Library and Information Science

This article describes newspaper reports of latest scientific research. By yet, it is thought proper that the lastest scientific information is transmitted, and should be transmitted in only the existing science communication system centering around a scientific journal. To find out the role and the actual circumstance of newspaper reports, interview investigation is undertaken to the Science's section in 3 Japanese newspapers. Furthermore, the number and a content of newspaper reports on scientific research are examined, and an evaluation of research that becomes a newspaper report is undertaken by the citation number.

The findings are follows: (1) The number of newspaper report doesn't show the increasing tendency or decreasing tendency. (2) A lot of themes of newspaper reports is medicine as whole. But as for themes of items that reported in above 2 papers, physics occupies a half. (3) The scientific meeting occupies large proportion as a news source. (4) Researches that are reported in newspaper are cited over 3 times on an average, in comparison with research that is not reported. (5) Researches that the citation number exceeds 100 times are the theory of elementary particles and the genetic engineering. The newspaper reports on scientific information hold significance in points that they transmit the scientific information promptly and make it generally known.