Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



39 



cism through every bureau in the Department before 

 it is released. Even if no changes whatever are made, 

 the process is time-consuming. 



Another factor wliich may interfere with prompt 

 publication of scientific findings is pressure to use 

 printing funds for popular reports, or j'eports having 

 publicity value. 



Publication Through Nongovernmental Channels 



The general inadequacy of publication funds and the 

 delays incident to Government prmting have led in 

 many cases to the selection of second choice media for 

 the publication of scientific articles. If the Govern- 

 ment's scientific output is less impressive than it was a 

 generation ago, it is perhaps because to an increasing 

 extent imi)ortant findings are leleased through tech- 

 nical societies and nongovernmental scientific journals. 

 The Bureau of Chemistry and Soils is speaking for 

 governmental research agencies generally when it re- 

 ports that "most of the technical papers prepared in 

 the Bureau appear in outside publications." 



While this method of disseminating research findings 

 is certainly superior to nonpublication, and in some 

 fields may be the best means of presenting scientific 

 data, it has certain drawbacks which have been well 

 summarized by the technological branch of the Bu- 

 reau of Mines : 



In the first place it is difficult, if not impossible, to earmark 

 these publications as coming from the Bureau, which seriously 

 handicaps Bureau morale. Further, it provides none or insufli- 

 cient reprints for answering inquiries and tinally it orients the 

 staff toward the technical societies and technical editors who 

 take the place of the supervisory staff in passing on the quality 

 of the work done by tlie staff. 



Reproduction of research materials by processes 

 other than printing may be used in some cases as a 

 partial solution of the publication problem, but it is 

 a solution which will remain of limited application 

 until a legally acceptable definition of the term "print- 

 ing" has been agreed upon.*' The only genuinely satis- 

 factory solution lies in congressional appropriations 

 for research which include adequate sums for printing 

 research findings. It is hoped that congestion in the 

 Government Printing Office will be relieved by com- 

 pletion of the present building program, probably 

 early in 1940. 



Coordination Within the Government 



Coordination between Federal research agencies is 

 essential in the interest both of science and of effi- 

 ciency. — Coordination between research agencies serves 



• In this connection see tlie Report of a Special Committee on Methods 

 of Production and Distribution of Printed and Duplicated Material, 

 April 6, 1938. 



both an administrative and a scientific purpose. The 

 administrative purpose is that of programming re- 

 search activities to avoid duplication and to carry on 

 service functions more eifectively. The scientific pur- 

 pose is to allocate research functions to those agencies 

 best equipped to prosecute them, to keep workers in 

 any given field informed of the activities of others in 

 the same field, and to bring to bear on any specific 

 problem the resources of all the sciences capable of 

 contributing to a solution. 



Although the scientific work of the Federal Gov- 

 ermnent is departmentalized and subdivided among 

 numerous bureaus and offiices, these functional divi- 

 sions should not, and in the main do not, prevent con- 

 centration upon a single problem of the resources of 

 many agencies. As the functions of the bureaus have 

 berome specialized, the machinery for cooijeration and 

 collaboration has grown up to a point of high oper- 

 ating efficiency. By means of joint committees or in- 

 formal discussions, agencies dealing with similar prob- 

 lems avoid duplication and make more effective use of 

 facilities and accumulated knowledge; by formal con- 

 tract, often involving transfer of funds, specialized 

 phases of a more general research problem may be 

 investigated by one agency for another; and by loan 

 or exchange of personnel, those scientific workers who 

 are best fitted to conduct a given investigation may do 

 so under the auspices of some bureau other than their 

 own. 



Interbureau Committees 



The interbureau committee or less formal discussion 

 of program between bureau chiefs is extensively used 

 to coordinate the work of agencies dealing with a sim- 

 ilar problem from the point of view of different 

 sciences or circumstances. The best examples are the 

 committees of the Department of Agriculture which, 

 imder the Director of Research, coordinate the pro- 

 gram of the Department as a whole; and the inter- 

 departmental committees which coordinate the scien- 

 tific work of the Army and Navy. 



The committee organization may be permanent and 

 formal, like that of the National Advisory Committee 

 for Aeronautics; it may take the form of standing sub- 

 committees within a single department, such as the 

 interbureau committees for land-use coordination and 

 for correlation of soils research within the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture; or it maj' amount to no more 

 than a division of the field to be covered, through 

 informal discussion among responsible officials. For 

 example, the Bureau of Plant Industry is concerned 

 with the development of wheat which will grow under 

 certain specified conditions and will have certain de- 

 sired properties. The Bureau of Chemistry and Soils 



