ABSTRACT
The process of creating and disseminating scientific and technical information (STI) can be likened to that of producing and distributing a product or service. This chapter describes the state of the art in terms of the existing STI system, practices in the marketing of STI, problems and research opportunities in the area, as well as the nature of an STI marketing conference that was held at the University of Pittsburgh. The primary objective of the conference was the evaluation of the applicability of a variety of areas of marketing theory to the marketing of scientific and technical information. The primary actors in the STI system are scientists and engineers who produce information and who, in turn, require information to support their own research and development activities. Most discussions of STI tend to focus on journal articles; there are a variety of formats that STI messages take on.
