Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers

What makes one scientist a good communicator and another a poor
one? How communicate scientific results through adequate and
efficient scientific writing? How does the editorial process of a journal
function, and why do scientific papers need to be refereed?

All these questions, and many more, led the Board of Directors of the
leading professional journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) and its
publisher EDP Sciences to organize, under the direction of Christiaan
Sterken, the Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers courses for
beginning PhD Students.

This book contains a set of seven lectures that were delivered during
two schools that took place in 2008 and 2009 in Blankenberge,
Belgium. The contributions discuss all aspects of scientific publication,
from the history and operations of A&A, its Editors' views of the peerreview
and publishing processes, and the publication process as seen
from the Publisher's side. Two chapters written by the A&A language
editors deal with the principles of effective scientific writing. The last
two contributions focus on the use of library services and large database
facilities in the context of astronomical research and publication.