Astrophysics Data System: Difference between revisions

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The '''SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System''' ('''ADS''') is a [[digital library]] portal for reasearchers on [[astronomy]] and [[physics]], operated for [[NASA]] by the [[Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory]]<ref>https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/about/</ref>. ADS maintains three bibliographic collections containing over 20 million records, including all [[arXiv]] e-prints. Abstracts and full-text of major astronomy and physics publications are indexed and searchable through the portal.

The '''SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System''' ('''ADS''') is an [[online database]] of over 15 million records of publications developed by the [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA) on [[Astronomy & Astrophysics|astronomy]] and [[physics]]. [[abstract (summary)|Abstracts]] are freely available for most articles, and fully scanned articles may be available in [[Graphics Interchange Format]] (GIF) and [[Portable Document Format]] (PDF). Hosted papers may be from [[peer review]]ed or non-peer-reviewed sources. In addition to this, the database also hosts abstracts from esteemed international conferences and accepted telescope observation proposals (for example, from the [[James Webb Space Telescope]]). ADS is managed by the [[Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory]].

==Historical context==

Beginning in 1992, ADS is a research tool that improves astronomical research, and is specifically tailored to astronomical needs.<ref name="announcement">{{cite journal |last=Kurtz |first=M.J. |display-authors=et al. |year=1993 |title=Intelligent Text Retrieval in the NASA Astrophysics Data System |journal=Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems II |volume=52 |page=132 |bibcode=1993ASPC...52..132K}}</ref> The monetary benefit to astronomy that ADS contributes is equivalent to several hundred million in [[USD|US dollars]] every year (2005).<ref name="overview" /><ref name="impact">{{cite journal |last=Kurtz |first=M.J. |author2=Eichhorn G. |author3=Accomazzi A. |author4=Grant C.S. |author5=Demleitner M. |author6=Murray S.S. |year=2005 |title=Worldwide Use and Impact of the NASA Astrophysics Data System Digital Library |journal=Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=36–45 |arxiv=0909.4786 |bibcode=2005JASIS..56...36K |doi=10.1002/asi.20095 |s2cid=15181632}} ([http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~kurtz/jasis-abstract.html Preprint])</ref>

The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) usage statistics can be used to analyze global trends in astronomical research due to it being used amongst astronomers worldwide. Those statistics revealed the direct correlation between both the number of astronomers and the amount of research an astronomer carries out and the per capita [[gross domestic product]] (GDP) of the country from where the scientist is based.

==History==

The importance of recording and classifying earlier astronomical knowledge and works was recognized in the 18th century, with [[Johann Friedrich Weidler]] publishing the first comprehensive history of astronomy in 1741 and the first astronomical bibliography in 1755. This effort was continued by [[Jérôme Lalande|Jérôme de La Lande]], who published his ''Bibliographie astronomique'' in 1803, a work that covered the time from 480 B. C. to the year of publication. The ''Bibliographie générale de l’astronomie, Volume I and Volume II'' were published by J.C. Houzeau and A. Lancaster in Brussels, followed in the 1882 to 1889 period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Houzeau |first1=J. C. |title=Bibliographie générale de l'astronomie |date=1887 |publisher=F. Hayez, Imprimeur de L'Académie Royale de Belgique |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xJhA9noqjT0C&q=Bibliographie+g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale+de+l%27astronomie+volume+I |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Houzeau |first1=Jean-Charles |title=Bibliographie générale de l'astronomie ou catalogue méthodique des ouvrages, des mémoires et des observations astronomiques publiés depuis l'origine de l'imprimerie jusqu'en 1880: Mémoires et notices insérés dans les Collections académiques et les Revues |date=1882 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzxeAAAAcAAJ |language=fr}}</ref>

As the number of astronomers and astronomical publications grew, bibliographical efforts became institutional tasks, first at the [[Royal Observatory of Belgium|Observatoire Royal de Belgique]], where the ''Bibliography of Astronomy'' was published from 1881 to 1898, and then at the [[Astronomical Calculation Institute (Heidelberg University)|Astronomischer Rechen-Institut]] in Heidelberg, where the yearly ''Astronomischer Jahresbericht'' was published from 1899 to 1968. After this date it was replaced by the [[Astronomical Calculation Institute (Heidelberg University)|''Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts'']] yearly book series which continued until the end of the 20th century.

