Identifying Academic Physical Science Research in Progress

Extract

For the scientist working on a research problem, books and journals serve mostly as archival records documenting what has been done and who did it. But the researcher usually has difficulty when he wants to determine what areas are currently being researched. Personal communication is a widely-used method of obtaining information, but one which is often inefficient and incomplete, especially as the number of colleagues working in a particular area of interest expands. Beyond this, current awareness of research in progress is available only by consulting an array of sources: preprints and lists or indexes of preprints, newsletters and annual reports, letters journals, reviews of research, directories of research grants, directories of graduate faculties or research facilities and their interests, indexes of theses and dissertations, indexes of progress reports, papers presented at conferences and lists and indexes of these papers, and lists of articles submitted or accepted for publication.