Dear Devendra,
We are contacting you in your capacity as official IAU National Member representative.
The IAU is conducting a community survey to inform possible revisions to its current publication policies. The survey has already been distributed to all IAU Members. With this email we kindly ask for your assistance in advertising the survey within your national astronomy community. This would allow the survey to reach astronomers, in particular students and early-career researchers, who are not eligible for IAU membership, and would therefore not have received our initial invitation.
If you agree, below is a draft email you can distribute to the mailing list of your National Astronomical Society or/and members of your national astronomical community.
Many thanks in advance for your help and consideration.
Best regards,
Laura Ferrarese
Assistant General Secretary,
International Astronomical Union
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Dear colleagues,
The proliferation of rapid-sharing platforms and the comprehensive indexing of the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) have fundamentally changed how we share astronomical research. Consequently, a long-standing debate has resurfaced: Are formal conference proceedings still a valuable use of our community’s time and resources?
To answer this, the International Astronomical Union is convening a Task Force on the Utility of IAU Symposia/Focus Meeting Proceedings. Our goal is to determine if IAU Proceedings still provide unique scientific and career value and, based on the findings, suggest possible revisions or alternatives.
For this, we need your input. Whether you are a senior researcher who has published dozens of papers or a graduate student wondering if that 4-page proceeding is worth the effort, your perspective is vital.
Please take the Community Survey
[https://iau.secure-platform.com/site/solicitations/102034/home]
The survey will take between 10 and 20 minutes to complete, and is open to the broader astronomical community. Respondents do not need to be IAU Members to participate.
Your feedback will directly inform the Task Force recommendations to the IAU Executive Committee, and will help shape future policies on whether traditional proceedings will remain a requirement for IAU Symposia and Focus Meetings, or whether alternatives (e.g., Zenodo collections, video archives) should be considered.
The survey will remain open until October 16. All responses are anonymous.
Thank you for helping us shape how the IAU shares the wonders of the universe.
Best regards,
Laura Ferrarese
IAU Assistant General Secretary
On behalf of the Task Force on IAU Astronomy Proceedings