[SAO/NASA ADS]   What's New with the ADS
 
ADS Services


18-Apr-2013

The ADS team has been working hard on reinventing its services and interfaces to better support our community's research needs. Check out our latest developments at

http://adshelplabs.org

To see the latest news for ADS, check out our facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/nasaadshelp

11-Jan-2010

Happy new Year! Here is what is New for you in 2010:

  1. Introducing the ADS Topic Search
  2. Color and Grayscale Content in the ADS
  3. Database Growth
  4. Enhanced Object Search
  5. New Formatting Options
  6. System Upgrades

Introducing the ADS Topic Search

The ADS Topic Search is a beta interface which provides six different modes for searching the literature. "Keyword Searches" make up the first three modes and are based on the traditional approach of searching for the input keywords in the ADS database and then ranking the results based on criteria specified by the user. The remaining three searches, "Subject Area Searches," broaden the keyword-based search through collaborative filtering techniques. The Keyword Searches are:
  • Most Relevant: returns a list of papers that best match the input keywords, ranked by a combined word-based, citation-weighted, age-normalized score.
  • Most Recent: returns a list of papers matching the input set of keywords, ranked by age (most recent first).
  • Most Important: returns a list of papers matching the input set of keywords, ranked by citation counts.
The Subject Area Searches make use of relationships between documents to characterize their relevance and usefulness with respect to a topic. These searches take the initial keyword search results and return related papers based on aggregate statistics about readership, references, and citations. The Subject Area Searches are:
  • Most Popular: returns the list of documents which are read more frequently by people interested in the current literature on the subject (these tend to be the "hottest" papers).
  • Most Useful: returns the list of documents which are cited most often by people currently publishing papers on the subject (these tend to be seminal papers and reference works).
  • Most Instructive: returns the list of documents which contain extensive discussions of papers written on the subject (these tend to be review articles).
The Topic Search is available from the "Search" page linked from the ADS home page or can be directly accessed at http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/topicSearch

Color and Grayscale Content in the ADS

The ADS has undertaken the high-resolution digitization of color and grayscale content for journals available in its fulltext article archive. The original scans in the archive were created over 10 years ago by capturing journal pages as bitonal images, which provide poor detail for plates and illustrations. We are now rescanning the color and grayscale content from the major astronomy journals. The upgraded digital scans are being integrated into the onscreen page viewing and PDF delivery services available in the ADS. The content that has been rescanned so far is:
ApJ 1966-1972, 1984-1996
ApJL 1967-1994
ApJS 1954-1994
AJ 1953-1960, 1973-1978
A&A 1969-1994
MNRAS 1903-2000
There are gaps in this coverage and we are missing some issues from these journals. If you have extras that you could donate, please see our complete list of missing issues online at http://adshelp.harvard.edu/pubs/missing_journals.html

Database Growth

Here is a snapshot of how our data holdings have increased during 2009:
  • Abstract coverage has increased 10%, to just over 8 million records (of which 1.7 million in Astronomy & Astrophysics)
  • Citation coverage has increased 20%, to over 39 million citations
  • Fulltext coverage has increased 9%, to 4 million scanned pages

Enhanced Object Search

The adshelpabs:abstract_service.html Astronomy and Astrophysics abstract search interface has been revised to search for an object name in the body and title of ADS abstracts, in addition to querying NED and SIMBAD for the object names. This new option, which is on by default, can be useful in finding papers mentioning objects from publications not covered by SIMBAD or NED, including conference proceedings, e-prints, observing proposals, etc. The option can be disabled by unchecking the button named "ADS Objects" in the Abstract Search form.

New Formatting Option

The "selection of format to be returned" now allows users to retrieve BibTeX records including abstracts. This may be especially useful for those users who import ADS BibTeX records into outside reference manager systems such as JabRef or BibDesk. Look for this option in the pull-down format menu available at the bottom of every ADS search result page.

System Upgrades

The ADS mirror sites in Chile, at ESO and in India were all upgraded and each now holds a full copy of the ADS article archive. We have also upgraded the main ADS site in the US by installing redundant servers with load balancing and failover capabilities. As our usage is continuously increasing, this will help us maintain an appropriate level of service for all our users. We are also taking steps to secure the long-term stability and integrity of all of our data, metadata, and software by deploying a redundant storage system in a secure remote data center with disaster recovery capabilities.





