A contributed paper for the 17th annual NSSC Conference, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, April 24-26, 1969, In the process of research dissemination and utilization, three social systems are identified: the research system, the linking system, and the client system. In each of these three social systems, three information handling processes (namely information input, information processing, and information output) are discussed. In light of these three information handling processes, communication patterns and their interrelationships in the three systems are examined. Nine interrelated categories of communication patterns are formulated to provide a framework which could be used for analyzing, both theoretically and empirically, the communication processes and patterns that are involved in the dissemination and utilization of research results.
