Identifies and describes specific government assistance opportunities such as loans, grants, counseling, and procurement contracts available under many agencies and programs.

This volume compiles and reprints the responses of 37 organizations to a series of questions issued by the House Committee on Agriculture in anticipation of debates concerning the Research Title of the 1995 Farm Bill due for updating and revision. The questions address some of the following topics: the role of the federal government in agricultural research, coordination and relations with other federal agencies, the suitability of various regulations and procedures, setting research priorities, integrating federal-state-industry research pools, effectiveness of coordinating and advisory boards, efficiency and accountability in administration of these federal funds, partnerships with other types of organizations, guidelines for use of federal funds, land grant universities' roles, fund allocation formulas, and regional research and extension cooperation. The organizations that responded to these questions include the Department of Agriculture, the Coalition on Funding Agricultural Research Mission, professional societies such as the Phytopathological Society and the Entomological Society of America, individual higher education institutions like the Universities of Minnesota and Arkansas and Ohio State University, international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Associations such as the American Feed Industry Association and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. (JB)

This handbook presents the state of the art of quantitative methods and models to understand and assess the science and technology system. Focusing on various aspects of the development and application of indicators derived from data on scholarly publications, patents and electronic communications, the individual chapters, written by leading experts, discuss theoretical and methodological issues, illustrate applications, highlight their policy context and relevance, and point to future research directions. A substantial portion of the book is dedicated to detailed descriptions and analyses of data sources, presenting both traditional and advanced approaches. It addresses the main bibliographic metrics and indexes, such as the journal impact factor and the h-index, as well as altmetric and webometric indicators and science mapping techniques on different levels of aggregation and in the context of their value for the assessment of research performance as well as their impact on research policy and society. It also presents and critically discusses various national research evaluation systems. Complementing the sections reflecting on the science system, the technology section includes multiple chapters that explain different aspects of patent statistics, patent classification and database search methods to retrieve patent-related information. In addition, it examines the relevance of trademarks and standards as additional technological indicators. The Springer Handbook of Science and Technology Indicators is an invaluable resource for practitioners, scientists and policy makers wanting a systematic and thorough analysis of the potential and limitations of the various approaches to assess research and research performance.