Ebook: Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy

Research and publications in the field of Astronomy have undergone dramatic changes in the last half-century. While activities just slowed down during World War II in the US and in Latin America, they were very strongly affected by the difficult conditions prevailing among the European belligerent nations. Half a century ago, re­ search activities were mostly confined to observatories (linked or not to universities) and usually separated from the teaching of physical sciences. Hence, directors of observatories played an important role in the choice of the research fields, and "schools" of research appeared at various places, de­ veloping specific instrumentation, reduction techniques and mathematical methods to achieve their scientific goals. Reorganising the research activities after the war was no minor under­ taking, specially because communications were interrupted for over five years and isolated continental Europe from overseas activities. Scarcity of observing instruments (some of them being requisitioned by occupy­ ing armies) , enormous gaps in the available litterature led to local research activities, conducted independently of similar efforts undertaken elsewhere.

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This book offers a unique collection - the first of its kind - of chapters dealing with socio-dynamical aspects of the astronomy (and related space sciences) community: characteristics of organizations, publication studies, research indicators, space science planning, research communication, public outreach, and so on.
The experts contributing to this book have done their best to write in a way understandable by readers not necessarily hyper-specialized in astronomy, while still providing specific detailed information. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography of publications related to socio-astronomy and to the interactions of the astronomy community with society at large. This book will be most usefully read by researchers, teachers, editors, publishers, librarians, science sociologists, research planners and strategists, project managers, and public relations officers, plus those in charge of astronomy-related organizations, as well as by students aiming at a career in astronomy or related space science.