STLQ

Biomicrofluidics is the first Open Access journal published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP). The online-only journal provides an interdisciplinary, rapid-publication environment for the dissemination of research from diverse fields, including engineering, physics, materials science, chemistry, and biology. From the press release:

Organized into four issues per year, Biomicrofluidics will publish each article online in final citable form as soon as it is available. The journal will cover topics such as DNA and molecular manipulation, microfluidics and nanofluidics, wetting and nano-rheology, drop and digitated platform, electrokinetics and magneto-hydrodynamics, pathogen and molecular concentration, and separation and sorting devices.

Biomicrofluidics -- Fulltext v1+ (2007+); ISSN: 1932-1058.

Posted by George Porter at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

.: This kind of stuff absolutely fascinates me. From Penn State Live:

Penn State researchers look beyond birth of universe
Monday, May 22, 2006

University Park, Pa. -- According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, the Big Bang represents The Beginning, the grand event at which not only matter but space-time itself was born. While classical theories offer no clues about existence before that moment, a research team at Penn State has used quantum gravitational calculations to find threads that lead to an earlier time.

"General relativity can be used to describe the universe back to a point at which matter becomes so dense that its equations don't hold up," said Abhay Ashtekar, holder of the Eberly family chair in physics and director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Penn State. "Beyond that point, we needed to apply quantum tools that were not available to Einstein."

By combining quantum physics with general relativity, Ashtekar and two of his post-doctoral researchers, Tomasz Pawlowski and Parmpreet Singh, were able to develop a model that traces through the Big Bang to a shrinking universe that exhibits physics similar to ours.

In research reported in the current issue of Physical Review Letters, the team shows that, before the Big Bang, there was a contracting universe with space-time geometry that otherwise is similar to that of our current expanding universe. As gravitational forces pulled this previous universe inward, it reached a point at which the quantum properties of space-time cause gravity to become repulsive, rather than attractive.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Diverse Frontiers of Science Symposium is a two-day event, May 3-4, commemorating the founding of the American Institute of Physics (AIP).. The opening session will be available as a live webcast, 12:45pm EST, Wednesday, May 3. Viewers can begin connecting to the webcast at 12:25pm EST. It is unclear whether more of the sessions will be webcast.

• Diverse Frontiers: Mildred Dresshaus, Chair
  
• Opening Remarks, Marc Brodsky, American Institute of Physics 12:45 pm
  
• Historical Trends, Spencer Weart, American Institute of Physics 1:00 pm
  
• Astronomy & Cosmology, Martin Rees, Cambridge University 1:30 pm
  
• Optics & Biophysics, Steven Chu, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory 2:00 pm
  
• Condensed Matter, Marvin Cohen, University of California, Berkeley 2:30 pm
  
• Acoustics, Lawrence Crum, University of Washington 3:00 pm

Posted by George Porter at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

.: Optics Express, the Open Access journal of the Optical Society of America, "... was recognized by Essential Science Indicators as having the highest percent increase in total citations in the field of Physics in both September 2005 and January 2006. Optics Express is a SPARC Leading Edge publisher partner.

Posted by George Porter at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

.: George Porter sent a note about a new alert service from the American Institute of Physics, called New Volume Alerts:

Librarians are invited to register for alerts of newly-published volumes in the AIP Conference Proceedings series. This free service is meant to provide librarians with bibliographic data to facilitate inclusion of each new volume in online catalogs or other indexing services.

Each e-mail alert will include bibliographic data for the title, as well as a complete table of contents. Alerts are available in either plain-text (ASCII) or HTML format. Alerts are delivered directly to the e-mail address you specify; alerts in HTML format are fully linked to abstracts and full text. Please note that the e-mail address you enter will not be sold or otherwise distributed to any other individual or entity.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

.: Links to RSS feeds for news sources in physics have been added to the Resources in Physics page on the SLA PAM site.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: Excerpted from a post on CHMINF-L, David R Lide, Editor-in-Chief, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, explains the policy of updating HCP:

Each annual edition provides an opportunity to add new material, update/expand existing tables, and correct errors. Certainly, all errors that we have found or that have been brought to our attention by users are corrected in each new edition. We typically introduce five or six new topics each year, and five to ten existing tables are updated or expanded. The net result is the at least 5% of the book is substantially changed each year. In some years, when a very long table is updated, the changes can amount to 10-20%.