02-Apr-2008

We have the following news to announce:

  1. Guenther Eichhorn leaves the ADS project
  2. The ADS is looking for a software developer
  3. The ADS announces collaboration with CrossRef
  4. Upgraded scans in the ADS Article Service
  5. Science Education Search
  6. New Mirror site at ARI

Guenther Eichhorn Leaves the ADS Project

Guenther Eichhorn, who developed and managed the ADS for 15 years has left our project for a job at Springer. We will miss him and wish him all the best in his new position. As a recognition for his work with the ADS, Guenther has been recently awarded the 2008 Award for Services to Astronomy from the Royal Astronomical Society for his contribution to the field.

Alberto Accomazzi, a veteran member of the ADS team, has stepped up to become the new project manager. Alberto has worked for the past 14 years for the ADS project as a software developer and system architect. His experience and intimate knowledge of the ADS have provided a smooth transition in leadership and continuity in the day-to-day operations of the project.

The ADS is Looking for A Software Developer

Want to join the ADS team? Or know someone who might be interested? We are looking for a software developer to help us enhance and solidify our project's role as THE digital library portal for astronomers and astrophysicists. The employee will participate in the development, maintenance and upgrading of the ADS infrastructure and help plan, specify, and build the technologies needed to support the project's goal of ubiquitous access to the astronomical literature and related datasets. For more information, please see the job posting on the Center for Astrophysics website.

The ADS Announces Collaboration With CrossRef

The ADS submitted the winning proposal this summer for Innovative Uses of CrossRef Metadata. CrossRef is a non-profit membership association founded and directed by publishers. Their shared linking infrastructure allows publishers to link to individual articles by DOI (Digital Object Identifier). CrossRef data is generally only accessible on a paid subscription basis, but CrossRef has entered into a no-cost agreement with the ADS as part of a broader initiative to partner with the academic and library communities on the development of new research tools that process and display article-level data.

The ADS/CrossRef agreement is intended to allow us to add links to fulltext papers to millions of records in the ADS database and to facilitate the exchange of information between the ADS and the various publishers whose content we index. Furthermore, it gives us access to metadata for many physics journals whose content is not currently complete in the ADS, thereby improving both our abstract and citation coverage.

Upgraded Scans in the ADS Article Service

The ADS has undertaken the high-resolution digitization of color and grayscale content for journals available in its fulltext article archive. The original scans in the archive were created over 10 years ago by capturing journal pages as bitonal images, which provide poor detail for plates and illustrations. During the current phase of this effort we are focusing on updating the scans of the AAS journals (ApJ, ApJS and AJ), but intend to extend it to cover all the major astronomical journals as funding permits. The digitization aims at creating preservation-quality digital images from the originals, and will be integrated into the on-screen viewing and printing functionality available through the ADS. Look for these scans to start appearing online by early fall of 2008.

Science Education Search

The ADS provides an interface that searches only Science Education journals such as American Journal of Physics, The Physics Teacher, Physics Education, and Astronomy Education Review. This handy search tool can be found by going to the ADS home page, clicking on the "Search" link, and selecting "Science Education." As an example, many papers on planetary motion and solar physics can be found in the science education literature. This search form has been developed for the benefit of high school and college educators with collaboration from the ComPadre project.

An additional experimental feature available in the Science Education search form is an option to retrieve review articles on a particular topic. We hope that this will be a useful addition for students and educators alike.

New Mirror Site At ARI

We are pleased to announce a new mirror site hosted by the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ARI) at the Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg:

http://adshelp.ari.uni-heidelberg.de





10-May-2007

We have recently included over 80,000 historical records from 1969-1982 from the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ARI) in Heidelberg.

http://www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/aribib

This is the first set of historical data extracted from the A&A Abstracts index volumes (v.1-32). Users should note that for this update, the myADS results will differ. The articles found as "recent papers" are from this set (those most recently added to the ADS) even though their publication date is older. The articles listed as "most popular" and "most cited" are instead taken from the entire database.



09-May-2007

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. New login capability
  2. Open access links
  3. New sorting/selection/searching options
  4. Private library improvements
  5. New URL for direct linking

New Login Capability

We have recently integrated all of the ADS customization capabilities into a single ADS account, which can easily be accessed from any computer through a login procedure. This login capability, much like the one provided by Google and Yahoo, gives users an account based on the one's email address. This allows a user to easily retrieve and modify preferences, private libraries, query settings, and myADS's setup.

If you have in the past entered your email address when accessing ADS, this login environment was created for you, and is available for you to use immediately. If not, you can create it by clicking on the "Sign in" button found on the upper right corner of our home page. Please note that the sign-on and customizations are still tied to the particular ADS mirror site that you are using.



