#diamond-open-access — Public Fediverse posts

Our Two-Million-Dollar Journal!

It’s exactly a year since I pointed out that the Open Journal of Astrophysics had saved the astrophysics research community worldwide a sum in excess of a million dollars in publication costs.

The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publishing a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) is now £2356. Converting that to dollars at current rates (£1=$1.36) gives about $3200 per paper.

As of today, 25th August 2026, the Open Journal of Astrophysics has published 632 articles. Using the dollar cost of an MNRAS APC as a benchmark – many journals charge more – this means that we have now saved the global astrophysics community over $2M (for a total outlay of around $15K).

Yes, we are still a small journal but the size of that figure should help you understand how much money is being wasted globally on publishing fees that could instead be spent on actual research.

It’s good to see that more and more researchers are seeing the light and switching to Diamond Open Access. Today we published the 184th article in Volume 9 (2026) of the Open Journal of Astrophysics. At the end of August we will be about two-thirds of the way through the year so I expect we will publish more than 270 articles this year. I also expect that less than a year from now we will have saved our third million dollars.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in running this journal: the Editors, staff at Maynooth University Library who help us, the host of volunteer referees, and of course our authors. I’m confident that, together, we can change the publishing landscape in astrophysics, and put the power (and money) back in the hands of researchers instead of greedy publishers.

This is a slightly-edited version of a post I made yesterday, when we had published four fewer papers, for the Open Journal of Astrophysics blog.

Weekly Update from the Open Journal of Astrophysics 22/08/2026

Later than usual, it’s time once more for another Saturday update of activity at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Since the last update we have published a further six papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 177 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 625.

I continue to include the posts made on our Mastodon account (on Fediscience); these announcements also show the DOI for each paper. In the past on these posts I have included the article keywords as tags, but this is quite a lot of effort to do for little benefit so I’ve decided just to tag the arXiv category (i.e. folder) and arXiv ID for each paper.

The first one up this week was published on Tuesday 18th August in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies. The article “Ghostly DLAs in SDSS DR16” by Patrick Petitjean (Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, France). This study revisits the origin of proximate damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (PDLAs), associating most with the AGN or quasar host galaxy environment..

You can find the officially accepted version on arXiv here and the announcement on Fediverse here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117115214327443735

The second paper for this week, also published on Tuesday 18th August in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies is “Dust in the Average Galaxy: Attenuation, Emission, and Opacity from 0<z<7” by Caitlin M. Casey (University of California Santa Barbara, USA) and an international cast of 45 others. This study analyzes over 500,000 galaxies to understand dust emission and attenuation properties. Findings reveal UV/optical attenuation underestimates IR luminosity, and dust constraints are crucial for understanding star-forming galaxies.

The overlay looks like this:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117115391277711646

The third paper of the week, yet another one published on Tuesday 18th August Astrophysics of Galaxies, is “First Light And Reionization Epoch Simulations (FLARES) XXI: The UV Indices of Galaxies in the Early Universe” by Connor Sant Fournier (University of Malta, Malta) and 7 others based in Malta and the UK. This study uses synthetic spectral modelling and cosmological simulations to assess UV absorption line indices as reliable tracers of stellar metallicity in high-redshift galaxies.

The overlay is here:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117115462297167216

The fourth paper of the week is “White dwarf + M dwarf Detached Binaries in Long Period Radio Transients: Observed Binary Parameters, Evolution, and Population Constraints” by Antonio Rodriguez (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, USA), Kareem El-Badry (Caltech, USA), Iris de Ruiter (U. Sydney, Australia), Kaustubh Rajwade (U. Oxford, UK), Edo Berger & Liam Connor (CfA) and Natasha Hurley-Walker (Curtin U., Australia). This was published on Wednesday 19th August in the folder Solar and Stellar Astrophysics. This article presents new findings on long period radio transients (LPTs), slow-pulsing radio sources, associated with M dwarf-white dwarf systems., suggests these systems are part of a significant Galactic population of such objects.

The overlay is here:

The officially-accepted version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117121022550941129

The fifth paper of the week is “Cosmological Dynamics of Multi-Axion Quintessence” by Supakorn Katewongveerachart (Mahidol U., Thailand) and David J. E. Marsh, King’s College London, UK). This was published on Thursday 20th August 2026 in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics. This study explores dark energy dynamics, and their potential observational consequences, for a cosmological model with two, three or four axion fields.

