Chemical Information: A Career Alternative For Chemists

Chemists who are contemplating career alternatives in today's highly competitive job market might want to consider an emerging specialty: chemical information. Information professionals perform a wide variety of tasks, including library research, patent research, marketing research, preparation of customer service materials, acquisition of books and journals for libraries, and updates of electronic research systems. As computer networks, online databases, and various types of document delive

Written byEdward Silverman

| 5 min read

Save for Later

Listen with Speechify

0:00

5:00

As computer networks, online databases, and various types of document delivery systems become more actively used by researchers, the need for knowledgeable and competent scientists to perform abstracting and indexing services will increase, according to the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS), based in Philadelphia. Abstracts are the concise, generally noncritical summaries at the beginning of documents. Indexes are lists of a document's contents organized by key words or phrases. A new book, Guide to Careers in Abstracting and Indexing (Philadelphia, NFAIS, 1992), points out: "In the 1990s, A&I [abstracting and indexing] services have become big business. Technology has revolutionized the basic A&I services, and a growing population of computer-savvy users poses new challenges." Even with computer databases that provide full-text documents, NFAIS executive director Ann Marie Cunningham predicts that the need for services that facilitate speedy data searches, such as those provided by the Institute for Scientific ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member?