Editing scientific books and journals

420 case. Although I appreciate that some of the material illustrated in the t e x t figures might present particular difficulties for reproduction, there is little excuse for efforts such as figure 10 or figure 18. These and others detract from the undoubted usefulness of this work. This aside, the author must be congratulated on the production of such a comprehensive introduction; to so many aspects o f the subject,

random, o r clustered spatial distribution of points on an ~rea. The concept is then extended to determine the linear nearest neighbor index for a collection of data values located along a line. Limits to application of the techniques as well as possible problems encountered are presented, as they are with all techniques covered in the book. The final chapter deals with the use of models as quantitative techniques, and the

J. Ferguson, London

use of computers in speeding up extending the analysis of data sets.

R.

Hammond

and

P. McCullagh,

1978.

Quantitative Techniques in Geography - A n Introduction. Clarendon Press, O x f o r d , 2nd ed., 364 pp., £ 3.95 (paperback). This book was designed t o give a working understanding of the simpler quantitative techniques of numerical analysis, statistics, and other areas of data analysis t o geography students who have no background in mathematics. This is achieved t h r o u g h o u t the book. The authors are able to strip much of the confusing notation and details away from an introduction to statistics and numerical analysis while still readily conveying the basic concepts to the reader. The reader is referred to other sources for development of the notation and other details required for further development of the tools presented. Extensive use is made of examples which

and

The book is well written and illustrated allowing it to be easily read and comprehended. It givesa student a running start to study more advanced topics in statistics or statistics in general. This insight and momentum are important items for the student seeking only to acquire a working knowledge of the tools w i t h o u t majoring in them. Many times the student's first course in statistics is a disaster. A book such as this read by the student early could convert the possible confusing and dislikeable experience of learning how to use these tools into a clear and enjoyable one with much more being learned. It is a good book for all students learning basic quantitative techniq u e s - not just those lacking a mathematics background.

W.O. Rasmussen, Tucson, Ariz.

allows the reader to readily grasp the principles being presented. The book begins by discussing the various

MISCELLANEOUS

types of data the student will likely be exposed to in his studies and career and how to summarize these data to several descriptive terms or values such as the mean,

M. O'Connor, 1978. Editing Scientific Books and Journals. Pitman Medical Publishing

standard deviation, Gibbs-Martin index of diversification, Weaver's combination index,

Editing, particularly in the sciences, has developed into a highly sophisticated

etc.

specialty divisible into numerous facets, e.g., creative, substantive and technical editing, with the latter possibly consisting of t e x t and map editing. A number o f general editorial texts and reference works have been available, including guides prepared by cornpanies and institutions for in-house utilization -- often merely to achieve a uniform format; earth-science editors have had their guides by Cochran et al. (1974, 1979),

Following this are chapters addressing spatial distributions of data, time series, and probability distributions. Samples and estimates are covered as are hypothesis testing, correlation, and regression, In the chapter on tests of data distributions in space the concept o f the nearest neighbor index is presented. Such an index is used f o r d i s t i n g u i s h i n g b e t w e e n a u n i f o r m ,

Co.,218pp.,£7.00.

421 U.S.G.S. (1978), and similar handbooks by several national geological surveys. The contribution by O'Connor is a welcome supplement with up-to-date information and discussions not covered by any single publication, thus eliminating extensive literature research for the novice. The book covers the whole spectrum of editing, so that those readers restricted in their daily duties to one facet can obtain a quick insight into all subdisciplines, The thirteen chapters cover: (1) Editing O u t l i n e d - multi-author books, conference proceedings, journals; (2) Guiding Authors; (3) Keeping Papers Moving; (4) Working Referees--what do referees do?, how many referees, who are they, and how do they work?, why do referees referee?, guidelines for referees, refereeing procedures, reconciling conflicting opinions, the charge against refereeing (anonymity, conservatism and ~litism, delays and plagiarism), alternatives to refereeing, refereeing commissioned articles or conference papers; (5) Manuscript Editing: Creative and Substantive E d i t i n g responsibility for revision (structural reorganization, expansion, shortening, the title, the abstract, keywords, presentation of statistics and accuracy of computation, contents and design of tables, illustrations and legends, improvement of style, papers from foreign-language authors, spelling, references), ethics of experimentation: the editors' responsibilities, multiple publication, writing to authors; (6) Manuscript Editing: Technical Editing--tables and illustrations, heading and subheadings, nomenclature, abbreviations, units and symbols, footnotes, acknowledgements, appendixes, references, dates received and accepted; (7) Completing Books and Journal Issues--completing books (front matter or preliminary pages/'prelims', running heads, pagination, reference list, indexes, cover, dust jacket and promotional information, copyrights),completingjournal issues (cover, list of contents, masthead, running heads, page and article identification, article-fee code, advertisements, issue indexes, cornpleting journal volumes); (8) Printing-design, specification, style sheets and copymarking, methods of composition (hotmetal composition, handsetting, typewriter or 'strike-on' composition, filmsetting and

