8. Do you ever find the subtitles of value as 

 an index of the abstract? 



sometimes G3.0 per ceut. of readers, 



never 12.7 per cent, of readers. 



75.7 per cent. 



Since the subtitles also serve the purpose of 

 assisting in the compilation of a complete sub- 

 ject index and tend to insure more complete 

 abstracts, it is believed this feature should be 

 retained. Only three readers definitely objected 

 to the form of the analytic abstracts. 



It is the practice of both these journals to 

 submit all authors' abstracts to an abstract 

 editor to be revised or of necessary rewritten, 

 in conformity with the standards adopted. 

 While a few authors have objected to having 

 their abstracts "robbed of individuality," a 

 number of readers specially called attention to 

 the importance of having the abstracts edited 

 so that a uniform standard might be main- 

 tained. It can safely be affirmed that since 

 most authors are inexperienced in writing ab- 

 stracts and also differ widely in their ideas of 

 the function of the abstract, authors' abstracts 

 if not thoroughly edited are sure to fall far 

 short of rendering the service which prelim- 

 inary abstracts should render, even if detailed 

 instructions are furnished. But after the 

 edited abstracts begin to appear regularly, they 

 gradually establish a standard to which authors 

 will conform more and more closely as time 

 goes on, and therefore the amount of editing 

 required will become less and less. 



Finally, mention should be made of the sug- 

 gestion of several readers that larger type be 

 used for the abstracts than has been the cus- 

 tom. Since more people read the abstracts 

 than read the articles, it would seem obvious 

 that the type of the abstracts should be at least 

 as large as that of the articles. 



