Since January 2010, each article of the journal Astronomy et Astrophysics has been assigned, instead of a page number, a unique identification number which enables an immediate online publication without waiting that an issue is complete.

This solution especially allows:

• To regularly supply the website with new articles (saving of time for the author as well as for the reader),
• The reader to immediately refer to this article in its final citation.

This article-numbering system has also successfully been implemented by EDP Sciences for the journals Annals of Forest Science, EPJ Applied Physics and Veterinary Research.