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WHT Publication and Oversubscription Statistics

              UK oversubscr. factors     Number of proposals  Publications

Semester       Dark   Grey   Bright        UK   NL   SP

92A (V)         3.8    4.8    2.5          79                   
92B (W)         2.6    3.1    9.8          81                   42

93A (X)         4.9    3.2    2.4          96                   
93B (Y)         3.3    3.5    3.5          94        41         55

94A             4.2    3.4    6.0          98        31
94B             3.5    2.1    2.5          65   21   30         78

95A             5.6    3.5    2.7          93        40
95B                3.7        4.1*        100   17   40         90

96A             4.6    5.9    2.4         101   17   26
96B             4.2    3.0    2.5          83   16   53        100

97A                5.3        3.9*        105   14   52
97B             2.7    3.7    2.0          81   16   35        113

98A             5.2    4.3    3.3         101   20   55
98B             3.2    3.4    3.1          78   14   39        118

99A             5.7    3.8    2.5          86   14   46      
99B             2.4    2.5    3.8          80   14   37        118

00A             4.1    2.7    2.5          79   16   34      
00B             1.6    2.3    6.1          81   15   51         78

01A             3.8    3.5    3.7          84   11   30
01B             3.2    3.7    2.4          75   17   30         89

02A             3.3    3.8    3.7          80   10   29
02B             2.8    3.9    4.4          78   11   35         93

03A             4.0    2.2    2.1          66    7   34
03B             2.5    2.6    3.9          64   17   30         82

04A             3.9    3.2    1.7          65   17   43
04B             3.0    3.2    2.5          73   16   49        103

05A             3.8    2.3    2.7          57   19   58
05B                                        76   17   58         77

06A             2.7    3.8    3.3          67   17   56
06B             1.8    3.6    2.1          61   12   45         94

07A             2.2    2.7    2.5          40   18   46
07B             2.2    3.3    5.6          61   14   58         84

08A             3.0    4.3    1.5          42   18   48         
08B             1.4    1.8    3.0          46   11   53         96

09A             2.3    2.8    1.8          44    9   55
09B             2.1    2.6    2.3          51   12   54         98

10A             4.3    4.3    3.5          62   18   50
10B             1.8    2.7    2.0          34   13   43         90

11A             1.6    3.6    3.3          39   21   55
11B             1.8    4.2    2.4          40   16   49        124

12A             2.0    4.8    2.4          41   15   41
12B             2.6    2.9    1.0          35   18   42        106

13A             2.2    5.0    2.7          44   19   37        
13B             2.1    5.7    1.3          39   17   39        110

14A             2.6    3.6    1.5          34   24   33
14B             3.2    3.7    1.9          41   22   39        119

15A             2.9    3.1    1.8          35   15   33        
15B             1.1    1.9    1.4          24   16   36        115

16A             3.0    3.4    1.6          34   12   34
16B             1.4    1.9    1.7          36   12   13        100

17A             2.9    3.1    2.4          37   17   25
17B             2.0    2.5    1.7          28   11   19        100

18A             1.9    3.5    2.2          18    9   19
18B                                        18    9   23

19A                                        19   16   18
* NL and Spanish probably included.

A = Feb - Jul; B = Aug - Jan

Oversubscription factor = number of nights requested in UK proposals to PATT divided by number of nights available to UK. The numbers above are collected from records kept by successive schedulers Bill Martin, Ian Skillen and Javier Mendez, and from the (fairly complete) proposal archive at ING.
The wilder excursions in the bright-time over-subscription factor reflect shortage of available nights (because of top-sliced allocations for commissioning) rather than unusual demand.

Publications = number of publications which appeared that year in refereed journals, using data obtained at the WHT. Lists of publications can be obtained from the ING papers database.

Two-year means of the numbers of proposals received from each community are shown below:

                UK     NL     ES

       94-95   89.0   19.0   35.3
   
       96-97   92.5   15.8   41.5

       98-99   86.3   15.5   44.3

       00-01   79.8   14.8   36.3

       02-03   72.0   11.3   32.0

       04-05   67.8   17.3   50.0

       06-07   57.3   15.3   51.3

       08-09   45.8   12.5   52.5

       10-11   43.8   17.0   49.3

       12-13   39.8   17.3   39.8

       14-15   33.5   19.3   35.3

       16-17   33.8   13.0   22.8
Several factors account for the significant decline in the number of UK proposals between the late 1990s and ~ 2008, including a reduction in the UK allocation of nights, and increased competition from 8-m telescopes. There was also a small increase in the mean number of nights requested per proposal. The oversubscription factor was ~ 2 - 3 throughout this period.

The decline in the numbers of proposals from 2017B onwards probably reflects (1) a further increase in the mean number of nights allocated per proposal, and (2) anticipation of the era of WEAVE surveys at the WHT.

The semester-to-semester variations in the numbers of proposals are not consistent with a Poisson distribution. E.g the median number of NL proposals received during 1995B - 2017B is 16, with 16 +- 2 proposals being received during 2/3 of those semsters.

Historical note: the notional cost of a night on the WHT, quoted by PPARC/STFC when informing applicants of their allocations, was 17000 pounds (5000 pounds for a night on the INT), as of Jan 2001.

Original text: 16 Nov 1998, last revised 17 August 2018



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Last modified: 22 October 2018