Information Flow Between Primary Journals and Secondary Services: Report on a Study

Abstract

An internationally sponsored project was initiated by the European Association of Editors of Biological Periodicals to study primary journal abstracts (their presentation, quality and suitability for use by the secondary services) and to develop standard guidelines for author abstracts.

User panels (totalling 35 scientists and 5 editors of secondary journals from 13 countries) evaluated abstracts of 400 papers from 100 periodicals; subsequent panel discussions were crucial in developing the guidelines.

The proposed guidelines consist of two distinct parts:

• i) BRIEF, STANDARD INSTRUCTIONS for inclusion in the ‘Instructions to Authors’ normally provided in primary journals.

• ii) DETAILED BACK-UP INFORMATION of standard layout but with provision for details and examples to be adapted according to the needs of individual journals. The back-up information should be available to an author on request or sent to him by an editor. It stresses the importance of title and abstract and includes instructions on: presentation and style; a check-list of points for possible inclusion in the abstract; examples relevant to the journal.

Proposals are made for practical evaluation of the guidelines so that they can be refined and tempered in the heat of real-life publishing.