Open Access Links

We have recently changed the appearance of all links which we know are open-access (free for all users) so that they appear green in the "available items" column of a search results page or in a full abstract page. This includes arXiv links, links to all materials scanned by the ADS, as well as links to any online material which to be available to all users. If you know of additional links that should be marked as open-access, please let us know.

New Sorting/selection/searching Options

We have added an option in the filter section on the main query page which allows users to select only articles, rather than all bibliographic records. This excludes all conference abstracts (such as AAS abstracts), data catalogs, circulars, and proposals.

In addition, we have introduced the capability to sort by the number of authors of a paper in the sorting options.

We have also improved the acronym searching to detect capitalized words as acronyms. This means that ADS searches are now case-sensitive, and words that are entered in all uppercase are considered acronyms and will only match the same acronyms as found in the literature. For example, compare the difference in results when searching "FUSE" rather than "fuse"

Private Library Improvements

We have added the capability to annotate private libraries in order to improve their usability. If you do not already use private libraries, they are a nice way to organize sets of papers for a given author or given paper. To see an example of a private library in the ADS, please follow this link:

     http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?library


New URL for Direct Linking

We have changed the canonical URL that we use to create links to our full abstract page, in order to simplify the creation of links to it. You will notice that our pages now link to an abstract using the syntax:
        http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu/abs/<bibcode>
(where <bibcode> represents the 19-character bibliographic code). For example:
        http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003ApJS..148..175S
If you maintain pages that link to individual ADS abstract records, we suggest that you modify your links to reflect this new syntax.



Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thank you!

adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu







18-Dec-2006

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. New Basic Search Capability
  2. Improved Library ("L") links
  3. New Mirror Site in Indonesia
  4. New Sort Options on Results List
  5. Database Summary

New Basic Search Capability

We have recently introduced a "basic" search capability that provides a single input box and allows users to enter any combination of author name, keyword, publication date (or range of dates). This query returns only the list of papers which contains all the input search terms. The papers are ranked by how "popular" the articles are in the ADS database, with more emphasis given to newer articles.

The basic search is intended to complement, not substitute for the traditional search forms, but may be useful for those who find the current ADS search forms complicated. It is available on ADS's home page, as well as at the location:

http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu/basic_search.html

A search engine plugin for Internet Explorer 7, Firefox and Safari is also provided at the URL above.

Improved Library ("L") Links

We have recently introduced the option of configuring the ADS so that "Library Links" ("L") are displayed with the records of publications that may be available online through a user's library. If your library provides online linking services, all you have to do is tell the ADS what library you have access to by going to your Preference Settings page and clicking on "Library Links settings." More information on this is available in our help page

http://doc.adshelpabs.harvard.edu/abs_doc/help_pages/openurl.html

New Mirror Site in Indonesia

We are pleased to announce a new mirror site at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences in Jakarta, Indonesia.

http://www.adshelp.lipi.go.id/

Users convenient to that site should begin using that mirror site for abstract and article retrieval.

New Sort Options on Results List

We have introduced a pulldown menu at the top of the results list of every query which allows users to order the results list by date, number of citations, or first author's name. This provides a handy shortcut to the resorting options that are most commonly used. The traditional record selection and sorting are still available at the bottom of the results list.



Database Summary

The ADS databases currently contain over 5 million records and 20 million citation pairs. Recent large datasets which have been added include: abstracts and references from Nature (back to volume 165, 1950), table of content entries from Annalen der Physik (back to volume 1, 1799), abstracts from American Journal of Physics (back to volume 1, 1933), abstracts from Science Education (back to volume 15, 1934), and abstracts from The Physics Teacher (back to volume 1, 1963).

We have over 3.3 million scanned pages, with scans added recently for the following journals: Journal for the History of Astronomy (v.1-35: 1970-2004) and Popular Astronomy (v.12-59: 1904-1951).



Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thank you!

adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu







06-Jan-2006

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. New Author Search Capability
  2. New Mirror Site at Canberra, Australia

New Author Search Capability

We have recently introduced the capability of searching for full author names from the main query page. This changes the default author searching such that a search for "Surname, Firstname Middle initial") returns all potential matches and no longer truncates after the first initial. This new Author Search will help you finding all your papers and only *your* papers.

For example: a search for "Smith, Charles S" returns

Smith, Charles S.

Smith, C. S.

Smith, C.

but not

Smith, Carol

Smith, Charles M.

Smith, C. M.

This should eliminate the need for the typical user to have to go to the exact author search page.

If a user wants only to match the name exactly as entered, click on the box next to the link marked "Exact name matching".

