Vocabulary
Academic Word List
- Hubble constant
- general relativity
- parameter
- intergalactic
- cosmology
- convergence
- telescope
- observatory
- astrophysical
- density
- saturate
- saturation
Other Vocabulary
- Einstein
- Hubble
- relativity
- logarithm
- median
- correlation
- guillotine
- prevalence
- identifier
- microwave
- axis
- data
Exercise
Please click the Exercise link to continue and do Exercises 1 and 2.
Pre-Reading
Use the questions to begin a discussion. Try to be sure everyone in your group gives their opinion and explains why they hold that opinion before moving on to the next question.
- What problems do the international scientific community face?
- How can scientists throughout the world work together to support human kind? Why do you think this is important? How do we improve our current practices?
Exercise
Please click the Exercise link to continue and do Exercise 3.
Reading
Read the title of the Reading passage. In your group, discuss what this means to you and try to predict what the Reading may be about.
Are American astrophysics papers accepted more quickly than others?
Exercise
Look at the first paragraph of a larger Reading, which is only an Introduction to the topic. In your group, predict what you believe the rest of the reading will be about and some of the topics that might be discussed. Try to find the General Statement and Thesis Statement in the Introduction and write your summary of them in Exercise 4. Try to rephrase vocabulary as much as possible.
Abstract: Are American astrophysics papers accepted more quickly than others?
It has been shown that papers in stem cell research submitted from institutions in the USA are accepted faster than those submitted from elsewhere and that the cause might at least partly be some bias in the refereeing process. We investigate whether there is a similar difference in time scale for papers in astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology and look briefly at some of the possible causes. We find a publication time lag of 3.8 days (out of a median time of 105 days) while in the stem cell case it is 24 days out of a median of 83 days. One of many possible causes is a difference in how useful the papers are to the community, and we will assess this in a second paper making use of citation analysis.
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