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273.
Proceedings
USA : | = Other 1
Canada -of ISPRS | England | German } French | Origin Total
Congresses :
934 22 21 35 8 73 890 Number
82% 2,5% 2,5% Los 1% 8% 100% | Percentage
{ b 4 >
Number and origin of literature references as annexed to
articles in "Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing
Washington, Vol. XLVII, 1981 (with a total of 83 scientific
articles)
Table 1
A reasoning for the statement of BROOK can be derived from table 1. We see
that 82 percent of literary references within a periodical published in
Washington quote papers from North America. Hence, one reason for the frequency
of reinventions may be neglecting (to quite some extend) publications from
other countries and from international sources.
Another outcome of table 1 is that papers from a North American journal hardly
ever reference French publications. One may assume the language barrier is
the reason. However, surprisingly also articles published in England are hardly
referenced in the American journal. Thus, if it is not the language, what is
then the reason? I can imagine it is also the multifarious number of existing
periodicals. One European journal, for instance, will be more attractive to
American readers than say 10 national periodicals. As a consequence, reducing
the number of journals will promote international cooperation.
It might be interesting to know how the USSR tackles the problem. Researchers
in that country do not merely have to cope with the multifarious number of
foreign periodicals, but with most serious language difficulties in particular.
They have implemented the following procedure to prevent reinvention (ARNTZ 1977).
Any research proposal has to be submitted to the VNTIC - Institute. Approval
requires that no other researcher is engaged in the same subject. When endors-
ing the proposal, all relevant literature references as available from other
countries will be sent to the researcher. This system prevents reinventions.
Earth's largest information and documentation institute, named VINITI, translates
desired literature into Russian; thus a USSR researcher does not necessarily
need to know any foreign language.
Cost
anh Costs are a decisive property of any
book publication. According to MICHALETZ 1977
OM A the costs for producing a scientific book
are composed of fixed costs, denoted with a,
Soo. and of costs for each copy, denoted with
b. Assuming b to be constant, and denoting
the print run with y, we then get for
x = ‘Cost per copy
x S5 b
Y
150 4
201 erint
promets D T run
250 1000 2000 4000
Production costs of a scientific book
Figure 3 ‘Hothmer 4