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The Threat to the Astrophysics Data System

Many times on this blog (e.g. here) I have mentioned the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System which (for the uninitiated) is a Digital Library portal for researchers in astronomy and physics, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a NASA grant. The ADS maintains three bibliographic databases containing more than 14.0 million records covering publications in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Physics, and (of course) the arXiv e-prints. In addition to maintaining its bibliographic corpus, the ADS tracks citations and other information, which means, that among many other things, it is an important tool for evaluating publication impact. I use it very frequently.

I’m not the only person to be worried about this, see e.g. here.

After the Trump administration’s sudden and devasting cuts to Federal science agencies such as the National Science Foundation, it seems very likely that NASA programmes will also be severely cut which calls the future of the ADS system into doubt. This facility is used by astronomers around the world and its loss would have serious consequences for the global research community. I sincerely hope that astronomical organizations around the world will get together and ensure that data is not lost and a replacement website is set up. If your’e an astronomer please put pressure on your national funders to look at this as a matter of agency. We NASA/ADS is a wonderful resource, and is not by any standards expensive to run. We will all regret it if it is lost.

Until about 5 years ago, when ADS underwent a major overhaul, there were mirror sites all around the world. These are all still listed by ADS but do not seem to be functional. At the very least these should be reactivated.

P.S. I have been asked if arXiv is under a similar threat. I don’t believe it is – yet – as it is not run by a Federal organization. We do have secure backups of all OJAp published articles, though, in case you were wondering.

This entry was posted on February 6, 2025 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Open Access, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “The Threat to the Astrophysics Data System”

  1. torna4o's avatar
    torna4o Says:
    February 6, 2025 at 2:03 pm

    It should definitely continue to function. ADS is great for many things. For example, its API for querying the literature is far better than crossref, too, as you always retrieve metadata, number of citations, abstract, and the bibtex entry very easily.

    Reply
  2. Ted Bunn's avatar
    Ted Bunn Says:
    February 6, 2025 at 6:36 pm

    I have been deeply ashamed of my country repeatedly in my life, but never as much as right now. On behalf of all of my sane fellow citizens (and there are a lot of us, if not quite enough), I’m really sorry.

    Reply
  3. Albert's avatar
    Albert Says:
    February 7, 2025 at 2:27 pm

    My worry would be that it is sold to a commercial buyer who will charge for access

    Reply
  4. Unknown's avatar
    schuh Says:
    February 10, 2025 at 11:25 am

    @telescoper.blog Important quote above is "Until about 5 years ago, when ADS underwent a major overhaul, there were mirror sites all around the world. These are all still listed by ADS but do not seem to be functional. At the very least these should be reactivated."

    Anyone know anyone at CDS Strasbourg, who used to run one of the major mirrors, to comment on why all these mirrors were/had to be discontinued after the ADS overhaul?

    Let's hope "NASA ADS changing its interface" has not been quite the "end of civilisation" as @franco_vazza jokingly said here: https://mastodon.social/@franco_vazza/113844621628940291 (quote: "man…I wonder what comes after this")

    @hfalcke

    #SafeguardingResearch #NASAADS #AstrophysicsDataSystem #NFDI #CDS

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