Respected sir, With reference your mail I would like to share my views with you. I could not find answers to your questions no. 2 and 3. 1. No. of scientific journals published in the world (approximately) About 60,000 scientific periodicals published between 1900 and 1960 and held in British libraries. Please find details. http://infotree.library.ohiou.edu/scripts/redirect.html?id=1504 2. Percentage of scientific literature in English language, and also for the next two languages. 3. Difference between Main Articles in a journal and other type of articles like"short communications" or "research notes"    etc..  it seems that all are cited in the same way. 4.In case of peer reviewed journal,  what is the role of "peers" and” Editorial board" Scholarly peer review (also known as refereeing) is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research, or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field, before a paper describing this work is published in a journal. Peer review requires a community of experts in a given (and often narrowly defined) field, who are qualified and able to perform impartial review. Impartial review, especially of work in less narrowly defined or inter-disciplinary fields, pragmatically, peer review refers to the work done during the screening of submitted manuscripts and funding applications. This process encourages authors to meet the accepted standards of their discipline and prevents the dissemination of irrelevant findings, unwarranted claims, unacceptable interpretations, and personal views. Publications that have not undergone peer review are likely to be regarded with suspicion by scholars and professionals. Where as Editorial board is broad subject experts but not same as specific or narrow subject experts of the subject of article then they refer to previewers. 5. How researchers refer the articles (full-text) published in other languages. Abstracting journals provide only the abstracts Researchers can find articles in a particular language can be translated to other language. Some of software also available to translate articles. Srinivasa Rao G Sr.Librarian BIET,Hyderabad 9666656116 --- On Mon, 6/9/10, Dr.D.P Prathap <sbilibrary@gmail.com> wrote: From: Dr.D.P Prathap <sbilibrary@gmail.com> Subject: [LIS-Forum] request for information To: lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in Date: Monday, 6 September, 2010, 1:24 PM Dear Colleagues Please provide the following information: 1. no. of scientific journals published in the world (approximately) 2. percentage of scientific literature in English language, and also for the next two languages 3. difference between Main Articles in a journal and other type of articles like  "short communications" or "research notes"     etc..  it seems that all are cited in the same way. 4. in case of peer reviewed journal,  what is the role of "peers" and "editorial board" 5. how researchers refer the articles (full-text)  published in other languages. Abstracting journals provide only the   abstract. thanking you yours sincerely Technical Officer (Library) Sugarcane Breeding Institute ph: 0422- 2472621, m:99944 61172 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.