284 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



Zoological Bibliography and Publication. — Report of Committee 

 (Prof. E. B. Poulton, Chairman ; Dr. F. A. Bather, Secretary ; 

 Dr. W. T. Calman, Mr. B. Heron- Allen, Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, 

 Mr. W. L. Sclater). 



During the past year inquiries have continued to reach your Committee on various 

 points of detail and have been answered by letter and by sending the relevant report. 

 In particular the Committee was consulted by the Editor of the Journal of the South- 

 Eastern Agricultural College, and he has adopted many of the suggestions made. 



The Committee notes with pleasure the publication, by the Oxford University Press 

 in 1925 and 1927, of the World List of Scientific Periodicals (1900-1921), and strongly 

 urges that in the making of brief references to literature the contractions used for 

 the titles of periodicals should always be those which have been most carefully drawn 

 up by Dr. A. W. Pollard and Mr. W. A. Smith, and printed in the second volume of 

 that work. Authors and editors should at least make themselves acquainted with the 

 rules and principals of abbreviation explained on pp. ix, x of that volume. To 

 aid them in so doing, we are permitted, by courtesy of the Council of Management of 

 the World List, to reproduce those pages as an Appendix to this report. 



The Committee also welcomes the establishment of a Committee on Bibliography 

 by the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation. In the deliberations of 

 the section dealing with the bibliography of the biological sciences Dr. Chalmers 

 Mitchell, a member of your Committee, has already taken part. 



Your Committee asks for its reappointment with a grant of £1 for postage of 

 this report. 



APPENDIX. 



Abbreviation of Titles of Periodicals. 

 Reprinted from the World List of Scientific Periodicals. 



Titles of periodicals have been abridged on a plan which, it is hoped, will enable 

 users of the Index to reconstruct all of any reasonable length. It will be a great 

 satisfaction if for titles using commonly recurring scientific and technical phrasing 

 stable abbreviations have been achieved. For less common technical titles this is 

 hardly to be expected, but even here, it is hoped, some progress has been made towards 

 a consistent usage. 



Prepositions and articles are normally omitted. In English titles capitals are used 

 throughout. In other languages nouns have capital, adjectives small, initial letters : 

 Bulletin of the] Scientific] Soc[iety of] N[ew] Y[ork]. 

 Publications de la] Soc[iete] sci[entifique de 1'] Aisne. 



The conjunction ' and ' (with the corresponding words in other languages) is 

 omitted, except in titles consisting only of two nouns connected by ' and ', and where 

 it connects broken compounds : 



Coal and Iron. 



land- u[nd] forstwfirtschaftliche] Blfatter]. 



Number is not distinguished (Bl.=Blatt and Blatter) ; nor in English is any 

 distinction attempted between substantive and adjectival forms (Sci.= Science, 

 Sciences, and Scientific). Where possible, cognate words in all languages are reduced 

 to the same form : 



Academy, Academie, Academia ......> Acad. 



Annals, Annales, Annalen, Annali ...... >Ann. 



Science, Scienza, Seiencia .......> Sci. 



Society, Societe, Societa, Sociedad, Sociedade, Societas, Societate, 



Societat ..........> Soc. 



Normally the place of imprint is omitted (except when needed to distinguish 

 periodicals with the same title) ; but when the abbreviated form would leave it 

 uncertain what was the language of the original, the imprint is added for all except 

 the best-known language of those between which confusion could arise, taking the 

 order of familiarity as being : (i) English ; (ii) French ; (iii) German ; (iv) Italian or 

 Spanish. 