Continue reading "Handbook of Chemistry & Physics Updating Policy" »

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

:: From a message sent by Christine Orr of AIP, which appeared on various listservs:

The American Institute of Physics is pleased to announce that beginning this week, all AIP journal abstract pages will carry a message informing users that their access is provided via their library’s subscription. Once a user is IP-authenticated, each abstract view will display a small banner stating, “Your access to J. Appl. Physics [e.g.] is provided by the subscription of [institution].”

Continue reading "AIP Introduces Library Branding" »

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: The American Institute of Physics is offering online access to the entire backfile of AIP journals. From the AIP site:

All subscriptions to AIP journals at the institutional rate include access to a five-year online backfile. In 2005, we’re offering extended access to all AIP journals back to Volume 1, Issue 1. This lets you provide your patrons with thousands of additional articles online.

For an annual maintenance fee of only $95 each ($130 for The Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Applied Physics, and Applied Physics Letters), your patrons can now access the entire backfile of AIP journals — a significant increase over the number of articles available online with a regular subscription. Complete backfile access is also included with select AIP combination subscriptions. While research in many scientific disciplines rapidly becomes obsolete, the results obtained in physics often remain sought after for many years.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: As posted to PAMNET on 15 November 2004

:MELVILLE, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 - The American Institute of Physics announced today that it will offer on a trial basis an open-access publishing option to authors contributing to three AIP journals: Journal of Mathematical Physics, Review of Scientific Instruments, and Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science. The initiative has been named "AIP Author Select."

Continue reading "American Institute of Physics Announces "AIP Author Select" - A New Open Access Initiative for 2005" »

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: There has been ongoing dialog regarding the transfer of four IoP journals to Taylor & Francis. David Stern (Yale) provided comments, and Steve Moss (IoP) responded. Dana Roth (Caltech), continues the discussion, and writes the following on SLA-PAM:

I first want to express my appreciation to the IOP for all it has done over the years for SLA-PAM. The sale of the four titles to T&F, however, reminded me of a tangential issue that has been bothering me for some time.

I have spoken about differential journal pricing for several years now, and it is not an issue unique to commercial European publishers. For example, the 2004 British Pound price for IOP package Z was £25,894 while the US$ price was US$49,798. There are several ways to calculate a reasonable exchange rate and a corresponding reasonable US$ price.

1. Elsevier, prior to 2000, calculated their US$ subscription rates based on the average exchange rate for the 07/01-6/30 period prior to announcing subscription rates, a few months later, for the next calendar year.

2. An alternative, that was offered by Harrassowitz in the past, was to allow payment (in US$) at the exchange rate in effect on the day when the invoice was paid (i.e. for institutions on the 10/01-9/30 fiscal year, in October 2003).

If either of these practices had been employed by the IOP, for their 2004 prices, the exchange rate (and US$ price) would have been:

1. (07/01/02-06/30/03) US$ 1.586 = 1£ --- $41,068

2. (10/01/03-10/31/03) US$ 1.677 = 1£ --- $43,424

Comparison of these prices, with the $49,798 charged, suggests that US$
subscribers are paying at least a 15% surcharge over a reasonable exchange rate subscription price.

If the IOP is not prepared to reduce the Package Z subscription rate in 2005, would it be too much to expect them to meet us half way and also not increase the US$ subscription rate?

Dana L. Roth
Millikan Library / Caltech 1-32
1200 E. California Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91125
626-395-6423 fax 626-792-7540
dzrlib AT library DOT caltech.edu
http://library.caltech.edu/collections/chemistry.htm

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

:: On PAMNET, Steve Moss, VP of IoP Publishing, responds to David Stern's comments regarding the sale of four IoP journals to Taylor and Francis:

Dear David,

Please be assured that IOP will never become a "breeding ground for eventual commercial titles." This is so much the opposite of our mission.

Our primary goal is to publish journals that will benefit the Physics community. To do so effectively, we occasionally need to consolidate our resources to focus on our core strengths. This enables us to sustain the ongoing development of all of our journals and the improvement of services being provided to authors, readers and subscribers.

