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The Astronomical Journal
H-index 68

The Astronomical Journal

0004-6256

Published by: IOP Publishing

https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1538-3881

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Physics 15 761 1640 67

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 881
Documents by Best Scientists*: 1725
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 35
SCIMAGO H-index: 276
SCIMAGO SJR: 2.229
Impact Factor: 5.1

Overview

Top Research Topics at The Astronomical Journal?

Astrophysics, Astronomy, Stars, Galaxy and Spectral line are among the topics commonly tackled in The Astronomical Journal. As a part of it, discussions in Astrophysics involve topics like Globular cluster, Photometry (optics), Elliptical galaxy, Star formation and Light curve. Horizontal branch is a key component of Globular cluster research discussed in The Astronomical Journal.

Binary star, Star cluster, Luminous infrared galaxy, Luminosity and Comet are all aspects of Astronomy research featured in it. The journal features Star cluster research that overlaps with concepts in Open cluster. The in-depth study on Luminous infrared galaxy also explores topics in the intersecting field of Radio galaxy.

Stars, which encompasses Metallicity, Radial velocity, Stellar evolution, T Tauri star and K-type main-sequence star, is the main subject of it. Presentations on Galaxy include those discussing Redshift, Spiral galaxy, Dwarf galaxy, Quasar and Galaxy cluster. Emission spectrum is a primary topic of Spectral line research in The Astronomical Journal.

  • Astrophysics (63.50%)
  • Astronomy (58.39%)
  • Stars (21.31%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant (14683 citations)
  • The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) (10426 citations)
  • The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical summary (8945 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at The Astronomical Journal:

The most cited papers investigate areas of study like Astrophysics, Astronomy, Galaxy, Stars and Elliptical galaxy. The published papers focus on Astrophysics as well as the interrelated topics of Spectral line. The journal articles tackle issues in Astronomy, particularly in the topics of Sky, Photometry (optics), Luminous infrared galaxy, Star cluster and Luminosity.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Quantum mechanics
  • Astronomy
  • Optics

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The discussions in The Astronomical Journal mainly cover the fields of Astrophysics, Stars, Planet, Astronomy and Exoplanet. The Astronomical Journal addresses concerns in Astrophysics which are intertwined with other disciplines, such as Spectroscopy and Spectral line. While Planet is the focus of The Astronomical Journal, it also provided insights into the studies of Orbital period, Photometry (astronomy) and Transit (astronomy).

The Astronomical Journal tackles issues in Astronomy, particularly in the topics of Kepler and Astrometry. The Exoplanet works featured in The Astronomical Journal incorporate elements from Atmosphere, Radius and Jupiter. The majority of Galaxy studies in it are focused on the subject of Star formation.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Estimating Distances from Parallaxes. V. Geometric and Photogeometric Distances to 1.47 Billion Stars in Gaia Early Data Release 3 (109 citations)
  • Constraining the Nature of the PDS 70 Protoplanets with VLTI/GRAVITY ∗ (23 citations)
  • The APOGEE Data Release 16 Spectral Line List (15 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in The Astronomical Journal (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Donald P. Schneider (274 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition,
  • Keivan G. Stassun (165 papers) published 19 papers at the last edition, 9 less than at the previous edition,
  • David W. Latham (165 papers) published 16 papers at the last edition, 13 less than at the previous edition,
  • Paul S. Yendell (142 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Joshua N. Winn (137 papers) published 29 papers at the last edition, 11 less than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in The Astronomical Journal (based on the number of publications) are:

  • California Institute of Technology (1542 papers) published 39 papers at the last edition, 54 less than at the previous edition,
  • Harvard University (1027 papers) published 14 papers at the last edition, 27 less than at the previous edition,
  • Space Telescope Science Institute (988 papers) published 22 papers at the last edition, 18 less than at the previous edition,
  • University of Arizona (849 papers) published 25 papers at the last edition, 32 less than at the previous edition,
  • Max Planck Society (700 papers) published 16 papers at the last edition, 21 less than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 67.10% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 56.29% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 15.23% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 14.57% of all publications and 13.91% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Top Publications

  • Estimating Distances from Parallaxes. V. Geometric and Photogeometric Distances to 1.47 Billion Stars in Gaia Early Data Release 3

    C. A. L. Bailer-Jones;J. Rybizki;M. Fouesneau;M. Demleitner

    (2021)
    1128 Citations
  • APOGEE Data and Spectral Analysis from SDSS Data Release 16: Seven Years of Observations Including First Results from APOGEE-South

    Henrik Jönsson;Henrik Jönsson;Jon A. Holtzman;Carlos Allende Prieto;Carlos Allende Prieto;Katia Cunha

    (2020)
    362 Citations
  • Stellar Flares from the First Tess Data Release: Exploring a New Sample of M-dwarfs

    Maximilian N. Günther;Zhuchang Zhan;Sara Seager;Paul B. Rimmer

    (2020)
    275 Citations
  • Overview of the Instrumentation for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

    (2022)
    267 Citations
  • The Gaia-Kepler Stellar Properties Catalog. I. Homogeneous Fundamental Properties for 186,301 Kepler Stars

    Travis A. Berger;Daniel Huber;Jennifer L. van Saders;Eric Gaidos

    (2020)
    219 Citations
  • The Gaia-Kepler Stellar Properties Catalog. II. Planet Radius Demographics as a Function of Stellar Mass and Age

    Travis A. Berger;Daniel Huber;Eric Gaidos;Jennifer L. van Saders

    (2020)
    156 Citations
  • Evolution of the Radius Valley around Low-mass Stars from Kepler and K2

    Ryan Cloutier;Kristen Menou

    (2020)
    151 Citations
  • Analytic Planetary Transit Light Curves and Derivatives for Stars with Polynomial Limb Darkening

    Eric Agol;Rodrigo Luger;Rodrigo Luger;Daniel Foreman-Mackey

    (2020)
    145 Citations
  • The Open Cluster Chemical Abundances and Mapping Survey: IV. Abundances for 128 Open Clusters using SDSS/APOGEE DR16

    John Donor;Peter M. Frinchaboy;Katia Cunha;Julia E. O'connell

    (2020)
    144 Citations
  • The DESI Bright Galaxy Survey: Final Target Selection, Design, and Validation

    (2022)
    143 Citations

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Best Scientists Contributing to This Journal