The primary scientific literature in the next few years

After some 300 years during which the primary research literature kept step with the demands made on it there is now growing awareness that changes will need to be made in order that the primary information system continues to fulfil its several functions and that adequate and economic relations are forged with secondary information services. The problems that now confront the research journals arise from the inflexibility and expense of the traditional publishing process compared with the need for infinite capability for selection from the resulting package we call a journal. Research is being conducted here and abroad to determine the methods of overcoming these problems. Primarily, this research follows two lines, the first to determine the desirable physical or reprographic form of the journal, and the second to establish the essential information content of the research paper and the most efficient and economic method of presenting that information. Finally, a forward view will be attempted of the new primary journal, of its place in the information system, and of its economics.