News archive
Free access to Astronomy & Astrophysics articles 24 months after publication instead of 36 months previously (January 2011)
EDP Sciences and A&A favor a broad and easy access to all published scientific information. In this spirit, all Letters to the Editor and articles published in the online sections (Sects. 12, 13, 14, and 15) are already in full open access.
We are pleased to announce that all articles published in the other sections of the Journal are now freely accessible one year earlier: 24 months instead of 36 months previously. So, all articles published in 2008 are now in free access.
From the Publisher: A&A individual subscription offer (October 2003)
We are pleased to inform you that the Astronomy & Astrophysics individual subscription now offers you two choices:
- "Paper +Online" version: 48 issues/year +online access (access controlled by IP address);
- "Online only" version: online access only (to subscribe we kindly ask you to precise us your IP address with your order).
Please do not hesitate to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for any further information.
EDP Sciences
Publisher
From the Publisher: new online version of A&A (April 2003)
We are very pleased to inform you that the new online version of A&A is now available from issue 402-2 onwards.
Keeping all the features of the previous online version (various full-text formats, abstracts and references, ...), we have improved the full HTML version for better ergonomics and increased clarity.
The whole article is now displayed on one single HTML page including direct access to:
- sections of the article
- list of figures
- list of tables
- online material
- SIMBAD objects
- CDS tables
- table of contents of the relevant issue.
To improve access to scientific data, LaTeX source of tables are now released.
This new version has been designed by EDP Sciences following the specifications of the Editorial Board of A&A to improve the transmission of scientific works.
Hoping that you will be satisfied with this new version, we would like to thank our audience for its past and future comments, helping us to improve the quality of the online version of Astronomy & Astrophysics.
EDP Sciences
Publisher
Future editorial structure of A&A (November 2002)
Letter from the Astronomy & Astrophysics Board of Directors
PDF file (43 KB)
Considering
- the rapid growth of the number of submitted papers,
- the proceeding specialization of subfields in astronomy,
- and the wish to involve more countries in the editorial process,
In the new system the Editor-in-Chief will receive all submitted regular papers and will assign a Scientific Editor to each paper. The Scientific Editor will be responsible for the refereeing process and will decide on whether the paper should be accepted or not. The final responsibility for acceptance lies with the Editor-in-Chief. The Associate Editor-in-Chief will assist the Editor-in-Chief, e.g., by taking over his/her duties during times of absence. Letters will be submitted directly to the Letter Editor, who will have the same duties as in the present system. All papers will be handled in a web-based peer review system. The final language editing will be done at the central office.
As of 1 January 2004, Dr. H. J. Habing will retire and Dr. C. Bertout will continue as the Editor-in-Chief. Dr. P. Schneider will continue as Letter Editor. Herewith, we invite applications for the seven positions of Scientific Editors.
The Scientific Editors are expected to have a broad knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics and to have expertise in one or several of the main sub-fields of A&A, i.e. cosmology, extragalactic astronomy, galactic structure and stellar populations, interstellar and circumstellar matter, stellar structure and evolution, stellar atmospheres, the Sun, planets and planetary systems. Candidates should have a strong record of published research in astronomy and astrophysics, should have experience as a referee and/or journal editor, and be prepared to commit the time needed to handle the peer review of up to three hundred papers per year. Limited support for office equipment and secretarial help as well as an annual indemnity will be provided to the Scientific Editors. The initial term of appointment is three years.
Applicants should submit a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, and a concise cover letter that summarizes the candidate's qualifications and reasons for seeking a Scientific Editor position. Possible support from the home institute for the task should also be discussed. Applications should preferably be e-mailed or sent/faxed to the Chairman of the Board of Directors:
Prof. Aage Sandqvist
Stockholm Observatory
SCFAB-AlbaNova
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Fax: +46 8 5537 8510
Informal inquiries about the positions may be directed by e-mail to Aage Sandqvist.
Aage Sandqvist
GREGOR Special Issue published by A&A (November 2016)
Astronomy & Astrophysics, published by EDP Sciences, has released a series of papers on the first science data from the GREGOR telescope (the largest of its kind in Europe.)
GREGOR is a solar telescope designed to observe the solar photosphere and chromosphere in the visible and the near-infrared wavelengths. Its main mirror (1.5m diameter) allows for solar images of unprecedented quality and resolution. To read Press Release click here.
To read the special issue, please click here.
Ilkka Tuominen In Memoriam (May 2011)
It is our sad duty to announce the sudden loss of the Finnish representative to the A&A board from 1998 until his death on March 19, 2011, at his home in Helsinki.
Illka Tuominen is a well-known astronomer, who was deeply appreciated for his achievements in Finland and internationally as described in detail by here.
Increasing exchanges between A&A and arXiv (May 2014)
EDP Sciences has developed new software tools to be used in arXiv.org projects.
Authors who submitted their manuscript to arXiv can now provide the arXiv ID of their paper. Once the article is published in A&A, a DOI/arXiv ID mapping list is automatically sent to arXiv. arXiv.org will then add on the e-Print record of the article a link to the A&A published version of their article.
