Publication of the "Peremennye Zvezdy" (Variable Stars) journal, founded by Prof. B.V. Kukarkin (1909–1977) in 1928, was resumed in November, 2005 in the form of an electronic journal. To make the journal accessible for as wide an audience as possible, it is published in English (with only the title and abstract translated into Russian and presented at a special Russian-language sub-page of the journal). The contents of our electronic journal is covered by international data bases ADS and SIMBAD.
The publication of "Peremennye Zvezdy" is supported by two Moscow astronomical institutions, the Sternberg Astronomical Institute (University of Moscow) and the Institute of Astronomy (Russian Academy of Sciences). The web support is provided by the "Astronet" project. The editor-in-chief of the electronic journal is Prof. N.N. Samus.
It is mutually understood that the resumed journal will not compete with the IBVS but, contrary, will help the IBVS by providing the community with additional publication possibilities, so that the IBVS will be able to still better fulfill its most important role of quick publications of comparatively short papers on the most urgent and important results in the field of variable stars.
"Peremennye Zvezdy" is a professional-level journal open to papers on the whole variety of variable-star topics. Papers from amateur astronomers are welcome, provided that these papers satisfy the high scientific standards the journal is maintaining. The submitted papers are refereed by experts in the variable-star science. As for copy editing (language editing), it is undertaken by the editors within reasonable limits. The editors reserve their right to reject papers because of their English being too poor for understanding their meaning and making necessary editor's corrections.
"Peremennye Zvezdy" is committed to meeting and ensuring standards of ethical behavior at all stages of publication process and from all parties involved: Authors, Editors, Reviewers, and the Publisher.
We are currently not planning to introduce "page charges" of any kind.
As it was during the last years of its existence in the paper form, the journal consists of two parts, the main journal and the Supplement. The main journal accepts original scientific papers containing theoretical results as well as results based on detailed analysis of variable-star observations. There is virtually no volume limitations for papers published in the main journal, thus it is possible to publish much more lengthy papers than those in the IBVS. The Supplement publishes results based on observations. We encourage our potential authors to present discoveries of individual variable stars and studies of known variable stars in the form resembling that currently used in the many-author issues closing each volume of the IBVS, but we also leave possibilities for Supplement papers of different formats. In our opinion, any new discoveries of any variable stars, from new original observations or from data mining, regardless variability type, are important. However, we reserve our right to reject announcement of discoveries based on a couple of deviant data points, such announcements only increase the number of poorly studied, "suspected" variables. The authors should try to additionally investigate such stars before announcing them, for example, to determine types and to derive periods for periodic variables.
The quickly increasing flow of variable-star information makes us to issue a warning that we are not intending to publish raw observing data, without any analysis and any scientific conclusions. We are not going to publish lists of variable-star extrema based on visual observations. Such information should be channeled to the variable-star registry at the AAVSO.
The papers to "Peremennye Zvezdy" should be submitted in LaTeX, using the style file available at http://www.astronet.ru/db/varstars/. Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to the address varstar@sai.msu.ru. Authors who are able to do it are encouraged to additionally send us Russian-language titles and abstracts of their papers; alternatively, titles and abstracts can be translated into Russian by the editors. Standard-format papers intended for submission to the Supplement should be submitted through the web forms at http://www.astronet.ru/db/varstars/. When submitting results based on original observations (i.e. those coming not from data mining), it is desirable to submit also files with observations. In the case of data mining, references to the data should be indicated. More detailed instructions can be found at http://www.astronet.ru/db/varstars/.