Submission routes and journals

Last updated on 2023-11-02 | Edit this page

Overview

Questions

  • Where are the catalogues coming from?
  • What to do with my data knowing my journal?

Objectives

  • Describe the different submission routes per journal

Overview

The submission routes for your data vary depending where you submitted your paper.

2 types of VizieR workflows:

  • Initiated by authors
  • Initiated by the CDS

Interactive plot below: Scroll over to see the number of VizieR catalogues per journal (updated weekly).

Link: Catalogues and files available at CDS

American Astronomical Society Journals (AAS)

The CDS selects tables from published papers which will be ingested in VizieR. Machine readable tables (MRT) are prioritised, but other tables or FITS spectra/images can also be added.

List of journals included:

  • The Astrophysical Journal: ApJ
  • The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series: ApJS
  • The Astrophysical Journal Letters: ApJL
  • The Astronomical Journal: AJ

Recommendations (from the AAS webpage):

The authors should try to prepare their lenghty tables as machine readable table (MRT) format. Then, VizieR harvests AAS Journal MRTs and makes these data discoverable and searchable via Virtual Observatory protocols, which is another benefit to using this data format.

Reference (from the AAS webpage):

Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)

Before publication, A&A editors decide which data will be only available at CDS (in VizieR). The authors then need to submit the requested data to CDS and the data will be available at CDS just after publcation of the paper. Other tables already published can also be selected by the CDS.

Recommendations (from the A&A webpage):

By contract with the Journal, the CDS archives the primary data that are published in A&A and puts them at the disposal of the global community.

Once their papers accepted, the authors submit their MRT files (if possible) directly to the CDS.

References (from the A&A webpage):

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)

CDS selection or direct authors submission depending on CDS acceptation.

Recommendations (from the MNRAS webpage):

Authors are encouraged to upload machine-readable versions of their tables on the VizieR database. Authors should consult the CDS website for instructions on preparing and submitting tabular data, which include a template that can be adapted for MNRAS tables. A hyperlink can be included to CDS from the electronic text of the MNRAS article.

References (from the MNRAS webpage):

Other journals

Any other journals needs the author to submit the data.

Examples of other journals included in VizieR, ordered by their percentage of catalogues ingested in VizieR:

  • Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific: PASP (0.85%)
  • Pis’ma v Astronomicheskii Zhurnal: PAZh / AstL (0.73%)
  • Astronomicheskii Zhurnal: AZh (0.66%)
  • Acta Astronomica: AcA (0.58%)
  • Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan: PASJ (0.41%)
  • Astronomische Nachrichten: AN (0.30%)
  • Baltic Astronomy: BaltA (0.23%)
  • Nature: Natur (0.10%)
  • Science: Sci (0.08%)
  • Research notes of the AAS: RNAAS (0.008%)

Large datasets / surveys

Very large catalogues are usually directly retrieved by VizieR (from ESA, ESO, NASA, Stsci, …), after selection by CDS astronomers.

Note that the CDS is not a mirror, and a selection on the columns can be done.

Type of big catalogues included (as listed on the VizieR hierarchical organisation webpage):

Category Type of data Example of VizieR catalogue Description
I Astrometric Data I/355 Gaia DR3 Part 1. Main source (Gaia collaboration, 2022)
II Photometric Data II/328 AllWISE Data Release (Cutri+, 2013)
III Spectroscopic Data III/283 RAVE 6th data release (Steinmetz+, 2020)
IV Cross-Identifications IV/39 TESS Input Catalog version 8.2 (TIC v8.2) (Paegert+, 2021)
V Combined Data V/154 Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDSS), Release 16 (DR16) (Ahumada+, 2020)
VI Miscellaneous VI/135 All-sky spectrally matched Tycho2 stars (Pickles+, 2010)
VII Non-stellar Objects VII/233 The 2MASS Extended sources (IPAC/UMass, 2003-2006)
VIII Radio and Far-IR data VIII/65 1.4GHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) (Condon+, 1998)
IX High-Energy Data IX/68 XMM-Newton Serendipitous Source Catalogue 4XMM-DR12 (Webb+, 2023)

Summary: Submission per journal

Key Points

2 types of VizieR workflows:

  • Initiated by authors / editors
  • Initiated by the CDS

To face an increasing volume and according to the CDS mission, VizieR selects the articles to be processed.

  • Main journals origin : AAS (ApJ, ApJS, ApJL, AJ), A&A, MNRAS
  • Authors asking for VizieR publication
  • Scientific criteria such as the origin of the measurements (e.g. observations have a higher priority than models)
  • Effort required to make the data reusable (preferably MRT) is taken into account in the selection
  • Special case : A&A editors request authors to submit their data in CDS

Next chapters

In the next chapters, you will learn how to prepare and submit your data to VizieR step-by-step, and then you will follow the journey of your data in the Virtual Observatory and up to EOSC.