Some problems of documentation in scientific research

The volume of published scientific information is increasing at a hyper exponential rate. With the limited time at their disposal scientific workers are unable to keep abreast of significant scientific information. Two solutions suggest themselves: to increase the Scientists' ability to scan through and comprehend a larger volume of reading material and to improve present methods of abstracting, literature search and information retrieval. The first offers only a partial solution. A greater promise is offered by improved methods of abstracting, and machine translation and information retrieval, which are discussed. (Mrs. Kalyani Banerjee , Senior Scientific Assistant, National Metallurgical Laboratory)