
doi: 10.1086/505182
In 2001, 836 papers appearing in 15 journals reported and/or analyzed data collected with ground-based radio, millimeter, and submillimeter telescopes, plus the HALCA, COBE, and SWAS satellites and a few balloon-borne detectors. More than 80 telescopes were represented, including 36 that were each responsible for five or more papers. These papers were cited 11,332 times in 2002, 2003, and 2004, for a mean rate of 13.56 citations per paper, or 4.52 citations per paper per year (sometimes called impact or impact factor, and compared to 5.40 citations per paper per year for optical astronomy papers in the same period and 6.42 for space-based papers). We examine here the distributions of papers, citations, and impact factors among subject areas and telescopes and make some comparisons with the 2100 optical and infrared and 1200 space-based papers published and cited in the same years. The single largest item in the optical inventory was, naturally, the Hubble Space Telescope, with 16% of the papers and 19% of the citations. Radio astronomy houses an even more dominant entity, the Very Large Array (VLA), responsible for 22% of the papers and 27% of the citations. The VLA is, therefore, proportionately even more influential in world radio astronomy than HST is in world optical astronomy. A third paper in this series looks at papers and citations in the area of infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray space-based astronomy and planetary missions. Of the radio papers, 149 were also optical papers and 76 were also space papers, in the sense of reporting or analyzing data in both bands. Their impact factors were 5.71 and 7.51 citations per paper per year, respectively, slightly above the averages for the individual bands. Thus, slightly more than half of observational astronomy is still optical astronomy, but multiwavelength papers are somewhat more influential than average. No radio+optical paper went completely uncited during the triennium. © 2006. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific. All rights reserved.
Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences
Astronomy & Astrophysics, Astronomical and Space Sciences
| citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 5 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
