Retiering as an Equitability Exercise

APS is revising our tiering methodology and number system to be more aligned with an open access future and our goal of a more sustainable publishing ecosystem for all parties. The below outlines the changes and minimal impacts with a level of transparency that we hope encourages civil discussion on how our shared industry can attempt to address inequities and continue to improve and grow together.

APS’ Tier History
APS’ five legacy tiers were based on standard metric shared by most publishers: Full-time students and researchers, usage and what would be generally accepted as “print” metrics that are no longer aligned with market realities or the shared value publishers, authors and their institutions provide to each other. The new tiers are based on metrics that align with publishing and reading metrics, outlined below.

Did APS change its tiers to increase prices and revenue? No.
Our modelling concluded that the new tiers should result in less than $40,000 in additional revenue, globally, because we believe that revenue growth is the reward for innovation and increased value our clients opt-in to receive, not pricing tricks.

APS’ goals for our retiering exercise:

1. Predictably coach prices toward shared value of our shared research ecosystem, not revenue goals
2. Reaffirm our commitment to open access through product, price and tiering alignment that facilitate a more open future
3. Deliver a pricing system that allows our clients to manage all subscriptions and business model migrations via a seamless, system-led experience
4. Depart from historical purchase-based pricing
5. Create greater sustainability not just for APS but our clients as well

Legacy Tiers versus New Tiers

APS’ five (5) Legacy tiers were first subdivided into 15 new tiers in a renaming exercise. If you were Tier 4, the same tier level would be 10,11, or 12 with no impact on pricing in any way. Tier 1 is our smallest tier and Tier 15 is our largest.

Tiering Methodology

As APS moves toward being a more fully Open Access publisher, the metrics we assess for our price tiers must align with that goal. Those tiering metrics track two main parameters: the Read value of closed content and our shared Publishing experience with a given institution.

APS is unique in that we need to (1) factor fully closed Reviews journals as well as (2) our history of being an access-only publisher, which has allowed us to keep prices lower and serve our mission of highest possible readership for the advancement of Physics.

While we are not sharing all of the tier metrics for proprietary purposes, we have listed pragmatic levels of transparency to facilitate meaningful discussion, here:

APS’ new tiering data may include, but is not limited to:

• Publishing and/or submission History
• Usage metrics (Closed and Open content)
• Denial metrics
• Physics and Physics-adjacent department rankings
• Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipient status

Just as importantly, the new tiers exclude the following metrics:

• Materials budget
  • A metric too-often used to excuse attempts to increase revenues
• Undergraduate FTE
  • A population that APS serves to increase their information literacy and become tomorrow’s research leaders
• Historical print holdings
  • APS must deliver increasing value and quality every day, not base prices on how we served you in the past

The Impact of New Tiers on Price

In accordance with consulted parties, any price adjustments will be gradual, predictable and independent of all other Institution’s prices. There is an appeals process for tier changes that an institution feels resulted in an erroneous result.

All examples, below, are prior to SCOAP3 offsets, which will be applied according to standard practices.

Value Metrics: It is not enough that an institution publishes and/or submits articles to APS for their price to change. Their patrons must also see significant value in reading the closed content we publish as well. Therefore, Tiering Adjustments will only be applied in cases where:

• the new tier is outside of the legacy tier’s range and
• the reading value of our closed content meets minimum values.

APS must remain a holistically valuable partner to your institution and our pricing methodology needs to support that expectation.

If a client’s new tier price is higher than their legacy tier, and they meet all internal Value Metrics, they will see a standard price adjustment plus a small upward price adjustment.

Pricing Component	Amount
Prior year Price	$XX,XXX
Annual Price Change	X%
Tiering Adjustment	+0.15%
Upcoming Year Price	Total

If a client’s new tier price is lower than prior year’s invoice, they will see a standard price adjustment plus a small, negative price adjustment.

Pricing Component	Amount
Prior year Price	$XX,XXX
Annual Price Change	X%
Tiering Adjustment	-0.15%
Upcoming Year Price	Total

These adjustments will be applied at a fixed rate for three (3) years or until the client reaches their tiered price, whichever is first. The fixed adjustment rate cycle will begin with copyright year 2027 content. 2026 is a foundational launch year.

For copyright year 2026, the additional adjustment rate will be +/-0.15% above the regular annual price change for minimal impact on clients’ budgets while all parties acclimate to this new system. We expect that adjustments will never exceed +/- 0.5% and will likely fall below that number in line with market feedback, which we will be gathering this renewal season.

Every three years, APS will reassess our metrics, share any tier changes with clients and then make those adjustments to the tiers. Clients will receive one year of advance notice of any adjustments. If an institutional tier increases even more or less from the prior period the adjustment will remain the same to remain predictable and more sustainable.