Criteria for the presentation in the primary literature of scientific and technical information on thermophysical properties of solids

Conclusions

We have attempted to set forth the important aspects of numerical data presentation so as to promote the usefulness of the quantitative results of scientific research. It may seem that there is an apparent conflict between these recommendations and the usual exhortations to authors by editors for brevity as well as clarity in their papers. Although these recommendations call for somewhat more detail than is commonly provided, they do not exceed what appears in the better papers today. The required statements may be terse and factual.

The ideal situation is to have all the relevant information in the published article. However, if this is not practical then the supplementary material should be put in an auxiliary publication (submitted together with the shorter manuscript) and placed in a suitable depository service such as the Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis at Purdue University. In any event, the details must be available to the public from some source other than the author. The means of obtaining such auxiliary information must be clearly stated in the publication.