A Survey of Astronomical Research: An Astronomy for Development Baseline

TL;DR

This paper surveys the state of astronomical research development across countries using publication records, proposing metrics and strategies to foster scientific growth and establish a research culture, serving as a baseline for future assessments.

Contribution

It introduces a publication-based metric for assessing astronomy development and suggests strategies for countries to enhance their research culture.

Findings

Publication records correlate with research culture

Countries investing in international collaboration show growth

The metric can serve as a baseline for future evaluations

Abstract

Measuring scientific development is a difficult task. Different metrics have been put forward to evaluate scientific development; in this paper we explore a metric that uses the number of peer-reviewed, and when available non-peer-reviewed articles, research research articles as an indicator of development in the field of astronomy. We analyzed the available publication record, using the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Database System, by country affiliation in the time span between 1950 and 2011 for countries with a Gross National Income of less than 14,365 USD in 2010. This represents 149 countries. We propose that this metric identifies countries in `astronomy development' with a culture of research publishing. We also propose that for a country to develop astronomy it should invest in outside expert visits, send their staff abroad to study and establish a culture of scientific publishing. Furthermore, we propose that this paper may be used as a baseline to measure the success of major international projects, such as the International Year of Astronomy 2009.