We are also committed to developing new journals which reflect emerging and exciting growth areas in Physics. As a not-for-profit, learned society publisher for Physics, we are dedicated to communicating the latest state of the science of Physics.

Continue reading "IoP Responds to Concerns Over Four IOP Journals Moving to Taylor & Francis" »

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: The Institute of Physics Publishing announced on July 19, 2004, the sale of four of their journals: Waves in Random Media, Network: Computation in Neural Systems, Combustion Theory and Modelling, and Journal of Turbulence. David Stern, of the Yale U Science Libraries, offered these comments on SLAPAM-L:

In case others have not seen this, there are about to be some changes to the IoP packages. This will probably mean increased costs as these titles move to a commercial publisher, and certainly will mean we will reconsider our current IoP package purchases.

I am disheartened that newer titles we have altruistically supported are moving away from non-profit publishers. If this is happening because the IoP could not support these titles due to low subscription levels, the move to a commercial publisher would seem to be an even worse fate for the authors ... as even fewer libraries will be able to afford them and the articles will be seen by even fewer readers.

I hope new journal titles from non-profit publishers are not merely a breeding ground for eventual commercial titles. If this becomes a common pattern, we will no longer support new non-profit titles as the better alternative ... knowing they will come back to bite us as established alternatives to existing non-profit titles. We will simply ask non-profit publishers to expand their existing journals rather than start new niche publications.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: Dana Roth presented the following to the PAM Physics Roundtable at SLA in Nashville in June, 2004: Exchange rate profiteering and cost-effectiveness of physics journals

US$ subscribers are paying significant 'surcharges' for European journals, when US$ prices are compared with the corresponding EURO prices, suggesting exchange rate profiteering. Furthermore, large differences in the relative cost effectiveness were observed across three publisher titles. The maximum variance in 'cost per use per Impact Factor' analysis was 11/1.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: Institute of Physics Publishing has launched a new journal to cover timely publication of high quality, international conferences. No word on when the first issue of Journal of Physics: Conference Series, will appear later this year.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: I am in Nashville attending the annual SLA conference. A few items of interest:

• The MRS Online Proceedings Library is now available from the Materials Research Society. Proceedings published since 2000 are available, cost is $4,200US/12-month access.
  
• Knovel: more titles are being made available with interactive functionality. 224 stress concentration and other important graphs in Peterson's Stress Concentration Factors (2nd Edition) are now interactive, using a Graph Digitizer. In the fall of 2004, similar functionality will be added to Roark's Formulas for Stress and Strain (7th Edition). Chemical structure searching on Knovel is forthcoming, and is being shown at the conference.
  
• The Inspec Archive - Electronic Access to Science Abstracts Journals 1898-1968: "XML files of the digitised Inspec Archive are available for direct customers who load Inspec data with their own software. Inspec Vendors will load the archive during either the latter half of 2004 or early 2005. Additionally, the archive will be loaded on the IEE server."
  
• Cambridge announced that 110,000 ASCE records have been added to CSA Civil Engineering Abstracts.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: The Institute of Physics has joined CrossRef:

The Institute of Physics is pleased to be participating in CrossRef Search, a new initiative enabling users to perform cross-publisher, full text searches of the latest scholarly research.

CrossRef Search is available free of charge in our Electronic Journals service. It can also be found on the Web sites of the other eight participating publishers, which include The American Physical Society, Nature Publishing Group and Oxford University Press.

CrossRef Search has been developed by CrossRef in partnership with Google™. Said Ed Pentz, Executive Director of CrossRef:

'CrossRef is very excited to work with Google on this pilot program. Researchers, scientists and librarians should find CrossRef Search a valuable search tool. Now, researchers and students interested in mining published scholarship have immediate access to targeted, interdisciplinary and cross-publisher search on full text using the powerful and familiar Google technology'.

