Abstract

The author suggests that scientific and technical material be written at five successive levels of abstraction rather than the two normally employed (the full report and the abstract). Of these five levels, only the higher three would normally be published. The two lowest levels, comprising an author's extensional, first-person statement, and a complete, formal report, would be printed separately and mailed to readers at their request. Such a system would be more efficient than the present method of writing and publishing and have other advantages for both authors and readers.