New Mirror Site At Canberra, Australia

We are pleased to announce a new mirror site at the Australian National University in Canberra Australia, hosted with the support of GrangeNet and AARNet.

http://adshelp.grangenet.net/

Users convenient to that site should begin using that mirror site for abstract and article retrieval.

Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thank you!

adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu

31-Oct-2005

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. Citations and Readshelp Histograms
  2. Removal of Self-Citations
  3. Physics/Instrumentation Database Merge
  4. Full Text Search Improvements
  5. Formatting Options on Top Level
  6. Custom Formatting via the B Link
  7. IAU Astrodata Discussion Groups

Citations and Readshelp Histograms

We have introduced two new histograms, one which maps the citation history and one which maps the read history of a given paper according to ADS records. Both of these histograms are linked at the top of an abstract record, as well as at the top of a listing of citation or readshelp to that paper. For the citations histogram, users are once again reminded that our citation database is not complete. For the readshelp histogram, the data go back to 1996, when we began keeping records of readshelp to particular bibliographic codes in our system.

Removal of Self-Citations

We have implemented the capability of removing self-citations when calculating the total number of citations to a given author. If you have a listing of all papers by a given author (generated by an author query), at the bottom of the list, you can select the button to "exclude self-citations" before selecting the button to "Get citations lists for selected articles". Note that this only works for author queries.

Physics/Instrumentation Database Merge

We have recently merged the Instrumentation database into the Physics database. This was done because there was overlap in the two databases and we were not getting updates to the Instrumentation database as regularly as the other two databases. There was no loss of records, and all new data is being included more frequently by having fewer databases to maintain.

Full Text Search Improvements

The full text search has been significantly improved so that it now searches the current literature in addition to the scanned literature. This was done by enabling multiple searches to publisher websites performed simultaneously with searches to the scanned ADS literature. Although searches may be slightly slower, the search results are far more complete and we felt that the benefits of improved search results made this a worthwhile improvement.

Formatting Options on Top Level

We have added formatting options to the top level of the query form so that if you know you would like to output a certain format such as bibtex, that can be done in one step by setting your formatting options at the start of your search. These formatting options can be found beneath the Filters section.

Custom Formatting Via the B Link

We have introduced a new link option which returns the abstract formatted in your "custom" format, if one was set up in your preferences. The link is available from the page showing the full abstract of a record under the name "Custom format." It is also available by following the "B" link when viewing the results of an abstract query.

IAU Astrodata Discussion Groups

The IAU has created web-based discussion groups called AstroData, which discuss topics such as Open Access and the Digital Divide. If you are interested in participating in these forums, please visit the web site at http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/Astrodata/



19-Aug-2005

The ADS server at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu will be unavailable from 4pm EDT (12:00 UTC) on Friday August 19 until approximately 5pm EDT on Saturday August 20. The downtime is necessary to allow repair of faulty electrical equipment at the Observatory.

We suggest you take advantage of our mirror sites during the outage. Thank you for your understanding.



14-Jun-2005

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. myADS Service now includes arXiv
  2. Private Library improvements

MyADS Service Now Includes ArXiv

We have updated the myADS Personal Notification Service. As of May 2005, this service includes the capability to have separate notifications for the astronomy and physics databases. In addition, it also provides for daily and/or weekly notification for the arXiv e-print database in collaboration with the arXiv e-print server.

This powerful service offers you a window with a unique view on what is happening in fields of your interest. The myADS-arXiv service is intended to replace the weekly lists of preprints, in a particular subject area, provided by the arXiv. You can also subscribe to a daily email notification or RSS feed, showing you the latest preprints from the categories of your choice, sorted according to keywords of your choice.

More information on the partnership between ADS and the arXiv is available from a recent CfA press release. You can access this updated service through the usual URL:

                 http://myADS.harvard.edu

If you have not tried myADS, we encourage you to try it out.

Private Library Improvements

We have improved the private library capability by allowing users to save abstracts of interest in multiple private libraries. This allows users quick access to articles they commonly use or reference in separate lists if desired. To add abstracts to your private library, click on the "add selected articles to private library" button at the bottom of any results list. You can save to your existing "default" private library or create a new one.



Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thank you!

adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu



1-May-2005

We have updated the myADS Personal Notification Service. It now includes the capability to have separate notifications for the different ADS databases. It also provides for daily and/or weekly notification for the arXiv e-print database in collaboration with the arXiv e-print server.

This powerful service offers you a window with a unique view on what is happening in fields of your interest. The myADS-arXiv service is intended to replace the weekly lists of preprints, provided by the arXiv. You can also subscribe to a daily email notification or RSS feed, showing you the latest preprints from the categories of your choice, sorted according to keywords of your choice.

