Loomio
Fri 17 Nov 2017 8:34PM

Add Planetary Science?

TN Tom Narock Public Seen by 456

We've received a request, via the OSF support email, to accept Planetary Science papers. Currently, the taxonomy that OSF uses doesn't have any keywords on Planetary Science. In theory, an author could submit a paper on the topic. However, the author couldn't tag it as such. Extending the taxonomy is fairly trivial. We just need to decide on the terms and where to place them in the existing hierarchy. What does everyone think? I could see planetary geophysics studies of interest to our community. The occasional planetary-astrophysics papers could be removed as part of our manual moderation.

HG

Han Geurdes Fri 17 Nov 2017 9:22PM

Sure, Planetary Science is indeed interesting... Agreed.

APR

Angelo Pio Rossi Sat 18 Nov 2017 1:36AM

Yes, I also would support this.

JM

Jon Mound Sat 18 Nov 2017 12:00PM

I agree that accepting Planetary Science papers is a good idea. They can go to arXiv under "Earth and Planetary Astrophysics", but I can imagine a lot of planetary studies that wouldn't fit well into the subheadings there (Interplanetary medium, planetary physics, planetary astrobiology, extrasolar planets, comets, asteroids, meteorites. Structure and formation of the solar system).

Looking at the current OSF taxonomy it seems that "Planetary Sciences" might fit within "Astrophysics & Astronomy." However, for example, the study of geomorphological features on Mars feels closer to "Earth Sciences" than "Astrophysics & Astronomy" to me. I don't think it makes sense taxonomically to have "Planetary Sciences" as a subset of "Earth Sciences" (if anything it should be the other way around). An option could be to change "Earth Sciences" to "Earth & Planetary Sciences." Otherwise, it feels to me that "Planetary Sciences" would need to sit at the same level as "Earth Sciences" as its own category in the taxonomy.

VV

Victor Venema Tue 21 Nov 2017 8:40PM

I also welcome planetary science.

My guess would be that their field is small and that it may thus be good to have a sub-domain Planetary Science, which would keep them all together. I am also fine with a tag Planetary Science while using "our" sub-domains, that would allow them to differentiate this sub-fields better. That would be up to preference of the Planetary Scientists, in my view.

Interplanetary medium, planetary physics, planetary astrobiology, extrasolar planets, comets, asteroids, meteorites. Structure and formation of the solar system

I would say that Astro-Chickens (planetary astrobiology) and Exoplanets are too far from Earth Science. I would put them on a server for biology or astronomy.

BC

Bruce Caron Wed 22 Nov 2017 1:47AM

Astro Chickens need to be welcome wherever! :laughing:

SG

Stéphanie Girardclos Sat 18 Nov 2017 2:13PM

I agree with Jon Mound. It would be great to have the papers of Planetary sciences on our plateform but they somehow don't naturally form a subset of Earth sciences (it is rather Earth and Planetary sciences - like the journal EPSL). So either we form an entire subset or keywords devoted to the planetary sciences inside EarthArXiv because we feel it increases our impact and width, and we accept that its title is narrower than its content OR we do the same and change its title to EarthPlanetArXiv .... I think the founders should have a prime voice on this.

AK

Aidan Karley Sat 18 Nov 2017 2:23PM

The only real issue that I'd have over accepting "Planetary Science" is that it does shade out into situations very different to those present on Earth (or plausibly present in the past). But the physics of the behaviour of icy small bodies (for one example) does have a significant overlap to questions about how Earth got it's supply of water. How small bodies get shuffled around by large bodies in the early stages of planetary system formation has clear relation to impacting geology.
The problem is finding a limit that is reasonable but not excessively tight.

Some phrase in the guidance about "relating to the formation or development of rocky planets" might work.

W

wrenmontgomery Mon 20 Nov 2017 11:26AM

I don't think the name of the arxiv matters so much as it being possible to upload the papers and having a taxonomy to support it.,,

TN

Tom Narock Mon 20 Nov 2017 3:26PM

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Jon, the ArXiv challenge that you mention is exactly what started this discussion. We were contacted by planetary scientists who felt that the breadth of planetary science research is not adequately covered in the Earth and Planetary Astrophysics category on arxiv.org. There is a particular concern over planetary geology and geophysics not being represented on arxiv.org. Some of those researchers feel more aligned with EarthArXiv. They suggested simply adding "Planetary Sciences" as the sub-domains may be too small to warrant further division of our taxonomy. Perhaps changing "Earth Sciences" to "Earth & Planetary Sciences" as suggested would address everyone's concerns?

HG

Han Geurdes Tue 21 Nov 2017 7:21AM

So why not simply have Planetary Science included in the name? Earth & Planetary science arxiv is ok. E.g. the planet Mars had water streams such as can be found in the Alps of Switzerland and New Zealand. So, in a discussion on Earth & Planetary science one could figure out what the differences were and what it means understanding Earth. I am not a geologist. To me it even would be ok to have relevant connection with astrophysics.

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