== History ==

During the 1980s, however, astronomers realized that the nascent technologies which formed the basis of the [[Internet]] could be used to build an electronic indexing system of astronomical research papers, which could allow astronomers to make extensive searches of the existing literature on any given research topic, as well as to keep abreast of a much greater range of research.<ref name="overview2">{{cite conference |last=Good |first=J.C. |year=1992 |chapter=Overview of the Astrophysics Data System (ADS) |title=Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems I |series=ASP Conference Series |volume=25 |editor1=Diana M. Worrall |editor2=Chris Biemesderfer |editor3=Jeannette Barnes |pages=35 |bibcode=1992ASPC...25...35G}}</ref>

The first suggestion of a digital database of journal paper abstracts was made at a conference on ''Astronomy from Large Data-Bases,'' held in [[Garching bei München]] in 1987.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Squibb |first1=G.F. |last2=Cheung |first2=C.Y. |year=1988 |title=NASA astrophysics data system (ADS) study |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings |year=1988 |volume=28 |page=489 |bibcode=1988ESOC...28..489S}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last1=Adorf |first1=H.-M. |last2=Busch |first2=E.K. |year=1988 |title=Intelligent access to a bibliographical full text data base |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings |year=1988 |volume=28 |page=143 |bibcode=1988ESOC...28..143A |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last=Rey-Watson |first=J.M. |year=1988 |title=Access to astronomical literature through commercial databases |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings |year=1988 |volume=28 |page=453 |bibcode=1988ESOC...28..453R |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last1=Rhodes |first1=C. |last2=Kurtz |first2=M.J. |last3=Rey-Watson |first3=J.M. |year=1988 |title=A library collection of software documentation specific to astronomical data reduction |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings |year=1988 |volume=28 |page=459 |bibcode=1988ESOC...28..459R |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings}}</ref> Initial developmentAn initial version of anADS, electronicwith systema fordatabase accessingconsisting astrophysicalof abstracts40 tookpapers, placewas duringcreated theas followinga five[[proof yearsof concept]] in 1988. InThe 1991ADS discussionsAbstract tookService placebecame onavailable howfor togeneral integrateuse ADSvia proprietary network software in in April 1993, with theit becoming connected to [[SIMBAD]] database,a containingfew allmonths availablelater. catalogIn designationsearly for1994, objectsthe outsideADS theweb-based [[Solarservice System]]waas launched, towhich createeffectively aquadrupled systemthe wherenumber astronomersof couldactive searchusers for allin the papersfive writtenweeks about afollowing givenits objectintroduction.<ref name="overview">{{cite journal |last=Kurtz |first=M.J. |author2=Eichhorn G. |author3=Accomazzi A. |author4=Grant C.S. |author5=Murray S.S. |author6=Watson J.M. |year=2000 |title=The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Overview |journal=Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series |volume=143 |issue=1 |pages=41–59 |doiarxiv=10.1051astro-ph/aas:20001700002104 |bibcode=2000A&AS..143...41K |arxivdoi=astro-ph10.1051/0002104aas:2000170 |s2cid=17583122}}</ref>