computer-assisted photocomposition), presswork, artwork, galleys of first proofs, paste-up and final proof, paper, binding, offprints and reprints; (9) Reading P r o o f s first proofs, proofing marks, final (page) proofs; (10) Editing Conference Proceedings-- which conference should be published, what kind of papers should be published?, what form should publication take?, who should the publisher be?, timetable for manuscripts and synopses, editing material for conference proceedings; (11) Starting A New Journal: Financial Aspects -- sources of income (subscriptions, page charges, direct subsidy, sale of reprints, advertisements, other sources of income), expenditure (production costs, mailing costs, editorial costs, libel insurance); (12) Editing A Successful J o u r n a l - editorial responsibilities, the mix of contents, archival information, the journal a s a f o r u m (letters to the editor, editorial leaders and anonymity, book reviews, society business and professional news, corrections), conclusions; (13) Editing In The Future: Innoration And Education -- microform, synoptic journals, miniprint, selective dissemination of articles, on-demand publication, electronic journals and other new forms of 'publicating', early capture of textural material on magnetic tape, editorial processing centres, professionalism in editing, the outlook for editors and editing. O'Connor's publication is clearly for both beginners andexperienced editors. It is also recommended reading for writers who must submit their manuscripts to the editorial process with the preconceived thought that 'there is really nothing much to it and that it will not take much o f . . . time'. After reading this b o o k - - a n d preferably also at least the two auxiliary ones cited h e r e - - i t will become obvious that 'editing is complex, time-consuming, and often exhausting. It can also be absorbing and highly satisfying . . . . ' because of the inherent responsibilities to authors, readers and science itself. From the view-point of an earth-science editor, I strongly recommend O'Connor's book as a useful, easy-to-read supplementary reference well worth its price.

422 REFERENCES Cochran, W., Fenner, P. and Hill, M.,1974, 1979. Geowriting - A Guide to Writing, Editing, and Printing in Earth Science. American Geological Institute, Falls Church, Va., 2nd and 3rd ed., 80 pp. United States Geological Survey, 1978. Suggestions To Authors. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 6th ed., 273 pp.

than its first edition of 1977, mercilessly reveals that this ,powerful service was not launched with much more ground work than its fellow services and was not more thoroughly thought out at the system level when it started. In practice, it has to be operated by specialized staff familiar with all its lingering historical imperfections (expensive to correct?) and with constant checking of entries of haphazard construction.

Karl H. Wolf, Jiddah

The strength of the system is its geographical side which is extremely well ela-

C. Heckman et al. (Editors), 1978. GeoRef. Thesaurus and Guide to Indexing. American Geological Institute, Falls Church, Va., 2nd ed., 456 pp., U.S. $ 35.00. This publication presents a good overview of the construction and functions of the most widely known indexing and retrieval service in geological literature. The external services offered by the GeoRef system have already a considerable impact on the periodical indexing of many primary serials, and there is no doubt that many other secondary services will orient themselves to be compatible with this dominant one. In the latter respect an important accessory aspect should be remembered. The world of geological authors, or rather their primary editors, has for several decades been in need of a controlled vocabulary for its keywords, ideally assembled in lines for direct adoption by the secondary services and reliable for private retrieval operations, We had some hope in this respect when Geosystems' Geosaurus Geologici pioneered in the field, but it turned out not to be able to penetrate into general use,and its illogical construction was most disturbing. In palaeontology, to tak eanexamplewithparticular needs, 5970 Palaeobotany appeared under the supraordinate heading of 5900 Vertebrate Palaeontology, which is not hierarchy in the way a searching scientist expects it. However, the GeoRef Thesaurus and Guide joins in with many disappointments to the scientist looking for consistency, logic and an easily memorizable system to cling to. The present publication, even more

borated not only for North America but for other large intensively studied areas in the West, the East and the Middle. A curious exception is provided by the Chinese world, where the most important areas on the continent are often omitted, whilst some most amazingly small places in Taiwan are included. Placenamesarefunnyphenomena, however, affected by real history, empty nationalism or simple transliteration problems. In general, GeoRef follows an English line in countries within the English geographical horizon, and you cannot at all search for names as you find them on the map. Just to take Germany, you do not find Bayern, Pfalz, Sachsen, Braunschweig, Hanover or MSnchen even as 'use for' or 'see also' references - you have to look for Bavaria, the Palatinate (in Rhineland--Palatinate, remembering at the same time the adjectival form in the Rhenish Schiefergebirge), Saxony, Brunswick, Hanover and Munich. Schwarzwald appears only as the Black Forest, and Lusatia seems to be unique in a 'use for' reference to Lausitz - the next 'broader term', incidentally, is given as Europe, which should be flattering to the locals. For Denmark, however, the practice is different, so that Copenhagen, Zealand and Jutland have 'use for' references to Kobenhavn (sic!), Seeland-Sjaeland (with one I) and Jylland, whilst famous Elsinore occurs in the modified Danish form Helsingor. In Sweden there are only thee placenames occurring nowadays in an English form, namely Scania, Dalecarlia and Gothenburg, but they follow the opposite model as compared to the Danish cases, occurring as Skane (for Sk~ne), Dalarna (correct) and Goteborg (for GSteborg). Let us leave geography with these examples and with a state-