An analysis of humanists' requests received by an Information Service for the Humanities

The use made by researchers in the Humanities of the services offered by the Institute of Information and Documen tation for Social Sciences and Humanities is examined. A detailed analysis of the requested documents is made consider ing type of document, distribution of the articles in Journals, language and age. Considerable scattering of the articles both in Journals and in years is observed, which makes their location difficult. Some reasons for the scarce use the humanist scholar makes of the services are indicated and it is suggested that a close contact between researchers in the Humanities and infor mation specialists is desirable in order to design services better adapted to the information needs existing in the field of the Humanities.

The false ‘Ortega Hypothesis’: a literature science case study

The well-known anti-elitist ‘Ortega Hypothesis’ published just over 30 years ago in Science was constructed and named by two science sociologists, and refuted by themselves on the basis of a quantitative author ‘citation analysis’ investigation carried out in the physics literature. Textual evidence presented here proves that the construction of this so-called ‘Ortega Hypothesis’ with its anti-elitist meaning was based on falsification of the quoted text and misinterpretation of the doctrine of the eminent elitist Spanish philosopher. This anti-elitist, and hence anti-Ortega, false hypothesis spread very widely in the scientific literature as the ‘Ortega Hypothesis’. The literatures of numerous disciplines have so far accepted this falsely constructed hypothesis: the fact of the falsity of the ‘Ortega Hypothesis’ has not even arisen in the debates about it and under its name. Analysis of the literature case of the false ‘Ortega Hypothesis’ has also thrown light on the current depressing state of referencing practice in the scientific literature. Scientific communications of doubtful and even false content have continued to appear and their world-wide dissemination has accelerated. For this reason, correction work in science is more important than ever.