Library and Information Science

This paper attempts to clarify the interaction between information media in the research field, and the people participating in the flow of information, from the point of view of “the condensation of information”. In order to deal with the flow of information and the participating people there, the qualitative analysis has been appreciated, which can handle the actual data and construct the reality toward the grouded theory. Collecting the original articles and their abstracts in the life science field, the real mechanism of processing the abstracts which contain the information of the original articles in smaller representation is analysed.

The differences between the original articles and their abstracts have presented the 7 categories that explain the condensation of information on the level of representation of information media. Those categories are, (1) omission, (2) paraphrase, (3) arrangement, (4) supplement, (5) describing the visual information from charts, tables, and photos, (6) processing the cited information, (7) formation of the characteristic styles of abstracts.