Since this issue marks the start of the 50th volume of the Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data (JPCRD), it may be of interest to describe the reasons the journal was established. The provision of accurate data on physical and chemical properties was one of the responsibilities assigned to the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in its original charter. Congress formalized this activity in 1968 through the creation of the National Standard Reference Data System (NSRDS), to be headed by NBS and encompassing data centers within NBS and elsewhere. The data tables resulting from this work were distributed by the Government Printing Office—not an information source that scientists and engineers normally looked to. When I became Director of the NSRDS in 1969, my first challenge was to find a better dissemination channel for the output, a channel that could be...

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