The overlay is here:

The officially-accepted version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117126567320691855

Finally for this week, the sixth paper of the week is “How can we finally see the first light? Status and perspective in the search for Population III stars” by Alessandra Venditti (U. Texas Austin, USA) and 28 others from around the world. This was published on Thursday August 20th in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies. This review article discusses the ongoing search for the first stars (Population III), their formation, and characteristics. It highlights various observational strategies and the role of advanced technology in this quest. This can perhaps act as a reminder that we do publish review articles, as long as the Editorial Board and the reviewers consider them a useful contribution to the literature.

The overlay is here:

You can find the officially-accepted version of the paper on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117126631513103035

And that’s all for this week. We’re starting to clear the backlog of papers accepted through the summer but yet to be published, but it will probably take a few weeks to do so completely.

Did you know that the Beilstein-Institut turns 75 this year? 🎉
Founded as a non-profit foundation in 1951, we've grown into a driving force behind Diamond Open Access publishing, chemical data standards, and international scientific exchange.

We're touched by all the warm wishes rolling in from our vibrant global community.
👉 Read more: https://www.beilstein-institut.de/en/about-us/75th-anniversary/?M=y

#Beilstein75 #chemistry #DiamondOpenAccess #OrganicChemistry #nanotechnology #BJOC #BJNANO

Internationalisierungsbericht zu #DiamondOpenAccess-Konsortien aus dem @oa_koala -Projekt:

Hennig, F. (2026). KOALA-AV: Report zu internationaler Konsortialbildung. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21939617

#OpenAccess #Bibliotheken #Konsortien

Weekly Update from the Open Journal of Astrophysics 15/08/2026

Although it’s still holiday season for some, it’s time once more for another Saturday update of activity at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Since the last update we have published a further four papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 171 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 619.

I continue to include the posts made on our Mastodon account (on Fediscience); these announcements also show the DOI for each paper.

The first paper to report this week was published on Monday 10th August in the folder High-Energy Astrophysical Phenomena. “Search for neutrino emission from blazar γ-ray flares accounting for possible neutrino time delays” by Egor Podlesny & Foteini Oikonomou (Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Trondheim, Norway) investigates high-energy neutrino emissions associated with blazar flares, using data from IceCat-1, MOJAVE, CGRaBS, and Fermi-LAT. A slight correlation was found, consistent with the null hypothesis.

You can find the officially accepted version on arXiv here and the announcement on Fediverse here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117069981161677800

The second paper for this week, published on Tuesday 11th August in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics is “The velocity coherence scale: a novel probe of cosmic homogeneity and a potential standard ruler” by Leonardo Giani (Swinburne University of Technology), Cullan Howlet (U. Queensland), Chris Blake (Swinburne), Ryan J. Turner (Australia National University) and Tamara M. Davis (U. Queensland) – all in Australia. This paper argues that velocity coherence scale, a measure that identifies the transition point of galaxy motion from correlated to anti-correlated, could potentially characterize the onset of cosmic homogeneity.

The overlay looks like this:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117075588846174571

The third paper of the week, also published on Tuesday 11th Augus, but in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies, is “A GLIMPSE of the 99%: a census of the faintest galaxies during the epoch of reionization and its implications for galaxy formation models” by Hakim Atek (Sorbonne Université, Paris, France) and 21 others based around the world.

The overlay is here:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117075737363441518

The fourth and final paper of the week was published on Wednesday 12th August in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies: “Dust and Grain Size Evolution in Galaxy Simulations: What Matters and What Does Not” by Massimiliano Parente & Desika Narayanan (U. Florida, USA) and Paul Torrey (U. Virginia, USA) presents the first implementation of an evolving dust grain size distribution within a model of galaxy evolution, successfully reproducing key observational constraints and exploring the mechanisms shaping galaxies.

The overlay is here:

The officially-accepted version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117081036416703046

That’s all for this week. We’re just ticking over at the moment, and steadily building up a backlog of papers to publish while we wait for authors to put their final versions on arXiv. I have a feeling there’s going to be a big splurge sometime. Will it be next week? We’ll find out next Saturday!

