- 114 - 
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING 
INTERNATIONALE GESELLSCHAF T FUR PHOTOGRAMMETRIE UND FERNERKUNDUNG 
SOCIETE INTERNATIONALE DE PHOTOGRAMMETRIE ET DE TELEDETECTION 
COMMISSION VI 
Symposium: Facing the Future of Scientific Communication, Mainz, 22-25 September 1982 
THE ROLE OF PERIODICALS IN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICA TION 
AS WE APPROACH THE YEAR 2000: TRENDS IN ITS ACHIEVEMENT 
by . G. Richardson 
Division of Scientific Research and Higher Education, Unesco 
Summary 
Specialized publication of scientific and technical journals 
during the third-last decade of this century (1970s) showed marked 
growth in Europe and North America, was measurably stable in 
Africa and the Middle East, but rising somewhat in the Asian- 
Pacific and Latin American-Caribbean regions. The absolute 
number of journals in the basic sciences, the medical sciences and 
technology-related industries continues to climb, world-wide. The 
universal data-base on scientific periodicals remains, however, 
fragmentary and needs completion. 
Primary-source scientific journals are relatively few in 
number, in most languages, and current economic considerations 
suggest that this number will not rise significantly during the next 
fifteen years. Journals of popularization, on the other hand, 
continue to grow in number and variety. Audio-visual and elec- 
tronic information technologies are making limited inroads into the 
domain long dominated by typography, but replacement of printed 
by electronic journals can be expected to remain problematical for 
reasons related to technology, budget and distribution. 
Current specialization in primary- and secondary-source jour- 
nals will, probably, gradually be replaced to some degree by a 
consolidation of journals now serving highly focussed and therefore 
comparatively small audiences. 
1 
The purpose cf this survey is to review, in broad fashion, recent 
tendencies in scientific and technical publishing, both editorial and 
mechanical, and to project in so far as possible the trends which can be 
expected to develop in this field during the 1980s and 1990s on a world- 
wide basis. 
With the emergence of 'big science’ and the large-scale technologies 
(both agricultural and industrial, including military) since the Second 
World War, the cultural phenomenon commonly called the information 
explosion has affected correspondingly the spread of information related 
to new scientific discovery in the basic sciences, its applications to 
engineering, industry and other technology, and to the development of 
new fields based on scientific technology : computer architecture, radio- 
1. As distinguished from empirical, or craft, technology. 
Bibliographic quotation : 
Richardson, J. : The role of periodicals in scientific communication as we approach 
the year 2000; trends in its achievement. In: Int. Archive of Photogrammetry, 
24 - VI, pp 114-123, Mainz 1982