14 June 2013

AAS Council Decision Regarding Astronomy Education Review

Richard Fienberg

Richard Fienberg American Astronomical Society

The following statement was issued by the AAS Council on 13 June 2013:

After careful consideration of alternatives, the Council of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) has decided to cease publication of Astronomy Education Review (AER) at the end of the volume year 2013 (volume 12). The Council recognizes and is fully engaged in the vital importance of improving science teaching and learning. Consistent with the AAS mission and goals, it intends to expand the Society's investment in astronomy-education activities that will assist its members in developing their skills in the fields of education and public outreach at all levels, while also serving the larger astronomical community. Toward that end, the AAS Education Officer and the AAS Astronomy Education Board will assemble a task force to come up with ideas for the future and to review existing programs.

Effective immediately, authors who have new contributions intended for AER will be redirected to other education journals that publish professional articles on astronomy education research. Articles already in the review or production pipelines will be processed with full attention unless authors prefer to withdraw the articles. The complete corpus of articles published in AER since its inception will be available in perpetuity in their full online form; articles should always be referred to by their DOIs.