The Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica (RMxAA) was founded in 1974 with the aim of disseminating astronomical research from Latin America in all branches of astronomy, astrophysics, and related fields. The journal traces its origins to the Boletín de los Observatorios de Tonantzintla y Tacubaya, which was distributed from 1952 to 1972.
The founding editors were astronomers Eugenio E. Mendoza V., Paris Pishmish, and Silvia Torres-Peimbert. Initially, three astronomers served as editors of the journal, and among them, in addition to the founders, were Jorge Cantó, Carlos Cruz-González, Claudio Firmani, and Luis F. Rodríguez. Beginning with its twentieth anniversary, the journal was edited by Paris Pishmish and Silvia Torres. In 2001, Christine Allen assumed the role of Editor-in-Chief and guided the publication with a steady hand. Since 2025, the Editors-in-Chief have been Irene Cruz-González and Carlos Román-Zúñiga. Thanks to the dedication of its editors and the trust of its authors, RMxAA has, over many years, become the most impactful scientific journal in Mexico and Latin America.
During its initial period and until 1994, in addition to publishing original research articles, RMxAA also issued special volumes containing the proceedings of thirteen regional astronomical symposia. Later, in 1995, this second activity branched off, giving rise to the Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica, Serie de Conferencias (RMxAC), dedicated exclusively to publishing conference proceedings in astronomy. The editor of RMxAC is Silvia Torres.
Since its foundation, RMxAA has been free of charge and openly accessible to authors and institutions engaged in fields covered by the journal. It receives manuscripts from specialists worldwide, and its content spans a wide diversity of topics. The journal was originally printed and distributed free of charge to the libraries of organizations conducting astronomical research in at least 50 countries. Since 2000, the complete collection has also been available digitally in open access.
Beginning in 2025, in line with current trends, RMxAA is published exclusively in digital format. It is considered a diamond open access journal, as it imposes no barriers or embargoes on access.
RMxAA enjoys high prestige in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics and is indexed in Journal Citation Reports-Clarivate (Web of Science), Scopus, Scimago, Ulrich’s Global Serials Directory, Scielo Mexico, Latindex, Redalyc, and the Astrophysics Data System, all of which are tools for journal analysis that provide quantifiable statistics such as the Impact Factor, among others.
Key Data
The journal was indexed in Web of Science (WoS) from 1983 to 2023. During this period, a total of 2,045 documents were published, of which 1,555 were research articles.
Among the institutions that published the most articles in RMxAA, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) leads the list with 709 articles, followed by the University of São Paulo (132), INAOE (74), Universidad de La Plata (61), Instituto de Pesquisas Espaciais (56), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (53), Universidad de Chile (49), Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía (46), Max Planck Society (42), CONICET (41), Harvard University (35), and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (35)