Wie lässt sich Diamond Open Access fördern?

Beim Open-Access-Barcamp im April in Oldenburg wurde in einer Session zu DOA-Angeboten schnell deutlich: Die Herausforderungen sind vielfältig – und nicht allein eine Frage der Infrastruktur.

Im neuen Blogbeitrag im oa.blog von @LindaM, Alexander Heit, Anke Butz und Anastasiia Anaseva geht es deshalb um konkrete Ansätze für die Förderung von DOA: https://open-access.network/blog/diamond-open-access-vermitteln-und-foerdern-eine-session-viele-denkanstoesse

#DiamondOpenAccess #OpenAccess #OpenScience #WissKomm #OABarcamp

Lesetipp: Y. FADEEVA: Wissenschaftstracking und Lock-in-Effekt. Ein Deal gegen digitale Souveränität. Jetzt erschienen bei Melusine Press https://doi.org/10.26298/1981-5920
💪Stoptrackingscience!
Dazu auch die erste Folge des #Podcast @Die_Wissensarchitekt_innen
#sciencetracking #digitalesouveränität #datentracking #datentracking #surveillance #surveillancepublishing #openaccess #diamondopenaccess #digitalhumanities #openscience @melusinapress @yul_f

@DOACH Great website! https://www.diamondopenaccess.ch/

And PKP is happy to see #OpenJournalSystems information and resources for editors and infrastructure providers on your site, as well as #OpenMonographPress being used for #DiamondOpenAccess books.

Please reach out if you need additional OJS or OMP information, networking or learning resources for your site 🤝

Welcome to Mastodon!

Weekly Update from the Open Journal of Astrophysics 08/08/2026

Although it’s holiday season for some, it’s time once more for another Saturday update of activity at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Since the last update we have published a further four papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 167 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 615.

I continue to include the posts made on our Mastodon account (on Fediscience); these announcements also show the DOI for each paper.

The first paper to report this week was published on Tuesday 4th August in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies with the title “Small-scale turbulence alongside large-scale turbulence in a z=1.87 star-forming galaxy with an outflowing wind, revealed by multi-point structure functions” by Itzhak Goldman (Afeka College, Israel). A previous study by the author found evidence of large and small scale turbulence in the star-forming galaxy CSWA13, suggesting that star clusters and large clumps within the galaxy could be driving this turbulence.

The overlay for this paper is here

You can find the officially accepted version on arXiv here and the announcement on Fediverse here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117036181269903989

The second paper for this week, published on Thursday 6th August in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies, is “From Clumps to Sheets: Geometry Controls the Temperature PDF of Multi-Phase Gas” by Zirui Chen and S. Peng Oh (UC Santa Barbara, USA). This study uses 3D hydrodynamic simulations to show that the temperature probability distribution functions (PDFs) of multi-phase turbulent gas differ significantly under interstellar medium (ISM) and circumgalactic medium (CGM) conditions.

The overlay looks like this:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117047322340826393

The third paper of the week, published on Thursday 6th August in folder Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics is “First Detection of Extensive Air Showers Using a Small-Aperture Fluorescence Telescope” by M. Zotov (M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia) and 7 others based in Russia and Armenia. The study reports the first-ever detection of extensive air showers from ultra-high-energy cosmic rays using a compact fluorescence telescope, employing both conventional and deep learning analysis methods.

The overlay is here:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117047408583672745

The fourth and final paper of the week was published on Friday 7th August in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics: “TDCOSMO XXVI: Uniform Lens Modeling of Eight Doubly Imaged Quasars“, by Ryan Brady (Stony Brook University, USA) and 9 others based all around the world, presents a new method for analyzing doubly imaged quasars using the Hubble Space Telescope, revealing that arc surface brightness is key to precision in mass model measurements.

The overlay is here:

The officially-accepted version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117053056092162466

That’s all for this week. We have about a dozen more papers accepted and waiting for the authors to put the final version on arXiv, which they will presumably do when they’re back from holiday. I’ll do an update next weekend and we’ll see!

Delighted to share my collaboration with Dr. Fernando Augusto Hage Soares (Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado): "Framing Brazilian Dress: Illustrations in European Costume Books from the Lipperheide Costume Archive".

