In like manner, research sponsors seek to discover which institutions and which individuals might be available to conduct studies along certain lines. Students looking for guidance in their chosen fields of interest want to know where that guidance can be found. And members of the general public with an interest in science need to have a means of staying current on developments in many different fields. Among these institutions, American universities are in the forefront. These have been hard questions to answer.
Scholarly journals report the results of research, but only months after the fact.
Given the high and increasing costs of paper publishing, they are expensive. This puts them virtually out of reach for many individuals, and even many institutions, especially those in the less-developed nations. Because of the need for precision in scientific expression, the specialized journals often use words that are beyond the comprehension of most laymen, and even of scientists in fields other than their own. What is needed is science news. The news writer is accustomed to covering complex topics quickly and expressing them in terms that are simple and understandable.