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Archiving and Use of AIP Electronic Information

Description | Policy | FAQ | Task Force | AIP Partners with Portico

Download AIP's Archive and Use Policy in PDF format

Scope Statement:
The AIP is committed to the retention and preservation of scholarly research information published in electronic form within AIP's journals, proceedings, and other publications. This Policy statement defines the extent of the archiving commitment and the relevant procedures for fulfilling this commitment. This Policy does not apply to journals or other publications where AIP provides publishing services but is not the publisher of record.

Preamble:
The American Institute of Physics has extensively studied approaches to retain and maintain its electronic information according to the following policy, exercising its best effort to adapt to rapidly changing publishing technology and financial models. The Institute and subscribers understand that because of the still emerging nature of electronic publishing, there are many technical and financial uncertainties about how archiving will be accomplished by any publisher, library or third party. However, AIP's intent to maintain an archive of all its electronic journals is clear. The Institute will plan its technical and financial investments accordingly.

Archive Policy:
AIP will retain in an archive all electronic information published by the American Institute of Physics. The archive will include all AIP-owned primary publications hosted on Scitation^SM, including multimedia elements of journal articles that have been judged by peer review as being essential to the understanding of the article. Original source material will not be altered, except in extraordinary cases of production errors or similar situations, in which case there will be a clear record of the change. Source material may be annotated or supplemented by clearly noted errata, references, and other developments that may occur subsequent to original publication.

AIP will hold a primary source material archive and be responsible for the periodic refresh of this archive (to assure its continuing availability) and its replication to additional archives. The primary source material archive will not be used for active delivery. At least one complete archive will be maintained outside AIP at a site separate and distant from the primary archive.

AIP will ensure access to relevant retrospective archives via subscriptions or other means. If publication of a journal is terminated, AIP will continue to maintain and migrate that journal's database archive and will charge appropriate access fees.

The archive will be reviewed for refreshing or migration to new information formats at appropriate intervals. The initial archive material will be in the predominant current standard (e.g., XML-based) with suitable current standard-based storage formats for figures, page images, and other information forms as they develop. Information will be migrated to new formats when current formats are in danger of becoming obsolete or unsupportable, or when new formats provide substantial improvements in features with no loss of content.

Usage Rights of Active Institutional Subscribers:
Usage rights of active institutional subscribers will be governed by the terms of the then current Subscriber Agreement, a signed copy of which must be on file. A subscription fee for the current term must also have been paid. Distribution to parties beyond that defined in the Subscriber Agreement may be permitted upon explicit agreement with the AIP. Additional rights may be provided to institutions purchasing extended access methods.

Usage Rights of Active Individual Subscribers:
Individual subscriptions are limited to personal use only.

Usage Rights of Lapsed Subscribers:
Institutional subscribers who do not renew an AIP journal subscription will continue to have online access to the years for which they held a paid subscription to that title, beginning with the 1999 term. Customers with no current paid subscriptions may retain online access to such previously subscribed material for an annual fee; there is no fee for customers with a current paid subscription to any AIP journal. This policy does not apply to the backfile included with a current-year subscription unless the subscriber held a paid subscription to that title for the year(s) in question; nor does it apply to any year prior to 1999.

Subscribers will also have the option to purchase a physical archive copy of that term's material at the end of each subscription term. The same usage rights as for active subscribers apply to use of the physical archive copy. Lost or damaged physical archive copies will be replaced with copies in the then-current format for a reasonable fee; otherwise, back issue physical copies in the then-current format will be made available at annually published prices. AIP does not guarantee that links and other features intended to function within an active subscription will continue to be available in the years following delivery of the physical archive copy.

Usage Rights of Nonsubscribers:
Pay-per-article access will be provided. Physical copies of current or back issues will be made available at the then current pricing schedule.