Organizations, People and Strategies in Astronomy

OPSA volumes will be conceived in the line of the successful earlier series "Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy (OSA)" <covering a large range of themes tackled in the spirit of sharing experience and lessons learned. In practice, all aspects of astronomy-related life and environment will be considered, dealing with socio-dynamical aspects of the astronomy (and related space sciences) community: characteristics of organizations, strategies for development, operational techniques, observing practicalities, journal and magazine profiles, public outreach, publication studies, relationships with the media, research communication, series of conferences, evaluation and selection procedures, research indicators, national specificities, contemporary history, and so on.§The experts contributing to this volume will be requested to do their best to write in a way understandable to readers not necessarily hyperspecialized in astronomy while providing specific detailed information and sometimes enlightening "lessons learned" sections. They will be requested to provide full bibliographical references relevant to their expertise and their interactions of the astronomy community with the society at large.§The intended readership will include researchers, teachers, editors, publishers, librarians, sociologists of science, research planners and strategists, project managers, public-relations officers, plus those in charge of astronomy-related organizations, as well as by students aiming at a career in astronomy or related space science. This book is the line of the earlier prize-winning series Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy (OSA), with more emphasis on people. Rather than being devoted to the publication of hard-science results, these volumes described how astronomy research lives: how it is planned, funded and organized, how it interacts with other disciplines and the rest of the world, how it communicates, etc.§Thus the OSA/OPSA volumes have been a unique medium for scientists and non-scientists (sometimes from outside astronomy) to describe their experience and to elaborate, often for the first time at such a level, on non-purely scientific matters, many of them of fundamental importance for the efficient conduct of their activities. The volumes cover a large range of fields and themes: in practice, one could say that all aspects of astronomy-related life and environment are considered in the spirit of sharing specific expertise and lessons learned.§The chapters of the present volume are dealing with socio-dynamical aspects of the astronomy (and related space sciences) community: working habits, characteristics of organizations, demography of astronomy, workforce development, astronomy for the developing world, accessibility to astronomy for disabled person, education and training to research, research communication, publication studies, public outreach, ethics, evaluation and selection procedures, career policies, strategies for minorities, contemporary history, and so on.§The experts contributing to this volume have done their best to write in a way understandable to readers not necessarily hyper specialized in astronomy while providing specific detailed information and sometimes enlightening 'lessons learned' sections.