More information on the partnership between ADS and the arXiv is available from a recent CfA press release. You can access this updated service through the usual URL:

       http://myADS.harvard.edu

Please send any comments or questions to adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu



31-Mar-2005

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. Including arXiv citations
  2. Getting only refereed citations
  3. New Mirror Site at CfA
  4. RSS feeds from the ADS

Including ArXiv Citations

We have recently begun including references from arXiv preprints in the ADS. The arXiv preprints have been an integral part of the ADS for quite some time now. Besides indexing the astracts, author and title information, we now also attempt to extract the references from the preprints and resolve them. In this way, the preprints will participate fully in the reference/citation system.

Prior to including the citation from an arXiv preprint in the ADS, we attempt to match the preprint to the published literature. Only preprints that do not match a journal paper are included in the citation database. Whenever a (journal) article is published for which we have the preprint in our system, we will replace the preprint references with the references from the paper, if they are available. If they are not, we continue to use the references from the preprint, but attribute them to the published paper.

This should minimize instances of double counting of citations, however, if we can not find the match accurately, we would appreciate feedback from users informing us of the match so that we can eliminate any double counting. If authors update their preprint publication field as described at the URL:

http://arxiv.org/help/jref

we will automatically be able to detect the match.

With the inclusion of the preprint references, citation counts in general will go up. As mentioned before, the references from preprints will help us to add the references for papers for which we never received reference information from the publisher. There will be occasions in which the count will go down, because we apply an age limit of one year for preprints. The references for all preprints older than one year will not contribute to citation counts. When a preprint has not been matched with a published article one year after the publication of the preprint, it will no longer be included in the reference database. However, it is very well possible that with new records added to the ADS, that preprint eventually will get matched. In that case the references will be included again.

For a slightly more detailed explanation, see the help text:

http://doc.adshelpabs.harvard.edu/abs_doc/help_pages/citations.html#arxiv

Getting Only Refereed Citations

We have also recently added the capability to select only refereed citations for a given list of articles. This feature is available by clicking on the box that says: "Get refereed citation lists for selected articles", available at the bottom of any query results list. In addition, there is a link at the top of the page which displays the abstract for any abstract with citations.

Please note that this excludes both preprint citations and any other citations from non-refereed sources (e.g. conference proceedings and non-refereed journals).

New Mirror Site At CfA

We have moved our main public server at the CfA to a new, faster machine. If you are a regular user of the ADS server at the CfA http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu your user preferences and default query form may need to be reviewed and updated, especially if you had made customizations to them. If you haven't customized your search options or if you use a different ADS mirror site, then you don't need to read any further.

To review and modify your settings on the ADS site at CfA, follow this procedure:

  1. Go to the abstract preference page and select "Abstract Preference Settings"
  2. Check all preference settings displayed on the page; if you have problems with colors, make sure you go to the bottom of the page and under "color settings" click on the "normal" box; click "save settings" at the bottom of the page
  3. Go back to the search page and do a hard reload (press and hold down the shift button while clicking on the reload button).
To review your default query form on the ADS site at CFA, simply go to the corresponding URL: http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu/default_service.html and review all the settings in the form, making any changes as appropriate. After making changes, make sure you click on the "Store Default Form" button. After submitting a query, make sure you check the query parameters returned at the bottom of the results page to confirm that the parameters displayed there are the ones you want to have set by default.

With the switch to the new server, cookies for the article service no longer work. We will send out an email notification to those users who we believe are affected with details on how to synchronize email addresses in your cookies for multiple ADS servers.

However, users should be aware that you will likely need to set preferences for article service again, in particular, please be sure to enter your email address if you wish to receive email notification of new features in the ADS.

Please note that this change only applies to the CfA ADS mirror. If you are using another site you do not need to worry about these settings. We are sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused you and thank your for your patience.

