The Scientific Communication System

The scientific communications system is a product of research and its application and, as such, shares the same environmental determinants. The system has evolved gradually from the seventeenth century with the emergence of scientific disciplines and their journals published by newly - formed professional societies. The great social change and powerful new technology have clearly modified the way information is produced, managed, and used.
The process of producing, organizing, and disseminating scientific information consists of both formal and informal communication and involves interactions among many different organizations.

Scientific information can be communicated in a number of different ways - through

• oral channels, such as conferences, seminars, lectures and personal interviews, and through
• printed or written channels, such as reports, journal articles, conference proceedings, books, theses etc.

These are now published in a variety of ways. In scholarly and professional communication, increasing use is being made of electronic publishing by means of a variety of media such as CD-ROM or on the World Wide Web.

Scientific communication can be conducted through:

• Formal printed channels
• Informal channels - the “invisible-college” (Allen & Cohen, 1969)
• Semi-formal networked communication

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