Managing Information for Sparsely Distributed Articles and Readers: The Virtual Journals of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA)

TL;DR

The paper presents a virtual journal system designed to efficiently compile and distribute relevant nuclear astrophysics research articles, addressing the challenge of information dispersion among researchers and students.

Contribution

It introduces a searchable, weekly updated virtual journal platform with notification features, tailored for nuclear astrophysics researchers and students, enhancing literature accessibility.

Findings

Successful implementation of a searchable VJ database

Regular weekly updates improve research dissemination

Supports educational and research activities in nuclear astrophysics

Abstract

The research area of nuclear astrophysics is characterized by a need for information published in tens of journals in several fields and an extremely dilute distribution of researchers. For these reasons it is difficult for researchers, especially students, to be adequately informed of the relevant published research. For example, the commonly employed journal club is inefficient for a group consisting of a professor and his two students. In an attempt to address this problem, we have developed a virtual journal (VJ), a process for collecting and distributing a weekly compendium of articles of interest to researchers in nuclear astrophysics. Subscribers are notified of each VJ issue using an email-list server or an RSS feed. The VJ data base is searchable by topics assigned by the editors, or by keywords. There are two related VJs: the Virtual Journal of Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA VJ), and the SEGUE Virtual Journal (SEGUE VJ). The JINA VJ also serves as a source of new experimental and theoretical information for the JINA REACLIB reaction rate database. References to review articles and popular level articles provide an introduction to the literature for students. The VJs and support information are available at http://groups.nscl.msu.edu/jina/journals