The article offers a critical examination of Eurocentric perspectives in fashion historiography.

Published in dObra[s], a #diamondopenaccess journal run by the Brazilian Association of Fashion Studies and Research (Abepem).

https://doi.org/10.26563/dobras.v19i47.2007

Das Rechtgutachten "Titelrechte und wissenschaftsgeleitetes Publizieren: Entstehung, Bedeutung und Sicherstellung von Titelrechten" von @elleneuler im Auftrag von @sedoa schafft Orientierung rund um das Titelrecht im wissenschaftsgeleiteten Publizieren. Neben einer rechtlichen Einordnung enthält es einen kompakten Praxisleitfaden und Musterklauseln für Verträge und Vereinbarungen.

Zum Gutachten: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21623321

Zu unserer News: https://open-access.network/services/news/artikel/titelrechte-im-wissenschaftsgeleiteten-publizieren

#OpenAccess #DiamondOpenAccess

A fantastic new job opportunity in the area of Research Services (including #DiamondOpenAccess) to work with Maynooth University Library 📚 🔗Click here to read the full job description and apply: https://ow.ly/rTYQ50Zw4b4

Daily Nous: New: Journal of Mathematical Philosophy. “It is now open to submissions in subject areas such as as formal epistemology, philosophical logic, philosophy of science, decision theory, philosophy of mathematics, formal metaphysics, philosophy of language, formal ethics, and philosophy of AI. Published by LMU Munich, the Journal of Mathematical Philosophy is a ‘diamond’ open-access […]

📢 Neu auf Zenodo: Das von SeDOA in Auftrag gegebene Rechtsgutachten „Titelrechte und wissenschaftsgeleitetes Publizieren: Entstehung, Bedeutung und Sicherstellung von Titelrechten“ von Prof. Dr. Ellen Euler ist da!

Es untersucht, wie Titelrechte an wissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften & Buchreihen entstehen, wem sie zustehen & wie sie sich schützen lassen. Inkl. Praxisleitfaden & Musterklauseln.

👉 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21623321

#OpenAccess #DiamondOpenAccess #OpenScience #SeDOA

#CFP 📣

È aperta la nuova #Callforpapers della rivista multidisciplinare #NAD (Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie: Diritto, Istituzioni, Società) per il numero 2/2026, sul tema “La pace come aspirazione e come diritto”

📅 Saggi entro il 1° ottobre, altri contributi entro il 15
🌍 Contributi in italiano, inglese, francese, o spagnolo
💎 #DiamondOpenAccess - nessun costo per pubblicare
📧 Per info: [email protected]

Tutti i dettagli qui: https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/NAD/announcement/view/1035?mtm_campaign=mastodon

Weekly Update from the Open Journal of Astrophysics 01/08/2026

It’s time once more for another Saturday update of activity at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Since the last update we have published a further three papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 163 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 611.

I continue to include the posts made on our Mastodon account (on Fediscience); these announcements also show the DOI for each paper.

The first paper to report this week was published on Tuesday 28th July in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics. “The Origins of the Bulk Flow” by Richard Watkins & Trajan Clark (Willamett U., USA) and Hume A Feldman (U. Kansas, USA) analyzes the origin of large-scale bulk flow using the CosmicFlows-4 catalog, finding that it is largely influenced by structures beyond 200 h-1 Mpc, challenging previous assumptions.

The overlay for this paper is here

You can find the officially accepted version on arXiv here and the announcement on Fediverse here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116996665639765936

The second paper for this week, also published on Tuesday 28th July in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics is: “Enhancing weak lensing redshift distribution characterization by optimizing the Dark Energy Survey Self-Organizing Map Photo-z method” by A. Campos (Carnegie Mellon U., USA) and the DES collaboration (113 authors). This study improves the Self-Organizing Map methodology for estimating redshift distribution in galaxies, notably reducing overlap between redshift bins, in preparation for the Dark Energy Survey Year 6 data.Abstractfor Enhancing weak lensing redshift distribution characterization by optimizing the Dark Energy Survey Self-Organizing Map Photo-z method.

