EDP Sciences and ESO Enhance Research Discoverability with Direct Links between Astronomy & Astrophysics and ESO Telescope Bibliography Records

EDP Sciences, in collaboration with the European Southern Observatory (ESO), has announced the introduction of links between Astronomy&Astrophysics (A&A) articles and corresponding ESO datasets. This initiative establishes A&A as the first major astronomy journal to feature such links, significantly enhancing research discoverability and facilitating a more comprehensive reader experience.

The ESO Telescope Bibliography (ESO telbib), a longstanding resource developed and curated by the ESO Library, Documentation and Information Services (LDIS) department, references articles published in the major astronomy journals that utilize ESO data. Now, the A&A publication platform, maintained by EDP Sciences, integrates direct links to the associated datasets at ESO telbib by leveraging its API. This development offers researchers approximately 8000 links to ESO data, enabling them to explore and analyze the linked data seamlessly.

By simply following the "ESO data at telbib"* links on the A&A publishing platform, readers can easily access the corresponding datasets. This integration expands upon EDP Sciences' existing provision of direct links to essential astronomy databases, including the NASA ADS Abstract Service and the CDS (Strasbourg astronomical Data Center).

“We are delighted that A&A, with its close ties to ESO, has become the first journal to feature links between data and articles," said Uta Grothkopf, Head of the LDIS department at ESO. "The ESO Telescope Bibliography aims to interconnect resources from proposals to papers and from papers to data in the archive. By linking papers back to the associated ESO data, A&A is opening up new avenues for discovery, enabling seamless access to the valuable data connections provided by the ESO Library."

“This project, supported by the A&A Board of Directors, is a result of the collaborative efforts between EDP Sciences and ESO, underscoring A&A’s commitment to open science and advancing the field of astronomy and astrophysics," commented Arūnas Kučinskas, Chairperson of the A&A Board of Directors. Anne Ruimy, Senior Publisher at EDP Sciences, commented, "We are proud to have worked alongside the ESO Library to bring this project to realization, and we hope to extend this initiative to additional databases in the coming months, fostering a more interconnected and data-driven research landscape."

The implementation of these direct links significantly improves the findability of ESO data for A&A readers, aligning with the FAIR guiding principles of scientific data management. A&A's commitment to integrating ESO datasets not only benefits the scientific community but also serves as an inspiration for other journals and data repositories to follow suit.

* See the following example of A&A article featuring a link to the corresponding observations by the MUSE instrument at the Paranal Observatory (Chile).