Re: GSC 00279 00321 paper

[aah@nofs.navy.mil]

Michael K. wrote:
>It is somewhat news to me that a paper which identifies a new star but does
>not answer all its question is not seen to be of any real value.
  That is not what I said.  I wrote that for maximal scientific
value, you want to answer as many questions as possible.  There are
so many variable stars known now that just publishing an incomplete
list of photometric observations of a common-type star without any
additional analysis such as period determination or classification
may not be considered as enough value to warrant publication.
Certainly just saying "star xxx is variable" without details
to back it up is likely to be rejected by any refereed publication.
Such un-analyzed datasets are usually submitted to the AAVSO or
vsnet groups; a way of archiving unpublished observations.
  So far IBVS has been pretty good at letting just about anything
be published, but each publication does cost (editor's and reviewer's
time, computer space, even hardcopy), so at some level
you have to justify to yourself whether your submission is adding
to the collective knowledge.  It will be an investment of your
time as well, since you need to write the paper, find any references,
and go through the review process.  If you are going to put effort
into publishing something, it is usually a good idea to invest extra
time in making the best paper possible, without any obvious errors,
so that star doesn't have to be studied again by some other group.
Publishing or not publishing is a personal decision; my threshold is likely
to be quite different than yours!  As Tom says, TASS is an open
forum, so no one is going to force you one way or another.  We may
try to nudge you, however. :-)
Arne
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Arne Henden                               Instruments/software/CCDs
US Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station    Cepheids/photometry/IR
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