The overlay looks like this:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116996724358408451

The third paper of the week, published on Thursday 29th July in the folder Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics is “The Ray Tracing Sampler: Bayesian Sampling of Neural Networks for Everyone” by Peter Behroozi of the University of Arizona (USA). This paper presents a new family of Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling methods based on ray tracing, offering higher resilience to heating for stochastic gradients and other advantages.

The overlay for this one is here:

The final, accepted version can be found on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/117002484725569972

That’s all for this week. It’s been a bit slower than previous weeks no doubt because of the holiday season.

The article reviews the methods and datasets used in developing each model component, as well as the operational set up required to deploy Metryc in real-time.

As a #DiamondOpenAccess article, this paper is free to read and download: https://journalofcrr.com/research/04-05-mani-et-al/

#ClimateChange #ClimateRisk #CatastropheModels #Hurricanes #TropicalCyclone

Weekly Update from the Open Journal of Astrophysics 25/07/2026

It’s time once more for another Saturday update of activity at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Since the last update we have published a further nine papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 160 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 608.

I will continue to include the posts made on our Mastodon account (on Fediscience); these announcements also show the DOI for each paper.

The first paper to report this week was published on Tuesday 21st July in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics. The title is “Characterization of the Polarization Beam Response of SPT-3G Using Point Sources” by Tijmen de Haan (Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, Ibaraki, Japan) and an international cast of 101 others. This study presents measurements of the South Pole Telescope’s polarized beam response, indicating minimal sidelobe depolarization. The findings suggest potential explanations for frequency-dependent residuals in power spectrum analysis.

The overlay for this paper is here

You can find the officially accepted version on arXiv here and the announcement on Fediverse here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116956682988048349

The second paper for this week, also published on Tuesday 21st July but in the folder Earth and Planetary Astrophysics is: “Exploring TRAPPIST-1 Climate States with an Energy Balance Model” by Jacob Haqq-Misra (Blue Marble Space, USA). The study uses a modified HEXTOR energy balance model to predict climate states of terrestrial planets orbiting low-mass stars, suggesting partial to complete ice cover for TRAPPIST-1 e and f.Abstractfor Exploring TRAPPIST-1 Climate States with an Energy Balance Model.

The overlay looks like this:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116956824712105776

The third paper of the week, also published on Tuesday 21st July, but in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies is “A first systematic study of [OIII] 88μm at z>8: two luminous oxygen lines and a powerful ionized outflow in the first 600 million years” by Hiddo Algera (Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taipei, Taiwan) and 37 others from all around the world. This paper presents deep observations of four UV-bright, gravitationally lensed galaxies, revealing an ionized outflow in one and highlighting the diagnostic power of [O III]88 μm in studying galaxies in the early Universe.

The overlay for this one is here:

The final, accepted version can be found on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116956879536002543

The fourth paper of the week, published on Thursday 23rd July in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies, is “Mapping CO Ice in a Star-Forming Filament in the 3 kpc Arm with JWST” by Savannah Gramze (U. Florida, USA) and 16 others based all around the world. This paper shows that JWST observations and ALMA Band 3 data reveal that 50-88% of CO gas in a star-forming filament is locked in ice; corrections are needed for mass measurements in such systems.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can read the final version of this one on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116968030387635232

The fifth paper of the week, also published on Thursday 23rd July but in the folder High-Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, is “Viscously Spreading Accretion Disks around Black Holes: Implications for TDEs, LFBOTs and other Transients“. This article presents a time-dependent model of accretion disks around black holes, explaining late-time emission in tidal disruption events and luminous fast blue optical transients and future detectability of such events.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can read the final version of this one on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116968076410638262

The sixth paper of this week is “Characterising the response of an International LOFAR Station” by Letizia Vincetti (Trinity Collge Dublin, Ireland) and 9 others based in Ireland, USA, The Netherlands and Sweden. This was also published on Thursday July 23rd and is in the folder Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics. The article presents an investigation of the performance and calibration challenges of phased-array radio interferometers, using the Irish LOFAR station as a case study, highlighting the importance of accurate beam modelling, etc.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116968134127626260

The seventh paper of this week is “Exo Skryer: A JAX-accelerated sub-stellar atmospheric retrieval framework” by Elspeth K.H. Lee (U. Bern, Switzerland). Published on Friday 24th July in the folder Earth and Planetary Astrophysics, this article introduces “Exo Skryer”, a new, efficient framework for exoplanet and brown dwarf atmospheric research, capable of handling large data sets and complex models.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116974013616759329

