The Government supports much of the Nation's arctic research and nearly all its antarctic research. Because of the relatively high cost of this research, it is in the Government's interest (and likely but unprovably to its financial advantage) to facilitate access to information resulting from the polar research of other nations. Polar Geography and Geology was established in 1977 using startup funds awarded by the Foundation. The funds were provided in recognition of the extra cost of publishing a translation journal as compared to a journal that accepts papers already written in English. The journal has consistently met or exceeded the planned publication of four 64- page issues per year. It focuses on significant polar literature translated from the "difficult" languages such as Russian, rather than the Romance languages more familiar to U.S. scientists. Also included in each issue are News Notes gleaned from review of the Soviet literature and translated tables of contents of selected overseas journals. V.H. Winston & Sons Inc. is well suited to publish Polar Geography and Geology. It is a large publisher of English-language editions of Soviet and Japanese scientific journals, and it holds translation and publication copyright to Soviet publications from which many of the journal's papers are selected. A board of editors consisting of experienced polar scientists (both arctic and antarctic) assists in selecting articles addressing current needs of the polar science community. The intent has been for the journal to become self-supporting through subscription receipts. However, the number of subscriptions has not risen enough to offset increased publication costs, which include increased royalties to the Soviet Union copyright agency. In recent years U.S. scientific interest in polar regions has increased substantially. This award provides for support of the journal over a 2-year period during which an unprecedented marketing effort will be mounted to try to attract enough additional subscribers to make the journal self-supporting. Polar Geography and Geology is one of three mechanisms supported wholly or partially by the Foundation to provide continuing awareness of foreign-language polar literature. One of the other two, the Library of Congress Cold Regions Bibliography Project, lists and, for antarctic literature, presents English-language abstracts of, the world polar and cold-regions literature. In the other mechanism, overseas contractors paid using excess foreign currencies held by the USA translate papers into English and translate and publish selected whole books containing information of lasting value. Polar Geography and Geology fills the gap between the bibliographic current awareness service and the books by translating papers selected for their significance and timeliness.