RSS Feeds From the ADS

The ADS now provides the capability to set up an RSS feed by following the link beneath a results list. This allows users to use any RSS reader (such as myYahoo or Mozilla Thunderbird) to stay updated on topics of interest which change rapidly. For more information on how to set up an ADS RSS feed, please see the following documentation: http://doc.adshelpabs.harvard.edu/abs_doc/help_pages/results.html#rss



Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thank you!

adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu



21-Mar-2005

We have moved our main public server at the CFA to a new machine. As a result of the move, your user preferences and default query form may need to be reviewed and updated, especially if you had made customizations to them. To review and modify your settings on the ADS site at CFA, follow this procedure:
  1. Go to the abstract preference page and select "Abstract Preference Settings"
  2. Check all preference settings displayed on the page; if you have problems with colors, make sure you go to the bottom of the page and under "color settings" click on the "normal" box; click "save settings" at the bottom of the page
  3. Go back to the search page and do a hard reload (press and hold down the shift button while clicking on the reload button).
To review your default query form on the ADS site at CFA, simply go to the corresponding URL:
    http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu/default_service.html
and review all the settings in the form, making any changes as appropriate. After making changes, make sure you click on the "Store Default Form" button. After submitting a query, make sure you check the query parameters returned at the bottom of the results page to confirm that the parameters displayed there are the ones you want to have set by default.

Please note that this change only applies to the CFA ADS mirror. If you are using another site you do not need to worry about these settings. We are sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused you and thank your for your patience.



22-Oct-2004

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. Microfiche Scanned
  2. Private Library
  3. Reset Cookie feature
  4. Looking for Journal Collections
  5. Famous paper search
  6. Scanning Summary

Microfiche Scanned

The ADS is pleased to announce that we have scanned and included microfiche that were included with journals and were previously not included in the article service. The microfiche, mostly from MNRAS and A&A, are now online together with the article that they accompanied. Please let us know if you know of any microfiche which we have missed.

In addition, we have also done some more work recently to match older plates to their articles, so that more of them now appear bundled together as articles.

Private Library

We have implemented the capability of saving abstracts in a "private" library, enabling users quick access to articles they commonly use or reference. To add abstracts to your private library, click on the "add selected articles to private library" button at the bottom of any results list.

Reset Cookie Feature

We have created a page which allows you to synchronize your cookies if you work from multiple computers or on multiple mirror sites. This allows you to have only one set of preferences which work on all of your computers. The reset cookie feature matches your multiple cookies by email address, so your email address has to be set in your preferences for this feature to work. See the instructions at:

adshelpabs:reset_cookie.html

Looking for Journal Collections

The ADS is trying to collect another set of the major journals so that we can rescan plates in color, and with better contrast. Ideally, we'd like collections that are as complete as possible, and located close to Cambridge, MA. If you have something which you would be interested in donating, please let us know.

Famous Paper Search

We are interested in including any famous papers which may currently be missing from the ADS. Since these are articles which may have appeared in journals other than the core astronomy journals, we might not be aware of them. If you know of such papers, we would appreciate it if you can let us know, preferably by submitting the reference through our form at http://adshelpabs.harvard.edu/adshelpfeedback/submit_abstract.html We expect to include scans of these for any which are old enough to be out of copyright.

Scanning Summary

We have recently scanned and placed online all volumes of the "Bulletin of the Astronomical Institute of the Netherlands" as well as most volumes of the "Irish Astronomical Journal" and "SAO Special Reports". There are several gaps in the IrAJ and SAOSR runs, see our missing journals list at: http://adshelp.harvard.edu/pubs/missing_journals.html

In addition, as part of our historical literature project over the last year, we have included scans from many observatory publications. These include many US Observatories (such as Harvard, Lick, and Lowell Observatories), as well as European Observatories (such as Leiden, Stockholm, Berlin), among others.

For a complete list please see the "Scanned Bulletins and Observatory publications" page linked off of the ADS article service page: adshelpabs:article_service.html

Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thank you!



28-May-2004

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. myADS Service
  2. Full Text Searching
  3. Search by Reference String
  4. Physics Database Update
  5. Citations
  6. Scanning Summary

MyADS Service

The ADS is pleased to announce the release of the myADS Update Service, a free custom notification service promoting current awareness of the recent technical literature in astronomy and physics based on each individual subscriber's queries. It will be delivered weekly to subscribers in html format via e-mail. Each week the myADS Update Service will scan the literature added to the ADS in the past seven days, and will create custom lists of recent papers for each subscriber, formatted to allow quick reading and access. To sign up follow the link on the main query page.

Full Text Searching

We have recently extracted the textual information from the 2.5 million scanned pages in the ADS by using optical character recognition (OCR) software. While this process does not yield a completely accurate reproduction of the text in the original papers, it has allowed us to create a searchable interface for this body of full-text. This allows ADS users to locate any page in the archive which contains a particular word or combination of words. While this interface is still under development, we encourage users to test it and give us feedback. The Full Text Search page is linked on the main query page.

