The numbers makers: Fifty years of science and technology official statistics

Minerva

Volumn 40, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 375-397

  Godin, Benoit ^a  

^a INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE   (Canada)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33644538135     PISSN: 00264695     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1020921620544     Document Type: Article

References (154)

1. France entered the field only in 1962, and Germany in 1963. The Netherlands and Japan experimented with such statistics in the late 1950s, but rarely in a systematic way.
2. For the role of UNESCO in developing countries, see B. Godin, 'What's So Difficult with International Statistics: UNESCO and the Measurement of Scientific and technological Activities', Project on the History and Sociology of S&T Statistics (Montréal: OST, 2001).
3. A. Hunter Dupree, Science in the Federal Government: A History of Policies and Activities to 1940 (New York: Harper and Row, 1957);
4. R.C. Cochrane, The National Academy of Sciences: The First Hundred Years 1863-1963 (Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1978), 240-241.
5. See Roy MacLeod, 'Secrets among Friends: The Research Information Service and the "Special Relationship" in Allied Scientific Information and Intelligence, 1916-1918', Minerva, 37 (3), (1999), 201-233.
6. Cochrane, op. cit. note 3, 250.
7. Ibid.
8. National Research Council, 'Research Laboratories in Industrial Establishments of the United States of America', Bulletin of the NRC, 1 (2), (1920).
9. National Research Council, Doctorates Conferred in the Sciences in 1920 by American Universities, Reprint and Circular Series (Washington, DC: NRC, 1920).
10. National Research Council, 'Funds Available in 1920 in the United States of America for the Encouragement of Scientific Research', Bulletin of the NRC, 2 (1, 9), (1921).
11. National Research Council, 'Fellowships and Scholarships for Advanced Work in Science and Technology', Bulletin of the NRC (Washington, DC: NRC, 1923).
12. National Research Council, 'Handbook of Scientific and Technical Societies and Institutions of the United States and Canada', Bulletin of the NRC, 58 (1927).
13. M. Holland and W. Spraragen, Research in Hard Times, Division of Engineering and Industrial Research, National Research Council (Washington, DC: NRC, 1933).
14. National Resources Planning Board, Research: A National Resource (II): Industrial Research (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1941).
15. Ibid., 124.
16. G. Perazich and P.M. Field, 'Industrial Research and Changing Technology', Work Projects Administration, National Research Project, Report No. M-4 (Philadelphia: USGPO, 1941).
17. National Resources Committee, Research: A National Resource (I): Relation of the Federal Government to Research (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1938).
18. National Resources Planning Board, Research: A National Resources (III): Business Research (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1941).
19. Carroll Pursell, 'Science Agencies in World War II: The OSRD and its Challenges', in Nathan Reingold (ed.), The Sciences in the American Context (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979), 367-368.
20. Cochrane, op. cit. note 3, 406.
21. J.P. Baxter, Scientists Against Time (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1946), 127.
22. V. Bush, Science: The Endless Frontier (North Stratford: Ayer Co. Publishers, 1945), 85-89.
23. B. Godin, 'Defining R&D: Is Research Always Systematic?', Project on the History and Sociology of S&T Statistics (Montréal: OST, 2001).
24. J.R. Steelman, 'Science and Public Policy', President's Scientific Research Board (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1947).
25. Most of new numbers concern university research.
26. See B. Godin, 'Measuring Science: Is there Basic Research without Statistics?', Project on the History and Sociology of S&T Statistics (Montréal: OST, 2000).
27. H.M. Kilgore, The Government's Wartime Research and Development, 1940-44: Survey of Government Agencies, Subcommittee on War Mobilization, Committee on Military Affairs (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1945).
28. OSRD, Cost Analysis of R&D Work and Related Fiscal Information, Budget and Finance Office (Washington, DC: OSRD, 1947).
29. Bureau of the Budget, R&D Estimated Obligations and Expenditures, 1951 Budget (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1950). Data from 1940 to 1949 can also be found in The Annual Report of the Secretary on the State of the Finances for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1951 (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1951), 687.
30. D.C. Dearborn, R.W. Kneznek and R.N. Anthony, Spending for Industrial Research, 1951-1952 (Boston: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, 1953);
31. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Defense, 'Scientific R&D in American Industry: A Study of Manpower and Costs', Bulletin, No. 1148 (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1953).
32. C.E.K. Mees and J.A. Leermakers, The Organization of Industrial Scientific Research (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1950), 35.
33. R.N. Anthony and J.S. Day, Management Controls in Industrial Research Organizations (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1952), 288.
