Professor Bernal’s ‘insidious and cavalier proposals’: the Royal Society scientific information conference, 1948

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For the 1948 Royal Society Conference, J.D. Bernal submitted a paper which proposed a provisional scheme for the central distribution of scientific papers. This provoked such a hostile and extreme reaction from both the learned society publishers and the national press that the paper was withdrawn in advance of the conference. It is extant in its Proceedings. This paper outlines the nature of the proposals, together with some contemporary reactions. Bernal‘s scheme certainly implied a revolutionary transformation of the status quo. However, his well‐known political beliefs probably played as instrumental a part in their rejection as the nature of the proposals themselves.