Nature Joins Participants in AIP/APS Virtual Journals

Melville, NY, April 27, 2001 Articles from the prestigious publication Nature will appear in the Virtual Journals of the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society, beginning with their April 2001 issues. The Nature Publishing Group is providing AIP and APS with abstracts from Nature for posting in the Virtual Journals so that the communities using the Virtual Journals will be aware of related articles in Nature.

AIP and APS currently publish the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology (www.vjnano.org) and Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research (www.vjbio.org). A third Virtual Journal will be launched this Spring that will offer comprehensive coverage of the field of quantum information.

Nature abstracts are fully incorporated into the VJ database in order to provide a robust search capability. To view the full-text articles, VJ users can follow the links provided to the abstracts and full-text articles at Nature's online platform. Nature subscribers will thus have convenient links to the full-text articles, while those who do not subscribe can purchase the articles via Nature's online facilities.

"The inclusion of Nature in the AIP/APS Virtual Journals brings a wealth of authoritative new research to the series," said APS Editor-in-Chief and VJ series co-editor Martin Blume. AIP Executive Director and VJ series co-editor Marc H. Brodsky stated, "We're pleased that all relevant Nature abstracts are now searchable by users of the Virtual Journals."

Mr. Richard Nathan, Business Development Director, Nature Publishing Group, said, "Nature is very happy to be contributing to the Virtual Journals, and we hope that the addition of our publication will make it easier for specialists in the fields covered by the AIP/APS Virtual Journals to keep abreast of the latest top-quality research."

The VJ Editors will screen peer-reviewed articles in the most recent issues of Nature, select those papers that fall within the scope of the Virtual Journals, and place them under appropriate subject headings within the Virtual Journals' tables of contents. Thus, articles from Nature will appear in the Virtual Journals roughly one week to one month after publication in Nature, depending on the frequency of the Virtual Journal.

Nature Publishing Group, formed in October 1999 from imprints within the Macmillan Group, brings together the publishing excellence of Macmillan Magazines, Stockton Press and Grove to form a visible, dynamic and service-driven force in scientific publishing. It provides primary information, analysis and comment on what is happening in core scientific disciplines, together with reference information to support education in graduate and postgraduate science.

Founded in 1899, the American Physical Society is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics. APS represents more than 42,000 physicists worldwide and is a leader in the creation of e-journals. It publishes leading international physics journals, including Physical Review A-E and Physical Review Letters, organizes major scientific meetings, and provides strong outreach programs in education and international and public affairs.

The American Institute of Physics is a not-for-profit corporation chartered in 1931 to provide publishing and distribution services for scientific and technical societies. Its Online Journal Publishing Service currently hosts e-journals of the American Physical Society, AVS Science & Technology Society, The Society of Rheology, Acoustical Society of America, Biomedical Engineering Society, American Association of Physicists in Medicine, American Association of Physics Teachers, American Society of Civil Engineers, ASME International, and SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, as well as AIP's own publications.

A list of participating publishers and journals in the Virtual Journal series can be found at http://ojps.aip.org/jhtml/vjs/partpub.jsp.

For additional information see www.virtualjournals.org or contact vjnano@aip.org and vjbio@aps.org.