THE
CHRONOLOGY OF CHEMICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE
Societies, Conferences,
and Journals
1778
Chemisches Journal thought to be the first chemistry journal,
is established by Lorenz von Crell. Published 1778-84; subsequently renamed
Chemische Annalen and published 1784-1803. It already included some
abstracts.
1789
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Louis Bernard Guyton
de Moreau, Claude Louis Berthollet, and Antoin François de Fourcroy
establish the Annales de chimie.
The first U.S. chemical society is founded in Philadelphia.
1832
Justus Liebig acquires Annalen der Pharmacie. Name later changes
to Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie and, most recently, to European
Journal of Organic Chemistry.
1841
The Chemical Society of London is established.
1847
Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society of London (later,
Journal of the Chemical Society) is first published. In 1871 it
begins including abstracts of the chemical literature.
1848
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is founded.
It includes a section devoted to chemistry.
1857
The Société Chimique de Paris is established. Begins
publication of Bulletin as well as Répertoire de chimie
pure and Répertoire de chimie appliquée, which
include abstracts.
1859
Chemical News and Journal of Physical Science (with which is
incorporated the Chemical Gazette), the first weekly chemistry periodical,
is published in England. It continues to be published until 1932.
1860
Congress is held at Karlsruhe Technische Hochschule to discuss the
feasibility of establishing a systematic and rational nomenclature for
chemistry. The congress does not reach any conclusive results, but several
key participants return home with Stanislao Cannizzaro's outline (1858),
which ultimately convinces them of the validity of his scheme for calculating
atomic weights.
1867
The Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft is established. Begins publication
of its journal, Berichte.
The Royal Society begins publication of its Catalogue of Papers
in London.
1868
The Rossiskoe Khimicheskoe Obschestvo (now Russko Khimichesko Obschestvo)
is established in Russia. Begins publication of a journal the following
year.
1871
Societa Chimia Italiana is established in Italy. Begins publication
of a journal the same year.
1876
American Chemical Society (ACS) is formed in New York City and publishes its first proceedings.
1878
Kagaku-kai is established in Tokyo and, two years later, publishes
its journal in Japanese; in 1921, becomes Nippon Kagaku-kai.
1879
ACS commences publication of the Journal of the American Chemical
Society, including abstracts of foreign journals.
1892
Geneva conference establishes principles that set the stage for an
evolving chemical nomenclature. These principles are developed more fully
by various forerunners of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
(IUPAC), which is founded in 1919.
1908
American Institute of Chemical Engineers is founded and begins publication
of its transactions.
1911
Wilhelm Ostwald founds Die Brücke, an international institute
for the organization of intellectual work, but fails in his attempt to
establish a special international institute to document the field of chemistry.
1935
A $15,000 grant from the Chemical Foundation allows Watson Davis to
establish the Documentation Institute as part of Science Service and to
operate the Auxiliary Publication Service for science librarians. These
initiatives lead indirectly to the establishment, in 1937, of the American
Documentation Institute, the predecessor of the American Society for Information
Science.
1939
France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique is established
with chemical information science among its fields of research.
1943
Technical Library Techniques Symposium is held at an ACS meeting, and
the Chemical Literature Group is formed as part of the Division of Chemical
Education.
1946
ACS board establishes a Board Committee on Punched Cards, with James
W. Perry as chairman. The committee's activities are financially supported
by the ACS with additional funds solicited from industry. Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's Center for Scientific Aids to Learning continues
this work with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation.
Chemical Biological Coordination Center (CBCC) is established in the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. Begins punched-card
system to organize complex information files.
The Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker is founded, replacing the Deutsche
Chemische Gesellschaft and the Verein Deutscher Chemiker.
1948
ACS's Division of Chemical Literature is formed and the next year begins
publication of Chemical Literature. In 1975 name changes to Division
of Chemical Information.
Royal Society Scientific Information Conference convenes in London.
1949
Austin M. Patterson receives first A.M. Patterson Award for Documentation
in Chemistry from ACS's Dayton Section. In 1975 the award is expanded to
honor E.J. Crane and becomes the Patterson-Crane Award.
1952
The Institute of Scientific Information is established at the Soviet
Academy of Sciences in Moscow and in the following year begins publication
of Referativnyi Zhurnal, Khimiya, a chemical abstracting journal.
In 1955 the institute becomes the All-Soviet Institute for Scientific and
Technical Information (VINITI), the centralized abstracting and indexing
service for all scientific fields.
1958
International Conference on Scientific Information (ICSI) is held in
Washington, D.C.
National Federation of Science Abstracting and Indexing Services is
founded. In 1972 it becomes National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing
Services.
1965
Chemical Notation Association is founded in the United States.
1966
The International Council of Scientific Unions establishes the Committee
on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) to improve the quality and
accessibility of scientific data collected worldwide.
1967
West Germany's Internationale Dokumentationsgesellschaft für Chemie
is founded with the cooperation of German chemical companies.
1968
Association of Information and Dissemination Centers is established
by various private and public national and international organizations
to deal with production, distribution, and use of electronic products and
services.
Information Industry Association is founded by Eugene Garfield, Saul
Herner, and others.
1969
The U.K. Consortium on Chemical Information, the Gesellschaft Deutscher
Chemiker, and CAS form a partnership to develop and operate a common, computerized
information system for chemistry and chemical engineering.
Great Britain's Chemical Notation Association is founded.
1970
European Association of Information Services is established to coordinate
and advance the interests of operators of computerized data services.
1971
Japan Association for International Chemical Information is founded
to increase the international flow of chemical information.
1973
NATO's Computer Representation and Manipulation of Chemical Information
is held at Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands.
1976
Herman Skolnik becomes the first recipient of the Skolnik Award of
the ACS Division of Chemical Information.
1980
The Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, and other organizations
merge to form the Royal Society of Chemistry in Great Britain.
1982
Fachgruppe Chemie-Information is founded within the Gesellschaft Deutscher
Chemiker.
Great Britain's Chemical Structure Association is established.
1983
Division of Chemical Information and Computer Science is founded within
the Chemical Society of Japan.
1987
First International Conference on Chemical Structures held in Noordwijkerhout,
The Netherlands.
1989
First International Conference on Chemical Information held in Montreux,
Switzerland.
HOME