The structure of the literature of an academic discipline is based on the distance from the first disclosure of the research findings and conclusions. The literature of an academic discipline or profession represents a journey from creation to dissemination and then incorporation in other publications.
The Primary Literature is the initial full publication of the results of original research. Do not confuse this with "primary sources," the phrase used by historians for accounts of events by people who were there at an event. The monograph has been the traditional vehicle for disclosure, although the periodical article has become more popular in the last few years. Because of the cost of publication, shrinking library budgets, and a relatively small number of sales to individuals, and the length of time required to create a substantial, book-length manuscript, the periodical article has become the major vehicle for initial disclosure in the future. There is some controversy among authors and publishers over the degree to which some initial dissemination makes research results ineligible for publication. For example, some publishers would not publish a monograph based on a dissertation or thesis if that work had been made available via the WWW. Papers presented at a conference, if included in published conference proceedings, are primary publications and would not be eligible for periodical publication. However, a preliminary report on research in progress would still allow later periodical publication.
Because of their detail, emphasis on research methodology, and use of jargon, primary publications normally interest only scholars and serious students.
Secondary publications provide intellectual access to the primary literature. While scholars in an academic discipline or profession may be familiar with current research and publication in their research area, others will need to be informed. As more scholars are involved in cross-disciplinary or inter-disciplinary research, the need for information about new research literature may increase.
Reviews in scholarly periodicals are the major way that scholars learn about new monographs. Time lag remains a considerable problem, but most monographs are reviewed in some detail by a subject expert within two years. Monographs published abroad, and especially those published in a foreign language, are less likely to be reviewed and more likely to be reviewed some time after publication. Scholarly book reviews often occupy several pages and usually include major findings and conclusions. They may substitute for reading the book in some cases. Bibliographic essays may review related works in a longer format. Some social science disciplines have periodicals wholly devoted to reviews.
Annual Reviews are serial publications that attempt to capture and evaluate the "state of the art." There is usually a list of standard topics with the intent to review the literature on each topic every N years. The annual review is a methodical review of research progress based on a comprehensive literature review. The published research is placed in perspective and the most important contributions are identified. The review itself is critical. Because an annual review takes considerable time and effort, there is normally some time lag. For the information specialist, the annual review is good for retrospective collection development, but not for current awareness.
Bibliographies and indexes provide relatively quick intellectual access to research publications. Time lag varies from source to source. Four to six months may be a traditional time lag associated with print sources. With digital sources, the time lag might be much less depending on the availability of indexers. Indexing is relatively straight-forward and is not as time-consuming as abstracting (unless author supplied abstracts are used). Indexes may be selective or comprehensive (cover to cover). Most are selective, but do include all articles and most brief communications. Bibliographies may be descriptive or evaluative. Evaluative bibliographies take longer to compile and are not likely to be timely.
Abstracts, summaries, and digests also provide intellectual access but with enough intellectual content to summarize the purpose, scope, and major results of the research publication. Such summaries make relevance decisions much much easier. There has been a trend for indexing services to move to providing abstracts and for abstracting services to provide full text as well. H.W. Wilson is a good example of that. Author supplied abstracts simplify the process, but are not always adequate. Professionally done abstracts are better, but are costly in time and effort. In the past, abstracting services have experienced more delay than indexing services.
Guides to the literature are designed to introduce the literature to a relatively unsophisticated audience (students). Historical context is provided, the discipline itself is introduced with some sense of its nature and scope, and then the most useful sources are identified and briefly described.
The emphasis here is on synthesis and summarization. The purpose of this literature is to take what is known from the research literature and package it in such a way that the state of the art is clear both in terms of strengths and gaps. The tertiary literature builds upon the research literature to make broader generalizations. Such generalizations might become "theories" or even "laws." Typically not as rigorous as the research itself, but often creative and thoughtful, scholarly tertiary literature can make a substantial contribution in stimulating debate and encouraging new research directions.
Subject-specific reference sources are usually synthetic and authoritative. Subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and companions combine findings and conclusions from a wide variety of research publications and bring them together in a convenient and understandable package.
Since most research literature is inaccessible to the non-graduate student and the intelligent layperson, popular syntheses are extremely important in instruction. Because more popular treatments are inevitably simplified, some scholars have been suspicious and critical of "popularizations." Clearly, some popular treatments in the mass media have been sensational and distorted. Newspaper accounts are among the worst. However, may synthetic treatments are well done and represent the original research quite well. Text books represent good and bad examples of popular synthetic treatments.
While distance from first disclosure is the best-known way of structuring the literature of an academic literature, there are other possibilities. Classification schemes structure the literature according to subject relationships. Many collections structure the literature by format so that certain formats are segregated in certain places (microformats one place and current periodicals are in another). Collections may also be structured by publisher so that U.S. Federal government publications are in one place and U.N. publications in another. Reference departments often structure the literature according to how often is is used so that heavily used items are kept close to the reference desk and less frequently used items are kept at some distance (perhaps even in the stacks). Least used content may be found in off campus storage.
Discuss how WWW collections of working papers might impact traditional first disclosure publishing?
Traditionally, the referee system has been the primary quality control mechanism for scholarly publication. The process seems to work relatively well. However, it is time-consuming and referees are not always objective and open to new approaches. Some authors deposit their papers in WWW collections where their work can then be evaluated by all. Comments and suggestions for improvement would be posted on or near the original papers. At the end of this process, the revised papers would be submitted to periodicals (hard copy or digital) for publication. Comment on the assets and liabilities of this approach.
If you were to develop a social science collection from scratch and could organize it anyway you wished, how would you structure the collection? Why?
Last major revision: August 2007.
