Abstract
AN International Conference on Science Abstracting, arranged by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, was held during June 20, 25, 1949, at Paris, and the Final Act has now been made available (Paris: Unesco House, 19 kue Kleber. The Final Act was inspired by the conviction of thr important place of abstracting and indexing services in scientific communication and of the inadequacies of the present overall arrangements. The Conference regarded the objectives of abstracting in science as complete coverage by abstracts of all papers containing new information, and adequate access to abstracts for all men of science in all countries. To this end, in the Final Act a number of specific recommendations are detailed. These include, besides the continuance of Unesco's efforts to promote the free interchange of scientific literature among different countries, the extension of abstracting and indexing services to cover such fields as agriculture and applied biology, which are not at present covered. Abstracting services are also recommended to provide separate sections for information on new scientific and technical apparatus and equipment, where this is not already done. Publication of abstracts, particularly agricultural abstracts, in additional languages is also urged, and abstracting agencies are recommended to co-operate by extending agreements for the exchange of abstracts and of original material for abstracting, and by denning their respective subject fields. The Conference noted that the Abstracting Services Consultative Committee, serving the interests of the United Kingdom and of the British Commonwealth and embracing the whole field of science, had recently been established in London, and that the Unesco Co-ordinating Committee on the Abstracting and Indexing of Medical and Biological Sciences had been constituted on a permanent basis. The Conference recommended similar action in other regions and for other subjects, suggesting that regional or national committees on a voluntary basis should be formed to ensure that scientific publications in their own region are adequately listed and abstracted, and that scientific workers in their region are supplied with abstracts of papers published in foreign countries.
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International Conference on Science Abstracting. Nature 164, 998 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164998a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164998a0