World-class Content and Outreach
Deliver Outstanding Value to the AIP Community

Just as the field of physical science is changing, so is the world of STM publishing. But one thing has not changed: the increasing value AIP provides to researchers and the scientific community by continually advancing the science of physics as a publisher of leading research journals, magazines, and conference proceedings.

AIP's value is evident in the top-cited journals we publish, which attract vital research papers and comprehensive review articles from world-renowned scientists and scholars, and in turn inspire advances from all branches of science, engineering, and technology.

It's value that's at the core of our continued investment in outstanding, peer-reviewed content, and in projects that enable AIP to enhance the accessibility of our journals, expand on our significant backfiles, redouble our commitment to archive preservation, and regularly upgrade our Scitation platform with new tools—including smart ToCs, mobile editions, and mobile apps—that help librarians and researchers access content when they need it, wherever research is conducted today.

And it's value that's built into the foundation of support we provide back to researchers and readers, through a broad range of outreach and educational programs—value that touches each of AIP's constituent groups at every point at which their interests intersect the physics community.

AIP Publications—Highly Respected, Highly Cited, Highly Relevant
AIP journals provide the physics community with world-class content, and nowhere is their value more evident than in the extraordinary number of researchers who cite our articles in their own research papers. Again last year, Applied Physics Letters and Journal of Applied Physics were ranked by Thomson Reuters as the first and second most-cited journals by researchers in Applied Physics, and The Journal of Chemical Physics received the most citations in their Atomic, Molecular, and Chemical Physics category. Look across our entire catalog and the story is the same for journals such as Physics of Plasmas and Review of Scientific Instruments, which ranked first and second respectively in their Thomson Reuters categories.

A Longtime Pioneer in Online Publishing
AIP has long been a pioneer in online publishing, launching Applied Physics Letters Online in 1994 and making it the first electronic version of an established physics journal. Now, 17 years later, AIP's Scitation platform provides the scientific community with access to more than 500,000 top physical science articles published in AIP's journals and conference proceedings.

The features users enjoy today far outstrip those of 17 years ago. Even with the considerable enhancements we've made to Scitation, especially in the past year, and the ongoing investment we will be making in the future to keep AIP content available and useful on the platforms that researchers look to first, we're holding our increase to 5% on our base prices for online access to AIP journals in 2012. Over the years, we've worked closely with the library community to maintain low annual price increases—raising rates just 3% in each of the last two years, for example—and we remain sensitive to both the economic pressures facing libraries as well as those same pressures facing society publishers. Some of those pressures include the continuing reduction in print subscriptions in favor of online, a dynamic that has impacted AIP's ability to provide a print subscription option. Given this fact, we are also further adjusting our print price upward to reflect this shift in the market. We are confident, though, that AIP will still continue to offer exceptional value compared to other physics publishers, based on price-per-article metrics, a fact evidenced by JournalPrices.com (2010), which reported the average price per article of AIP's core titles at just $1.79—significantly lower than the $8.00–$15.00 per article prices reported for other publishers of physics content.

Own a Large Archive of Seminal Physics History
Of the more than 500,000 papers AIP has published to date, close to 300,000 are part of our extensive online backfile dating from 1930 to 1998. This includes Nick Holonyak, Jr.'s paper on one of the first semiconductor lasers "Coherent (visible) light emission," published in Applied Physics Letters in 1962, Freeman Dyson's seminal 1968 paper, "Stability of matter. I and II," published in Journal of Mathematical Physics, Luis Alvarez's breakthrough article, "Berkeley Proton Linear Accelerator," which appeared in a 1955 issue of Review of Scientific Instruments, and the groundbreaking paper by James Clerk Maxwell Prize–winner James F. Drake, entitled "Parametric instabilities of electromagnetic waves in plasmas," published in Physics of Fluids in 1974.

It's not surprising, given the availability of critical research like this, that up to 40% of our journal article downloads come from the extended backfile, a direct indicator of the value of this important archival information. In 2012, to better align pricing of the extended backfile with the value this content brings to the community, the price of the backfile of each AIP journal will be set at 10% of the journal's online price. This pricing will now be tiered, based on the same tiers used for other AIP subscription prices.

AIP continues to offer the backfile for sale as a one-time purchase through our AIP Digital Archive product and, in light of the new pricing for the extended backfiles, institutions may want to take advantage of the one-time purchase option available for the AIP Digital Archive. For a single payment, the AIP Digital Archive gives library patrons permanent rights and access to the extended backfile of every AIP journal (1930–1998).

Combination Packages — Strength in Numbers
Institutions that purchase multiple titles can continue to save money by subscribing to one of our discounted combination packages, AIP Select or AIP Complete. In 2012, the AIP Complete package gets a boost with the addition of three more journals, AIP's Biomicrofluidics and Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, and Journal of Laser Applications, published in partnership with the Laser Institute of America.