34. Bureau of Labor Statistics, op. cit. note 29, 51-52.
35. See Baxter, op. cit. note 20, 127.
36. Bureau of Labor Statistics, op. cit. note 29, 3.
37. Renamed the Division of Science Resources Studies at the beginning of the 1960s.
38. US Department of Commerce and Bureau of Census, 'Research and Development: 1940 to 1957', in Historical Statistics of the United States (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1957), 609-614.
39. National Science Foundation, Federal Funds for Science: Federal Funds for Scientific R&D at Nonprofit Institutions 1950-1951 and 1951-1952 (Washington, DC: NSF, 1953).
40. J.M. England, A Patron for Pure Science: The NSF's Formative Years, 1945-1957 (Washington, DC: NSF, 1982), 82;
41. H.M. Sapolsky, Science and the Navy: The History of the Office of Naval Research (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 43, 52, Chapter 4;
42. L. Owens, 'The Counterproductive Management of Science in the Second World War: Vannevar Bush and the OSRD', Business History Review, 68 (1994), 533-537;
43. National Resources Committee, op. cit. note 16, 18 and 74.
44. C.E. Barfield, Science for the 21st Century: The Bush Report Revisited (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1997), 4.
45. Public Law 507 (1950).
46. Executive Order 19521 (1954).
47. National Science Foundation, 'Methodological Aspects of Statistics on R&D: Costs and Manpower', Papers presented at a session of the American Statistical Association, December 1958, NSF 59-36 (Washington, DC: NSF, 1959).
48. For details, see B. Godin, 'Metadata: How Footnotes Make Numbers Obsolete', Project on the History and Sociology of S&T Statistics (Montréal: OST, 2001).
49. National Science Foundation, Basic Research: A National Resource (Washington, DC: NSF, 1957).
50. Ibid., 47.
51. Ibid., 61.
52. D.S. Greenberg, Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
53. Public Law 90-407 (1968).
54. Public Law 97-375 (1982).
55. B. Godin, 'The Emergence of Science and Technology Indicators: Why Did Governments Supplement Statistics with Indicators?', Project on the History and Sociology of S&T Statistics (Montréal: OST, 2000).
56. Godin, op. cit. note 25.
57. Susan Cozzens, Science Indicators: Description or Prescription? (Washington, DC: Office of Technology Assessment, 1991).
58. See B. Godin, 'Measuring Highly Qualified Personnel: Should We Really Believe in Shortages?', Project on the History and Sociology of S&T Statistics (Montréal: OST, 2001).
59. N. De Witt, Soviet Professional Manpower: Its Education, Training, and Supply (Washington, DC: NSF, 1955);
60. N. De Witt, Education and Professional Employment in the USSR, NSF 61-40 (Washington, DC: NSF, 1961);
61. L.A. Orleans, Professional Education in Communist China, NSF 61-3 (Washington, DC: NSF, 1961);
62. C-Y. Cheng, Scientific and Engineering Manpower in Communist China, 1949-1963, NSF 65-14 (Washington, DC: NSF, 1965).
63. A.T. Waterman, 'Introduction', in Bush, op. cit. note 21, xxv.
64. Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Annual Report, 1918, 20-28;
65. M. Thistle, The Inner Ring: The Early History of the National Research Council of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966), 159-160.
66. J.P. Hull and PC. Enros, 'Demythologizing Canadian Science and Technology: The History of Industrial R&D', in PK. Kresl (ed.), Topics on Canadian Business, X (3) (1988), 1-21.
67. B. Doern, Science and Politics in Canada (Toronto: Queen's University Press, 1982).
68. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Survey of Scientific and Industrial Laboratories in Canada (Ottawa: Government of Canada, 1941).
69. Ibid., 1.
70. Department of Reconstruction and Supply, Research and Scientific Activity: Canadian Federal Expenditures 1938-1946 (Ottawa: Government of Canada, 1947).
71. B. Godin, 'Nelected Scientific Activities: The (Non) Measurement of Related Scientific Activities', Project on the History and Sociology of S&T Statistics (Montréal: OST, 2000).
72. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Industrial Research-Development Expenditures in Canada, 1955 (Ottawa: Government of Canada, 1956).
73. Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Federal Government Expenditures on Scientific Activities, Fiscal Year 1958-1959 (Ottawa: Government of Canada, 1960).
74. Personal communication, G.T. McColm, 13 October 2000.
75. Pursell, op. cit. note 18, 367.
76. Association of Scientific Workers, Industrial Research Laboratories (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1936).
77. Annual Reports of the ACSP between 1956-1957 and 1963-1964.
78. DSIR, Estimates of Resources Devoted to Scientific and Engineering R&D in British Manufacturing Industry, 1955 (London: HMSO, 1958).
79. ACSP, Report on the Recruitment of Scientists and Engineers by the Engineering Industry, Committee on Scientific Manpower (London: HMSO, 1955).
