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Linking Papers with the Observational Data They Present
As of January 2005, the publications managed by the AAS provide
authors with a mechanism that allows them to make links between their
articles and the observational data that is presented in them. We
would like to urge our users to take full advantage of this
opportunity to incorporate this linkage in their future papers.
As you may be aware, the Chandra Data Archive has been in the
forefront of creating those links, making it possible for our users to
jump from the archive browser to published articles - and for readers
of those articles to inspect the data that they present. In addition,
our bibliography interface
provides a browsing tool for the Chandra-related literature and
associated observations. This service has not come for free. It has
required a substantial resource investment on the part of the Archive
Operations Group. We are very happy to make this investment since we
believe it provides a valuable service to our users; but we welcome
any initiative that would lessen the burden - and this appears to be
one of them.
Quick Links
Howto
See also the AAS
What's New in AASTeX page.
When preparing your AASTeX manuscript, you may include (multiple)
\dataset macros that establish the link to the observations used in
the paper. The syntax is:
\dataset [<DataSetIdentifier>] {<AnchorText>}
AnchorText is what is printed or, in the electronic version,
the string that contains the link.
The DataSetIdentifier is, for individual Chandra observations,
of the form:
ADS/Sa.CXO#obs/<ObsId>
where <ObsId> is the five-digit (including leading
zeroes) Observation Id. For instance, for ObsId 5285 the Dataset Id
macro would read:
\dataset [ADS/Sa.CXO#obs/05285] {Chandra ObsId 5285}
A simplified macro syntax is also allowed where the journal editor determines
the anchor text. The string in square brackets is omitted and the
DataSetIdentifier is put in the curly brackets:
\dataset {<DataSetIdentifier>}
Note that in this case the hash character (#) needs to be escaped:
\dataset {ADS/Sa.CXO\#obs/05285}
If you are ever uncertain of the exact DataSetIdentifier string,
you will find it in the header of the distributed FITS files (at
least, the files created since May 2004) as the
value of the keyword DS_IDENT:
DS_IDENT= 'ADS/Sa.CXO#obs/05285' / dataset identifier
The convention allows in principle for multiple Dataset keywords:
DS_IDiii, where iii is a number between 001 and 999.
There may be multiple dataset macros in a manuscript, not only
pointing to different missions, but also to more than one observation
from a single mission. At some point this becomes unwieldy and we
will allow users to request the assignment of customized
DataSetIdentifiers for large sets (more than a dozen) of
observations. The existing custom Identifiers are published here.
New custom Identifiers may be requested though our
Special Request Form.
Finally, there is a webtool that
allows you to verify or find valid DataSetIdentifiers.
Chandra Source Catalog
The DatasetIdentifier for the Chandra Source Catalog is:
ADS/Sa.CXO#CSC
What Are the Benefits?
For you, as author, it may be a little extra work, but it will ensure
that archive browsers will have access to your paper - and that
readers of your paper can easily find the data you used. The linkage
will be error-free: not only does it save us work, but it also takes
the guesswork (on our part) out of the equation, since you know
exactly which observations you used. Actually, it is probably less
work when you are writing the paper than several months later when we
may be bugging you about it. In addition, it will make it
possible to create the links from your preprint, if you upload the
LaTeX file to astro-ph. Currently, we cannot provide linkage to
preprints; we recognize that it would be very useful for the
community, but are lacking the resources. However, we will be able to
provide linkage based on DataSetIdentifier links since that
process can be automated; but that requires the dataset macros to be
present in the manuscript.
How Will It Work?
When ApJ detects a \dataset macro in your manuscript, it will verify
the validity of the DataSetIdentifier through a verification
service that the ADS has set up in collaboration with the
participating data centers. When the paper is entered into the ADS's
database, the ADS will harvest the link between the paper and the
dataset and keep it in its linking database. The links are, in turn,
harvested by the data centers (CDA, in this case) to update their
bibliography databases. Similarly, the ADS will harvest additional
article links that the data centers provide.
The following table lists the custom Dataset Identifiers that are
currently assigned and available for use.
| Dataset Identifier | Included ObsIds |
|---|
| ADS/Sa.CXO#DefSet/ChandraDeepFieldN1 |
580, 966, 967, 957, 2344, 2386, 1671, 2232, 2421, 2234, 2423, 2233
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| ADS/Sa.CXO#DefSet/ChandraDeepFieldS |
581, 441, 582, 1431, 2405, 1672, 2313, 2239, 2409, 2406, 2312
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| ADS/Sa.CXO#DefSet/ChandraDeepFieldN2 |
3293, 3388, 3408, 3389, 3409, 3294, 3390, 3391
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| ADS/Sa.CXO#DefSet/RXJ1856.5-3754 |
2313, 2239, 2409, 2406, 2312
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| ADS/Sa.CXO#DefSet/XBootes |
3596-3660,
4218-4272,
4277-4282
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This page is maintained by the Chandra Data Archive Operations
group
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