Search by Reference String

Search by Reference String: The Journal/Volume/Page query page (linked below the send button on the main query page) now allows you to find articles from journal references by author and year, and optionally journal, volume, and/or page. The query will return all references that match the input parameters. The input can have several formats:

    1: author year [journal abbreviation]  (e.g. Smith Jones 1999); 

    2: author et al year [journal abbreviation [volume]] (e.g. Smith et al 2001 SPIE 4500)

    3: author and author year [journal abbreviation [volume]] (e.g. Smith Miller and Jones 1998 ApJ); 

    4: full reference string from a journal citation (e.g. Smith et al 2000, A\&A 362, pp. 333-341) 


Physics Database Update

We are in the process of completing the coverage of many major physics journals (mostly from Elsevier), which were previously incomplete in the ADS. This large physics database update will likely increase the size of the physics database by over 250,000 records, and will be followed by a corresponding increase in the number of citations to these articles.

Citations

One added benefit of the Full Text OCR processing is that we are often able to automatically extract and process reference lists from the scanned papers, thus adding to the ADS citation database. The ADS Abstract Service now contains over 14 million citations collected from astronomy and physics journals reference lists. Despite the large numbers, users should be reminded that the citations contained in the ADS are incomplete due to the partial coverage of journals used to build the citation database and our inability to match 100% of references (e.g. works in press, private communications, author typos and other errors). Anyone using the citations for analysis of publishing records should keep this in mind.

Scanning Summary

Recently scanned journals include "Earth, Moon and Planets" (includes all former titles), "Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy", "Solar Physics", "Australian Journal of Physics", "SAO Special Reports" and "Space Science Reviews". For a complete list of scanned articles see our scanned journals page, linked from our home page.



Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thank you!

adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu

20-Dec-2002

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. Truncating long author lists
  2. New Mirror Sites in Argentina and Korea
  3. Search by Position
  4. Scanning Summary
  5. User Survey

Truncating Long Author Lists

We have implemented the capability of truncating long author lists in the preferences. By default, we now truncate long author lists at 10 authors and include "and n coauthors" in red type so that it is apparent that the list has been truncated. The full author list is indexed, so searches on all authors will return the papers and the page which displays the abstract will continue to display the full author list. This will help keep the query results lists more readable when they include papers with large author lists.

If you would like to increase the number of authors displayed by default, you may do so in your abstract preferences.

New Mirror Sites in Argentina and Korea

We are pleased to announce two new mirror sites in Argentina and in Korea:

  • Observatorio Astronomico de Cordoba http://adshelp.unc.edu.ar
        (at the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba)
        This site currently has a low-resolution version of the ADS article
        archive which should be used only if the necessary bandwidth to other
        ADS article mirrors is unavailable.
    
    
  • Korea Astronomy Observatory http://adshelp.kao.re.kr
        This site currently features the ADS abstract databases but will
        soon be upgraded to have a complete copy of the ADS Article archive.
    
    
    
Search by Position

Searching the ADS by position is possible by entering a right ascension and declination, along with an optional search radius into the Object Search box. The position is sent to SIMBAD, where it is converted to an object and all known articles about that object and all objects within that radius are returned. The syntax is

    right ascension +/- declination: radius

All three values can be either decimal degrees or degrees minutes (and optionally seconds) separated by space. The plus or minus sign before the declination value is mandatory. The default for the search radius is 10 arcmin (represented as "0 10" if using degrees minutes seconds, or 0.1667 if using degrees).

Scanning Summary

We have recently scanned and put online:

  • Arkiv for Astronomii (v.1-5: 1955-1974)
  • Astrophysics and Space Science (v.1-210: 1968-1993)
  • Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (v.1-22: 9/1980-6/2001)
  • Lunar and Planetary Science Conference Proceedings (v.18-22: 1987-1991)

We would also like to once again ask for your assistance in locating those missing publications that we would like to scan and make available in the ADS. The relevant list is available at:

    http://adshelp.harvard.edu/pubs/missing_journals.html

We are particularly interested in obtaining a copy of the missing volumes of "Earth, Moon and Planets," "Celestial Mechanics & Dynamical Astronomy," "Space Science Reviews," and "Astrophysics and Space Science"



User Survey

We would like to thank all of our users for participating in our recent survey which will help us better identify wh is using the ADS. We expect to summarize the results and make them available to interested parties in the near future.



Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thank you!

adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu



1-Jul-2002

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. Normalized Citation Count
  2. APS Meeting Abstracts in the Physics Database
  3. Core List of Astronomy Books and Journals
  4. Scanning Summary



Normalized Citation Count

We have implemented the capability of normalizing citation counts by the number of authors of a paper. The citation is counted as 1/(#authors). To use this feature, choose to "sort by normalized citation count" either on the main query page or in the sorting pulldown beneath the results list of a query.



