DOCUMENTATION SURVEY
| Pages | 315-323 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026382 |
| Published date | 01 April 1965 |
| Date | 01 April 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
DOCUMENTATION SURVEY
This survey
is not
comprehensive.
It
is
highly selective
and
intended
to
keep
the
reader informed
of
significant
new
ideas
and
developments.
All
unsigned abstracts
are
prepared
by
members
of Aslib's
staff.
We
should
be
grateful to
any
reader
who
would
notify
us
of worth-while
articles
in the
field
of
documentation
from unlikely
sources.
ABBREVIATIONS
RICHMOND,
PHYLLIS
A. Misery is a short footnote. Library
Resources
and
Technical
Services,
vol.
9, no. 2, Spring
1965,
p. 221-4.
The problem of over-simplification and abbreviation of footnotes and references is dis-
cussed
and the resulting ambiguity. References in scientific literature
tend
to
be as
short
as
possible, with an emphasis on 'initialisms',
e.g.
JOSA, AIEE, AFIPS. Frequently many
details are missing from the citations, making retrieval unnecessarily difficult, further
problems arising from corporate authors, conferences,
etc.,
which may only
be
referred
to
under
a
personal
author.
Also
lacking
is
adherence to
standard rules
for
punctuation,
trans-
literation,
etc.
The author
has
used
a
list of 705 abbreviated journal title citations collected
from the
Physical Review
to illustrate
the
faulty
citations.
These
vary from
the
shorter,
e.g.
PROC. COP.
WISS. BER. UNIV. MOSH., which
could
not
be
recognized in
the
usual
sources,
to more
complete citations which
could
refer
to a
varying number of journals, e.g.
IZVEST. BULGAR. AKAD.
NAUK.
(twenty-three separate journals)
PREUSS. AKAD. DER WISSENSCH. (twenty-eight separate journals)
ACAD. OF SCI.
USSR.
(eighty-nine + separate journals)
Some instances of excessive simplification are:
COMP. REND.
BER.
DOKLADY which
are
entirely
unhelpful.
The problem
is
accentuated when dealing with
foreign titles
as
even more inconsistency in treatment
arises.
Word abbreviations also lead
to ambiguity
as
shown
in
the
findings of
the
American Standards Association's Committee
Z 39: Subcommittee on Periodical Title Abbreviations,
e.g.
ADV—Advertising, Advis-
ory; PROC—Process, Proceedings; REP—Report, Republic. The question is raised
'What is the purpose of
a
footnote?' It
should
identify
a
source so that
the
reader may find
it easily. The present
trend
for cryptic footnotes
can
hide sources rather than reveal them,
which is aggravating the literature crisis. Citation methods should be examined and im-
proved with these facts in mind.
CITATION NETWORKS
PRICE,
DEREK
J. DE
SOLLA.
Networks of scientific papers.
Science,
vol. 149,
no.
3683,
3oJuly
1965.
p. 510-15.
Inspection of citation
rates
shows that
on:
the
average,
every scientific paper ever published
is cited about once
a
year;
about
10
per cent of all published have never
been
cited,
about
315
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