CrossRef Search is a pilot program which will run through 2004 to evaluate functionality and gather feedback. Further information on the initiative is available.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: Thanks to Tom Grydeland, Dept of Physics at the University of Tromsø, for sending an e-mail about another online textbook. Electromagnetic Theory, written by Bo Thidé, is available for downloading and use, free of charge:

Intended for the advanced undergraduate or graduate student, Electromagnetic Field Theory is a textbook on the theory of electrodynamics, at roughly the same level as the well-known textbooks by Jackson and Panofsky&Phillips. The book is written mainly from a classical field theoretical point of view, emphasising fundamental and subtle properties of the EM field and includes a comprehensive appendix on the mathematical methods used. It treats relativistic covariance and the Lagrangian/Hamiltionan formulation of electromagnetic field theory, with an eye on modern ideas of duality and unification of theories, and includes a rigorous, comprehensive and detailed treatment of EM radiation phenomena. The book does not treat the elementary and technological aspects of electromagnetism to any significant degree since these matters are already covered in intermediate-level textbooks such as Roald K. Wangsness, Electromagnetic Fields, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 0471859125 (1987).

Electromagnetic Field Theory is intended as an Internet source which is freely available to physics students, at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level, and research workers anywhere. The current version of Electromagnetic Field Theory is being used in higher education at several universitites in Europe and the US.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: Teri Vogel notes the following in an e-mail:

PSIGate has recently added RSS feeds for the new records they add to their collection. There are feeds for each subject (astronomy, chemistry, earth sciences, physics, policy and materials), plus a feed if you want to keep up with the latest additions regardless of subject.

http://www.psigate.ac.uk/newsite/about.html

PSIgate (Physical Sciences Information Gateway), part of the Resource Discovery Network, selects and annotates quality Web resources in the physical sciences.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

:: Proving that the unthinkable is still possible, the American Physical Society (APS), in a letter to "The Library Community", has announced it will decrease prices for all tiers of its journals:

The Council of the APS has established journal prices for 2005 and APS will be DECREASING PRICES for all tiers. The publications of the APS include Physical Review A-E (PRA-E), Physical Review Letters (PRL), Physical Review Online Archive (PROLA), and Reviews of Modern Physics (RMP). PROLA, with journal content back to 1893, will continue to be available at no cost to subscribers of the APS packages (PR-All and APS-All) and at a very modest cost to those subscribing to portions of the package. In keeping with the Society's goal of moving towards a pricing structure, which reflects the diversity amongst its subscribers, the larger decreases will be for the smaller institutions, as follows:

Tier 1 institutions prices will decrease 3.0% (35% of all subscriptions)
Tiers 2 and 3 institutions prices will decrease 1.0% (54% of subscriptions)
Tiers 4 and 5 institutions prices will decrease 0.5% (11% of subscriptions)

The price decreases are in the presence of continued growth in journal size and in manuscript submissions. They reflect a long and intense development of new technology both by the Society and its vendors as well as persistent attention to cost control by all of the staff. They also represent the Society's commitment to returning the advantages of technology to the community. The same percentage price decrease will apply to print-plus-online and online only. APS sees the new technology as an exciting challenge to end the period of unsustainable price increases.

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Institute of Physics has a number of RSS feeds up for grabs, including IOP Electronic Journals News and TOCs from several of their journals. It always makes me happy to see publishers adding the little orange button to their websites. [via Library Stuff]

Posted by at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The information below regardings developments to the Institute of Physics' (IOP) Electronic Journals service was received in an e-mail from the IoP.

*Electronic Journals Quick Guide*
A new step-by-step guide to our Electronic Journals service is now available online. A good introduction for new users and a useful refresher for existing ones, the Quick Guide runs through all of the key features of the service including searching, clustering, e-mail alerting and reference linking (forwards and backwards).

The Quick Guide has been prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint so it can be used in a number of ways: you and your library users can work through it onscreen (in 'slide show' mode); the slides can be used for presentations or training sessions and/or they can be printed out and distributed as handouts.

Continue reading "News from IOP" »

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

:: "As part of the efforts to promote international cooperation in science, the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation presented the Max Planck Research Award for 2003 on November 26, 2003 at 5:30 PM to 12 scientists and researchers in an award ceremony at Harnack-Haus in Berlin-Dahlem. Each award is endowed with EUR 125,000 and gives highly qualified German and foreign scientists and researchers the opportunity to initiate, deepen, or expand mutual projects with the goal of achieving maximum scientific performance on the international scene."

Posted by Randy Reichardt at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)