From the preface: "The International Serials Data System (ISDS) aims to create a reliable bibliographic database of serials worldwide. Country-level databases form the basis for such an attempt. Keeping this in mind, the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC) brought out a directory of Indian Scientific Periodicals first in 1964 and subsequent editions in 1968 and 1976. The present publication is the fourth edition of the directory.

"The first part of the present edition includes primary and secondary journals, proceedings, transactions and bulletins of professional societies and government departments. Ephemeral materials are excluded. Titles, for which definite information of their cessation is available, have been excluded. Reports generally of annual nature comprise the second part of the directory.

"The present edition contains 1991 journal titles, out of which about 120 are secondary publications. The corresponding figures for the previous edition are about 1323 and 63 respectively. The current edition features about 820 new titles started after the last edition. The new titles account for about 41 per cent of the current publications. There are about 970 research periodicals reporting original contributions. About 670 belong to the category of technical periodicals.

"Out of the total of 1991 current titles, only 140 were started prior to 1947 and all the rest have started after 1947, indicative of the vibrancy of post-independence Indian science. The country's industrial strength is revealed by the fact that 31.6 per cent of titles (630 out of 1991) belong to engineering and technology subjects. The country's strong agricultural base is shown by the number of agricultural journals, which is 327. The third largest group of journals numbering 297 belongs to medicine. With regard to sponsoring agencies, it is found that scientific societies account for about 570 titles and universities and research organizations for 615. Commercial organizations publish about 405 titles generally of technical and popular type. These organizations do not seem to venture into publishing scholarly journals. The city of Delhi brings out the maximum number of periodicals, 495, followed by the state of Maharashtra, 328 and the state of Uttar Pradesh 258. The contributions of other states are not as significant.

"The second part of the directory lists 318 reports. Though the number of major scientific institutions is estimated to be over 1500, all do not publish annual reports. Some annual reports which contain little scientific/technical information have not been included. Out of the 318 institutions whose annual reports are included, 180 belong to the category of research institutions. Over 50 are government departments. Two hundred of these institutions belong to the post-independence era. About 80 institutions are Delhi-based.

"We have attempted to include in this edition all titles that have appeared until the end of 1991."

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