International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 1901-1914 (Royal Society)
Compiled by: Royal Society of London
Coverage: 1901 – 1914
Publishing Dates: 1902 – 1921
Published by: Harrison and Sons, London
Total Annual Issues: 14 (each continuing 17 volumes)
Total Volumes: 238
The mission of the editors of the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature (ICSL) was to address the need for a comprehensive index to scientific literature published after 1900, continuing the work started with the Catalogue of Scientific Papers and the Catalogue of Scientific Papers Subject Indexes. Search the over one million citations contained within ICSL—covering the period 1901 to 1914 in scientific literature—through Eight Centuries.
The idea of compiling a catalogue of all scientific material published worldwide was first discussed by the Royal Society of London in 1893. The Royal Society had since 1867 been working on a comprehensive index of scientific literature published from 1800 to 1900—the Catalogue of Scientific Papers—and understood that a successor project covering material published after 1901 was necessary. The Society also recognized that the work involved would exceed its own abilities, and that any effort would need to be an international endeavor.1
To that end, the Society organized several international conferences from 1896 onward to determine the parameters of the index that would become the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature.2 By 1900, the delegates had decided that the main editing and publishing effort would occur at a Central Bureau organized by the Royal Society in Britain, that this Central Bureau would collate material compiled and indexed by Regional Bureaus located in each participating country, and that the literature indexed in the ICSL would be sorted into seventeen scientific schedules.3 These schedules—seen as representative of the major scientific fields of the day—were as follows:
A—Mathematics
B—Mechanics
C—Physics
D—Chemistry
E—Astronomy
F—Meteorology (including Terrestrial Magnetism)
G—Mineralogy (including Petrology and Crystallography)
H—Geology
J—Geography (Mathematical and Physical)
K—Palæontology
L—General Biology
M—Botany
N—Zoology
O—Human Anatomy
P—Physical Anthropology
Q—Physiology (including experimental Psychology, Pharmacology and experimental Pathology)
R—Bacteriology4
The first Annual Issue of the ICSL was published in 1902 and covered material from 1901. It appeared in seventeen volumes, each corresponding to one of the subjects in the scientific schedule. Each volume was broken into three parts: “Schedule and Indexes in four languages” (English, French, German, and Italian), “An Authors’ Catalogue,” and “A Subject Catalogue.”5 This general format persisted for the entire life of the ICSL.
In keeping with its name, the ICSL was a truly international project. Most of the work of indexing occurred at the Regional Bureaus located in each member country. The preface of the first Annual Issue listed the existing offices:
Regional Bureaus have already been established in Belgium, Canada, Cape Colony, Denmark, Egypt, France, Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Italy, India and Ceylon, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, New South Wales, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Queensland, Russia, South Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States of America, Victoria, Western Australia, Finland.6
As mandated by the plans of the original International Conferences, these Bureaus would “collect, index, classify and forward to the Central Bureau a current index of all original scientific matter published within [their] region or domain.”7 Since they essentially controlled the perceived scientific output of their representative countries, these Bureaus had a vested interest in thorough indexing and reporting.
Also, care was taken to preserve the original languages of articles. Entries in the Subject Catalogue were indexed according to their original language when it was either “Latin, English, French, German, [or] Italian.” Articles also appeared in Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Dutch, Polish, Danish, and Norwegian, their titles translated with the original text appearing alongside in brackets. In the case of the Authors’ Index, titles were always kept in the original language, a translation provided when necessary.
The ICSL was praised for its completeness and ambition. A piece in the journal of the Bibliographic Society called the index one of the answers to “the present problems of the bibliography of science” in 1907.8 The ALA Guide to Reference Books later called it “the most current bibliography covering all the sciences” in 1936.9 However, the ICSL was as fleeting as it was comprehensive: its run ended after the fourteenth Annual Issue, the last volume appearing in 1921.10
Sample research topics addressed by the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature in Eight Centuries:
What were contemporary reactions to the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903?
(Henry Helm Clayton, “Wilber Wright’s Successful Flight in a Motor Driven Aeroplane,” Science 19, 1904)
What was the “arsenic in beer scare” of 1900, and how was it resolved? How did differences in brewery supply lines lead to larger amounts of arsenic appearing in beer brewed in certain parts of England?
(William Thomson and James Porter Shenton, “The Detection of Arsenic in Beer, Brewing Materials, and Food,” Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry 20, 1901)
What was the state of understanding regarding food processes like cheese maturation during the early twentieth century? Where was this sort of study taking place?
(O. Laxa, “Über die Reifung des Neufchâteler Käses,” Zeitschrift fur Untersuchung der Nahrungs und Genussmittel 28, 1914)
What division existed between the schools of “aviation” (heavier-than-air flight) and “aerostation” (lighter-than-air flight) at the beginning of the twentieth century? How did people predict this rivalry would resolve?
(Theodore Waters, “Flying Up to Date: The Rivalry Between Balloon and Aeroplane,” Everybody’s Magazine 11, 1904)
What were contemporary receptions of the comptometer—an early mechanical calculator—in the mathematical world?
(Charles Vernon Boys, “The Comptometer,” Nature 64, 1901)
How did the search for oil grow with demand during the early twentieth century? To what lengths would seekers go?
(A.H. Harrison, “In Search of an Arctic Continent,” The Geographical Journal 31, 1908)
[1] In fact, the Royal Society’s association with the Catalogue of Scientific Papers was one of its prime sources of credibility when organizing the ICSL. The CSP is also available to search in Eight Centuries. More information about this resource can be found in the CSP resource description. “Preface,” International Catalogue of Scientific Literature First Annual Issue, A Mathematics (London: Harrison and Sons, 1902), v; “The International Catalogue of Scientific Papers,” Nature 52, July 18, 1895, 270 – 271.
[2] The first meeting included “[...] delegates from Canada, Cape Colony, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Natal, the Netherlands, New South Wales, New Zealand, Norway, Queensland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.” “Preface,” First Annual Issue, v.
[3] “Preface,” First Annual Issue, v – vii.
[4] These subject areas were also used to sort material in the Catalogue of Scientific Papers Subject Indexes, also searchable in Eight Centuries. More information can be found in the CSP:SI resource description. “Preface,” First Annual Issue, viii.
[5] “Instructions,” International Catalogue of Scientific Literature First Annual Issue, A Mathematics (London: Harrison and Sons, 1902), xii; “Preface,” First Annual Issue, viii.
[6] “Preface, First Annual Issue, viii.
[7] Cyrus Adler and Leonard C. Gunnell, “The International Catalogue of Scientific Literature,” Proceedings and Papers (Bibliographical Society of America) 2, 1907 – 1908, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24306287, 110.
[8] The Bibliographic Society did lament that many of the so-called “applied sciences” were left out of the ICSL. Adler and Gunnell, 109, 115.
[9] Isadore Gilbert Mudge, Guide to Reference Books, 6th ed. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1936), 16.
[10] International Catalogue of Scientific Literature Fourteenth Annual Issue, Q Physiology (London: Harrison and Sons, Ltd., 1921).