The (penultimate) eighth paper of this week is “GCR Spectra Reconstructed with Neutron Monitor Yield Function and Artificial Neural Networks: Comparison of Two Methods” by Stepan A. Siruk (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute MEPhI, Russia) and four others, all based in Russia. Published on Friday 24th July in the folder Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, this article presents a framework using artificial neural networks and neutron monitors to reconstruct cosmic-ray energy spectra, providing data even in the absence of direct satellite observations.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116974048321854911

And finally for this week we have “The failed failed-supernova scenario of M31-2014-DS1” by Noam Soker (Technion, Israel), a paper which challenges the failed-supernova theory for the fading of the yellow supergiant event M31-2014-DS1, suggesting it requires unlikely parameters and supports an alternative scenario involving violent binary interaction. This was published on Friday 24th July in the folder High-Energy Astrophysical Phenomena.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116974082942533765

And that concludes the update of this week’s business. As it was foretold, the total number of publications at OJAp has now passed the 600 mark, and the likely number for 2026 is around 300. We published a paper in five of the six astro-ph categories this week, but still haven’t had a week when we’ve published a full house with at least one in all six…

📢 Call for papers: Special issue on #accessibility in #DigitalPublishing in The Journal For Electronic Publishing

This special issue will be edited by Ellen Forget, University of Alberta, and John W Maxwell, Simon Fraser University @sfu

Abstract due October 1; papers due March 2027 — #DiamondOpenAccess

https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/jep/news/253/

A Ban on Publication Fees?

Yesterday I was going through the “onboarding” process via Zoom with two new Editors at the Open Journal of Astrophysics (OJAp) when one of them mentioned a recent policy decision at the USA which means we’ll probably get even more papers submitted from there. I wasn’t aware of the decision, but there’s an article in the Times Higher about it here.

In a nutshell:

Under proposed rule changes published by the Office of Management and Budget, all journal publication costs – “including page charges, article processing charges (APCs), or similar fees such as open access fees for professional journal publications and other peer-reviewed publications” – will become “unallowable under federal awards”.

It is important to stress that at this stage the change is proposed rather than actual and it remains to be seen whether it will stand. I think it should because publication fees, article processing charges or whatever you call them are a complete waste of money.

The Times Higher article frames this as “Trump’s ban on paying open access fees”. I was worried to be finding myself in agreement with Donald Trump on anything, but I very much doubt that Trump himself knows anything about scientific publishing or has had much of a hand in this decision. It seems to me to be eminently sensible to ensure that funds meant to be directed at research are not frittered away on page charges. If I were involved in running a research institution I would make it a disciplinary offence to spend money on publication fees.

Of course the academic publishing industry is upset about the proposal claiming that scientific publishing is “high cost”, which it is but only because the publishers rake in huge profits. The way forward, as I have argued many times (e.g. here), is Diamond Open Access, a exemplified by OJAp. The marginal cost per paper article published for OJAp is just $10 and we have at least as much impact as the other leading journals in astrophysics.

I have been surprised how many researchers from the USA are already using OJAp, including many from top institutions such as Harvard, Caltech, Princeton and Chicago. The surprise is basically that authors from the USA have for many years been used to paying page charges for publishing in the Astrophysical Journal and others from the AAS stable. This was the case even before digital journals came on the scene and well before the Open Access movement. I suppose American authors put up with page charges because they felt they had to, but that is no longer the case.

Will we get even more submissions from the USA as a result of this policy change? We’ll just have to wait and see…

P.S. This morning I published the 600th paper at the Open Journal of Astrophysics.

Weekly Update from the Open Journal of Astrophysics 18/07/2026

It’s time once more for another Saturday update of activity at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Since the last update we have published a further six papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 151 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 599.

I will continue to include the posts made on our Mastodon account (on Fediscience); these announcements also show the DOI for each paper.

The first paper to report this week, published on Tuesday 14th July, is “On combining estimated and analytic covariance matrices” by Alan Heavens (Imperial College London, UK), Lorne Whiteway (University College, London, UK) and Elena Sellentin (Leiden University, The Netherlands). This article, published in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics, presents an accurate approximation for the combined likelihood function in cosmological data analysis, improving upon previous methods by better representing the heavy tails of the true distribution.

