While I remember, here is a quick post to mark the fact that the 100th paper at the Open Journal of Astrophysics was published a year ago today (on 11th September 2023). In the year that has passed since that milestone we have published a further 91 papers. I expect we will pass the 200 ..read more

I thought I’d share with readers – at least those off campus, as access to this blog remains banned by Maynooth University – the view from the window of my new office: Well, what did you expect to see from a Maynooth University office window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds ..read more

In Agatha Christie’s novel The Big Four (left) the great detective Hercule Poirot tries to identify the members of sinister group of unscrupulous individuals bent on world domination. When it comes to the world of academic publishing, the members of the The Big Four are somewhat easier to identify, though no less unscrupulous. They are ..read more

Quite a few people have contacted me to ask why access to this blog is banned on Maynooth University campus, as indicated at the top of yesterday’s post. As far as I can see, the block applies not only to this site (telescoper.wordpress.com aka telescoper.blog) but every site with an IP address or addresses (a ..read more

WARNING: THIS BLOG IS BANNED ON MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY CAMPUS I’m well and truly back from sabbatical: I spent most of Friday filling in forms. It is now just two weeks before teaching resumes after the summer break. To add even more excitement to this, the building housing the rooms in which half of my scheduled ..read more

It’s Saturday morning again so here’s another report on activity at the  Open Journal of Astrophysics.  Since the last update we have published two more papers, taking  the count in Volume 7 (2024) up to 73 and the total published by OJAp up to 188.  We’ve still got a few in the pipeline waiting for ..read more

After almost a whole week of conferring ceremonies at Maynooth University, today was the day that this year’s Theoretical Physics students graduated. We all know that theoretical physicists are la crème de la crème so they were obviously keeping the best until last. Anyway, congratulations all! Here’s a suitable image from Private Eye years ago ..read more

A couple of months ago, I issued a call for new Editors of the Open Journal of Astrophysics. That was very successful and we added a number of new Editors. The complete list (of 20 members) follows: Peter Coles* (Department of Theoretical Physics, Maynooth University, Ireland). Cosmology, astrophysics, statistics and methodology. Thierry Appourchaux (CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale ..read more

I think it’s time to provide an update on the (lack of) progress getting The Open Journal of Astrophysics properly indexed in Scopus (which markets itself as a purveyor of “metrics you can trust”). You might recall back in June that I reported that OJAp had been included in the index, but unfortunately the Scopus ..read more

I was away yesterday dealing with some personal matters and on the way home I was so bored that I took a rare glance at my LinkedIn feed and found this: It reminded me that it was 50 years ago this week that I went through a similar induction process at the Royal Grammar School ..read more