Choice and Chance in Scientific Communication
Louis P. Hammett · Chemical & Engineering News · 1961
Our system of scientific communication originated in an older and far simpler period, a period in which the total storehouse of accumulated information and the rate of production of new information were both small enough so that little if any selectivity on the part of the scientist as receiver of information was necessary. It has persisted with little qualitative change into a period in which no single person can spare the time and energy needed for even the most cursory exposure to the flood of facts and ideas which scientists have produced and are producing. The working scientist must constantly choose whether he will read this or that journal, will scan this or that section of an abstract periodical, will attend this or that meeting, will hear this or that lecture, will talk to this or that visiting scientist, will spend a sabbatical leave at home or abroad. These multiplying ...