DOCUMENTATION AND THE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCER/USER

Abstract

One of Dr Coblans' most widely read papers was certainly his reassessment of J. D. Bernal's ideas on the communication of scientific information, as originally outlined in The social function of science, published in 1939. Dr Coblans' examination of these ideas was contributed to The science of science, which first appeared in 1964 and was re‐issued as a paperback in 1966. Coblans scrutinized Bernal's work with understandable sympathy, since both the approach and the topics of interest meshed with his own. Bernal, he remarked, was essentially concerned with, ‘the basic methods of publishing information, the inadequacy of the traditional learned periodical as a vehicle of transmission, and user analyses; studies of what working scientists read, why they read, and what use they made of what they have gleaned.’

Citation

MEADOWS, A.J. (1978), "DOCUMENTATION AND THE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCER/USER", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 34 No. 4, pp. 324-332. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026668