Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 1991. 29: 89-127 Copyright © 1991 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

6. CONCLUSIONS

In this review we have made an effort to show that the conclusions from most observations of the diffuse ultraviolet background should be treated with reserve. The situation is made worse because sometimes only fragments of the data are published. The three admonitions I made when I reviewed this field the last time (33) still apply, and are:

1. It is crucial that every detail of the experiment, the data processing, and the analysis be published; otherwise, a critical assessment is not possible, and the results cannot be said to be established.

2. All data should be published, including data that were excluded from analysis for various reasons. A critical assessment is stymied otherwise.

3. The coordinates of claimed bright and dark spots on the sky should be published so that detailed consistency of results between different experiments on the same targets can be tested.