William D. Garvey

Communication in the physical and the social sciences.

Although composed of similar elements and structured similarly, the communications systems associated with the physical sciences and the social sciences differ markedly with respect to the operation and use of these elements. For both groups of disciplines, as information flows through the system it encounters lags and filtering, and much of a scientists communication behavior is an effort to compensate for these factors. Because the lags and filtering within each system differ in loci and extent, the members of different disciplines adjust to them differently, and the overall information flow patterns in the physical and in the social sciences differ.

Communication and information processing within scientific disciplines: Empirical findings for Psychology

Abstract Scientific disciplines can be regarded as social devices which have, as one function, the analysis and reduction of raw information to assimilated knowledge of a type which can be transmitted through professional training. Data on information flow in psychology reveal a lengthy series of disseminatins to various audiences. The earliest disseminations involve feedback to scientific workers and result in refinements of the product of research; later disseminations are interwoven with processes of evaluation and selection and are directed toward the creation of an integrated and tested body of knowledge. The reported data furnish an empirical base for Zimans consensual model of science and illuminate difficulties which have arisen in the design and implementation of information systems.

The Dynamic Scientific-Information User

In this paper we shall explore the concept, “information user”. Recently, our research has been directed at examining some of the variations in scientific-information-user behavior in order to detect and describe the underlying themes. Our assumption is that by understanding and organizing these dynamic processes, we should be able to arrive at a more efficient matching of the output of information services with the user’s information needs. We shall attempt to describe some of the dynamics of the information user by presenting our findings relative to two variations in the scientific-communication behavior of scientists. First, we shall discuss “intra-individual variations”; changes which occur within individual scientists as their scientific work progresses. Second, we shall discuss “inter-individual variation”; differences between individual scientists (traditionally referred to as “individual differences”).

Continuity of Productivity By Scientists in the Years 1968-71

working. The study reported here presents data on the continuity of the work of the authors of a number of journal articles during a two-year period after the publication of those articles. Since these data were collected from ig68 ~to 1971, they reflect the change in subject-matter specialties by scientists during a period in which American science was perceived as entering a state of ’depression’ after

Research studies in patterns of scientific communication: II. The role of the national meeting in scientific and technical communication

Abstract We describe the results of a comprehensive study of scientific/technical communication associated with eleven national meetings which were sponsored by nine physical-, social- and engineering-science disciplines. Three groups of meeting participants were studied: authors (persons who presented papers) attendants (sample of persons who were present at these paper-presentations), and requestors (sample of persons who requested copies of these papers). The results showed that the national meeting is the first public announcement of a large portion of current research findings in any discipline and much of the information-exchange behavior encountered at the meeting is intrinsically exploratory. The meeting presentation itself usually constitutes an interim report since most material presented there ultimately finds its way into the journal literature. Some discussion is presented of the relationship of the information-exchange activities to characteristics of meeting participants.

Research Studies in Patterns of Scientific Communication: I. General Description of Research Program.

Abstract This article is the first in a series which describes the general procedures and some findings of over seventy studies which we conducted from 1966 to 1971 on the information-exchange activities of over 12,000 scientists and engineers in a sample of nine physical, social and engineering sciences. We designed the studies so that (a) the full spectrum of scientific communication media could be explored, (b) the various studies were coupled in order that data obtained from one study could be directly related to those obtained from other studies, (c) the scheduling of the studies was conducted in real time in order that the same body of information could be followed from its inception to its final integration into the general body of scientific knowledge, and (d) the same studies were conducted for all nine disciplines being studied in order that genuine comparisons could be made among them. The data are now stored on machine-readable magnetic tapes and will be made available to scholars in the field of information science.

Research studies in patterns of scientific communication: III. Information-exchange processes associated with the production of journal articles☆

Abstract The two studies described in this article focus on information-exchange associated with material published in journal articles. In the first study we concentrate on the prepublication information-exchange activities of article authors, from the time their work first reached a report stage until it was published. The results of the second study, related directly to the articles studied in the first one, and the results of the first study have been combined so that we could discuss how scientists assimilate and use information contained in these articles when this information is also disseminated via informal media prior to its appearance in journal articles. The findings are discussed in light of questions they raise about the function of current journal articles.

The National Scientific Meeting in Psychology as a Changing Social System

A presentation of the research of the American Psychological Associations Project in Scientific Information Exchange in Psychology. The techniques used are embodied in analyses of two APA meetings separated by thirty years. The meetings reflect the changes obtaining in psychology as a field of endeavor.

Communication and Information Processing within Scientific Disciplines: Empirical Findings for Psychology

Scientific disciplines can be regarded as social devices which have, as one function, the analysis and reduction of raw information to assimilated knowledge of a type which can be transmitted through professional training. Data on information flow in psychology reveal a lengthy series of disseminations to various audiences. The earliest disseminations involve feedback to scientific workers and result in refinements of the product of research; later disseminations are interwoven with processes of evaluation and selection and are directed toward the creation of an integrated and tested body of knowledge. The reported data furnish an empirical base for Zimans consensual model of science and illuminate difficulties which have arisen in the design and implementation of information systems.

Scientific Information Exchange Surrounding the 1968 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association1

tion. It is usually the professional society that sponsors various types of meetings, from small conferences to large annual meetings, and publishes the most important journals in the field. The recent rapid growth of manpower and information in educational research has made the American Educational Research Association (AERA) increasingly aware of its key role in the dissemination of scientific and technical information in educational research. In order to improve the dissemination of scientific and technical information in educational research, AERA became, in early 1968, the ninth professional society to join The Johns Hopkins University Center for Research in Scientific Communication program of studies. The major objective of this program is, in cooperation with these professional societies, the study of the utilization of their communications media and of the information needs and practices of the scientists and technologists they represent.