The project of electronic publication of astronomy and astrophysics

Vistas in Astronomy Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 417421, 1996 Copyright (~) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0083-6656/96 $32.00 + 0.00

Pergamon

PIE S0083-6656(96)00025-6

THE PROJECT OF ELECTRONIC PUBLICATION OF A S T R O N O M Y A N D ASTROPHYSICS H A R M J. H A B I N G 1,, a n d J A M E S L E Q U E U X 2,t t Sterrewacht Leiden, Postbus 9513, NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands 20bservatoire de Paris, 61, avenue de l'Observatoire, F-75014 Paris, France

Abstract-- The plans for electronic publication of Astronomy and Astrophysics are presented. Copyright (~)1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N Like all primary astronomy journals, A&A will hopefully move to parallel electronic publication starting on 1 January 1997, at the same time as ApJ, PASP and maybe MNRAS about which we have little information (AJ should follow shortly). The A&A Board of Directors decided on the principle at its last meeting on 4 May 1996, but the decision is not yet official as we are waiting for a full demonstration by Springer-Verlag and Les Editions de Physique of articles prepared in HTML. The final decision will be taken in September.

2. I N T E R E S T

OF ELECTRONIC

PUBLICATION

Electronic publication is undisputably the future for primary journals. Those that will not move into it will disappear sooner or later for a mere reason of competition. This new form of publication offers already extraordinary possibilities for bibliographical research. It will be possible to obtain immediately the summary and later if necessary the full text of a reference cited in the on-line article, to have direct access to the SIMBAD database concerning any astronomy object mentioned, to obtain maps of the surrounding regions with identifications with ALADIN, to know by whom the consulted paper has been cited, to make researches by key words and analogies through abstracts and soon through complete *E-mail: [email protected]. t E-mail: [email protected], fr. 417

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papers, etc .... The software that allows such research is developing at a prodigious rate, especially at CDS. Only an H T M L (HyperText Mark-up Language) version allows at present to benefit from the possibilities just mentioned. We strongly advise the readers to get connected to the server of A A S (http://www. a a s . o r g / A p J / ) to have a demonstration concerning ApJ Letters in H T M L : our system will be identical. See also the abstracts of A&A papers on the CDS server ( h t t p : / / c d s w e b . u - s t r a s b g , f r / A b s t r a c t , htlm). On the server of Les Editions de Physique ( h t t p : / / w w w . e d - p h y s , f r ) there is a demonstration of a A&A Supplement paper in H T L M (soon with links to external databases): see at the end of the section "Information about the electronic version". Articles in P D F and H T M L can be seen on the servers of Les Editions de Physique and of Springer ( h t t p : / / s c i e n c e . s p r i n g e r , d e / a a / a a - m a i n , htm). P D F is a very simple way to read a paper on a screen, but it is not so fast as H T M L which is interactive and does not offer the links to other data bases.

3. THE A&A PROJECT We shall distribute initially three versions of the article: POSTSCRIPT (for a printedjournal quality), P D F and H T M L . We are considering to sell regularly, for instance every 6 months, CDS-ROMS containing the whole content (figures included) of what has been published in the previous period, in P D E The annual content of the Journal is of the order of 4 CD-ROMs, whose price will not exceed a few hundred francs, mailing cost included. The abstracts (in advance of publication) and tables will continue to be distributed free in electronic form by the CDS, which presents a guarantee of a better quality, as Mrs Bauer at CDS checks all tables. We consider the electronic version as being an integral part of the journal. This means that whenever the electronic version differs from the paper version (which is already the case when tables and appendices are only published electronically) it is the whole version (the electronic one which will be on the server) which will be submitted to the referee(s) for examination: all Astronomy Journals intend to keep the refereeing system, in order to provide an "approved" material, which is not the case for the SISSA-type databases which distribute preprints without refereeing. On the financial side, this means that libraries and individuals that will subscribe to the printed version will have access to the electronic version: the servers that will distribute it will also recognize the computers allowed to get connected via their identification IP number. Members of a subscribing institute will be able to get access to the electronic version either in their institute, or privately by getting connected to an approved computer. The printed version will be kept on for years, and personal subscriptions will go on while giving right to the electronic access. Springer and les Editions de Physique do not wish to maintain their electronic data base for more than 2 years. But we are preparing an agreement with CDS which will maintain the whole of the A&A database, will duplicate it to "mirror-sites" (in U.S.A. and Japan at present) and will transfer it on new supports according to the future evolution of those supports which will be dictated by commercial considerations (at present the support at the CDS is the CDROM). We also hope that access to the electronic version will be possible not only from the Springer and Les Editions de Physique's servers, but also from servers in the U.S.A., and later in other countries. This will present a clear advantage for our foreign readers. Moreover a mirror-site of the ADS database will be located in Strasbourg.

