Trimble, V (Trimble, V.); Ceja, JA (Ceja, J. A.) Productivity and impact of astronomical facilities: A statistical study of publications and citations ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, 328 (9): 983-994 SEP 2007

[Eugene Garfield]

Email address: vtrimble at uci.edu

Author(s): Trimble, V (Trimble, V.); Ceja, JA (Ceja, J. A.) 

Title: Productivity and impact of astronomical facilities: A statistical 
study of publications and citations 

Source: ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, 328 (9): 983-994 SEP 2007 

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

Author Keywords: publications, bibliography; telescopes 

Keywords Plus: TELESCOPES
 
Abstract: In calendar years 2001 and 2002, 20 journals of astronomy and 
astrophysics published 7768 papers that reported or analyzed observations 
at wavelengths from meter radio to ultrahigh energy gamma rays. In the 
three calendar years after publication, these papers were cited more than 
97 000 times, according to the Science Citation Index/Web of Science data 
base (the most complete, we believe, available), for an average rate of 
4.19 citations per paper per year. We slice these data up several ways, by 
subject matter, wavelength band, and the telescopes (etc.) used. Most of 
the results will not surprise: There are hot topics (cosmology, 
exoplanets) and not so hot topics (binary stars, planetary nebulae). 
Papers reporting space-based data are cited a bit more often and radio 
papers a bit less often than optical papers, but multi-wavelength studies 
do the best. The total number of telescopes involved is surprisingly 
large, about 330 optical and infrared (mostly ground based but including 
HST), 109 radio (including COBE and VSOP satellites), and 90 space based 
(including satellites, interplanetary probes, things carried on rockets, 
balloons, the Shuttle, and so forth). The superstar telescopes are 
(mostly) the ones you would expect, though having the most papers does not 
always go with largest ratios of citations per paper. HST produces the 
largest number of optical papers, but SDSS the most highly-cited ones, 
while the VLA is responsible for the largest number of radio papers and 
the most highly cited (apart from balloon-borne CMB observatories), and 
among things that fly, the most recent tend to dominate both paper and 
citation numbers. If you have to choose, it is probably better to opt for 
a small telescope on a well-supported site than a larger one with less 
support, and service to the community, in the form of catalogues and 
mission definitions, is rewarded, at least in citation counts, if not 
always in other ways. A few comparisons are made with other studies. The 
main difference is that we have included all the papers and all the 
telescopes for the years chosen, rather than focussing on one or a few 
observatories or skimming the cream of most-cited papers or ones from the 
highest-profile journals. (c) 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 
Weinheim. 

Addresses: Univ Calif Irvine, Dept Phys & Astron, Irvine, CA 92697 USA; 
Las Cumbres Observ, Goleta, CA USA 

Reprint Address: Ceja, JA, Univ Calif Irvine, Dept Phys & Astron, Irvine, 
CA 92697 USA. 
 
Times Cited: 0 

Publisher: WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH 

Publisher Address: PO BOX 10 11 61, D-69451 WEINHEIM, GERMANY 

ISSN: 0004-6337 

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