Politica dell'informazione scientifica in Italia : una prima analisi delle variabili del processo della comunicazione scientifica

Considering scholarly communication as an element of scientific information policy means, first of all, defining criteria for its measurement. This paper is aimed at proposing a framework for the analysis of the scholarly communication process, in order to help in the development of indicators for the process as a whole. The first step is to identify a set of variables involved into the process of scholarly communication. A basic distinction is then made among variables which are here grouped into two general classes: scientific information (i) and diffusion (d). Within such a classification, variables are distinguished as national and international, depending on the kind of control applied over them. For each of the identified variables is strongly required a universally accepted definition of criteria for their measurement, in order to allow for international comparison of different scholarly communication systems. Finally, a number of ongoing activities in Italy aimed at measuring some of the most significant variables of the process are described