38 



National Resources Com/mittee 



spend large sums for research without providing ade- 

 quate sums for publishing research findings. With 

 the exception of projects of secret nature bearing on 

 the national defense, governmental research fails to 

 achieve its purpose insofar as findings are unavailable 

 to those who may be interested in them. 



Printing Funds Inadequate 



Thuugli the volume of research conducted under 

 Government auspices has materially increased in the 

 last twu decades, funds for printing have not increased 

 in proportion, and in some cases have actually been 

 reduced despite rising costs. The Division of Scien- 

 tific Inquiry of the Bureau of Fisheries, for example, 

 reports that: 



With the expansion of the scientific program in recent years 

 and the nddition of new technical personnel has come a curtail- 

 ment of the Budget for printing the results of new work thus 

 undertaken. Many researches, therefore, of considerable theo- 

 retical and practical significance are completed and the results 

 are buried in the files without serving the purpose for which 

 the taxpayer's money was spent. 



Put more concretely, the total maximum appropria- 

 tion to the National Park Service for all printing needs 

 was cut 3 years ago from $50,000 to $2G,000, while the 

 administrative load was increased. As a result, most 

 of the available printing fund goes into forms and let- 

 terheads, with not more than $2,500 left for printing 

 research findings. The Bureau of Standards printing 

 fund was similarly cut from $75,000 in 1932 to $33,000 

 in 1937, although the same research fimctions are being 

 carried on. 



As long as publication funds remain inadequate, 

 masses of valuable data accumulate for which there is 

 no satisfactory outlet. Many of the data prepared by 

 the Division of Geodesy of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey, for example, "are now sent out m photostat form 

 at the expense of the applicant or in letter form requir- 

 ing considerable time for typing. If these data were 

 available in printed form they would be used by thou- 

 sands of engineers who do not now know of their exist- 

 ence." Publication of material now in the files of the 

 Division would cost about $75,000 at Government Print- 

 ing Office prices. The annual sum available for print- 

 ing, however, is approximately $3,300. 



The enormous growth of scientific functions without 

 provision for increasing the published output is best 

 illustrated by the experience of the Office of Experiment 

 Stations. The Experiment Station Record is issued 

 monthly for the purpose of making generally available 

 brief summaries of the current publications of the ex- 

 periment stations and the Department of Agriculture, 

 the contributions of workers in these institutions ap- 

 pearing in scientific journals and other channels, and a 



considerable volume of other literature pertaining to 

 research in agricultural science or otherwise of interest 

 in this field. The teclmical staff of the office reviews ap- 

 proximately 100,000 titles annually, abstracting for the 

 Record between 6,500 and 7,500 articles. This obviously 

 inadequate coverage is the result of an annual space 

 limit of 1,800 pages imposed in 1911. 



At that time the aggregate income of the State experiment 

 stations was less than $4,000,0tX) annually and their scientific 

 staffs numbered less than l,tiOO workers. In 1936 approxi- 

 mately 3,800 members of the staffs were engaged in research 

 part-time or whole-time and the aggregate expenditures totaled 

 about $16,000,000. The station output in publication has been 

 greatly increased both through stations' series and through 

 scientific journals. Other research agencies in the field of 

 agriculture and home economics, including the Federal Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, have shown a similar increase in activity, 

 and such subjects as agricultural economics, rural sociology, 

 agricultural engineering, genetics, and home economics have 

 made practically their entire development during the past 

 quarter of a century. 



Publication Unnecessarily Slow 



Even where X'easonably adequate appropriations for 

 publication are available, the printing service is often 

 much too slow to permit the release of timely informa- 

 tion through Government channels. This is due to a 

 combination of circumstances, among them being the 

 over-crowded conditions in the present Government 

 Printing Office building and delays in the departments 

 in checking, verifying, correcting, and returning proofs 

 to the Goveriunent Printing Office. Lapses of as much 

 as 18 months are not uncommon; and where funds are 

 curtailed, publication of manuscripts may be held up 

 for 5 or 6 years, if indeed they reach the public at all. 

 Even those agencies which issue periodicals, such as 

 the Journal of Agricultural Research^ the Journal of 

 Research of the National Bureau of Standards, and 

 the Reclamation Era, experience delays in getting re- 

 search findings before the public. As in the case of 

 the Experiment Station Record, publication facilities 

 have not kept pace with expanding research programs, 

 and in some cases, such as that of the Monthly Weather 

 Review, they have been materially cut down. 



A part of the delay in printing is no doubt attrib- 

 utable to the precautions taken to insure accuracy. 

 There is a tendency on the part of the generrJ public 

 to accept implicitly the pronouncements of govern- 

 mental agencies; and there is therefore a very definite 

 responsibility, not only to be right, but to be sure the 

 findings are presented without possibility of misinter- 

 pretation. Wliere the academic scientist may submit 

 a paper embodying his findings to two or three of his 

 colleagues before publishing it, the report of a scientist 

 in the Department of Agriculture is routed for criti- 



