APS 2004 Tier Definitions

THE MODEL

During 2003, the APS will continue efforts to achieve a fair distribution of costs between major research active subscribers, small undergraduate institutions, and those in between. The APS was established in 1899 to “Promote and Diffuse the Knowledge of Physics”. The APS Council supports the philosophy that the cost of research activity should be distributed to reflect the way different institutions utilize the literature. In particular it should reflect both the value of the product to the reader (students, researchers, etc.) and the value of the journal as a distributor of research information (authors, institutions).

There are two points of view which both lead to increasing the fraction of journal revenue, which comes from the more research active institutions. One is from a business perspective. As cost pressures weigh on college budgets, small institutions may feel forced to drop their institutional subscriptions. This would be a significant loss, both for their students and for the larger community. In particular, the loss in revenue will have to be made up by the remaining institutions, since APS operates with no profit margin to absorb it. By putting a constraint on the prices of the small colleges we hope to keep them as subscribers. This is economically a win-win situation. The second perspective is more fundamental. The future health of physics is heavily dependent on the educational activities of our small colleges because they foster both the graduate schools and the technical workforce. APS is committed to keeping the literature of physics accessible to all portions of our community. In keeping with these observations, we are adding two new tiers of research active institutions for 2003, tier 4 & tier 5.