Communication and information processing within scientific disciplines: Empirical findings for Psychology

Scientific disciplines can be regarded as social devices which have, as one function, the analysis and reduction of raw information to assimilated knowledge of a type which can be transmitted through professional training. Data on information flow in psychology reveal a lengthy series of disseminatins to various audiences. The earliest disseminations involve feedback to scientific workers and result in refinements of the product of research; later disseminations are interwoven with processes of evaluation and selection and are directed toward the creation of an integrated and tested body of knowledge. The reported data furnish an empirical base for Ziman's consensual model of science and illuminate difficulties which have arisen in the design and implementation of information systems.