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Arrival Times of Letters of Intent - the working habits of astronomers

This histogram shows the arrival times of the e-mail Letters of Intent. Note that only about 10% of the total of over 1400 e-mails was received earlier than 5 days before the deadline. During the last 4 days, there was the expected substantial increase in activity, with a repetitive daily pattern. The highest daily peaks correspond to European late afternoon/early evening receipt. Close examination of the content of the intervening peaks, i.e. those during European nights, show a preponderance of US and Japanese proposals. During the last five hours, a peak average of about 1 e-mail every 90 seconds was reached. Based on the above data, cynics have suggested to the SOC that future response periods should be reduced to one week!

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