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ilikedmatrixiv t1_jamvt7j wrote

Disclaimer: I have a master's degree in astronomy. I no longer work in academia though.

I remember from my university days (between 5-10y ago) that nearly all astronomy papers were free access. Even the ones published in Nature had a free version somewhere. I don't remember the exact locations, but I think it was a Harvard resource that hosted nearly everything I ever needed. I never felt like I had to struggle to find papers and references when I was doing my projects.

Compare that to my partner who works in biochemistry and she has to rely on preprints on ArXive.org or mailing the original authors for a free copy.

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Andromeda321 t1_jamyzh7 wrote

Astronomer here! You are referring to the Astrophysics Data System (ADS). It has been around since the 1990s, and yeah, astronomy basically has been completely open access since back then. We are a very unusual field in that regard, and it is darn useful for things like finding good citations for your papers- it must be so hard in other fields that don't have a tool this nice.

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RedshiftWarp t1_jaqo7on wrote

I was just passing by but Im gonna take that link with me. Thank you for an excellent resource.

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sight19 t1_jamz7jm wrote

Yeah, Harvard hoste ADS which helps - but for e.g. Nature (astronomy) you still rely on arXiv publications for a year at least. Luckily, A&A and MNRAS don't have similar restrictions. But still, a good move on their part

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flowering_sun_star t1_jao9klh wrote

Heh, for my DPhil I basically relied entirely on Arxiv. There were very few occasions where I'd look at the journal's version of a paper.

It's a little surreal really - all the institutions pay great sums for access to various physics journals, and none of the researches actually have to use it because the web interface for arxiv.org is more convenient!

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Kyral210 t1_japxr6y wrote

What is a DPhil and how is it different to a PhD?

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flowering_sun_star t1_jaqdrb0 wrote

There's a few UK institutions that call it a DPhil instead of PhD (including where I went), and I don't know why. Knowing Oxford, I wouldn't discount the possibility that someone was making a point about latin word order or being different for the sake of being different.

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Kyral210 t1_jaqg04d wrote

Interesting. My PhD certificate (UK) says Doctor of Philosophy yet my title is PhD

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can-nine t1_jaqjv6g wrote

PhD means philosophy doctor.

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Kyral210 t1_jaqsibe wrote

And my certificate still says Doctor of Philosophy 🧐

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nivlark t1_japi5jr wrote

ADS has copies of old papers, and links to preprints of new ones on arXiv, but if you want the version of record from the journal site you generally still need a subscription.

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enjoyscaestus t1_japw79v wrote

What can you do with a masters in astronomy?

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ilikedmatrixiv t1_jaqd96p wrote

Quite a few things, really. I had a lot of options, but I currently work as a data engineer/scientist.

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