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ASTRONOMICAL PUBLISHING 15
The Society, through its publications, disseminates and archives the results
of astronomical research. The Society also communicates and explains
our understanding of the universe to the public.
Individuals have the usual additional reasons for publishing, which include
career advancement (publish or perish), i.e. to obtain credit and precedence
for research leading to employment and sometimes tenure. Publications
are necessary to obtain support, e.g. grants, and, in some cases, cash
(writing for hire). How much these drive the process of publication depends
on both research field (instrumentalists do not publish much in the traditional
sense, rather they publish in metal, plastic and semiconductors), and
on location (astronomers working in industry or teaching colleges are subject
to different criteria for advancement). Theorists publish, in numbers
of papers per unit time, more than observers, who in turn publish more
than instrumentalists. But, fundamentally, we publish to communicate –
the title of this workshop.
How will this evolve? Do we expect change in the “why” of publishing?
The primary reason won’t, at least for the foreseeable future. The secondary
reasons might, for example, due to demographic shifts or career shifts. The
nature of tenure is changing, and most astronomers actually are not in traditional
academic tenure or tenure track positions. The latest demographic
studies for the Decadal Survey find that only∼40% of astronomers work
at research universities and an additional∼15% are at small colleges. Even
among those at research universities, a significant fraction are in research
or soft money positions as opposed to line faculty jobs. The criteria for
employment are changing as well, and, as well discuss later, the way we do
research is also fundamentally changing.
3. Publishing Models
Working provisional copy - Pls do not circulate
Again, no discussion of the future of astronomical publishing would be
complete without understanding the business models that are in use. It is
also likely that these will have to evolve as additional stresses are placed
on publishers, libraries and authors. There is a fundamental principle here
that publishing is not free, especially if refereeing is required, copy editing
is used to enforce stylistic criteria and check the grammar of authors and
journals adhere to the principles of archiving and curation that are natural
parts of the scientific process. There are five basic business models in use
today:
1. Primarily subscription charges to libraries and individuals. This is a
model often adopted by for profit publishers but also societies or organizations
with limited other resources (e.g. the AIP).
2. User pays, primarily page or article charges.