Oriented scientific programs and the development of information research in the U.S.S.R.

Abstract

Science, having become a direct productive force of society, has entered a new stage of its development and assumed a position of “big” science, organized and controlled as a branch of industry and as an integral part of industry. The development of “big” science in the U.S.S.R. dates back to 1917. From the core of the advancing “big” science, a “big” scientific and information activity stemmed and came into existence. On the one hand, this was a result of the differentiation and division of labor in the scientific activity itself and, on the other hand, the industrially organized science cafled for an industrial organization of the scientific information service system. At the present time the manpower involved in the sphere of scientific information activities exceeds 130,000. No less than 50% have higher education, and a part of this qualified staff is concerned with scientific research and development. Thus, as in any other branch of science, information science has research manpower, ideas, facts, methods of research; if has its scientific literature, its technique of research and, finally, it has scientific establishments organized as specialized scientific institutions, and it has a scientific institution’s activities. The organ responsible for the coordination of all the scientific projects concerning scientific and technical information in the U.S.S.R. is the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Information at the State Committee of the U.S.S.R. for Science and Technology. The basic instrument for the coordination of research in the field of scientific and technical information is an oriented five year program which frames the principal projects for the development of the State Automated Information System, the aim of which is to improve the scientific and technical standards as we11 as the efficiency of research, development projects and production. The program sets up problems, schedules and the stages of implementation of the tasks; it specifies the ministries and departments responsible for the implementation of the basic tasks and appoints the head institutions and main organizations responsible for carrying them out; the program includes the estimated costs for scientific research and the capital investments. The preparation of such a program is a research task by itself. The scientific principles of working out oriented programs have been developed on the basis of a wide experience of planning in the U.S.S.R. The technique of the program preparation will now be described. A long-range forecast of the development is prepared by a head institute (the VINITI is the designated body in the field of scientific information) in collaboration with numerous scientific establishments. The forecast is submitted to the appropriate Scientific Board established at the State Committee for Science and Technology and consisting of the most competent specialists concerned with the problem. The Scientific Board concerned with the Problem “scientific and technical information” is headed by A. I. Mikailov, Director of the VINITI; the members of the Board are some of the most competent Soviet specialists as well as the heads of the basic information institutions of the U.S.S.R. The forecast is used for framing a complex program of scientific and technical development covering a period of 20 years. The program serves as the basis for detailing the project and the principal trends in its economic and social developments, which cover a period of 10 years divided into 5 year periods. Within the framework of the project, 5 year plans, specifying economic and social deveiopment programs for solving scientific and technical problems, are worked out. All these