Although this is the March issue preface, it was composed in early January, a time which triggered two peripheral thoughts., One was simply that the shorter lead times envisioned by electronic publishing are very appealing. This preface had almost two months of lead time, but the rest of the issue's content required twice that. According to a book reviewed in this issue (page 41), electronic publishing not only shortens production time but also speeds dissemination. However, the “catch” in this “paperless information system” is that authors and editors/publishers and readers need to be members of an information network. While this is feasible, it is not yet practical. The emerging possibilities would be a good subject for discussion in our new Forum feature (page 37). Write to me at the address below.

This is an issue about nontextual aspects of communicating technical information. Included are eight articles and two book reviews on subjects ranging from what to put on slides, through graphic comparison of data, to attributes of multimedia.

From 1968 to 1975, the Committee on Editorial Policy of the Council of Biology Editors met several times a year to discuss editorial guidelines for scientific journals. The Scientific Journal: Editorial Policies and Practices summarizes the Committee's answers to editorial problems. In this reference book, author Lois DeBakey advises editors how to decide which policies and practices will suit their journals best and how reviewers and authors can judge a manuscript's readiness for publication in the journals.

As a primary publisher of scientific and technical material, we recently made a review of the current production and dissemination of information published in our journals, monographs, and books. The results of this pilot survey will be a factor determining whether we will continue to publish our material in its current format and whether this material can continue to be utilized throughout the secondary journal publishing field.

The researcher is best served by high editorial standards and ready access, both in the primary journals and in the secondary publications needed for data retrieval and for literature reviews of specialized topics. Specialized periodicals that respond to a real need for consolidation of a particular field can be useful, but commercial pressures leading to unwanted publications and poorly edited articles waste both the time of investigators and the library budget of their institutions. The cost of publication and dissemination is small in proportion to the total expense of a research investigation, but research may nevertheless be impeded by library deletions arising through inadequate correlation of library and research budgets. High-quality periodicals, both primary and secondary, that do not recover part of their costs through page charges are particularly vulnerable in times of economic retrenchment and as a result of recent interpretations of copyright law. Proposals to reduce primary publications to printed summaries, with details available on request by photocopy or microfilm, do not serve the best interests of the researcher.

For the usual incremental process of discovery, a review system assures that papers accepted for publication meet agreeable standards and fit into current beliefs espoused by a given scientific community at a given time. The process encourages orthodoxy and discourages the publication of the unusual or disparate discovery. It tends to perpetuate the “mopping-up” operations which engage most scientists throughout their careers. Normal research results are cumulative and derive their success from the ability of scientists to select problems which can be solved with conceptual and instrumental techniques close to those already in existence. Unanticipated novelty emerges wrong. There is, however, no such thing as research without counter-instances. As a growing sense develops, often restricted to a narrow subdivision of the scientific community, that an existing concept or paradigm has ceased to function adequately, the review process encourages bifurcation and the establishment of new journals.

Holt, Rinehart and Winston have recently published two works on technical communication. Both of these are third editions of text-books which give chapter-end suggestions for writing-practice. As the two volumes cover about the same material, effort will be made here to point out dissimilarities in content, organization, and tone.

“This book is different!” says a promotional leaflet of Cameraready, a bright blue, 1 1/2-inch, ring-bound manual which tells about the mechanics of producing special-use, limited-life documents in limited editions. And “Vive la difference!” cries this reviewer, who is enthusiastic about every aspect of the book except its price.

When is a handbook not a handbook? One answer to this paraphrased riddle might be, “When it is the most complete and sophisticated technical writing guide ever published.” The Jordan-Kleinman-Shimberg Handbook of Technical Writing Practices seems very well described by these words on its dust-jacket. A joint effort of Wiley-Interscience and the Society for Technical Communication, this work is a tour de force in the most complimentary sense of the phrase.

A historical approach to the study of the development of style manuals for book publishers and writers is undertaken. Guides of the ancient world are discussed and compared with the most widely used of today's manuals. Included is an evaluation of the changes that have occurred during this century. A shift from the publisher-oriented style manual to those with a greater concern for the needs and guidance of the author is seen. Today's spirit of cooperation appears to dominate the manuals that are now being published. The value of style manuals as a factor in helping to limit the ever-increasing costs in publishing is discussed and suggestions for improvement of format are presented.

HAVING taken over the G-PC presidential reins from John Phillips on January 1, 1973, I am pleased to report that the Group's programs and plans for 1973 are very well along due to the fine efforts of John and several other G-PC members.

Among the many text-books, guide-books, case-books, and hand-books now available on technical writing, three small and unpretentious volumes deserve particular attention. All three are instructive, persuasive, and pleasant. One is an old friend, long known as the little book; the other two, very much younger, are works of high quality also:

Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.

Technical writing means many things to many people. The instructive literature for the field generally either emphasizes that portion of the field conforming to the author's interpretation or attempts to cover the entire field with general concepts and admonitions. Rarely does a book appear that covers as much, as clearly, and in as practical a manner as Technically — Write! by R. S. Blicq. Mr. Blicq is Head of the Industrial and Technology Communication Department at Red River Community College, in Winnepeg, Canada. He obviously has had extensive experience teaching technical communications and, in this text book, he speaks familiarly at the undergraduate level. More than this, his presentation holds a warmth and intimacy that is uncharacteristic of instructional literature: the professor is speaking to you in his classroom. Although the physical scientist and even the graduate engineer may tend to view the style as being below his level of sophistication, Mr. Blicq has packed almost every principle of clear technical exposition on the widest variety of communications in this 380-odd page book, along with “problems” in the form of work assignments at the end of each chapter. Even for the professional communicator, this book holds much of value as a reference when he is faced with an assignment in a portion of the field outside of his specialty.