Enjoy Multiple-Year Savings
Also for 2012, AIP will roll out a three-year agreement program, possibly your best hedge against future price increases, providing price caps and price protection on a number of products. This is the first time we're offering such an incentive to individual institutions and it can provide AIP customers with real price stability and predictability. AIP sales teams will be contacting customers regarding this exciting new offer, or you may contact customer service () at any time for further information. 

Discover Consistent Pricing throughout the AIP Catalog
For a number of reasons, AIP is adopting a more consistent set of business practices across our titles beginning in 2012. As a result, customers will notice all AIP titles, including AIP's flagship magazine, Physics Today, now have tiered pricing to accommodate the needs of all sizes of institutions. In addition, content published prior to 1999 for all titles will become part AIP's extended backfile offering. Therefore, AIP journals Chaos and Low Temperature Physics will also have extended backfiles for the first time, as will AIP Conference Proceedings.

AIP Partner Journals Deliver Valuable Content
In 2011, the Laser Institute of America contracted with AIP to publish their flagship publication, Journal of Laser Applications, on behalf of the society and, in 2012, you will now find this title listed within the AIP catalog of content, alongside our other journals. Also in 2011, AIP entered into an agreement with the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (CSTAM) to co-publish the new journal Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters (TAML) and we are happy to announce that this journal will remain freely available on AIP's Scitation hosting platform in 2012.

Looking toward the Future
AIP has built its reputation on the tremendous number of value-added features we deliver to librarians and their patrons, along with our indispensable research content. For 2012, we are committed to investing in and implementing some exciting, new programs, including:

  • A newly enhanced account management team, which will provide librarians with one-on-one support, personalized service, and training for their patrons.
  • Enhanced Customer Service with new self-service tools, an upgraded library service center, and 24/7 help-desk access.
  • A library advisory board, which will help us understand what products are in greatest demand and what features to build into new offerings.
  • An expanded global network of sales agents, which will ensure that AIP can provide a high level of service to more customers worldwide.
  • An author loyalty program, which will provide a host of services and recognition to authors to show our appreciation for the contributions they make to our content.
  • Continued advocacy for the needs of institutions and their patrons with ongoing leadership and involvement in important industry-wide initiatives, including CrossRef, COUNTER, ORCID, Transfer, and more.
  • High-level involvement in the Open Access discussion, showcased by our CEO's leadership of the Scholarly Publishing Roundtable. AIP's further commitment to open access was in evidence this year with the launch of its newest journal, AIP Advances.
  • Availability of UniPHY, AIP's freely available, dynamic professional and social networking site, which allows researchers to connect with more than 300,000 colleagues worldwide.

AIP also adds value to its relationships with the library community through strategic agreements with technology partners, whose products complement our own mission. This includes a collaboration with DeepDyve, which allows individuals to read the full text of an article for 24 hours for a very low fee, and our partnership with publishing innovator SharedBook, which makes AIP's catalog of highly cited journals available through SharedBook's AcademicPub platform.

AIP—More than a Publisher
AIP's activities go beyond publishing, and the AIP Physics Resources Center is a prime example of how AIP uses its resources to support the community and further the interests of scientific research worldwide. Offering a broad range of products and services to students, researchers, librarians, publishers, media outlets, and the public at large, AIP's Physics Resources Center is supported by a portion of the subscription revenue we receive from our library customers, and provides programs that serve AIP's many diverse constituent groups throughout the physics community. Even those familiar with AIP might be surprised at the extensive number of services we deliver, listed in the box at right.

AIP's Physics Resources Center
Whether you need a photo of Albert Einstein, resources for physics students, a listing of physics jobs, or publications covering the latest news and scientific breakthroughs, AIP's Physics Resources Center is the place to turn. Here are some of the services we provide:

Promoting Science

  • Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science
  • Inside Science News Service
  • Awards and Prizes
  • Science Fellowship Program

Education

  • Society of Physics Students
  • Sigma Pi Sigma
  • Statistical Research Center
  • GradschoolShopper.com

History

  • Niels Bohr Library and Archives
  • Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
  • Online History Exhibits

Careers

  • Career Network
  • Industrial Physics Forum

Publications

  • Physics Today
  • FYI—The AIP Bulletin of Science Policy News
  • History of Physics Newsletter
  • SPS Observer
  • Radiations
  • focus on

Moving into the Future Together
Looking ahead, there's no doubt that new technologies and market demands will continue to drive change throughout the STM community. And while the cost of change is unavoidable, the cost of standing still is even higher.

As one of the world's leading STM publishers, you can count on AIP to work closely with you and your research communities to ensure ongoing value and innovation in all of our practices and policies, as we strive to inspire physical scientists worldwide to turn to AIP for the information they need.

For 2012 subscription pricing, click here. pdf