Problems of the scientific literature survey

Abstract

required for the war effort have intensified a problem that has been current since chemistry became a science-that of preparing a complete background of the literature available before proceeding with experimental work. The problems of a literature survey have not received the attention they deserve. Many chemists meet their first research problem with inadequate preparation for conducting literature searches in a reasonable length of time. Some are not even acquainted with the titles of the more prominent journals in their own language. For these people, the attitude has been one of finishing a minimum amount of library work in order to proceed to the laboratory part of the problem. Much valuable time has been wasted duplicating studies that have already been published. Had a complete search of the literature been made, the time lost could have been more profitably spent in pursuing a new line of research. In addition to avoiding laboratory duplication, the review of related work may bring forth many profitable ideas. In a literature survey of any dimension, a tentative method of its organization is mapped out. However, many changes and refinements take place as experience is gained in the studies and collection of material. In laying a foundation for such a research, it is desirable to confine the preliminaries to the standard sources such as: Chemical Abstracts (I), Chemisches Zentralblatt (2), and the British Chemical Abstracts (3). To assure more thoroughness, Beilstein (4), , Landolt-Bornstein Tabellen (6), and the "International Critical Tables" ( 7) should be consulted for organic chemistry and the standard inorganic reference sources for inorganic chemistry. However complete and accurate the secondary sources just mentioned may seem, only the original articles to which they refer should be used. This is no adverse reflection on these secondary sources, because for many purposes they are excellent and quite sufficient, but due to the volume of material that must be covered, omissions and errors inadvertently creep into these abstracts.There is also a tendency for an abstractor to do some editing of the work in line with the type of study in which he is interested, to round off figures in physical constants, and to draw conclusions not intended by the author of the original article. In Beilstein, the editors have taken the liberty of assigning definite structures to compounds for which no structure was so much as implied by the experimenter 1 Presented at the 105th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Detroit, Michigan, April 12, 1943, before the Division of Chemical Education.

Nitration

“…The vapor-phase nitration of aliphatic hydrocarbons was investigated by Hass and Shechter (48), who make thirteen generalizations concerning these reactions. Egloff and co-workers (37) discuss in detail some of the uses and methods of nitrating alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes by nitric acid vapor, nitrogen oxides, and electrochemical processes, giving fifty-seven references. Hass (45) reviewed recent work on the mechanism of vapor-phase nitration of paraffin hydrocarbons.…”

Publications: Pitfalls and problems

“…Such lack of clarity may occur anywhere; but it is especially prevalent in the directions for procedures in analytical chemistry, for operations in physical chemistry, and for preparations in inorganic and organic chemistry. Egloff (4) encountered it frequently in the reports of experimental results. Subject Index Headings.…”