Abstract
OUR recent article on “Government Publications and their Distribution (NATURE, December 29, p. 925), aiming at preciseness, dealt only with publications having a distinct scientific bias, but another aspect of Government publishing is discussed in a lengthy editorial article on “Official Publications” in the Electrical Review of January n. The writer is in “complete agreement “with our plea, and cites many cases where industrial and humanitarian progress is likely to be prejudiced through the present policy of H.M. Stationery Office. He points out that reports such as those of mine inspectors, and of chief and sub-inspectors of factories and workshops, are placed, on account of their cost, beyond the reach of many who would benefit by them and were accustomed to peruse them. Yet the former contain hints of vital importance to men employed underground, and the latter not only exposed the “abominable “as well as the enlightened conditions of work in various industries, but “indicated the official measures that had been taken to secure improvements by means of warnings, prosecutions, and so forth, and suggested other and new means for securing that working conditions should improve simultaneously with the progress of civilisation.” We also note that “all that even the Technical press is provided with [in the matter of reviewing] is an official list every few days of new publications that are on sale, so that it may know which to buy for the purpose of acquainting readers with the nature of their contents “-an arrangement which seems to be neither good propaganda nor good business from the publishers' point of view.
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Current Topics and Events. Nature 113, 203–206 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113203a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113203a0