The first papers of the Planetary Science Journal are now available online. This new open access online journal from the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and its Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS), showcases significant developments, discoveries, and theories about planets, moons, small bodies, and the interactions among them — not only in our own Solar System but also in planetary systems around other stars. Its editor is Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Faith Vilas.
PSJ may be seen at https://iopscience.iop.org/
“As a gold open access journal, PSJ is positioned to address the rapid access to the planetary sciences results generated by both space probes and ground-based telescopes. It will highlight the broad field of planetary sciences within the established AAS publications,” Vilas said.
“By including laboratory studies to telescopic observations to spacecraft investigations, the PSJ covers every aspect of planetary science, from the Solar System to exoplanets. All results are immediately open access, so they are available to all scientists quickly and completely,” Vilas said.
To maximize the access of the international planetary community to PSJ, links to new articles will be published each week in the Planetary Exploration Newsletter, a service provided by the Planetary Science Institute to thousands of planetary scientists around the world (http://planetarynews.org).
“I’m really excited to witness the birth of the Planetary Science Journal,” said AAS President Megan Donahue, of Michigan State University. “I have no doubt that it will publish a lot of groundbreaking research. Even as AAS President I didn’t get a special preview, so I’m eager to go online and read the first articles.”
“The DPS is very excited about the PSJ,” said Amanda Hendrix, DPS Chair and Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. “Providing direct links to PSJ articles in the PEN each week provides authors a great venue for advertising their results to a wide audience.”
The initial PSJ opens with an editorial by Vilas which offers insight on the motivation for launching a new journal dedicated to planetary science, and the services it will offer. Next are six articles covering a wide range of objects from Mercury to Jupiter and an equally wide range of phenomena from formation of the lunar regolith to the interplanetary transfer of material from asteroids to Earth.
