Wednesday, April 3, 2013

1304.0657 (V. A. R. M. Ribeiro et al.)

A Survey of Astronomical Research: An Astronomy for Development Baseline    [PDF]

V. A. R. M. Ribeiro, P. Russo, A. Cardenas-Avendano
Measuring scientific development is a difficult task. Different metrics have been put forward to evaluate scientific development; in this paper we explore a metric that uses the number of peer-reviewed research research articles as an indicator of development in the field of astronomy. We analyzed the available publication record, using the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Database System, by country affiliation in the time span between 1950 and 2011 for countries with a Gross National Income of less than 14,365 USD in 2010. This represents 149 countries. We propose that this metric identifies countries in `astronomy development' with a culture of research publishing. We also propose that for a country to develop astronomy it should invest in outside expert visits, send their staff abroad to study and establish a culture of scientific publishing. Furthermore, we propose that this paper may be used as a baseline to measure the success of major international projects, such as the International Year of Astronomy 2009.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.0657

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