The first suggestion of a database of journal paper abstracts was made at a conference on ''Astronomy from Large Data-Bases'' held in [[Garching bei München]] in 1987.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Squibb |first1=G.F. |last2=Cheung |first2=C.Y. |title=NASA astrophysics data system (ADS) study |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings |year=1988 |volume=28 |page=489 |bibcode=1988ESOC...28..489S}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last1=Adorf |first1=H.-M. |last2=Busch |first2=E.K. |title=Intelligent access to a bibliographical full text data base |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings |year=1988 |volume=28 |page=143 |bibcode=1988ESOC...28..143A}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last=Rey-Watson |first=J.M. |title=Access to astronomical literature through commercial databases |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings |year=1988 |volume=28 |page=453 |bibcode=1988ESOC...28..453R}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last1=Rhodes |first1=C. |last2=Kurtz |first2=M.J. |last3=Rey-Watson |first3=J.M. |title=A library collection of software documentation specific to astronomical data reduction |journal=European Southern Observatory Conference and Workshop Proceedings |year=1988 |volume=28 |page=459 |bibcode=1988ESOC...28..459R}}</ref> Initial development of an electronic system for accessing astrophysical abstracts took place during the following five years. In 1991 discussions took place on how to integrate ADS with the [[SIMBAD]] database, containing all available catalog designations for objects outside the [[Solar System]], to create a system where astronomers could search for all the papers written about a given object.<ref name="overview">{{cite journal |last=Kurtz |first=M.J. |author2=Eichhorn G. |author3=Accomazzi A. |author4=Grant C.S. |author5=Murray S.S. |author6=Watson J.M. |year=2000 |title=The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Overview |journal=Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series |volume=143 |issue=1 |pages=41–59 |doi=10.1051/aas:2000170 |bibcode=2000A&AS..143...41K |arxiv=astro-ph/0002104 |s2cid=17583122}}</ref>

An initial version of ADS, with a database consisting of 40 papers, was created as a [[proof of concept]] in 1988. The ADS Abstract Service was announced in November 1992 <ref name='announcement' /> and was released for general use in April 1993. The ADS database was successfully connected with the SIMBAD database in the summer of 1993. The creators believed this was the first use of the Internet to allow simultaneous querying of transatlantic scientific databases. Until 1994 the service was available via proprietary network software, but it was transferred to the nascent [[World Wide Web]] early that year. The number of users of the service quadrupled in the five weeks following the introduction of the ADS web-based service.<ref name="overview" />

At first, the journal articles available via ADS were [[Image scanner|scan]]ned [[bitmap]]s created from the paper journals, but from 1995 onwards, the ''[[Astrophysical Journal]]'' began to publish an on-line edition, soon followed by the other main journals such as ''[[Astronomy and Astrophysics]]'' and the ''[[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]]''. ADS provided links to these electronic editions from their first appearance. Since the year 1995, the number of ADS users has doubled roughly every two years. ADS now has agreements with almost all astronomical journals, who supply abstracts. Scanned articles from as far back as the early 19th century are available via the service, which now contains over fifteen million documents.

In 2011 the ADS launched ADS Labs Streamlined Search which introduced [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228582891_Retrieval_from_facet_spaces facets] for query refinement and selection. In 2013 ADS Labs 2.0 featuring a new search engine, full-text search functionality, scalable facets and an API was introduced. In 2015 the new ADS, codenamed Bumblebee, was released as ADS-beta. The ADS-beta system features a microservices API and client-side dynamic page loading served on a cloud platform. In May 2018 the beta label was dropped and Bumblebee became the default ADS interface—with some legacy features (ADS Classic) remaining available.<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Accomazzi |first1=Alberto |last2=Kurtz |first2=Michael J. |last3=Henneken |first3=Edwin |last4=Grant |first4=Carolyn S. |last5=Thompson |first5=Donna M. |last6=Chyla |first6=Roman |last7=McDonald |first7=Steven |last8=Shaulis |first8=Taylor J. |last9=Blanco-Cuaresma |first9=Sergi |last10=Shapurian |first10=Golnaz |last11=Hostetler |first11=Timothy W. |last12=Templeton |first12=Matthew R. |last13=Lockhart |first13=Kelly E. |date=January 2018 |title=ADS Bumblebee comes of age |conference=231st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society |at=362.17 |bibcode=2018AAS...23136217A}}</ref> Development continues to the present day, with an extensible [[API]] available: enabling users to build their own utilities on top of the ADS bibliographic record.

