Fundamentals

Resources all good astronomers and students should know about.

| foundation texts | seminal papers | basic online search tips | mastering ADS | keeping up with current information | citing online sources
| what you should know about scholarly publishing |

Foundation texts

  • Resnick, Halliday and Krane - Physics, volumes I,II
  • Shu - The Physical Universe
  • Kartunnen - Fundamental Astronomy
  • Böhm-Vitense - Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics, volumes 1,2,3
  • Others...

Seminal papers

Basic online search tips

  • Use unique or unusual terms whenever possible
  • Combine terms with 'and,' and 'not' to narrow a search, and 'or' to widen.
  • Put phrases in quotes: "supernova remnant"
  • Perform more than one search
  • Perform the same searches in more than one database, search engine, etc.
  • Evaluate sources - see checklist


How to master ADS

Keeping up with current information

You have a few options here:
  1. Check arXiv.org - Astro-ph new abstracts daily.
  2. Use ADS Current Journals to view table of contents for 23 top astronomy journals. Use Unread Journals to customize.
  3. Subscribe to Uncover Reveal or Zephyr customizable alerting services.
  4. Receive tables of contents by email: AJ, ApJ, PASP.
TIP: If you get too much email now, don't choose #3 or #4 above.

 

Citing online sources

 

What you should know about scholarly publishing



 

 

Physics-Astronomy Library
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
phylib@u.washington.edu

updated: 06/05/01
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