not work 

 from an abstract. Index and abstract are different 

 in aim, in substance, and in mode of preparation. 

 Xheir sole connection is that they deal with the same 

 material, and both demand that material to be acces- 

 sible. We return then to the primary need of com- 

 pletingf our libraries as the best way of helping- both 

 parties. 



This conclusion is opposed to your other sugges- 

 tion, that the best way, so far as science is concerned, 

 is to get index-slips from the Central Bureau of the 

 International Catalogue of Scientific Literature. If 

 this means a return to the attempt at furnishing slips 

 through a number of national bureaux, it may be 

 dismissed as discredited and now less workable than 

 ever. If it means that the Central Bureau is to 

 embark on all the work of collecting the literature, 

 analysing it, and preparing the slips, may one ask 

 if the proposer has considered whence the staff, 

 offices, and funds are to be obtained? 



Finally, what Is the use of a general conference to 

 determine the requirements of special branches of 

 knowledge? Let each branch of science look after 



NO. 2696, VOL. 107] 



its own abstracts and indexes. Probably this would 

 best be done by the leading societies, as for some- 

 sciences it already is. Any society taking the lead 

 in its own branch should receive ungrudging aid: 

 from the others who are not so ready to shoulder 

 the burden. Let general international help be con- 

 centrated on supplying the first essential, namely, the- 

 publications that are to be indexed. And so we are- 

 back where we started — at the foundation that has. 

 to be laid firmly and broadly. F. A. Bather. 



June II. 



In considering the future of indexing-, must not the- 

 method of indexing and abstracting^ depend on the- 

 purpose and future utility of abstracts? Do we want, 

 the means of manufacturing footnotes by unlimited 

 references, or a guide in research? If for research, 

 does a worker wish — or have time — to look up every- 

 reference, or does he want to get the sense of what 

 has been done that will affect him? Can all classes; 

 of subjects be treated usefully on a uniform system,. 

 or is there any reason for doing so? Can a discrimi- 

 nation be expressed between papers that advance a; 

 subject, by new facts or new arrangements, and those 

 that are inconclusive ? Should an abstractor be 

 entirely mechanical, or should any criticism he- 

 al lowed ? 



A small experience in one department, of abstract-- 

 ing the produce of some twenty foreio-n periodicals 

 (special and general) with a view to future utility,, 

 has led me to adopt the following standard :■ — 



(i) State briefly every new fact and arfj;^ument that 

 leads to a definite result. 



(2) .Add references to any confirmatory or contra- 

 dictory facts that have been omitted. 



(^) Suggest If the paper is essential. 



Such abstracts should be indexed at suitable- 

 intervals. 



Some such standard seems likely to be the most 

 useful for present reading and future research, In some 

 subjects. How far would such a standard be desirable 

 or applicable to different subjects? How far can In- 

 dividuals be found to make themselves responsible for 

 dealing with their own special branch? 



Too often, after struggling through thorn-brakes 

 of German, or seas of Italian diffuseness. one emerges 

 at the same point again, and finds that the whole Is 

 a rhetorical exercise. Should not workers be protected 

 from such writing? Think of the future, with an- 

 other century of accumulated writing, even at the. 

 present rate. W. M. Flinders Petrie. 



I am in entire sympathy with the leading article in- 

 Nature of June 9 on the subject of the co-operative 

 indexing of scientific communications to periodicals. 

 If, however, any scheme is to be carried out efficiently 

 competent workers must be employed, and they must 

 be adequately paid, which Is no easy matter in these 

 days. 



i cannot, however, subscribe on the scientific side 

 to the assumption that there Is any considerable 

 amount of periodical literature consisting of " water- 

 tight compartments containing homogeneous material " 

 presenting "no special difficulties" in Indexing. The 

 different sciences are becoming more and more inter-- 

 dependent. For example, geological Investigators are 

 continually In need of results obtained In other spheres 

 of work, such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, geo- 

 detics, botany, and zoology. Numerous facts Impor- 

 tant to geologists also occur scattered through tech- 

 nical mining publications. It Is important that all 

 these fields should be gleaned in the interests oF 



