Elizabeth H. Bohlen

E-prints and journal articles in astronomy : a productive co-existence

Are the e‐prints (electronic preprints) from the arXiv repository being used instead of journal articles? We show that the e‐prints have not undermined the usage of journal papers from the four core journals in astrophysics. As soon as the journal article is published, the astronomical community prefers to read it and the use of e‐prints through the NASA Astrophysics Data System drops to zero. This suggests that most astronomers have access to institutional subscriptions and that they choose to read the journal article. In other words, the e‐prints have not undermined journal use in this community and thus currently do not pose a financial threat to publishers. Furthermore, we show that the half‐life (the point at which the use of an article drops to half the use of a newly published article) for an e‐print is shorter than for a journal paper.

Use of astronomical literature—A report on usage patterns

In this paper we present a number of metrics for usage of the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS). Since the ADS is used by the entire astronomical community, these are indicative of how the astronomical literature is used. We will show how the use of the ADS has changed both quantitatively and qualitatively. We will also show that different types of users access the system in different ways. Finally, we show how use of the ADS has evolved over the years in various regions of the world.

Finding Your Literature Match – A Recommender System

The universe of potentially interesting, searchable literature is expanding continuously. Besides the normal expansion, there is an additional influx of literature because of interdisciplinary boundaries becoming more and more diffuse. Hence, the need for accurate, efficient and intelligent search tools is bigger than ever. Even with a sophisticated search engine, looking for information can still result in overwhelming results. An overload of information has the intrinsic danger of scaring visitors away, and any organization, for-profit or not-for-profit, in the business of providing scholarly information wants to capture and keep the attention of its target audience. Publishers and search engine engineers alike will benefit from a service that is able to provide visitors with recommendations that closely meet their interests. Providing visitors with special deals, new options and highlights may be interesting to a certain degree, but what makes more sense (especially from a commercial point of view) than to let visitors do most of the work by the mere action of making choices? Hiring psychics is not an option, so a technological solution is needed to recommend items that a visitor is likely to be looking for. In this presentation we will introduce such a solution and argue that it is practically feasible to incorporate this approach into a useful addition to any information retrieval system with enough usage.

How the Literature is Used A View Through Citation and Usage Statistics of the ADS

The data holdings, usage and citation records of the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) form a unique environment for bibliometric studies. Here we will highlight one such study. Using the citation and usage statistics from the NASA Astrophysics Data System, we study the impact of offering a paper as an electronic pre-print (“e-print”) on the arXiv e-print repository, prior to its publication in a scholarly journal. We will address the following questions for astronomy: are people reading the e-prints from arXiv instead of the journal articles? Are e-prints read in a different way than journal articles? What is the impact of offering a paper as e-print prior to its publication in a scholarly journal? We will show that in astronomy, the e-prints are not being read instead of the journal article. As soon as the journal article is published, users prefer to read the article. Our analysis confirms that journal articles which were submitted as e-print on arXiv, prior to their publication, show higher citation rates than journal articles that were not submitted as e-print.