The overlay for this paper is here

You can find the officially accepted version on arXiv here and the announcement on Fediverse here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116916991519124229

The second paper for this week, also published on Tuesday 14th July in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics is: “Line-of-sight shear in SLACS strong lenses II: validation tests with an extended sample” by Natalie B. Hogg (U. Cambridge, UK), Daniel P. Johnson (Université de Montpellier, France), Anowar J. Shajib (U. Chicago, USA) and Julien Larena (Montpellier). The study described in this paper models 27 additional gravitational lenses, finding a significant fraction with unexpectedly large line-of-sight shears. Factors like redshift, filter, and signal-to-noise ratio don’t significantly affect shear magnitudes.

The overlay looks like this:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116917026598474399

The third paper of the week, published on Wednesday 15th July, again in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics “Investigating the Dark Energy Constraint from Strongly Lensed AGN at LSST-Scale” by Sydney Erickson (Stanford University, USA) and 13 others on behalf of The LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration. The study uses a new technique to analyze a large sample of lensed Active Galactic Nuclei, providing an independent probe of dark energy and improving constraints on the Universe’s expansion.

The overlay for this one is here:

The final, accepted version can be found on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116922734297811558

The fourth paper of the week, also published on Wednesday 15th July but in the folder Earth and Planetary Astrophysics is “University of Hawaii 88-inch Telescope Observations of the Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS: Spectrophotometric Blue-Sensitive Spectral Time Series Spanning Two Months from Discovery” by W. B. Hoogendam (University of Hawaii, USA) and 24 others from around the world. The study presents observations of the third interstellar object, 3I/ATLAS, using the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph, revealing its properties and comparing it to bodies in our solar system.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can read the final version of this one on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116925616134490970

The fifth paper of the week, published on Friday 17th July in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies, is “The birth of the intracluster medium: the evolution of multiphase gas and Lyman-α haloes in a z~3 simulated protocluster” by Jake S. Bennett (Harvard Smithsonian CfA, USA), Aaron Smith (U. Nottingham, UK), Fabrizio Arrigoni-Battaia (MPA Garching, Germany), Debora Sijacki (U. Cambridge, UK) , Cassandra Lochhaas (CfA) and Lars Hernquist (CfA). This study uses a cosmological simulation to explore the transition from complex galactic haloes to mature galaxy clusters, focusing on gas distribution, ionisation, and emission changes during this evolution.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can read the final version of this one on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116934117289387295

The sixth and final paper of this week is “Density reconstruction from biased tracers: Testing the equivalence principle through consistency relations” by Lawrence Dam and Omar Darwish (Université de Genève, Switzerland). This was published on Friday 17th July in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics. It proposes using quadratic estimators to test the weak equivalence principle on cosmological scales, offering a practical alternative to the conventional bispectrum approach.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116934191977670070

As you can see we have now published over 150 papers this year and are just one shy of 600 in total. I expect we’ll pass that milestone next week. I’ll do another update next Saturday.

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Weekly Update from the Open Journal of Astrophysics 11/07/2026

Back home to Maynooth, just in time for another Saturday update of activity at the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Since the last update we have published a further nine papers, bringing the number in Volume 9 (2026) to 145 and the total so far published by OJAp up to 593.

I will continue to include the posts made on our Mastodon account (on Fediscience); these announcements also show the DOI for each paper.

The first paper to report this week, published on Tuesday 7th July, is “The Information Content of Quasar Variability Light Curves: How Well Can we Infer Stochastic Model Parameters?” by Brendon Brewer (U. Auckland, NZ), Geraint F. Lewis (U. Sydney, AU), Xiang Yu & Yuan Li (Auckland). Published in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies, this study suggests that quasar variability studies should focus on the short term volatility parameter, as it’s more informative than the variability timescale. Volatility decreases with redshift suggesting intrinsic effects.

