Indicators of the science impact of an observatory

Sherry Winkelman; Raffaele D'Abrusco; Arnold Rots

doi:10.1117/12.2312630

10 July 2018 Indicators of the science impact of an observatory

Sherry Winkelman, Raffaele D'Abrusco, Arnold Rots

Proceedings Volume 10704, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems VII; 1070418 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312630
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

'What is the science impact of your observatory?' is the dreaded question most observatories face in one way or another. Classically, the number of science papers and citation rates of those papers are presented to show the science impact of an observatory with perhaps some download statistics thrown in for good measure. But a more expansive notion of science impact is needed to assess the most in uential types of science coming from the observatory. This necessarily leads to a deeper and broader look at the science being done with the obser- vatory's data. It encompasses notions of what kinds of observing programs will have long-lasting contributions to astronomy; what serendipitous science is being, or can be, performed with the observatory's archive; what unexpected science topics are being investigated with the observatory's data; or even, which sorts of targets need more exposure time. Observatory bibliographies can provide insight to these questions. In this presentation I will provide examples of how the extensive metadata connected to the Chandra Bibliography is being used to uncover the science impact of the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) within the astronomical community. This work has been supported by NASA under contract NAS 8-03060 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for operation of the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC).

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Sherry Winkelman, Raffaele D'Abrusco, and Arnold Rots "Indicators of the science impact of an observatory", Proc. SPIE 10704, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems VII, 1070418 (10 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312630

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