678 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1459 



exci'tation. Fortunately, Professor J. A. Det- 

 lefsen, who has cooperated with the writer ever 

 since the first eases of disequilibration appear- 

 ed, is able to devote a sabbatical year at the 

 Wistar Institute to the further investigation 

 of the facts above described. 



C. E. Griffith 

 Depaktment of Psychology, 

 ITniveksity of Illinois 



THE USEFULNESS OF ANALYTIC 

 ABSTRACTS 



The various ways in which preliminary ab- 

 stracts should be of service to scientific readers 

 were pointed out about a year ago^, but whether 

 such abstracts as actually prepared and pub- 

 lished would 'be worth while could be deter- 

 mined only by experiment. This has been 

 done. After analytic abstracts had been ap- 

 pearing in the Astrophysical Journal and the 

 Physical Review^ for over two years the fol- 

 lowing return post-card questionnaire was sent 

 by the chairman of the Division of Physical 

 Sciences of the National Research Council to 

 each re9,der, with the request that he under- 

 score in each parenthesis the word or words 

 which represent his answer to the question im- 

 plied: 



I look tlirougli (the Astrophysical Journal, the 

 Physical Review) regularly. Before reading the 

 artieles, I read the abstracts (always, usually, 

 sometimes, seldom, oaever). Instead of reading 

 the articles, I read the abstracts in (many, some, 

 few, no) cases. The abstracts have helped me 

 understand the articles in (some, few, no) eases. 

 The abstracts have proved useful in locating in- 

 formation in (some, few, no) cases. I read the 

 subtitles in the abstracts first (sometimes, never). 

 I find the subtitles of value as an index of the 

 abstract (sometimes, never). The abstracts in 

 general give (too much, too little, (about enough) 

 information. I think they should be continued 

 (yes, no). 



I have the following suggestions to make : 



1" Scientific Abstracting" by G. S. Fulcher, 

 Science 54, 291, September 30, 1921. 



- The preliminary abstracts in ,the Physical Be- 

 view are called "Synopses" to distinguish them 

 from the abstracts of papers presented at meet- 

 ings which are printed in connection with the 

 proceedings of the SiOcieS;y. 



Replies were received from 805 readers, 

 including 83 readers of the Astrophysical Jour- 

 nal, 502 readers of the Physical Beview, and 

 220 readers of 'both. Although the answers 

 from the three groups have been tabulated sep- 

 arately, the results are so nearly the same for 

 each that only the results for all readers, that 

 is, the percentages of all readers answering 

 each question in each alternative way, will be 

 given here. Since some replies are incom- 

 plete, the sum of the iiercentages is usually 

 less than 100. 



1. Boxv frequently are the abstracts read he- 

 fore the articles? 



always by 41.9 per cent, of readers. 



usually by 45.9 per cent, of readers. 



sometimes b}' 9.9 per cent, of readers. 



seldom by 2.1 per cent, of readers. 



never by 0.2 per cent, of readers. 



100.0 per cent. 



3. How many abstracts are read instead of 

 the articles? 



44.5 per cent, of readers. 



39.7 per cent, of readers. 



9.5 per cent, of readers. 



2.6 per cent, of readers. 



96.3 per cent. 



3. How many abstracts helped in understand- 

 ing the articles? 



some helped 58.1 per cent, of readers, 



few helped 17.7 per cent, of readers, 



none helped 11.8 per cent, of readers. 



87.6 per cent. 



4. Hoxo many abstracts have proved useful in 

 locating information ? 



some useful to 59.3 per cent, of readers, 

 few useful to 16.6 per cent, of readers, 

 none useful to 11.4 per cent, of readers. 



87.3 per cent. 



5. Should the abstracts be continued? 



yes 92.8 per cent, of readers, 



no 4.0 per cent, of readers. 



96.8 per cent. 



Since the abstracts are read, always or usu- 

 ally, by 88 per cent, of the readers; are read 



many 

 some 

 few 

 none 



by 

 by 