APS Meeting Abstracts in the Physics Database

In collaboration with the American Physical Society (APS), we have added approximately 65,000 abstracts from APS meetings dating back to 1996. These meetings are included in the physics database with the bibliographic code abbreviation APS.



Core List of Astronomy Books and Journals

We have put online two lists compiled by Liz Bryson (librarian at Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) in conjunction with other astronomy librarians. These "core lists" of astronomy books and journals are intended to assist librarians and researchers, and as a guide to teaching faculty in selecting available course readings. They are available from our Browse Service of Scanned Books, linked off of our home page, at the URLs:

    http://adshelp.harvard.edu/books/clab/ (Books)
    http://adshelp.harvard.edu/books/claj/ (Journals)

Suggestions and feedback should be directed to Liz Bryson directly.



Scanning Summary

We have recently scanned and put online:

  • Journal des Observateurs (v.1-51: 1917-1968)
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society (v.1-37: 9/1960-12/1996)
  • Various Lunar and Planetary Institute Technical Reports and Contributions (over 140 books)
  • The Observatory (v.21-121: 1/1898-12/2001 with some gaps)
  • Hvar Observatory Bulletin (v.1-25: 1977-2001)

In addition, we have added fulltext scans of over 10 conferences, scanned additional IAU Symposia, and have completed coverage of the Contributions of the Astronomical Observatory Skalnate Pleso.

This latest round of scanning has brought the total number of pages now available in the ADS fulltext archive to over 2 million! We want to take this opportunity to thank those who have made this possible by donating hardcopies of material that has been digitized. A partial list of the contributors is available at:

    http://adshelpdoc.harvard.edu/abs_doc/help_pages/art_ack.html

We would also like to once again ask for your assistance in locating those missing publications that we would like to scan and make available in the ADS. If you can help, please let us know:

    http://adshelp.harvard.edu/pubs/missing_journals.html

Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thanks!






28-Jan-2002

We have the following news to announce in ADS:

  1. First Author (and only author) Searching
  2. Historical Literature Scans
  3. Query Refinement
  4. Scanning Summary



First Author (and Only Author) Searching

We have implemented the capability to search for papers where a given author is the first author. To do this, enter a carat ("^") before the name you wish to indicate as the first author. For example,

      ^Geller, M
will return only papers where M. Geller is the first author.

In addition, we have implemented the capability to search for a paper where a given author is the last author. To do this, enter a dollar sign ("$") after the name you wish to indicate as the last author. For example,

     Geller, M$
will return only papers where M. Geller is the last author. In combination, this will return papers where the given author is the sole author of a paper.

     ^Geller, M$


Historical Literature Scans

In collaboration with the Wolbach library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, we have been scanning microfilms from many historical publications in astronomy, including observatory reports, bulletins, and annals. We have already scanned more than 300,000 pages from over 130 observatory series and placed the books online for browsing. The collection is available at adshelpabs:historical.html Currently none of the publications have known page numbers, so pages must be viewed sequentially.

We have developed an easy-to-use tool to assign page numbers to scans and to enter article information for this literature. A preview of this tool can be seen at:

     http://adshelpbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/preserve/hLogin.py

If you would like to help improve access to this valuable collection by using your browser to assign page numbers to scans, please let us know by sending email to mailto:adshelp@cfa.harvard.edu



Query Refinement

We have added a new capability to refine a query at the bottom of the results list. There is now a button that will return a query form (either blank or with the previous query) to query only the articles in the current list. This effectively allows you to search a subset of the database.

In addition, we have added a feature to exclude specific bibcodes from a results list. This is most useful for refining a customized bibliography of an author. If your author query returns unwanted bibcodes you can exclude them with the syntax:

     &exclude=YES&bibcode=1954QB275.A37n11...,1993P%26SS...41..429E

Note, that the & (in "P&SS") needs to be hex encoded to "%26" or replaced with a "+".



Scanning Summary

In addition to the historical scans mentioned above, we have recently scanned and put online:

  • Astronomical and Astrophysical Transactions (v.15,17: 1998)
  • Chinese Journal of Astronomy & Astrophysics (v.1: 1/2001)
  • Zeitschrift fur Astrophysik (v.1-69: 1930-1968)

In addition, we have added full text for many more IAU Symposia and other conference proceedings to our article service. For the complete list, please see the links "Scanned Article Service" and "On-line Proceedings Service" linked from our Browse page at:

     adshelpabs:adshelp_browse.html

Please feel free to contact us with questions or comments. Thanks!






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