AIP Publishing Services

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) was founded in 1931 in response to funding problems brought on by the Great Depression. At the urging of the Chemical Foundation, which provided initial funding, leaders of American physics formed a corporation for the 'advancement and diffusion of knowledge of the science of physics and its application to human welfare.'

The primary method by which AIP hoped to meet this mandate was to achieve economies of scale in the publishing of journals for its five charter-member societies. From the outset, AIP produced titles on behalf of these societies, such as the Physical Review for the American Physical Society. Almost from its founding, AIP also acquired or developed scientific journals of its own, including Review of Scientific Instruments, Journal of Applied Physics, and The Journal of Chemical Physics. Even today, these publications still achieve leading impact factors in the Thompson-ISI annual rankings.

As a provider of scientific information in its own right, AIP has been especially mindful of its obligation to track emerging technologies and deliver content via state-of-the-art systems. It is not surprising, then, that AIP published the first online version of an established physics journal, Applied Physics Letters, in 1995. By January 1997, all AIP journals were available electronically.

In its continuing effort to develop and apply leading-edge technologies to publishing and information delivery, AIP has put in place numerous systems in the areas of online hosting, journal production, subscription fulfilment, and more. What follows are short descriptions of some of the critical services that AIP offers to assist authors, researchers, and publishers.

Scitation � AIP�s next-generation online hosting platform
AIP�s Scitation online platform is richly featured, providing users with many powerful electronic capabilities for accessing, acquiring, and using scholarly content. It is home to more than 110 technical publications from 18 STM publishers. As the name indicates, the Scitation platform offers users a vast array of links to abstracts and articles throughout the web, including those from CrossRef, ISI�s Web of Science, and other content aggregators and publishers. Recent enhancements to Scitation include personalisation features such as MyArticles and MyPublications, which allow users to customise their online scientific research. (See www.scitation.org).

Journal production services for the scientific community
AIP�s suite of services covers every aspect of journal production, with complete management oversight from receipt of authors� manuscripts through to print and online distribution. AIP can tailor its services to the specific needs of other scientific societies, and to the needs of their constituencies. Publishers can purchase individual production services, or AIP can manage an entire publication programme. From its unique position as both publisher and service provider, AIP has established a peerless record for timeliness, accuracy, and customer service that is well-respected in the STM industry.

Web-based manuscript submission and peer review
Peer X-Press is an exciting initiative in manuscript processing that has greatly enhanced editorial office efficiency and author satisfaction. This web-based peer-review and editorial-management service allows AIP to offer its publishing clients a number of convenient, time-saving functions, including online manuscript submission and viewing, and electronic tools to conduct the peer-review process. Peer X-Press integrates seamlessly with AIP's production and composition services and with its Scitation online hosting service.

Subscription, fulfilment, and membership needs
AIP�s Circulation and Fulfilment Department manages circulation, fulfilment, and membership activities for nearly 100 print and online publications from 15 scientific societies. A customised, state-of-the-art relational database allows tracking of sophisticated requirements in the rapidly evolving subscription market, including tiered pricing models, ultimate recipient data for subscription agency accounts, and consortia data. All AIP C&F functions are integrated with AIP�s Scitation platform for seamless access control, online fulfilment, and fully integrated customer service.

Consortia sales and multi-site licensing
It is of concern to smaller publishers that they are being left out of the consortia market. Since it takes much the same effort to negotiate a licence for one society title as it does for more than 1,000 Elsevier titles, the smart librarian will always start with Elsevier first � leaving the small guys to wonder what will be left. The presence of 12 prestigious society publishers on Scitation gives us a critical mass of content well worth the attention of major academic consortia around the world. AIP has leaped on this opportunity, forming a consortia-sales unit that represents more than 100 journals from 14 key science and engineering publishers. We have negotiated multi-site licences with academic, government and corporate libraries in 23 countries, bringing new revenue and new users to the publishers involved.

E-commerce
Providing an online channel for all aspects of society business from membership renewals to single-article sales has been a priority at AIP for years. We�ve created new products from existing content and used the web to great advantage, uncovering new and non-traditional markets.

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AIP Publishing services
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