The International Astronomical Union Working Group on Publishing

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The International Astronomical Union Working
Group on Publishing

• Dr Michelle Storey
• Chair, IAU WG on Publishing
• CSIRO Publishing
• Australia
• Michelle.Storey_at_csiro.au

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The International Astronomical Union

• To promote and safeguard the science of
  astronomy through international cooperation

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Membership of the IAU8,300 individuals, 66
Countries
205
191
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IAU Executive and Officers

• President Franco Pacini, Italy
• General Secretary Hans Rickman, Sweden
• Assistant General Secretary Oddbjoern Engvold,
  Norway
• President-Elect Ronald Ekers, Australia
• Vice-Presidents Catherine Cesarsky,
• Germany, Norio Kaifu, Japan,
• Nikolay Kardashev, Russia,
• Kenneth Pounds, UK, Silvia Torres-Peimbert,
  Mexico, Robert Williams, USA, (Robert Kraft, USA,
  Johannes Andersen, Denmark)

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IAU Organisation
Executive
Commissions
Scientific Divisions, eg Radio astronomy Stars
Working Group on Future Large-scale
facilities Working Group on Publishing
Commissions, eg Stellar classification Stellar
spectra
Working Groups, eg Hot stars Red giant stars
Task Groups
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IAU and Publishing

• Astronomy is not just looking at the stars it is
  a process of developing ideas and knowledge.
• Effective communication of scientific results is
  essential for good progress

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IAUs Role in Publishing

• IAU Publications (Astronomical Society of the
  Pacific)
• Information Bulletins
• Transactions
• Highlights of Astronomy
• Proceedings of the IAU General Assemblies
• IAU Symposia Proceedings
• Commission 5, Documentation and Astronomical Data
• Working Group on Virtual Observatories, Data
  Centres and Networks
• Working Group on Libraries
• Working Group on Designations
• Working Group on Information Handling

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IAU Working Group on Information Handling
1994-2000

• Investigating
• Major changes in publication of research results
• Major changes in role of librarians and
  publishers
• Legal, ethical, educational issues
• Will referees become an endangered species and
  all journals be replaced by electronic
  publications?

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The IAU WG on Publishing, mid2001-

• How should the publication of research results
  evolve?
• What should the IAUs role in publishing be?
• Information conduit between publishers and
  astronomers

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The International Astronomical Union Working
Group on Publishing

• Membership
• Heinz Andernach, Kirk Borne, Oddbjorn Engvold
• Eugene de Geus, James Lequeux, Donald Lubowich
• Barry Madore, Simon Mitton, Ray Norris,
• Francois Ochsenbein, Davis Philip, Ernst Raimond
• Nancy Grace Roman, Marion Schmitz
• Michelle Storey (Chair), George Wilkins, Helene
  Dickel
• Consultants, Andrew Stammer, (Marlene Cummins)
• Membership covers Mexico, USA, Norway,
  Netherlands, France, USA, UK, Australia
• More members welcome

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Issues

• Termination of Astronomy and Astrophysics
  Abstracts. How can the IAU support some
  abstracting service with international scope?
• All published research recorded
• All made accessible (electronically)
• Which databases, or combination could do this?
• How can the IAU help?

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Issues, cont.d

• Internet is currently increasing and not
  decreasing the knowledge gap between rich and
  poor countries

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Issues, cont.d

• New Guide, ensuring journal articles link well to
  databases and electronic material
• Correct use of nomenclature
• Consistent formatting for electronic Tables
• Adequately describing contents of electronic
  Tables
• Object and Facility lists
• Keywords?
• Common template for articles?

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Issues, cont.d

• Electronic publications are becoming more
  important, and sometimes are the official archive
• Viable economic models
• Quality assurance
• Authentication
• Access
• Archiving

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Issues, cont.d

• Concentration of literature into few core
  journals
• Bargaining power reduced price increases
• More variety beneficial
• Shift the funding base.

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Issues, cont.d

• Preprint servers
• Version control
• Referencing
• Recognition

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Issues, cont.d

• Peer Review
• Improves papers
• Rather bad at picking up errors
• Little better than random at determining
  acceptance
• Open reviewing?

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Issues, cont.d

• Database management
• More investment
• Better career rewards, value of adding to
  knowledge
• Paper publication sometimes inadequate. Paper
  article points to electronic data
• Link to databases or capture the data?
• Virtual Observatory

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Issues, cont.d

• Should the IAU play a role in helping the public
  distinguish between credible and unreliable
  information on the Internet?

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Priorities?

• Inequities, knowledge gap
• What should be published?
• Version control and archiving
• Peer review

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IAU Working Group on Publishing

• Global scope
• What Issues should we tackle?

michelle.storey_at_csiro.au
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