Techniques for Efficient Research. By Lewis E. Lloyd, ScD. Price, $8.50. Pp 215, with 4 Tables and 20 Figures. Chemical Publishing Company, Inc., 212 5th Ave, New York, 1966.
Everyone knows the meaning of the term research but it has a different meaning to different people. To some it is to explore in unknown areas to see what happens—basic research. Others hope to confirm or to refute a particular notion. Often, merely a matter of refinement of techniques is called research wherein the researcher aims to push a decimal point another place or two to the left. Nonetheless, all agree that, at best, research uses the faculty of creativeness which is necessary in order to define or to discover.
It is desirable, I believe, to restate certain truisms which are involved in research. For example, the scientific method is taken as a vade mecum and we speak of it as