Development of the theory of scientific information

Abstract

The characteristics of sciestific information as an activity are:
a/ it is a kind of communication activity;
b/ communication is based on the analysis of documents;
c/ it has a scientific nature;
d/ the character and the content of working processes within human society exert an influence on the character and content of communication,
e/ the needs of scientific information for specific working processes of human society are met by specfic information systems.
In analysing the characteristics of theoretical problems in scientific information, the conclusion may be drawn that the study of the needs for information from the viewpoint of sociology, the investigation of the laws and regularities concerning the creation, dissemination, bibliographical control and utilisation of information sources, the revealing of information contained in the information media by means of macro- and micro-analytical methods, information retrieval - are all sciontific objectives.
Theoretical research could point out the extent of the needs for information either of the individual disciplines of sciences and/or of the social activities. Structural and functional analysis of mechanised information systems and the consideration of the characteristics of these systems may assist in the improvement of these activities. These studies are closely related to communication.
The discipline dealing with the problems of sciontific information has recently been named "informatics". Considering the arguments raised in the discussion on this definition, it must be stated that informatics is not a polydisciplinary branch of science which adopts the methods of othor disciplines, but one that makes use of their results, thus being an applied science.
When examining the relationship between scientific information and the discipline serviced by it, the content of scientific information can be determined by its specification according to scientific disciplines or flilds of activities. However, scientific information cannot be regarded as an auxiliary science to other disciplines, nor can it be considered as a part of the theory of science. Being a communication activity, scientific information is subject to the autonomous laws and regularities of communication, and can only be investigated on that basis. The content of information determines the social interrelation having come into existence through communication. Nevertheless, the object of the investigation from the aspect of communication is not the information content itself, but solely the examination of the laws of communication. It is thus not the theory, but the methods of scientific information which are determined by the content of information.
Informations is therefore a branch of the general theory of communication adopting the findings of a number of scientific disciplines and conducting research into the laws of the origin and formation of the interrelations among scientific information and its users.