The Planetary Science Journal Publishes Its 1,000th Article
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The Planetary Science Journal (PSJ), an open-access journal devoted to recent developments, discoveries, and theories relevant to the investigation of both our solar system and other planetary systems, reached a lofty milestone this past week: it published its 1,000th article.
Launched in 2019, PSJ is co-owned by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the largest of the AAS’s topical divisions, the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS). In publishing its 1,000th article, PSJ cements its nearly 5-year history as a prestigious outlet for manuscripts reporting significant new ground-based and space-based observational results, theoretical insights, computational modeling, laboratory experiments, innovations in instrumentation, and field work in the planetary sciences.
PSJ sits alongside the Astronomical Journal (AJ), the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), ApJ Letters (ApJL), and the ApJ Supplement Series (ApJS) in the AAS's peer-reviewed research journal suite, which is produced in partnership with IOP Publishing in the United Kingdom. All journals in the AAS’s suite are "gold open access," which means that articles published in these journals are free for all to read immediately upon publication.
The PSJ’s 1,000th published article is “Asteroid Impact Hazard Warning from the Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission,” a multi-author study led by Oliver Lay (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory) that describes a new model to estimate the performance of this upcoming NASA mission. The Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission, which will launch in September 2027, is designed to detect and characterize at least two-thirds of the potentially hazardous asteroids in our solar system with diameters larger than 140 meters.
In addition to publishing its 1,000th article, PSJ also measured its success in another way this past week: the journal was awarded its second-ever Journal Impact Factor™, a quantitative tool that reflects the frequency with which the average article in the journal has been cited during a particular period. PSJ’s impact factor for 2024 is 3.8; this marks an increase from its first impact factor of 3.4 in 2023 and positions PSJ very competitively with other journals in the same field. This strong showing demonstrates the quality of the research being published in the journal.
“We’re thrilled to achieve these joint milestones of publishing our 1,000th article and receiving our second strong impact factor,” says PSJ Editor Faith Vilas. “It’s been a very rewarding journey to get to this point, and it’s extremely exciting to see the significant developments in our field that are being published in PSJ.”
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The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899, is a major international organization of professional astronomers, astronomy educators, and amateur astronomers. Its membership of approximately 8,000 also includes physicists, geologists, engineers, and others whose interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising the astronomical sciences. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe as a diverse and inclusive astronomical community, which it achieves through publishing, meetings, science advocacy, education and outreach, and training and professional development.
The AAS Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS), organized in 1968, is the largest of the Society’s six special-interest divisions. DPS members and affiliates study the bodies of our own solar system — from planets and moons to comets and asteroids — and all other solar system objects and processes. With the discovery that planets exist around other stars, the DPS has expanded its scope to include the study of extrasolar planetary systems as well.