New Editor-in-Chief appointed for Physica Scripta

9 February 2012
Bristol, UK

Dr Suzy Lidström has been announced as the new Editor-in-Chief of Physica Scripta, a leading international journal for experimental and theoretical physics.

Dr Lidström is currently self-employed, working with Swedish researchers on their publications. She undertakes a range of tasks from proofreading and copy-editing through to assisting with funding applications.

She has a degree in physics with applied physics from Sussex University, UK and a PhD from Uppsala University, Sweden, where she studied the diffusion of particles in metals. The department used nuclear techniques, such as muon spin rotation spectroscopy, to study solid state phenomena. Experiments were conducted at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, CERN and TRIUMF.

At Uppsala University, Dr Lidström worked with Professor Roger Wäppling, the outgoing Editor-in-Chief of Physica Scripta. In the past she worked as an Editor at Shell Research on a wide variety of subjects, from engineering and pure physics to safety-related research and oil extraction.

Dr Lidström's research and business experience makes her a natural fit to lead Physica Scripta. She also brings to the journal a tremendous enthusiasm for the public understanding of science.

Dr Lidström said of her appointment: "I am very much looking forward to starting in my new role and working with the Physica Scripta editorial board and publishing staff. The journal has grown significantly under Professor Wäppling’s leadership and so I have a difficult but exciting challenge ahead of me – to maintain Physica Scripta’s reputation and to augment it."

Professor Wäppling will officially hand over his role to Dr Lidström in February 2012 but will continue to act as consultant to the editorial board for the next few months. Professor Wäppling has done an impressive job of taking the journal forward over the past 15 years, particularly in helping to grow its levels of submissions, which increased by 20% between 2010 and 2011.

Professor Wäppling said "Working with Physica Scripta as Editor-in-Chief for the past 15 years and as Scientific Advisor for 10 years prior to that has been a real honour. I was particularly pleased to celebrate the journal’s 40th anniversary last year and work with the Nobel Foundation to publish the biographies of the 2010 Nobel Prize laureates."

Two editorials from Professor Wäppling and Dr Lidström will be published in the March and April issues of Physica Scripta.


Jason S Gardner appointed Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter

5 January 2012
Bristol, UK

Dr Jason S Gardner has been announced as the new Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, a leading international publication in condensed matter physics.

Dr Gardner is currently a research scientist in experimental condensed matter physics at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg and Indiana University, USA. He has already made an excellent contribution to the journal having been an advisory board member since 2005 and also serving on the journal's executive board. Dr Gardner has published over 120 papers in the past 15 years and has spoken at over 65 worldwide conferences.

Dr Gardner's extensive research background makes him a natural appointment to lead Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. His primary research area is in the rapidly growing field of neutron scattering on magnetic model systems such as spin liquids, spin ice and low-dimensional systems.

He gained his first degree and PhD from Warwick University and his MSc from Keele University. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at McMaster University and Los Alamos. He was a staff scientist at the Chalk River Laboratory for five years before moving to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2001. Working closely with international colleagues, Dr Gardner has developed a program of materials synthesis, bulk characterization and facilities research. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

Dr Gardner said of his appointment "It is a great honour but also a real challenge. The journal is doing well thanks to the work of my predecessors, Marshall Stoneham and David Ferry. As the new Editor-in-Chief, I hope to continue to improve still further the journal's status in condensed matter science and look forward to reading a lot more outside my usual fields of interest."

Dr Gardner takes over the role, as of 1 January 2012, from Professor David Ferry of Arizona State University, USA, who leaves the position after five years, having done an impressive job taking the publication forward. Under Professor Ferry's guardianship the journal has achieved its highest ever Impact Factor (2.332) and the immediacy index is also at its highest ever level. His tenure has also seen the introduction of popular subject sections, a stricter refereeing policy and new online features (such as LabTalk ).

Professor Ferry said "I have thoroughly enjoyed my five-year posting as Editor-in-Chief. My special thanks are given to all the Editorial Board members and the team at IOP Publishing for their help and support, and also to the members of our various boards who have been so important as we have moved the journal forward. I would like to wish my successor, Dr Gardner, an enjoyable and successful tenure as Editor-in-Chief."

You can read Dr Gardner's editorial as incoming editor on IOPscience.


Top Ten Physics Breakthroughs for 2011 Announced

16 December 2011
Bristol, UK

The top ten breakthroughs in physics in 2011, as judged by Physics World magazine, have been announced.

