Abstract
IN spite of the frequency with which operational research has been referred to recently, there are extremely few published discussions from which the layman can obtain an idea of what it is1. Its nature is actually extremely straightforward ; the very simplicity of the basic idea is probably one of the reasons why many people seem to find it so difficult to grasp. In the first place, operational research is research in the true sense. I would refer to Blackett‘s obituary notice of E. J. Williams2, in which he tells how Williams found the phenomena of U-boat warfare as intellectually enthralling as those of atomic physics ; and Williams could scarcely have been accused of not knowing what scientific research really means. The adjective ‘Operational' does not mean that the activity is not true research, any more than do the adjectives in such expressions as ‘chemical research', ‘genetical research', etc. It characterizes, not the quality of the research, but its subject-matter, which was originally the operations of armed forces. In a wider definition, operational research can be described as the application of the methods of scientific research to the study of the problems which face an executive authority.
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WADDINGTON, C. Operational Research. Nature 161, 404 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161404b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161404b0
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