Astrophysics in 1999

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The year 1999 saw the arrival of a star with three planets, a universe with three parameters, and a solar corona that could be heated at least three ways. In addition, there were at least three papers on every question that has ever been asked in astrophysics, from "" Will the Universe expand forever ? ÏÏ to "" Does mantle convection occur in one or two layers ? ÏÏ The answers generally were, "" Yes,ÏÏ "" No,ÏÏ and "" None of the above,ÏÏ to each of the questions. The authors have done their best to organize the richness around centers deÐned by objects, methods, and madnesses.

The bibliometric properties of article readership information

“…The most read article during 2000 (Trimble & Aschwanden, 2000) was not cited during that time. This is a prototypical newspaper‐type article; it contains an extensive review of the past year's literature in astrophysics, part of a yearly series of articles by the same authors.…”

The disc instability model of dwarf novae and low-mass X-ray binary transients

“…Such a reason was unintentionally suggested by Trimble & Aschwanden (2000) in their article reviewing astrophysics in 1999. After remarking that the dwarfnova outburst mechanism is not known, the authors say with some sarcasm: "[The] Hameury et al (1999) conclusion that there are several kinds of such mechanisms is not likely to get anybody into serious trouble".…”

“…There are excellent articles reviewing the model - Smak (1984c), Cannizzo (1993a) and Osaki (1996) to mention only a few -so writing a new review on this venerable and well reviewed subject requires a good reason. Such a reason was unintentionally suggested by Trimble & Aschwanden (2000) in their article reviewing astrophysics in 1999. After remarking that the dwarfnova outburst mechanism is not known, the authors say with some sarcasm: "[The] Hameury et al (1999) conclusion that there are several kinds of such mechanisms is not likely to get anybody into serious trouble".…”

Communication in the sciences

“…Finally, content differentiates reads from cites: The most cited article and second most highly read article during 2000 is Landolt's (1992) description of the basic calibration data for a fundamental measurement technique. In contrast, the most highly read article during 2000 is Trimble and Aschwanden's (2000) review of the previous year's literature in astrophysics, but it did not garner any citations. Also noted is the very small subset of articles that is actually read and cited, with 78 percent of the articles within NASA‐ADS being neither read nor cited during 2000.…”