he 
ad- 
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