294 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1396 



Application of the quantum theory to 

 coupled electrons; suggestion. 



The subtitles, then, form in each case an 

 index of the abstract. By glancing through 

 them a reader can tell with assurance whether 

 the article deals with anything of interest to 

 him. It is well known that one can not rely 

 upon the author's title alone, for many articles 

 contain incidental information or a variety 

 of information which a short title can not 

 fully describe. The first and last articles ab- 

 stracted above are good instances of this fact. 

 On the other hand, the subtitles of this type 

 of abstract, since they may be as numerous 

 as is necessary, can give in all cases the pre- 

 cise scope of the information contained in the 

 article; in particular they can call attention 

 to incidental results whose presence would not 

 be suspected from the title, such as the data 

 relating to the occlusion of oxygen given in 

 the article on the atomic weight of iodine. 



Besides providing a complete index in the 

 form of subtitles, the abstracts are required 

 to describe the new information with sufficient 

 precision and to summarize the results with 

 sufficient completeness and in sufficient de- 

 tail to satisfy the needs of the great majority 

 of readers. Each abstract should be a care- 

 fully prepared report on the contributions to 

 scientific knowledge set forth in the article, by 

 a scientist who feels his responsibility to his 

 scientific colleagues to make it complete and 

 accurate. 



But why go to the trouble of preparing such 

 abstracts? Why not let each reader glance 

 through each article and determine what it 

 contains for himself ? Because for each scien- 

 tist to do his own abstracting, as this would 

 amount to, is as wasteful as for each to pre- 

 pare his own indexes of the reference books 

 he uses ; it means not only an unnecessary du- 

 plication of effort but, worse still, a poor 

 quality of abstracting, in most cases. Then 

 there is the waste involved in the simultaneous 

 abstracting of each article by several abstract 

 journals to be considered. Efficiency demands 

 that a good preliminary abstract be provided 

 with each article, so that all readers may bene- 



fit by the careful work of one abstracter and 

 none need abstract that article again. 



Anyone may readily convince himself of 

 the value of preliminary analytic abstracts if 

 he will turn to one of the longer articles in 

 the Astrophysical Journal since January, 1920, 

 and, after spending three to five minutes in 

 abstracting the article for himself by glancing 

 through it, will compare the information he 

 thus gains with what he might have obtained 

 in an equal time from the abstract. 



There can be no doubt, then, that good pre- 

 liminary abstracts would save much time for 

 scientists as readers, investigators and ab- 

 stractors. But is this of any importance? 

 Before the War many would have said, ~So. 

 Research was generally regarded as a hobby. 

 Now it is more generally realized that the 

 research output of the country is a matter of 

 national concern and is an important factor 

 in national progress. 



The number of scientists actively engaged 

 in research work is relatively small. Their 

 research time is corresjwndingly valuable, es- 

 pecially as it is further limited by the fact 

 that most of them have teaching or executive 

 duties which take much of their energ'y. Of 

 this time the larger the part devoted to se- 

 curing the necessary foundation of scientific 

 information, both current and past, the less 

 the part available for actual research. There- 

 fore, everything possible should be done to 

 make it as easy as practicable for each inves- 

 tigator to obtain the information he needs; 

 that is, our whole scientific information serv- 

 ice, including original scientific journals, ab- 

 stract journals, handbooks, tables, etc., should 

 be made in its parts and as a whole, as efficient 

 as possible. All this is self-evident. In this 

 note we are considering merely the scientific 

 journals. Their part is to provide preliminary 

 abstracts. And since this can be done at very 

 small additional expense to each and since the 

 saving of time for scientists would be in the 

 aggregate considerable, surely there can be 

 no question as to the advisability of the adop- 

 tion of this policy by every scientific journal. 



What obstacles stand in the way? The ad- 

 ditional expense is, as just stated, small. The 



