Call for Papers for special AAVSO/Citizen Sky Journal

The AAVSO & Citizen Sky have formally issued a Call for Papers for articles about epsilon Aurigae, similar stars and techniques for bright star observations. This will be the capstone for the Citizen Sky project and much help is available for those new to scholarly publication. 

Citizen Sky was designed as a 3-year project. The first year was dedicated to observing the eclipse. The second year was focused on the end of the eclipse, forming research teams and learning how to do some basic analysis of the data. The third year, which kicks off formally September 1, is about publication. The capstone event is the publication of a special issue of the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (JAAVSO) which will be focused on papers related to the Citizen Sky project.

The JAAVSO has been published semi-annually since 1971. It is refereed by professional astronomers and indexed in ADS, the main literature index that all astronomers use when they begin doing research. This means that if you write a paper on epsilon Aurigae, it will show up in the search results when an astronomer searches for that keyword. Most JAAVSO papers are short (around 5 pages) and written by amateur astronomers (~80%).

We have lots of resources available to help new authors write papers. The Call for Papers points to many of these resources, including video and PDF files from the 2nd Citizen Sky Workshop which was focused to writing scientific papers. We also have staff available to help you formulate your idea and craft a paper. So if you ever wanted to be an author of a scientific paper in a professional, peer-reviewed journal - now is a great chance. You can write a paper or join others in collaborating on a paper. Feel free to contact us and we can help get you started and/or pair you up with others.

Paper topics can span the full range of the scientific method. Literature reviews, historical investigation, development of unique observing techniques, public outreach strategies, etc. are all welcome.

The issue will formally be published on August 1, 2012. A nominal deadline is March 1, 2012 - but it is flexible. That is the deadline that will insure adequate time for the referee process to run its course (which may require revisions and iterations between you and the journal editors). If you need substantial assistant in getting started, we recommend contacting us by December 1.

We hope to see your submissions soon!