> Nelson W. Polsby PS, Vol. 17, No. 4. (Autumn, 1984), pp. 778-781. Pg. > 779: Raymond Wolfinger's brilliant aphorism "the plural of anecdote is > data" never inspired a better or more skilled researcher. I e-mailed Wolfinger last year and got the following response from him: "I said 'The plural of anecdote is data' some time in the 1969-70 academic year while teaching a graduate seminar at Stanford. The occasion was a student's dismissal of a simple factual statement--by another student or me--as a mere anecdote. The quotation was my rejoinder. Since then I have missed few opportunities to quote myself. The only appearance in print that I can remember is Nelson Polsby's accurate quotation and attribution in an article in PS: Political Science and Politics in 1993; I believe it was in the first issue of the year." I also e-mailed Polsby, who didn't know of any early printed occurrences.

The thing is, I don’t really care how we do it. We just have to make it happen. I can’t talk about this without descending into grammar school vocabulary for some reason, but it would be a REALLY REALLY GOOD THING, for science and the world at large. I can’t even wrap my brain around a little corner of how amazing it would be to have a real database of scientific information that is as searchable as the listings at Amazon. I have a feeling it would increase the speed of scientific advancement by a ludicrously large amount. It would save money (less repetition of work) and probably pay for itself in short order in that way.