Publication Practices in Astronomy
J. Sandweiss
February 14, 2005
I. Introduction
As a "homework" assignment for our C-11 commitee I agreed to try to learn something about the publication practices in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics.
As a result, I have talked to my Yale colleagues in those fields. They work both in space and ground based facilities. Admittedly,this results in an incomplete survey but perhaps is still of interest. In the following I have tried to summarize, in a somewhat coherent fashion, what I learned.
II. Space Based and Ground Based
Ground based astronomy is an old and long standing activity. A set of practices and traditions have developed over the years. On the other hand, space based facilities are relatively recent and are in a state of ongoing development.
In many ways, the space based programs are similar to HEP in that lengthy and expensive facilities need to be designed and constructed with the help of scientists more or less specialized in the relevant rechniques. It is natural, then that the publication practices would be different.
In all of the astronomy publications, the author list is more or less limited to those who did the analysis. Scientists who contributed to the design, construction, and maintenance of the facility are generally not included amongst the authors.
In none of the astronomy/astrophysics science papers is it common for engineers to be authors. They are, where appropriate, authors on technical papers describing the facility.
III. Ground based
These are large optical telescopes. Time on the telescope is requested by a
group of astronomers, generally designated "observers". This group collects
the data, analyzes the science, and publishes it. Typically the number of
authors is less than 10.
The builders of the telesope are not included among the authors. There may be
references to technical papers about the facility. The bulders will
typically write such papers.
In recent years there has been an increase of large surveys using ground based
telescopes. For papers arising from these projects the number of authors may
20-30 in number. Again. the builders are not amongst the author list for the
science publications. Usually, the first publication presenting the initial
survey results would have all the consortium members listed as authors.
In some of these, large consortia of different telescopes are needed. This is
particularly true of combined space-ground studies of gamma ray bursters were
a space based telescope observes a gamma ray burst and a consortium of ground
based telescopes is available for the optical follow up study. For such
consortia a variety of author list protocols may exist.
IV. Spaced Based
Here, typically, a group will propose the satelite and be reponsible for
creating it. In such cases, it is common for the proposing/building group to
have a period in which they have sole rights to the data and are therefore the
authors of the scientific papers resulting from the analysis of data during
this period (commonly called the GTO or guaranteed time of observation).
The GTO can be in the range of 6 months to one year although the period is not
sharply defined and the number of papers under this rubric tends to taper off
rather than stop abruptly.
Following the GTO, the data and the needed calibration tools for the analysis
are to be made available for all astronomers. This is also complicated by the
fact that some space based facilities have dedicated science centers (as in the
case of the Hubble telescope). The staff of the science center carry out
research and also act as the liason of the facility to te larger astronomical
community. Some of the astronomers at the science center may be authors
on a few of the science papers.
The number of authors on large space based experiment will be in the range of
40.
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Jack Sandweiss: Note on astronomy pub. practices 
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