Electronic Publication of Astronomy and Astrophysics 4. F I N A N C I A L P R O B L E M S

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AND CONSEQUENCES

All this will cost. Before any discussion of costs we must recall the financial system of

A&A. The contributions of the sponsoring countries and the page charges from authors belonging to non-sponsoring countries subsidize the editorial offices, however the production of the printed journals is covered only by the institutional subscriptions (personal subscriptions are at cost). To produce the electronic version, it will be necessary to finance the installation and maintenance of the database at CDS and at the mirror-sites; this can probably be covered by taking from the contributions of the sponsoring countries. The production of the POSTSCRIPT and PDF versions (the latter derived easily from the POSTSCRIPT one) is of low cost as the papers are prepared in POSTSCRIPT for printing. However it will be necessary, starting from January, that authors provide us with papers prepared in I6TEXwith the Springer macros; this should not be much problem as almost all papers are submitted already in this form. We shall also require as far as possible POSTSCRIPT figures (maybe in GIF later). Note that color figures can be put on the Web at no extra cost, contrary to color figures on paper. We are also studying the possibility that the authors can prepare tables in another way than the cumbersome TENor I-4TEX. Producing the HTML version will be of a higher cost for the publishers than for the PDF version as it requires some work to prepare the text and to install anchors from the references and names of objects which allow the connection to the external databases (the authors will be asked to help in this respect). However the HTLM version is fundamental, since all the interest of an electronic publication lies there. The overall extra cost of the electronic version compared to the paper version is of the order of 14-15%. Under the present circumstances this can only be covered by subscriptions: introducing a general system of page charges similar to the one existing for almost all U.S. journals would oppose to our european habits. However the present subscription price is already high enough, although prices have been kept as tight as possible: the subscription price per page has kept decreasing continuously since the journal started; this is partly thanks to cooperation of the authors who produce their papers in TENor BTEX. Nevertheless the suscription price has increased substantially in 1996 due to the increase in the number of pages: for a European suscriber it is 3786 DM for the main journal and 4500 FF for the supplements, if mailing costs are included. The personal subscriptions, at the same time, are respectively 731 DM and 360 FF, which covers only the production cost of extra copies and mailing cost (these subscriptions were subsidized by us until 1995). The European institutes are ready to bear those prices as they do not pay page charges and as the contributions from the sponsoring countries finance the editorial offices of the Journal. But the subscription price is rightfully considered as very high by our colleagues from other countries, especially americans who get, as we do, the ApJ at a low price (but forgetting that they pay also for the ApJ with their page charges!). This prevents us from substantially increasing the subscription prices. Adding to this comes another problem: the number of articles we receive keeps increasing. In spite of the increase of the number of pages published in 1996 compared to 1995 and of a stricter editorial policy, the time elapsed between acceptance of a paper and its publication is 7 months for the main journal. Technically it could be reduced to 3 months. We do not see any long-term solution but to reduce the number of pages published on paper by transferring part of the material to a purely electronic form. This is the only possible "ecological" alternative to the present, wasteful and expensive complete edition on

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paper. For 1997, and provided that the regular production of the H T L M version be possible, the subscription price should increase by 7% but the number of pages should be reduced by 7% compared to 1996. As the delay of publication has to be reduced progressively by resorbing the backlog of papers queueing at the printers, and as we are likely to receive still more papers, much more than 7% of the material should be published in purely electronic form, in addition to what is already done (tables, etc .... ). What will be the consequences of this?

For the author, it will mean to conceive his article in a new way, where only the most essential things will be published on paper while all the details will be found in the electronic version. Of course all papers will not allow such treatment and there will be all intermediate cases between short articles whose printed and electronic versions will be identical (lettertype), longer papers parts of which will be published only electronically and papers reduced to a brief announcement of the material published only electronically (a formula currently in use in the supplements). If we succeed in reducing substantially the average length of the printed version of the main journal articles, we shall be able to reduce the publication time considerably and to maintain the present subscription price for years. The effort required from authors is more intellectual than material: it will not be necessary to prepare two different versions of the article. The part published only in electronic form will be replaced in the printed text by a simple mention of the server where it can be found, but one should check that the printed version is understandable in itself independently from the rest. The electronic version should be the complete one, and it is this version that will be submitted to the referee, whose task will not differ from what it is now. For users, the printed version, containing the essentials, will take less room and will be easier to consult and to browse. The system considered here is the only one that will allow at the same time to stop the inflation of paper and to give a guarantee that the papers will remain complete and usable in the long run. The electronic version will allow bibliographical and other searches as previously mentioned. A fast access will evidently depend on the state of the network, but the existence of mirror-databases should considerably facilitate this. We are certain that the idea according to which we should print all documents consulted (even the complete journal in the libraries) is that of a generation of astronomers ... to which we belong, but that younger generations see things in a totally different way! Moreover, the existence of CD-ROMs versions for articles older than 6 months will palliate the possible deficiencies of the network, although they do not permit bibliographical searches. For libraries, it appears that they should be equiped with terminals allowing access to the Web by the users, and with CD-ROM readers (quite inexpensive nowadays). We do not think it a good idea to print systematically on paper the whole electronic version, at least after a transition period: the users will soon acquire different habits! A particular problem is that of Eastern and developing countries. Although the access to the network is often more difficult for them, they are among the most important users of SIMBAD and of the tables available at CDS; besides, they provide articles in TEXor ~TEX, and POSTSCRIPT figures, whose technical presentation is generally flawless. We are ready to help those countries by offering them a few subscriptions at reduced price which will give them the printed version and access to the electronic version, and by case-to-case measures in case of real difficulties.

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5. SUMMARY (1) We shall continue to offer a printed version of A&A, although reduced in size. The complete electronic version will be available in several forms on the WWW internet servers on several continents. The rapid-access HTML version will allow detailed bibliographic searches and interactive access to databases, functions which are not available with the SISSA-type servers. (2) The complete version will be submitted to referees and we shall guarantee its very long-term preservation in agreement with the CDS. (3) CD-ROMs containing the complete version will be sold regularly at low price, allowing to constitute compact and easily accessible archives. (4) The formats and procedures will be the same for A&A and for the AAS publications. The enormous advantages offered by the electronic publication are worth an effort by everyone. We are in an evolving situation, and we shall only progress through a permanent dialogue between authors, editors and publishers.