80. Federation of British Industries, Scientific and Technical Research in British Industry (London: FBI, 1947).
81. Federation of British Industries, Industrial Research in Manufacturing Industry, 1959-1960 (London: FBI, 1961).
82. B. Boel, The European Productivity Agency: Politics of Productivity and Transatlantic Relations, 1953-1961, PhD Dissertation, Department of History (Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 1997);
83. B. Boel, 'The European Productivity Agency, 1953-1961', in R.T. Griffiths (ed.), Explorations in OEEC History (Paris: OECD, 1997), 113-122;
84. G.S. Papadopoulos, Education 1960-1990: The OECD Perspective (Paris: OECD, 1994), 21-37;
85. OECD, Répertoire des activités de l'Agence européenne de productivité (1953-1961) (Paris: OECD, 1965);
86. A. King, 'OECD and Science', in Ministers Talk about Science (Paris: OECD, 1965), 17-25.
87. A. King, 'The Productivity Movement in Post-War Europe' (unpublished, 1992).
88. L. Rostas, Comparative Productivity in British and American Industry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, for the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, 1948).
89. ACSP, First Annual Report (London: HMSO, 1948).
90. OEEC, Report of the Working Party No. 26 of the Council, C (59) 215 (Paris: OECD, 1959), 5.
91. R.L. Geiger, 'What Happened after Sputnik? Shaping University Research in the United States', Minerva, 35 (4), (1997), 349-367;
92. A.J. Levine, The Missile and Space Race (Westport: Praeger, 1994), 57-72.
93. D. Wilgress, Co-operation in Scientific and Technical Research (Paris: OEEC, 1960).
94. On the history of operations research and system analysis, see A.C. Hughes and T.P. Hughes, Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2000).
95. Certainly, the OEEC had several working groups and committees concerned with science and technology issues (Co-operation in Research, Scientific and Technical Information, Applied Research, Scientific and Technical Manpower), the work of which gave information on European shortages of manpower, equipment and money. But this information was mostly qualitative, except for a few studies.
96. OECD, Shortages and Surpluses of Highly Qualified Scientists and Engineers in Western Europe (Paris: OECD, 1955), 21.
97. OECD, The Problem of Scientific and Technical Manpower in Western Europe, Canada and the United States (Paris: OECD, 1957), 5.
98. OECD, Resources of Scientific and Technical Personnel in the OECD Area (Paris: OECD, 1963).
99. OECD, The International Movement of Scientists and Engineers, STP (69) 3 (Paris: OECD, 1969).
100. Godin, op. cit. note 53.
101. OECD, The International Movement of Scientific and Technical Manpower, STP (64) 25 (Paris: OECD, 1964).
102. OEEC, Forecasting Manpower Needs for the Age of Science (Paris: OECD, 1960).
103. OEEC, Producing Scientists and Engineers: A Report on the Number of Graduate Scientists and Engineers produced in the OEEC Member Countries, Canada, the United States and the Soviet Union, OSTP/60/414 (Paris: OECD, 1960).
104. See B. Godin, 'Outlines for a History of Science Measurement', Science, Technology and Human Values, 27 (2002), 3-27;
105. J.-J. Salomon, 'L'OCDE et les Politiques Scientifiques', Revue pour l'histoire du CNRS, 3 (2000), 40-58.
106. Wilgress, op. cit., note 79.
107. OECD, Science and the Policies of Government (Paris: OECD, 1963), 24.
108. OECD, Economics of Research and Technology, SR (62) 15 (Paris: OECD, 1962), 1.
109. The field was emerging mainly in the United States. See D.A. Hounshell, 'The Medium is the Message, or How Context Matters: The Rand Corporation Builds an Economics of Innovation, 1946-1962', in Hughes and Hughes (eds.), op. cit. note 80, 255-310.
110. OECD, Ministers Talk about Science (Paris: La Documentation Française, 1963);
111. OECD, Science, Economic Growth and Government Policy (Paris: OECD, 1963).
112. OECD, Government and Technical Innovation (Paris: OECD, 1966).
113. See op. cit. note 93, 2.
114. Ibid., 5.
115. See also: SR (62) 39; C (62) 29; SR (63) 33; SR (64) 12.
116. OECD, Science, Economic Growth and Government Policy, op.cit. note 95.
117. OECD, A Progress and Policy Report, SR (63) 33 (Paris: OECD, 1963), 4-5.
118. OECD, Draft 1963 Programme and Budget, SR (62) 26 (Paris: OECD, 1962), 19.
119. OECD, The Measurement of Scientific and Technical Activities: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys of Research and Experimental Development (Paris: OECD, 1962).
120. Neither then nor now does OECD itself collect data, but rather relies upon Member countries to send national statistics.
