Changes in Astronomical Publications During the 20th Century

Abstract

Among the major changes in astronomical publication during the 20th century are the virtual demise of observatory publication, the growth of conference proceedings, and the continuing dominance of journal publications. The numbers of research papers were found to depend only on the number of researchers and not upon the speed of new detectors and computers or the availability of large telescopes. Papers have grown in average length by a factor of 5 but their lengths have leveled off because many data are published on-line only. The fraction of papers with authors from two or more countries is currently 40% and growing by 1% per year. After trying various publication methods (microfiche, CD-ROMs, videos), the trend is toward on-line publication. With the growth and complexity of science, it is increasingly important to obtain independent reviews of papers. Current auxiliary tools include search engines, the Science Citation Index, and preprint servers.