The Foggy Poll

Abstract

Dear "Old Timer,"Your first request, which I answered last week, was that the Journal have more good review articles. Your second was that a mail poll on this and other matters be undertaken. Although polls of this type may at first glance seem helpful, I should like to offer you reasons why their usefulness is limited and their philosophy dubious.Polls certainly yield numbers, but what do they mean? About 20,000 Journal subscribers have used the self-addressed postcards, included in the abstract booklets sent out in the past half-year, to express their view on the utility of these abstracts. . . .