) is a
new electronic publishing venture we have recently embarked on in
partnership with the German Physical Society. We are also actively
encouraging other national physical societies to join NJP as associate
members.
Mission and business model
NJP's mission is to publish original research articles of outstanding
scientific quality that merit the attention of physicists - i.e.
'you-really-should-read-this!' type of paper that have broad appeal, high
impact and float well above the flood. NJP covers all physics and the
first articles are now on-line. As well as being peer reviewed and web
based, all articles are available free of charge to anyone with access to
the Internet. Because NJP is not subscription based we have adopted a
financial model where authors of published articles pay an article charge
($500 per article).
Background
There are strong forces at play in the world of scholarly publishing and
during the planning stages for NJP we consulted a large number of
physicists about current trends. At the forefront of these discussions
came the clear need to develop other methods of publishing and financing
peer-reviewed archival journals alongside the traditional
subscription-based model which is coming under increasing pressure. The
steady growth of physics literature and the rise in journal subscription
prices are outstripping library budgets and shelf space. The publishing
landscape is experiencing rapid change in other dimensions too, especially
in the development of new technology. The Internet now provides
readers, authors and publishers with powerful new tools to deliver and
access information. We believe that NJP - a high quality, Internet journal
accessible at no charge to readers - provides a real opportunity for
learned society publishers to chart an innovative and responsible way
forward.
Benefits for NJP authors
Authors benefit from the high visibility of publishing their papers on
the Institute of Physics Web site, already one of the most accessed sites
in physics. These are the early days for NJP, with only a small number of papers
on-line, yet there have been over 1000 full-article downloads in the first
two months since going live.
To reduce the time taken in the publishing process we conduct most of the
journal's business (e.g. submission, peer review, as well as publication)
by electronic means and much of the day-to-day work is carried out by the
journal office in the UK. For example, we act as the receiving house for
new submissions and handle most correspondence, leaving Editors to
concentrate more on persuading authors to submit papers and to play a key
role in scientific issues. Editors select all referees and make
publication decisions. We have a number of papers going through which
take advantage of the electronic medium with links and supplementary
material as well as others containing multimedia elements such as video
clips and simulations. We believe that authors will increasingly use these
features which are not possible in printed journals. NJP has all the
usual features expected of an electronic journal including alerting,
searching and citation linking. Articles are available in PDF and HTML
formats. A further benefit is that authors and readers no longer need to
wait for issues to be published; individual articles are posted to the web
site as soon as possible after proofs are finalized.
Long-term commitment
The journal's editors and staff, together with the publishing partners,
are committed to building NJP into the leading scientific journal in its
field by publishing articles of outstanding scientific quality with broad
appeal and high impact across a broad spectrum of physics. We are exploring
the options for archiving with third parties. Judging by the high level of
interest already shown by librarians and physicists alike, we are sure
that NJP will play a pivotal role in the future of physics publishing.
We welcome your comments about this article. Please
fill out this
form for possible inclusion in a future issue.
![[PREVIOUS]](../graphics/backward.gif)
![[CONTENTS]](../graphics/contents.gif)
![[NEXT]](../graphics/forward.gif)
