Physics Societies Announce Joint Venture to Launch Virtual Journals

MELVILLE and RIDGE, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 12 -- The American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the American Physical Society (APS) announced that the first two of a series of "virtual" journals in the physical sciences are set to launch in January, 2000. Jointly developed by the two organizations, Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research and Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology will be online journals that will collect relevant papers from a broad range of physical science journals, including all journals published by APS and AIP and selected journals from participating publishers on AIP's Online Journal Publishing Service (OJPS). From the user's perspective, the virtual journals will look and feel like "real" journals, providing browsable Tables of Contents and freely available abstracts, with links to full-text articles in the source journals. Subscribers to the source journal will be able to seamlessly access the full-text articles, while non-subscribers will have the option to purchase articles for immediate online delivery.

"Virtual journals will provide users with quick, convenient access to information in cutting-edge fields," according to Martin Blume, Editor-in-Chief at the American Physical Society. "Gathering into one spot all the papers on a given topic that appear in a wide range of premier physics-related journals will help specialists keep abreast of the latest developments, not only with title 'alerts' but with abstracts and full-text articles."

AIP Executive Director and CEO Marc H. Brodsky notes that "virtual journals will provide affordable access to individuals or small institutions with specialized interests. Those who could not afford to subscribe to the complete line of journals contributing to a given virtual journal will now be able to get the content they need rapidly, conveniently, and for less money than is possible by traditional hardcopy document delivery."

Articles appearing in these virtual journals will be selected by editors expert in the particular fields. Professor Robert Austin of Princeton University will serve as Editor of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research and Professor David Awschalom of the University of California, Santa Barbara, will be the Editor of Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology. Other virtual journals will be launched as warranted, focusing on new and developing fields that cut across a range of traditional publications.

For addtional information see http://www.virtualjournals.org or contact vjnano@aip.org and vjbio@aps.org.