Simultaneous and comparable numerical indicators of international, national and local collaboration practices in English-medium astrophysics research papers

Introduction. We report an investigation on collaboration practices in research papers published in the most prestigious English-medium astrophysics journals. Method. We propose an evaluation method based on three numerical indicators to study and compare, in absolute terms, three different types of collaboration (international, national and local) and authors' mobility on the basis of co-authorship. Analysis. We analysed 300 randomly selected research papers in three different time periods and used the student's t-test to determine whether the paired two-sample differences observed were statistically significant or not. Results. International collaboration is more common than national and local collaboration. International, national and local authors' mobility and intra-national collaboration do not seriously affect the indicators of the principal levels of collaboration. International collaboration and authors' mobility are more relevant for authors publishing in European journals, whereas national and intra-national collaboration and national mobility are more important for authors publishing in US journals. Conclusions. We explain the observed differences and patterns in terms of the specific scope of each journal and the socio-economic and political situation in both geographic contexts (Europe and the USA). Our study provides a global picture of collaboration practices in astrophysics and its possible application to many other sciences and fields would undoubtedly help bring into focus the really big issues for overall research management and policy

Titles of Scientific Letters in Astrophysics (2000- 2015): A Diachronic Study of Type Distribution and the Relationship Between Title Length and Collaboration Issues

This paper examines how some linguistic and extra-linguistic features of scientific letters published in well-reputed journals in the field of astrophysics (types and length of titles, as well as the relationship between title length and authorship patterns and collaboration practices) have changed over time. Our main results may be summarized as follows: 1) simple and nominal titles significantly outweigh compound, question and verbal titles, although the latter are on the rise; 2) the colon is the most frequently used punctuation mark; 3) the frequency of appearance of colons, full stops and commas increases over time; 4) there is a steady upward trend in longer titles, number of authors and countries; 5) Although over time authors contribute fewer words and countries involved in the research provide more words to the writing of scientific letter titles, authorship variations seem to be more relevant in relationship to the evolution of title length, i.e. title length is more author-driven than country-driven. A final diachronic cross-journal analysis confirms the co-existence of two different collaboration scenarios as already disclosed in a previous synchronic study on the same topic

Working Papers: Astronomy and Astrophysics Panel Reports

The papers of the panels appointed by the Astronomy and Astrophysics survey Committee are compiled. These papers were advisory to the survey committee and represent the opinions of the members of each panel in the context of their individual charges. The following subject areas are covered: radio astronomy, infrared astronomy, optical/IR from ground, UV-optical from space, interferometry, high energy from space, particle astrophysics, theory and laboratory astrophysics, solar astronomy, planetary astronomy, computing and data processing, policy opportunities, benefits to the nation from astronomy and astrophysics, status of the profession, and science opportunities

Congress UPV Proceedings of the 21ST International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators

This is the book of proceedings of the 21st Science and Technology Indicators Conference that took place in València (Spain) from 14th to 16th of September 2016. The conference theme for this year, ‘Peripheries, frontiers and beyond’ aimed to study the development and use of Science, Technology and Innovation indicators in spaces that have not been the focus of current indicator development, for example, in the Global South, or the Social Sciences and Humanities. The exploration to the margins and beyond proposed by the theme has brought to the STI Conference an interesting array of new contributors from a variety of fields and geographies. This year’s conference had a record 382 registered participants from 40 different countries, including 23 European, 9 American, 4 Asia-Pacific, 4 Africa and Near East. About 26% of participants came from outside of Europe. There were also many participants (17%) from organisations outside academia including governments (8%), businesses (5%), foundations (2%) and international organisations (2%). This is particularly important in a field that is practice-oriented. The chapters of the proceedings attest to the breadth of issues discussed. Infrastructure, benchmarking and use of innovation indicators, societal impact and mission oriented-research, mobility and careers, social sciences and the humanities, participation and culture, gender, and altmetrics, among others. We hope that the diversity of this Conference has fostered productive dialogues and synergistic ideas and made a contribution, small as it may be, to the development and use of indicators that, being more inclusive, will foster a more inclusive and fair world

Los títulos de las “cartas” en astrofísica. El discurso inmediato de la ciencia

The main purpose of this study is to compare length, lexical density and types of titles in letters, research papers and popular science articles published in the most prestigious journals of astrophysics written in English in order to find the differences and/or similarities between them. Our results may be summarized as follows: 1) average length, lexical density and frequency of appearance of compound groups are similar in titles of letters and research papers, which confirms that both genres are aimed at a very specialized audience; 2) the greater presence of adverbs, pronouns and possessives in letter and popular science article titles are used to give them a journalistic tone in order to reach a wider audience; 3) simple and nominal titles prevail over compound and verbal titles in the three genres, although the higher incidence of verbal constructions in letter and popular science article titles may lead to a certain generalization of the ideas presented which, however, would be somewhat reduced in letter titles thanks to a higher presence of interrogative structures. These results reveal that the titles of letters are situated halfway between those of research papers and popular science articles since they contain characteristics of both genres

International Research Infrastructure Landscape 2019 : A European Perspective

The report is the final product of the RISCAPE project, funded by the European Commission H2020 programme

Study on open science: The general state of the play in Open Science principles and practices at European life sciences institutes

Nowadays, open science is a hot topic on all levels and also is one of the priorities of the European Research Area. Components that are commonly associated with open science are open access, open data, open methodology, open source, open peer review, open science policies and citizen science. Open science may a great potential to connect and influence the practices of researchers, funding institutions and the public. In this paper, we evaluate the level of openness based on public surveys at four European life sciences institute