This article is about the Astrophysics Data System which belongs to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a United States government agency. The system’s primary purpose is to allow researchers and others to better search through the literature relevant to the agency. This includes research papers and other scientific literature that is closely related. The Astrophysics Data System includes full access to 4 separate databases of relevant literature and bibliography. This off-course also includes the most popular and highly-respected astronomical journals.

Relying on the internet, the Astrophysics Data System comprises of 2 parts that is the Abstract Service & Article Service. The former is made up of 4 separate databases holding more 1,100,000 abstracts according to estimates. The subjects covered include Astronomy, Instrumentation, Physics as well as Geophysics.

The four databases available through ADS for abstracts and bibliography information are Astronomy and Astrophysics, Los Alamos Preprints in Astronomy, Space Instrumentation & Engineering along with Physics & Geophysics. Apart from research papers published in scientific journals, these databases also contain briefs from reports of the Agency itself, conferences and dissertations written in the discipline.

Term papers as well as relating papers about Astrophysics Data System are usually written either on the masters or doctorate level. It is also of interest to software engineers who are interested in assessing the effectiveness of the search algorithms and the management of content. Others may be interested with the quality of content and its usefulness to the scientific community.