The overlay for this paper is here

You can find the officially accepted version on arXiv here and the announcement on Fediverse here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116877118638227811

The second paper for this week, also published on Tuesday 7th July, but in the folder High-Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, is “Cygnus X-3 as a PeVatron and the LHAASO 2025 data” by Michael Kachelriess & E. Lammert (NTNU, Trondheim, Norway). This paper suggests that the high-mass X-ray binary Cygnus X-3 can accelerate cosmic rays beyond PeV energies, contributing to a photon flux peaking around PeV energies.

The overlay looks like this:

The official version of the paper can be found on arXiv here and the Fediverse announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116877369307135417

The third paper of the week, also published on Tuesday 7th July, but in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics is “The DESI DR1 Peculiar Velocity Survey: growth rate measurements from galaxy and momentum correlation functions” by Ryan J Turner (Swinburne Institute of Technology, Australia) and 63 others from around the world. This paper analyzes local peculiar velocity and galaxy density fields to test cosmological models of gravity, finding results consistent with predictions from Planck+ΛCDM cosmology and general relativity.

The overlay for this one is here:

The final, accepted version can be found on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116877601913437714

The fourth paper of the week, published on Wednesday 8th July in the folder Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics , is “Morphological Fingerprints of Forbush Decreases and Their Relation to Geomagnetic Storm Severity” by Juan Diego Perez Navarro and David Sierra Porta (Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, Colombia). This article introduces a graph-based method to analyze Forbush decreases (FDs), transient depressions in cosmic-ray flux, and uses network signatures to predict geomagnetic storm intensity.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can read the final version of this one on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116837827227415689

The fifth paper of the week, also published on Wednesday 8th July but in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies, is “On the connection between galaxy orientation and halo absorption properties” by Rohan Venkat, Soo May Wee, and Hsiao-Wen Chen (U. Chicago, USA). This article investigates the azimuthal dependence of metal-line absorption in the circumgalactic medium of 87 isolated galaxies. The results show no significant correlation between absorption strength and azimuthal angle.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can read the final version of this one on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

The sixth paper of this week is “Searching for Periodicity in FRB 20240114A” by Jonathan I Katz (Washington U., USA). This was published on Thursday 9th July in the folder High-Energy Astrophysical Phenomena. The study described in this paper observed FRB 20240114A, an active Fast Radio Burst, but found no significant periodicity in its bursts, contradicting magnetar models predictions.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116888362191860771

The seventh article for this week is “Multiphase gas in Circumgalactic cloud complexes: Insights from kiloparsec-scale Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence Simulations” by Rajsekhar Mohapatra (Princeton U., USA), Alankar Dutta (MPA Garching, Germany) and Prateek Sharma (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore). This -paper was also published on Thursday 9th July, in the folder Astrophysics of Galaxies. This paper uses high-resolution simulations to investigate the mass distribution of the circumgalactic medium (CGM), a diffuse gas surrounding a galaxy’s halo with small-scale clumps of cold gas forming in quiescent regions.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the final accepted version of this one on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116888423374478219

The (penultimate) eighth article for this week is “Line-of-sight shear in SLACS strong lenses I: shear and mass model parametrisations” by Natalie B. Hogg (U. Cambridge, UK), Daniel Johnson (U. Montpellier, France), Anowar J. Shajib (U. Chicago, USA) and Julien Larena (Montpellier). This was also published on Thursday 9th July, but in the folder Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics. This article studies models of 23 strong gravitational lenses to measure line-of-sight shear for the first time, providing potential new constraints on cosmological parameters.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the final accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement is here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116888620656683811

The ninth and last article for this week is “Current and future constraints on the expansion history of the GREA model” by Irene Graziotti (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Italy), Chiara De Leo (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) and Matteo Martinelli (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy). This study explores the General Relativistic Entropic Acceleration (GREA) framework, comparing it to the standard description of the universe. Current data favors the standard model, but GREA remains competitive.

The overlay for this one is here:

You can find the officially-accepted version on arXiv here and the Mastodon announcement here:

https://fediscience.org/@OJ_Astro/116894079326256820

As you can see, it has been a bumper week, especially when you consider that there was no arXiv mailing om Monday July 6th owing to the July 4th holiday in the USA. I should have known this would happen while I was travelling!

RE: https://flipboard.com/@conversationfr/conversation-france-fspsrcotz/-/a-VjVJuWALS2ePUsuCZUhFeA%3Aa%3A2015712666-%2F0

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