[vsnet-chat 4420] Re: re CDS workload

[Brian Skiff <bas@lowell.edu>]

     I think they have in the past tried to get the journal editors in
particular to insist that authors use acronyms consistent with the Lortet et al
dictionary, and the IAU nomenclature committee exists to do the same 
with authors.  But basically very few people care (neither authors nor
editors), and so the CDS folks basically gave up and have simply added 
aliases as they appear in the literature.  Same thing happening in the
extragalactic realm at NED, for whom I'm working half-time.  I can assure
you that there are numerous recent papers where because the authors have
not bothered with finding correct names, positions, or anything, and have
not bothered to have a finding chart match up with an accompanying table of
data, their scientific results (all that matters to them) are completely
unrecoverable, and the paper is basically useless.  The authors are often
unrepentant when you write to ask just where it is the objects they studied
are located.
     In brief, the biblio folks have learned to roll with the punches, but
have been known to get papers to referee---whereupon they can exert some
influence over what gets published.
     Anyway, just ask Ochsenbein if he can check the consistency of the 
acronym for the HBH/KW97 catalogue.  It may be that none of the stars has
been cited yet anywhere in the literature, so there'd be no problem with
assigning the name uniformly.

\Brian

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