This will of course increase the incoming traffic to their A&A paper and will help authors to have their research widely disseminated to the community.
The A&A team always strives to offer its authors an ever-increasing range of services.
Innovation by EDP Sciences: dynamic links in PDF files (February 2015)
EDP Sciences has innovated by adding dynamic links in the references of PDF files instead of the standard static links. This permits:
Adding links (or even correcting links). This may be relevant when
- a cited article has not yet been published online and the PDF is produced (e.g., a citation of an article in the same volume),
- a cited article is very old, not yet digitized, and indexed in the ADS,
- the citation is a book or a report that may be linked in the future;
Adding new functions in the future for already published articles, such as providing links related to the authors of the cited references with ORCID.
This solution is flexible when dealing with changes and improvements in the ADS and other citation systems.
Introducing structured abstracts for A&A articles (October 2005)
Astronomy & Astrophysics introduces structured abstracts for A&A articles.
See Editorial, A&A 441, E3 (2005)
Jean-Louis Steinberg (1922-2016) (January 2016)
in Kiev in 1974.
Copyright: Gérard Epstein, 1974
Jean-Louis Steinberg passed away in Paris on 21 January 2016, at the age of 93. He was one of the founders of radioastronomy in France and a pioneer of astronomy from space at the Paris Observatory. Last, but not least, he also played a leading role in the creation of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Jean-Louis was born on 7 June 1922, in Paris, and as a young man he began his studies to be a scientist and became a Doctor of Engineering in 1943. However, in June 1944, he was arrested and deported with his parents and one of his two brothers. He was the only survivor of the four when the US Army liberated the camp. Conscious that he was one of the last direct witnesses of the Holocaust, after his retirement he devoted much of his time to keeping the memory of the deportees alive. Right up until the last days of his life, he was providing testimonials of the horror of the concentration camps to schools and conferences.
After the WWII, he completed his studies and entered the physics laboratory of the École Normale Supérieure. This was just the start of a very successful scientific career. He also liked writing and was interested in scientific publications. In 1962, he was offered the job of Editor-in-Chief of the French journal, Annales d’Astrophysique, one of three professional journals in astronomy that were published in France at the time. He ran the journal with his wife Madeleine, who was fluent in English and Russian. In 1968, they decided to evaluate the usefulness of the work that had been carried out over the previous six years. However, when they looked up citations of the papers published in their journal in the Science citation index they were horrified to find that their journal had not even been mentioned. They concluded that English-speaking scientists were probably not reading it since it was clear, when they looked at the citations in American and English journals, that it was mostly being quoted by its own authors.
Jean-Louis shared his dismay with Stuart Pottasch, the Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of the Netherlands, who was having a similar experience, and they began talking about merging their publications in a new international journal. They found initial support from Jan Hendrik Oort, director of the Leiden Observatory, and from Anders Reiz, director of the Copenhagen Observatory, with whom they discussed the possibility of also merging the Scandinavian journals into a new publication. Together with Jean-François Denisse, director of the Paris Observatory, Jean-Louis then called a meeting of French astronomers during the turmoil of the 1968 events. He managed to convince them to merge the three French astronomy journals into one new publication.
Meanwhile, the idea of a new international astronomical journal had also been gaining ground in Germany and Belgium, as well as in all Scandinavian countries. At a subsequent meeting of key actors, held in Leiden on March 27, 1968, the general principles for the operation of the new journal, with the proposed name, “Astronomy & Astrophysics: A European Journal”, were also discussed. ESO was then asked to provide a legal framework for the new journal and its Council responded favourably in July 1968. As a result, Astronomy & Astrophysics saw the light of day and the first issue was published in January 1969. Naturally, Jean-Louis Steinberg and Stuart Pottasch were the two first Editors-in-Chief. Jean-Louis remained in this position for five years, ensuring the huge success of the new journal.
Jean-Louis and Madeleine ran the Meudon A&A editorial office during those five years with the help of a secretary and a part-time draughtswoman. There were only four issues of the journal in 1969, but it soon became a monthly publication and one of the four major generalist astronomical journals in the world. Initially, papers were submitted in English, French or German, but it soon became clear that, for a given author, the papers in English were cited twice as often as those in other languages. As a consequence, the vast majority of papers were soon written in English and corrected, when needed, by Madeleine.
Clearly, Jean-Louis was a pioneer in European scientific publishing: astronomers were the first to succeed in merging their journals into a single publication, and the refereeing system he set up was run very smoothly. Since then, his successors have attempted to maintain the high standards he defined as best as they could.
Those of us who were privileged to know Jean-Louis Steinberg as an Editor-in-Chief will remember him as always being accessible and attentive to authors. He was a man of exceptional moral integrity, a hard worker, a visionary and a bright and charismatic scientist and editor.
