Recent trends in chemical literature growth

The growth of newly published chemical and chemical engineering literature has been slowing somewhat in recent years. The number of papers abstracted by Chemical Abstracts (CA) grew at an average annual rate of only 4.6% from 1976 through 1980, compared to 6.9% in the 1971-75 period, 8.4% in 1961-70, and 8.2% in 1951-60. Abstracts of patent documents declined at an average annual rate of 1.6% during the 1976-80 period as compared to an average annual growth of 10.2% during the 1971-75 period. The number of equivalent patent documents cited in the CA Patent Concordance grew at an average rate of 3.5% per year over the past five years as compared to 15.7% average annual growth during the 1971-75 period. (An equivalent patent is one covering an invention already patented in another country.) In 1980, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) published a record 475,739 abstracts of papers and patents, up 8.9% from 1979. Including ...