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