James Lequeux, Claude Bertout, Nabila Aghanim, Thierry Forveille
N.B. Jean-Louis Steinberg published a detailed account of his life and activities in an article entitled “The scientific career of a team leader”, Planetary and Space Science 49 (2001) 511-522.
Job offer: English language editor (March 2015)
The Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A) journal is now hiring its Main Language Editor (MLE) to work in the A&A office in Paris. The MLE will edit papers and coordinate the work of the LE team. The long-term contract (CDI) will begin as soon as possible (with a trial period of up to 6 months) and includes full access to the French healthcare system (medical and dental, etc). The salary, indexed to CNRS contracts, will depend on diploma and past experience.
The MLE is a native English speaker. Some familiarity with technical or scientific language is a bonus. More important are
- a strong background in editing in English,
- reasonable knowledge of French,
- some experience in team work,
- familiarity with related computer software (Adobe Acrobat, Word or the equivalent, LaTex, basic spreadsheet and presentation).
The MLE edits A&A's publications according to the “Guide to English editing at Astronomy & Astrophysics” www.aanda.org/language-editing and the principles outlined in the editorial on language editing (A&A Nov. 2008). This includes stylistic editing (clarifying meaning, eliminating jargon, polishing language; not creating or recasting tables or figures), and some copy editing when it relates to language (editing for grammar and usage, spelling, punctuation, and other mechanics of style, figure and table captions; not providing or changing citations, or checking references).
Applications (in pdf format) including a CV, a letter of motivation (including related experience), and two reference letters at least should be sent by email attachment to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Latest articles FREE for Astronomy & Astrophysics (June 2005)
As a service to the authors, to enlarge dissemination of scientific information and to increase the visibility of articles, EDP Sciences is pleased to announce the launch of the Latest articles FREE service for Astronomy & Astrophysics. This service allows non-subscribers to the journal to have, on registration, free access to the full online edition of the most recent issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics on EDP Sciences website.
The Latest articles FREE service is devoted to individuals for their private studies, scholarship or research, without any commercial benefit.
LaTeX2e v5.4 class for A&A (June 2004)
Download macro package
What's New in A&A v5.4?
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the pagelayout is better adapted for A4 and Letter format
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some new journals macros have been added (see the User's Guide)
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some examples of particular tables have been added in aa.dem or in the User's Guide
Letter from the Board of Directors (October 2004)
New policy concerning expanded European and non-European A&A memberships
In the early nineteen-nineties, A&A with great foresight took an important step - which the European Union would follow more than a decade later - by incorporating eastern European countries into its sponsoring membership: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic; Estonia became a full member in 1998. A&A was now truly "A European Journal", as then stated on the front cover.
In the meantime, A&A grew in importance as a vehicle for world-wide dissemination of astronomical research and an ever-increasing number of high-quality papers began streaming into the A&A Editorial offices from non-European countries, as well as from other European non-member countries. It became obvious to us that A&A no longer was merely a European Journal and in 2001 we removed the "A European Journal" from the front cover.
Eventually, some of these non-European countries began approaching us with queries about potential membership in A&A and in 2002 we admitted the first such country, Argentina, with an observer status. Meanwhile, the Board intensified its study of the financial and administrative consequences of a wider expansion including the admission of member countries beyond Europe - a special subcommittee was appointed.
The Board of Directors, at its meeting in Tartu, Estonia on 8 May 2004, made the important decision - after a lengthy and thorough discussion - that A&A will henceforth consider applications for sponsoring membership from any country in the world with well-documented active and excellent astronomical research. Each application will be carefully treated on a case-by-case basis. Subsequently, at this meeting, the Board admitted Argentina to full membership in A&A starting on 1 January 2005. In addition, three other applicants were admitted to observer status, namely Brazil, Chile and Portugal. The above-mentioned special Board subcommittee will continue its work and submit recommendations on the restructuring of the Board and its Executive Committee, a necessary consequence of the foreseen expansion.
Letters section in full Open Access (July 2007)
In the goal of enhancing our services to the astrophysical community, we are pleased to inform you that the letters section is now available in full Open Access until the end of 2008.
We are confident that this change will improve the visibility and diffusion of your articles and hope that you will enjoy our new service.
LISA VII Sponsor (January 2014)
EDP Sciences and A&A are pleased to announce their sponsoring “LISA VII, Open Science at the Frontiers of Librarianship” (Naples, 17-20 June 2014).
Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) is a series of scientific meetings for librarians and scientists that aims to provide a platform to discuss state-of-the-art maintenance, retrieval, delivery, and preservation of information, and to learn from invited experts in which direction our profession is evolving.
LISA conferences cover a variety of topics such as the organization and management of books, journals, and specialized materials; electronic publishing (note that astronomy is a leader in the field); bibliographic and full text databases of astronomical literature; and reports on collaborative projects.
New A&A LaTeX macro package v8.3 (January 2015)
The new A&A class (macro package v8.3) includes
New A&A membership and new Associate Editor position (August 2007)
See Letter from the Board of Directors of Astronomy & Astrophysics, A&A vol. 472, issue 1, p. E9 (2007).