American Institute of Physics is the circulation and fulfillment provider for the American Physical Society journals (Physical Review, Physical Review Letters, Reviews of Modern Physics and Physical Review Online Archive):

RoweCom (divine) has been directed by the United States Bankruptcy Court of the District of Massachusetts Eastern Division to deliver to their customers and publications providers/publishers the RoweCom Prepaid Order Agreement. As you may know, publishers who sign this Agreement agree to continue to fulfill subscriptions to customers who have prepaid RoweCom, AND who have also signed the subscriber/institution version of this Agreement. The subscriber/institution version of this Agreement assigns the institution's claim to the individual Publishers who have also signed the Agreement. Or, in legal terms according to the court documents, "pursuant to which [RoweCom Prepaid Order Agreement] a customer may agree to transfer its respective claims associated with prepaid subscriptions in exchange for the agreement of publishers to deliver the respective Prepaid Subscriptions associated with such claims."

AIP plans to sign this agreement and thereby will be fulfilling subscriptions to those institutions who have already paid RoweCom (divine) AND who have signed this Agreement as well. As a provider of fulfillment services to other publishers, we would also like to inform you that all of the publishers who use AIP fulfillment services (see list^*) are included within our Agreement or plan to sign this same Agreement on their own behalf.

AIP urges all institutions who have paid RoweCom (divine) to sign the RoweCom Prepaid Order Agreement so that AIP can continue to provide you with uninterrupted fulfillment of your subscriptions for 2003.

I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions or need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Department via e-mail at nonrenew@aip.org, via phone at 800-344-6902 or 516-576-2270, or by fax at 516-349-9704.

Thank you.

Lori S. Carlin Director, Circulation and Fulfillment American Institute of Physics

^*List of publishers Acoustical Society of America (ASA) American Astronomical Society (AAS) American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) American Institute of Physics (AIP) American Physical Society (APS) AVS - The Science and Technology Society Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) Institute of Physics (IOP), North American Distribution ISA - The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society Laser Institute of America (LIA) MAIK Nauka/Interperiodica Publishing National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) The Society of Rheology (SOR)