No. 15. [From Nature, August 10, 1893, Vol. XLVIII, 

 p. 340.] 



THE PUBLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC 

 PAPERS 



THE discussion of this important subject has been started 

 a propos of physical papers, but the publication of papers in 

 all branches of science is in an equally unsatisfactory state. 



Prof. Lodge, in his letter in your issue of July 27, after 

 paying attention to the preparation of useful abstracts of all 

 papers on physical subjects, appearing both at home and 

 abroad, calls attention to what has always appeared to me to 

 be the most important matter for reform, namely, the means 

 and methods of publication of English scientific papers. 



There is no complaint more frequently heard abroad than 

 that important papers of English scientific men are almost 

 inaccessible to the foreigner, because it has been the fashion 

 to communicate them to local societies and to rest content 

 with such publication as is secured by their being printed 

 in the Society's Proceedings or Transactions. If these 

 societies distributed their publications liberally where there 

 are students who ought to have the opportunity of reading 

 them, and without taking account of whether they receive 

 in exchange a publication of an equal number of pages, the 

 evil would be much less. But this is not so. It is notorious 

 to take, for instance, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, with 

 which I am best acquainted, and which is not by any means 

 the least liberal in the matter of distribution that unless 

 the author distributes lavishly separate copies of his paper 

 in every quarter where he considers it important that it 

 should be read, it will pass unnoticed, and a worker in the 

 same branch of science will not consider that he is open to 