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==Data in the system==

At first, the journal articles available via ADS were exclusively [[Image scanner|scan]]ned [[bitmap]]s created from the paper journals and the abstracts created using [[optical character recognition]] software. Some of these scanned articles up to around 1995 are available for free by agreement with the journal publishers<ref name="data">{{cite web |date=23 June 2005 |title=NASA ADS Abstract Service Mirroring Information |url=http://ads.harvard.edu/mirror/ |access-date=2 November 2008 |publisher=Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics}}</ref>, with some dating from as far back as the early 19th century. Eventually, because of a wider spread of online editions of journal publications, abstracts would start to instead be loaded into ADS directly.

[[Image:M101 hires STScI-PRC2006-10a.jpg|thumb|left|1,284 papers about [[Pinwheel Galaxy|M101]] are available through ADS, from as long ago as 1850.]]

Papers are indexed within the database by their bibliographic record which contains the details of the journal they were published in, and various associated [[metadata]], such as author lists, [[Image resolution|reference]]s and [[citation]]s. Originally this data was stored in [[ASCII]] format, but, eventually, the limitations of this encouraged the database maintainers to migrate all records to an [[XML]] (Extensible Markup Language) format in 2000. Bibliographic records are now stored as an XML element, with sub-elements for the various metadata.<ref name="architecture" />

Since the advent of online editions of journals, abstracts are loaded into the ADS on or before the publication date of articles, with the full journal text available to subscribers. Older articles have been scanned, and an abstract is created using [[optical character recognition]] software. Scanned articles from before about 1995 are usually available free, by agreement with the journal publishers.<ref name="data">{{cite web |url=http://ads.harvard.edu/mirror/ |date=23 June 2005 |title=NASA ADS Abstract Service Mirroring Information |publisher=Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics |access-date=2 November 2008}}</ref>

Scanned articles are stored in [[TIFF]] format, at both medium and high [[Image resolution|resolution]]. The TIFF files are converted on demand into GIF files, for on-screen viewing, and [[PDF]], or [[PostScript]] files for printing. The generated files are then [[cache (computing)|cached]] to eliminate needlessly frequent regenerations for popular articles. As of 2000, ADS contained 250 [[gigabyte|GB]] of scans, which consisted of 1,128,955 article pages comprising 138,789 articles. By 2005 this had grown to 650 GB, and was expected to grow further, to about 900 GB by 2007.<ref name="data" /> No further information has been published (2005).

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==Impact on astronomy==

ADS is almost universally used as a research tool among astronomers, and there are several studies that have estimated quantitatively how much more efficient ADS has made astronomy; one estimated that ADS increased the efficiency of astronomical research by 333 full-time equivalent research years per year,<ref name="overview" /> and another found that in 2002 its effect was equivalent to 736 full-time researchers, or all the astronomical research done in France.<ref name="impact">{{cite journal |last=Kurtz |first=M.J. |author2=Eichhorn G. |author3=Accomazzi A. |author4=Grant C.S. |author5=Demleitner M. |author6=Murray S.S. |year=2005 |title=Worldwide Use and Impact of the NASA Astrophysics Data System Digital Library |journal=Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=36–45 |arxiv=0909.4786 |bibcode=2005JASIS..56...36K |doi=10.1002/asi.20095 |s2cid=15181632}} ([http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~kurtz/jasis-abstract.html Preprint])</ref> ADS has allowed literature searches that would previously have taken days or weeks to carry out to be completed in seconds, and it is estimated that ADS has increased the readership and use of the astronomical literature by a factor of about three since its inception.<ref name="impact" />

In monetary terms, this increase in efficiency represents a considerable amount. There are about 12,000 active astronomical researchers worldwide, so ADS is the equivalent of about 5% of the working population of astronomers. The global astronomical research budget is estimated at between 4,000 and US$5,000 million,<ref name="woltjer">{{cite conference |last=Woltjer |first=L. |year=1998 |title=Economic Consequences of the Deterioration of the Astronomical Environment |conference=23rd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union |book-title=Preserving The Astronomical Windows. Proceedings of Joint Discussion number 5 of the 23rd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union held in Kyoto, Japan 22–23 August 1997 |volume=139 |pages=243 |bibcode=1998ASPC..139..243W}}</ref> so the value of ADS to astronomy would be about 200–250 million USD annually. Its operating budget is a small fraction of this amount.<ref name="impact" />