121. OECD, A Study of Resources Devoted to R&D in OECD Member Countries in 1963/64: The Overall Level and Structure of R&D Efforts in OECD Member Countries (Paris: OECD, 1967);
122. OECD, A Study of Resources Devoted to R&D in OECD Member Countries in 1963/64: Statistical Tables andNotes (Paris: OECD, 1968).
123. C. Freeman and A. Young, The Research and Development Effort in Western Europe, North America and the Soviet Union: An Experimental International Comparison of Research Expenditures and Manpower in 1962 (Paris: OECD, 1965).
124. OECD Gaps in Technology: General Report (Paris: OECD, 1968). In line with the philosophy of system analysis espoused by the OEEC, the solution proposed was not to have more R&D but rather better management practices in industry and more support from government.
125. OECD, Compte-rendu de la 4ème session: 27-28 juin 1967, SP/M (67) 2 (Paris: OECD, 1967), 4.
126. OECD, Future Work on R&D Statistics, SR (67) 16 (Paris: OECD, 1967).
127. OECD, Report of the Ad Hoc Review Group on R&D Statistics, SPT (73) 14 (Paris: OECD, 1973), 12.
128. Personal communication, P. Hemily and J.-J. Salomon (10 March 2001).
129. Personal communication, J.-J. Salomon, 10 March 2001.
130. OECD, op. cit. note 110, 7.
131. Ibid., 6.
132. Ibid., 11.
133. From 1962, all OECD's work on S&T statistics was done by the SRU, together with the Group of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI) of the Directorate. NESTI is a subsidiary body of the OECD Committee for Scientific (and Technological) Policy (CSTP), and represents both users and producers of statistics, with two-thirds of its principal delegates coming from ministries of science and technology or associated bodies, and one-third from central statistical offices or similar producer agencies. It holds annual meetings at which all OECD Member countries are represented.
134. OECD, op. cit. note 109, 5.
135. Measuring and Evaluating the Results of Federally Supported R&D: Science Output Indicators, Hearings Before the Committee of Congress on Science and Technology (Washington, DC: USGPO, 1976).
136. Ibid., 72.
137. Y. Fabian , Note on the Measurement of the Output of R&D Activities, DAS/PD/63.48 (Paris: OECD, 1963).
138. OECD, Report of the Second Ad Hoc Review Group on R&D Statistics, SPT (78), 6 (Paris: OECD, 1978). A third review group, created in 1984, gave the same message.
139. See OECD, Report of the Third Ad Hoc Review Group on Science and Technology Indicators, STP (85), 3 (Paris: OECD, 1985).
140. OECD, State of Work on R&D Output Indicators, SPT (83) 12;
141. OECD (1984), Secretariat Work on Output Indicators, SPT (84) 8 (Paris: OECD, 1983).
142. OECD, The Measurement of Scientific and Technical Activities: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys of Research and Experimental Development (Supplement to the Frascati Manual) (Paris: OECD, 1989);
143. OECD, The Measurement of Scientific and Technical Activities: Proposed Standard Practice for the Collection and Interpretation of Data on the Technological Balance of Payments (Paris: OECD, 1990);
144. OECD, Proposed Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Technological Innovation Data (Oslo Manual) (Paris: OECD, 1997);
145. OECD, The Measurement of Scientific and Technical Activities: Data on Patents and Their Utilization as Science and Technology Indicators (Paris: OECD, 1994);
146. OECD, Manual on the Measurement of Human Resources in Science and Technology (Paris: OECD, 1995).
147. OECD, General Background Document for the 1978 Meeting of NESTI, DSTI/SPR/78.39 (Paris: OECD, 1978);
148. OECD, The Science and Technology Indicators Data Bank, DSTI/SPR/81.38 (Paris: OECD, 1981);
149. OECD, The Science and Technology Indicators Data Bank: Progress Report, DSTI/SPR/83.17 (Paris: OECD, 1983).
150. OECD, Methods of Accelerating the Collection and Circulation of R&D Data, DSTI/SPR/76.52 (Paris: OECD, 1976).
151. OECD, Proposal for a Combined Statistical Working Party on Scientific, Technological, Industrial and ICC Indicators, SPT (86) 10 (Paris: OECD, 1986).
152. OECD, Summary Record of the NESTI Meeting Held on 24-25 June 1995, DSTI/EAS/STP/NESTI/M (95) 1 (Paris: OECD, 1995), 4.
153. B. Godin, 'Measuring Output: When Economics Drive Science and Technology Measurements', Project on the History and Sociology of S&T Statistics (Montréal: OST, 2001).
154. OECD, Statistics and Indicators for Innovation and Technology, DSTI/STP/TIP (94) 2 (Paris: OECD, 1994), 3.