ISSN:
1588-2861
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Information Science and Librarianship
,
Nature of Science, Research, Systems of Higher Education, Museum Science
Notes:
Abstract Various data are collected for 15 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that have to do with the practising of astronomy: (1) using the report of the Astronomy expert meeting of the Megascience Forum of the OECD, the level of astronomy funding, size of the research communities, relative commitment to ground-based versus space-based astronomy, etc.; (2) from other sources the size of the population, Gross National Product and size of the total research community; (3) from the paper ofSchubert et al. (1989) data on publication and citation scores of these countries in astronomy and the total research effort (excluding social and economic sciences). Using these data the 15 countries have been ranked on: (1) the relative level of astronomy funding; (2) the relative level of performance in astronomy; (3) the correspondence between funding and performance in astronomy; (4) the relative level of performance of the total science effort; and (5) the performance in astronomy relative to that in all sciences. The results of this study have been summarized in table 10 below. Other interesting results that can be inferred from the data collected in this paper are: (1) one out of every 75,000 inhabitants of these OECD countries is an astronomical researcher; (2) each citizen of these countries spends on average 2.5 $ per year on astronomical research (either from the ground or in space); (3) the average budget per researcher amounts to roughly 200,000 $ per annum; (4) the average budget for astronomy amounts to 0.016% of the Gross National Product and of order 1% of the total budget for civilian R & D; (5) an astronomical researcher from these countries produces on average 1.7 papers each year and these papers receive on average ten citations in the first five years; (6) researchers in science (excluding economic and social sciences) make up 0.08% of the population in these countries and one in about 65 of these researchers works in astronomy or astrophysics; (7) most countries spend about one-third of their astronomy budget on salaries, one-sixth on basic support and half on observing facilities (in a ratio one to two for ground-based versus space).
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02018558
