[ASA] Decadal Plan Publications and Instrumentation Database

[Stuart Wyithe]

Dear Colleagues,

As you will be aware the Australian Astronomy community is currently in the Decadal Planning process for the period 2016-2025. An important part of the Decadal Plan is the opportunity for Australian astronomy to carry out a stock take of its capabilities, assess its impact both nationally and internationally, provide a vision for the future, and to set priorities and develop strategies on how that vision might be implemented. Earlier this year members of the Australian community were asked to complete the Demographics survey, with an excellent response.

As per the previous Decadal Plan the NCA is now also constructing a database of the facilities and techniques used for Australian astronomy publications. This will be the second and last major survey exercise in the Decadal Plan process. The aim of the Publications and Facilities Database is to understand how astronomy infrastructure and techniques have been used during the past Decadal Plan period, and what the scientific impact of those facilities/techniques has been. This allows our community to assess the outcomes from previous investments and more effectively plan for the future. We encourage all Australian astronomers to take the time to complete this data base. Doing so will ensure that the science return from your research and from the facilities that you use for your research will be quantified among the successes of Australian astronomy over the past decade. [Please note that all information will be aggregated nationally and not be tallied on an individual or institutional basis]

The link to the Decadal Plan Publications and Facilities Database Input Page can be found at

http://ph.unimelb.edu.au/astroads/upload.php

The page is pass word protected.

username: decadal
password: plan

This webpage will allow you to generate a library of your papers from the past Decadal Plan period using the ADS database. You will then be asked to assign the facilities/techniques that were used to conduct the research in these papers.  Instructions are provided on the webpage, and are available at the bottom of this email.

We have made an effort to ensure that input into the data base is as simple as possible and should only take about 30 seconds per paper. However we do recognise that the assignment of facility/techniques to individual papers is time consuming, and that it may not be possible for some members of the community to assign facilities/techniques to all of their papers in a single visit. If the assignment cannot be completed in a single session, it is therefore possible to revisited the webpage at a later date to complete your submissions.

We ask that you complete your contribution to the Decadal Plan Publications and Facilities Database by Friday 20th June.

Information on the 2016-25 Decadal Plan time-line, activities and working groups can be found at  AustralianAstronomyDecadalPlan.org<http://australianastronomydecadalplan.org/>. Information about the NCA and previous Decadal Plans can be found on the National Committee for Astronomy<http://www.science.org.au/natcoms/nc-astronomy.html> web site.

Best regards,

Stuart Wyithe and Brian Schmidt


________________________________

Go to:  http://ph.unimelb.edu.au/astroads/upload.php

Enter your email (this will serve as a unique identifier for your papers, and allow you to edit your list)
and your name as it would appear on ADS, e.g. "Wyithe, J"

This page will generate a library of your papers over the past Decadal Planning period from the ADS database. You will then be asked to assign the facilities/techniques that were used to conduct the research in these papers. Once you are taken to your library of papers please note the following points that will ensure your publications are counted correctly:

  *   In many cases the names submitted to the ADS database will generate listings that include some papers not belonging to the correct author. The generated listing therefore includes a check box next to the ADS identifier. To include papers in the Decadal Plan Publications Database please select this box.

  *   Assignment of facilities/techniques and their percentage contribution to each selected paper is via drop down menus. Assignments of up to 5 facilities/techniques can be made for each paper. Default facilities/techniques can be selected on this webpage prior to generation of the library in order to make entry easier in cases where the same facility/technique is used for many papers. Exercise your judgement as to the fraction of the paper which can be attributed to a given facility or technique. You do not need to use all 5 categories, but totals DO need to add up to 100%.

  *   We recognise that assignment of facility/technique to individual papers is time consuming, and that it may not be possible for members of the community to assign facilities/techniques to all of the selected papers in a single visit. If the assignment cannot be completed in a single session, please submit those paper assignments that have been made. The library may then be revisited from this webpage at a later date, in which case previously entered papers will be shown in red. Please note that when re-generating the library to complete paper assignments the same email address should be used. If errors are made during paper assignment, it is possible to delete these from from the database via the 'delete' tab that appears beside previously submitted papers.

  *   If you encounter technical difficulties, please use the form at the bottom of the webpage.



====================================
Professor Stuart Wyithe
Australian Laureate Fellow
Chair, National Committee for Astronomy
School of Physics
University of Melbourne
Vic, Australia  3010

Phone:  +61 3 8344 5083
Fax:  +61 3 9347 4783
Email: swyithe at unimelb.edu.au<https://evserver2.unimelb.edu.au/EnterpriseVault/swyithe@unimelb.edu.au>

science.org.au/natcoms/nc-astronomy.html<http://science.org.au/natcoms/nc-astronomy.html>
====================================






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/asa/attachments/20140523/2c20e599/attachment-0003.html>