New Astronomy: An International, Electronic Journal in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Edited by:
  • Donald C. Backer
et al. Elsevier. 4/yr.$460, NF l800 (institutional); $129, NF l225 (personal) http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/newast
Credit: MARK DOBSON

When I started research in astronomy, I wrote my computer programs on punched cards, and there were plenty of people of the previous generation who declined to use computers at all. Today all is utterly changed and no-one can survive in the field without a fair degree of computer literacy. Electronic mail and the World-Wide Web have become powerful tools for communication and collaboration. The hard-copy preprint is heading for extinction. Will the hard-copy journal head in the same direction?

I guess the promoters of New Astronomy, who include an impressive international board of editors, must feel the answer to that question is “yes”. For otherwise it might seem odd to launch a journal in a field well served by established journals. With Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Astronomy and Astrophysics and Astronomical Journal all of high quality, and several others regularly containing important papers, there does not at first sight seem much need for a new journal.

The unique feature of New Astronomy, however, is that it is essentially an electronic journal. There is a paper version too and submission on paper is permitted. But most of the strengths of the new journal relate to its primary electronic form. The text can be viewed on the Web in full text or ‘snapshot’ form; there are integrated links to the bibliography; hypertext links to astronomical databases for every astronomical object mentioned; colour figures and large databases included (in the electronic version) free of charge; and electronic search facilities.

Other benefits include no page charges, a short publication time (a month from acceptance to electronic publication) and, as a start-up bonus, an annual complimentary subscription to the paper edition for the author of each accepted article.

The test, though, is the quality and the volume of the papers published. To put it in a nutshell: do I need to browse this journal regularly? At the moment, New Astronomy is publishing about five articles a month, compared with about 70 a month in A strophysical Journal, the leading astronomical journal. New Astronomy will have to get a lot bigger for astronomers to feel that their best papers need to published here. But the quality of the articles is certainly high and there are several papers I was pleased to have read.

This brings me to what I certainly see as the principal drawback of the electronic journal. Personally, I hate reading extended texts on a screen. I find I cannot really take the information in without being able to flip backwards and forwards, seeing the shape of the whole. Computers are wonderful for storing and retrieving information. The Web would be wonderful if it wasn't so slow and unreliable. But I will always want to read articles and books in paper form. Long live Caxton!

New Astronomy is an interesting concept and will appeal to younger scientists. It is off to a good start and may be the journal of the future. It will, at least, trigger other journals into more electronically friendly habits.