The top spot in the list was taken by Professor Aephraim Steinberg and his colleagues at the Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control at the University of Toronto for their work using weak measurements to map photon trajectories in the double-slit experiment. The group was chosen by the judging team because their work uses of state-of-the-art weak measurement techniques to shed further light on an old and well-known paradox of quantum mechanics.

The top ten breakthroughs identified in the list were compiled by the Physics World editorial team, who reviewed over 350 news articles about breakthroughs in the physical sciences published on physicsworld.com in 2011.

The criteria for judging included:

• Fundamental importance of research

• Significant advance in knowledge

• Strong connection between theory and experiment

• General interest to all physicists

The award was founded in 2009. Previous winners are Jonathan Home and colleagues at NIST for The first complete 'quantum computer' (2009); and CERN's ALPHA and ASACUSA collaborations for their 'Antihydrogen success' (2010).

The complete list of 2011 winners is now available at physicsworld.com.


New Editor-in-Chief appointed for Measurement Science and Technology

15 December 2011
Bristol, UK

Professor David Birch has today been announced as the new Editor-in-Chief of the leading international journal Measurement Science and Technology.

Published by IOP Publishing, Measurement Science and Technology covers new advances in measurement techniques and associated instrumentation.

David Birch is Professor of Photophysics in the Department of Physics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and co-founder of the University's Centre for Molecular Nanometrology and Femtosecond Research Centre (FRC). He has published over 200 journal papers, mainly on fluorescence lifetimes and has already made an excellent contribution to the journal having already served on the board for 11 years and been the European Regional Editor for the journal.

Outside of academia, Professor Birch is a Director of IBH, the company he co-founded and one of the first physics spin-off companies in Scotland. From its Glasgow manufacturing base the company has grown to be an international leader in fluorescence lifetime systems and is now part of the Horiba Group, one of the world's largest scientific instrument manufacturers. Other external appointments include in 1999 the Sir C V Raman Endowment Visiting Chair at the University of Madras, in 2000 a Visiting Professorship at Kyoto Institute of Technology and, from 2002, the Visiting Chair of Applied Physics at the Czech Technical University, Prague. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Professor Birch said of his appointment "Measurement Science and Technology has a long pedigree as the home of the highest quality papers from leading researchers wishing to report novel instrumentation and techniques. 2013 will mark the 90th anniversary of MST and we look forward to celebrating in style its sustained success. It is a real pleasure and an honour for me to be taking over as Editor-in-Chief at such an exciting time."

Professor Birch takes over the role, as of 1 January, 2012, from Professor Peter Hauptmann, who leaves the position after ten years, having done an impressive job in taking the publication forward, increasing its Impact Factor and achieving record levels of submissions.

The outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Professor Hauptmann, said "I have found my task as editor-in-chief fascinating and I have enjoyed it very much. I have learned a lot in this time because I have come into close contact with a large number of scientists from a vast spectrum of technical areas and parts of our world. My special gratitude is dedicated to all the Editorial Board members and I would like to pass on to my successor, Professor Birch, my best wishes for an enjoyable and successful tenure as Editor-in-Chief!"

Professor Birch's editorial as incoming editor is available to read on IOPscience.


IOP Publishing joins GakuNin Japanese Shibboleth Federation

8 December 2011
Tokyo, Japan

IOP Publishing (IOP) has expanded its Shibboleth compliance to include the Japanese Federation GakuNin.

Users in Japanese institutions who are members of GakuNin can now access subscribed content from multiple resources using just one ID and password, whether they are on or off-campus.

Shibboleth is an open-source software package for single web sign-on which simplifies account and access management continues to be implemented in research and education communities worldwide.

Olaf Ernst, Commercial Director at IOP said, 'This is another step forward in our strategy to provide easy and convenient access for researchers to our quality content whenever and where-ever they need it'.

IOP is already a member of several Shibboleth Federations worldwide, including the UK Access Management Federation, the French RENATER, the Spanish RedIris, the German Higher Education and Research and the Portuguese RCTSaai.

Access to IOP's content via Athens and IP addresses continues to be available for institutions that are not Shibboleth compliant and for institutions that wish to continue authenticating their users with these methods.


