Scientists would like libraries to be comprehensively stocked with the specialized journals that support their investigative work. Conscientious library administrators, while sympathetic to their clients' needs, nevertheless complain that rising costs of science publications, along with space constraints and lack of personnel, frustrate their efforts to accommodate all users. Meanwhile, many publishers, while professing the desire t

Scientists would like libraries to be comprehensively stocked with the specialized journals that support their investigative work. Conscientious library administrators, while sympathetic to their clients' needs, nevertheless complain that rising costs of science publications, along with space constraints and lack of personnel, frustrate their efforts to accommodate all users. Meanwhile, many publishers, while professing the desire t

When The Scientist first appeared in late 1986, it did so under the aegis of the Philadelphia-based Institute for Scientific Information. I founded ISI in 1954, and over the years it has become known and respected as the publisher of Current Contents and the supplier of other products, such as the Science Citation Index. These services provide researchers with timely, comprehensive data on the publishing achievements of their peers

Our hopes should by buoyed, for instance, by the knowledge that the National Institutes of Health is now led by Harold Varmus, a distinguished biologist. Varmus appears eager to defend the clear merits of basic biomedical investigation and to voice the demand, on behalf of the nation's bench scientists, for the financial--and philosophical--support that curiosity-driven research clearly deserves. Not unrelated is the sense of confi

It was gratifying to publish Franklin Hoke's article titled "History Of Science Societies Sprout Up Nationwide, With More Researchers Studying Lessons Of The Past" (The Scientist, Nov. 15, 1993, page 1). The dramatic proliferation of these societies is a very healthy trend. Throughout my career--in fact, since my early adolescence--I have been fascinated by the history and sociology of science. Indeed, it's quite likely that a book my uncle gave to me at the end of my freshman year in high sc

Two letters challenging the function and value of citation analysis arrived in my office recently, and I believe they merit a response for all of The Scientist's readers to ponder. Monitoring the scientific literature and developing statistics on the extent to which articles are referenced by subsequent authors have been consuming interests of mine for more than 30 years. I have consistently maintained that it is both intellectually worthwhile and professionally beneficial for scientists to und

Last month I had the pleasure of speaking at a Bethesda, Md., meeting of scientists, college administrators, funding agency officials, and others on a sunject that has long been of paramount interest to me: the value of undergraduate research at small liberal arts colleges. The meeting was part of a two-day program cosponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). The council's 2,000-plus membership, for the most

Recently in The Scientist ("Vigilant Science Journal Editors Fight Redundancy," March 8, 1993, page 1), writer Paul McCarthy focused on a widespread and apparently growing concern among publishing professionals: the attempt by some scientists, as McCarthy put it, to "add heft to their c.v.'s" by getting two or more articles into print that are based on a single research finding. He made the point that today's highly competitive job market has exacerbated the ongoing duplicate publishing problem

Search Sponsors, As Well As this issue was going to press, 40 remarkable American teenagers--finalists in the 52nd annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search--were on their way to Washington, D.C., to find out who among them was to be declared winner of this year's competition. All of the finalists, of course, are winners in a sense: Their research projects were selected as especially meritorious among 1,600 entries submitted from throughout the United States--and all finalists will share in

In his essay on page 10 of this issue, Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg describes the many potential benefits to the science community of electronic publishing. I certainly concur in advocating its use, as witness my recent decision to mount The Scientist on NSFnet and the Internet. Originally planned primarily to facilitate access to large mainframe computer programs and data files, NSFnet has evolved into a major communications network and a splendid means of disseminating the valuable inform

Pragmatic Necessity Date: December 7, 1992 In the Profession section of this issue, Liane Reif-Lehrer explores a subject whose importance cannot be overstated. She declares that, as scientists, we have an ethical duty to the research community. The "Golden Rule" she discusses involves mentoring and other forms of support as a means of repaying our debts to the world of science in which we have thrived. I agree that this is a valuable way for us to express our gratitude to the community that e

As The Scientist enters its sixth year of publication, it faces a task that its staffers and I engage with energy and optimism. We are determined to further the publication's success to date by continuing to provide a unique news and career information vehicle for all members of the science profession. Our optimism and energy stem, to a great extent, from our healthy 1991 performance as measured against two important periodical publishing benchmarks: circulation and advertising. During the p