Publication Statistics on the Sun and the Heliosphere
Abstract
The professional literature provides means to review the evolution and geographic distribution of the scientific communities engaged in solar and heliospheric physics. With the help of the Astrophysics Data System (NASA/ADS), I trace the growth of the research community over the past century from a few dozen researchers early in the twentieth century to over 4000 names with more than 2000 refereed publications in recent years, published in 90 distinct journals. Of these, 90 % originated in 20 countries. Overall, 45 % of the lead authors of the publications have affiliations in Europe, 29 % in the Americas, 24 % in Australasia, and 2 % in Africa and Arab countries. Publications most frequently appear (in decreasing order) in The Astrophysical Journal, the Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics), Solar Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Advances in Space Research (adding up to 59 % of all publications in 2015).
- Publication:
-
Solar Physics
- Pub Date:
- April 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s11207-016-0884-3
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1603.08943
- Bibcode:
- 2016SoPh..291.1267S
- Keywords:
-
- Publications;
- Sociology of astronomy;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- In press for Solar Physics (2016)