ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to comment on some of the studies recently completed on the marketing of scientific and technical information (STI) and discusses some of the implications of the findings in developing marketing channel strategy. Several types of organizations, private and public, both profit making and nonprofit, are currently involved in the storage, retrieval, dissemination, and distribution of STI. The selection of appropriate channel strategy should be based on the careful consideration of the customer characteristics and their needs. The chapter illustrates the different channels of distribution that are available for providing the abstracting and indexing (A&I) services. An important A&I service is the one offered by the National Technical Information Service, which provides access to unclassified information generated through federally funded projects. The “retrieval service vendors" provide access to the various A&I services. Customers vary in terms of training and education with respect to STI services.