Author: UAT Community Outreach Committee

The Unified Astronomy Thesaurus (UAT) is an open, interoperable, and community-supported project that formalizes astronomical concepts and their inter-relationships into a high-quality, freely available open resource. Its mission is to enable greater search and discovery across the astrophysics literature, as well as a taxonomy that can be used to label other research products, such as software and datasets. The UAT has been implemented by an increasing number of journals, research organizations, and systems, including the American Astronomical Society (AAA) and the JWST proposal system. It is currently being integrated into the Astrophysics Data System (ADS), now the multidisciplinary Science Explorer (SciX).

The AAS Working Group on the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus (WGUAT) sets the general parameters for the overall direction of the UAT and is composed of representatives from groups with a direct stake in the development and success of the UAT. Members of the WGUAT also serve as representatives of the UAT, promoting it to global astronomy, astrophysics, library, and publishing communities, developing test cases, and increasing its overall use. Some members also are involved in curation development for the UAT, supporting our technical architecture, and more. More information about the Working Group is available on the UAT website. We welcome nominees from all regions of the world, with a specific interest in adding international and in particular Southern Hemisphere representation.

We welcome expressions of interest from astronomers, developers, data scientists, researchers, librarians, and others. Expressions of interest should concisely address the candidates’ professional background and interest in the UAT. The standard commitment is a three-year term and includes monthly WGUAT meetings; there are also other ways to be involved with lower commitment, so please contact us regardless if you’re interested in working on the UAT in any capacity. Please contact current co-chairs of the WGUAT, with “WGUAT” in the subject line, to express your interest or to ask questions (Erik Tollerud, etollerud@stsci.edu; Jennifer Bartlett, jennifer.bartlett@cfa.harvard.edu). 

Current adoptees include:

• American Astronomical Society journals, including The Astronomical Journal (AJ), The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), ApJS, ApJL, The Planetary Science Journal (PSJ), and Research Notes of the AAS (RNAAS)
• Astrophysics Data System (ADS) / Science Explorer (SciX)
• Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP)
• International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA)
• Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) for the JWST proposal system and the Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive
• Wikidata
  

The closing date for expressions of interest is September 13.

The Unified Astronomy Thesaurus Handbook provides a discussion of the value of a controlled vocabulary of astronomical keywords, a historical background on the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus (UAT), a description of the UAT and how to use and implement it, and a discussion of the benefits the UAT offers to the astronomy and astrophysics research community. The UAT Handbook is a live document that is continuously revised and updated as needed.

The Unified Astronomy Thesaurus (UAT) is an open and interoperable thesaurus that welcomes community support and input. Now in its eleventh year, 2024 was a momentous year for the UAT.

In March 2024 the Wolbach Library at the Center for Astrophysics was closed and its staff was laid off. This included the interim Head Librarian, Katie Frey, who was instrumental in the early and continuing development and curation of the UAT. The suddenness of the closing meant that the UAT Steering Committee had to scramble to find a new home for the UAT and a way to retain Katie’s 10+ years of institutional knowledge. Fortunately, the UAT is now hosted by the Astrophysics Data System (ADS) / Science Explorer (SciX) team, and Katie has agreed to continue supporting the UAT on a contract basis through the end of the year.

The sudden Wolbach closure was an impetus for a major restructuring of the UAT committee to provide more formal governance and support. The AAS Board of Trustees approved the formation of the Working Group on the Unified – Astronomy Thesaurus at the June 2024 Board meeting. Like the former Steering Committee, the Working Group directive is to manage, maintain, and improve the UAT. However, its elevation to a formal Working Group should bring more visibility within the AAS to its work.The listing of the members of the working group is available on the UAT website.

In January 2023, ADS had a pilot project to use machine learning techniques to assign UAT keywords to the scholarly literature. What began as a student project has grown into a professional development effort led by Felix Grezes, ADS Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing Specialist. The Working Group will be validating the output of his algorithm during the last quarter of this year. When implemented, the algorithm will generate a consistent set of keywords for all of the scholarly literature indexed by ADS for which ADS has abstracts. A consistent, structured keyword system across the disciplines of astronomy, planetary science, and heliophysics will improve the findability of research. Furthermore, the linking of formal concepts across keyword systems facilitates cross-disciplinary discovery as each scientist searches for information using the language of her or his discipline.

The latest version of the UAT, v5.1.0, was released on 20 June 2024. It has 2275 concepts, 11 top concepts, a depth of 11 levels, with 692 related concept links. We anticipate that the next version will be released in July 2025. This version will have expanded Heliophysics concepts, which will broaden the UAT reach beyond astronomy and astrophysics.

Finally, the UAT Working Group would like to thank Julie Steffen for her many years of service in the UAT governance and wish her well in her retirement. We are grateful that she prioritized establishing a firm foundation for the future of the UAT even as she prepared for the next phase of her own life. She was an energetic and capable Chief Publishing Officer for the AAS journals and saw the benefits that the UAT could provide across publishing houses.