IOP Publishing and the China National Science and Technology Library sign content agreement

1 December 2011
Bristol, UK

The China National Science and Technology Library (NSTL) and IOP Publishing (IOP) have today announced the signing of a three year national agreement. The new arrangement will make 14 titles from seven major scientific societies available to Chinese researchers in 2012-2014.

The new deal includes journals published in partnership by IOP and several global scientific societies including the European Physical Society, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics and covers the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, fluid mechanics, electronic science and technology, medicine and biology.

This is second arrangement between IOP and the NSTL following the 2008 deal which made the IOP historic archive accessible to researchers in China.

NSTL said of the deal ' We are very pleased to have signed another national license deal with IOP Publishing which will make even more high quality research available to non-commercial science and teaching institutions in China. Because so many partner societies are represented in the new arrangement, the deal makes a great contribution towards enhancing communication between scientific communities. I hope other publishers will collaborate with NSTL to help serve Chinese researchers.'

Olaf Ernst, commercial director of IOP Publishing said: ' We are delighted to have worked with the NSTL and our publishing partners to make these journals available in China and look forward to building on our successful, collaborative partnership with the National Science and Technology Library of China.'

Rick Liu, IOP's regional manager for China said: ' The new agreement between IOP and NSTL will make the best journals from several society publishers accessible for the majority of Chinese researchers and will allow greater scientific communication between China and researchers worldwide. I believe both sides will benefit from the arrangement.'

The titles made available by this deal are: Biofabrication; EPL; Fluid Dynamics Research; Izvestiya: Mathematics; Journal of Breath Research; Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics; Journal of Instrumentation; Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment; Physica Scripta; Physics-Uspekhi; Quantum Electronics; Russian Chemical Reviews; Russian Mathematical Surveys and Sbornik: Mathematics.


IOP Publishing expands customer service department

6 October 2011
Philadelphia, USA

IOP Publishing (IOP) has announced today that it is expanding its customer service provision with the appointment of a full time representative in its Philadelphia headquarters.

'This move is the start of a comprehensive review of our infrastructure to ensure that we are providing the best service in the industry.' said Steve Moss, President of IOP Publishing, Inc. 'Employing a customer service representative in the Philadelphia office is a direct investment in our customers. We have brought on a highly experienced individual who understands the unique pressures faced by the communities we serve.'

The company already supports its customers in North, Central and South America by employing nine dedicated account managers and a customer service team in the UK. This new move will significantly extend the hours that customers are able to get direct, first hand assistance to answer questions and address any issues.

Cole Charron joined the team on September 26, 2011 and customers are able to direct their questions to him either by phone at (800) 358-4677 or by e-mail. He brings over 10 years' of experience of working in customer service specializing in technical support. He said of his appointment, 'I'm delighted to be joining such a prestigious organization and such a great team who are genuinely focused on putting customers' needs first.'


New Editor-in-Chief appointed for Physics in Medicine & Biology

3 October 2011
Bristol, UK

Professor Simon Cherry has today been announced as the new Editor-in-Chief of Physics in Medicine & Biology (PMB).

Published by IOP Publishing on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, PMB covers the application of practical and theoretical physics to medicine and biology, and is especially concerned with cutting-edge research in the areas of radiotherapy physics and medical imaging.

Professor Cherry, Director of the Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging at the University of California, Davis, has already made an outstanding contribution to PMB, publishing 40 papers in the journal, averaging over 40 citations per paper, and spending eight years on its Editorial Board.

Outside of publishing, Professor Cherry has been elected fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and has been honoured with an Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Research award by his university.

He said, 'I am honoured and delighted to be taking over as Editor-in-Chief of PMB, a journal in which I have been publishing regularly for the past 22 years.'

Professor Cherry takes over the role, as of January 1, 2012, from Professor Steve Webb, who leaves the position having done an impressive job taking the publication forward, with the journal's Impact Factor rising above 3.0 and record levels of submissions being received.

'The journal, under the outstanding leadership of its previous editor, has been on a strongly upward trajectory.

'My responsibility is to ensure that we continue to attract the very best papers across our broad and dynamic field, and provide the very best service possible to our authors and our readers by communicating the most important scientific advances quickly and accurately,' continued Cherry.

The outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Professor Steve Webb, said, 'It has been an enormous privilege and pleasure to have been Editor-in-Chief of PMB for the past six years. I have to say that to accept the post was one of the best decisions of my life. The IOP Publishing team make running the journal a very straightforward, efficient and happy process. It is a superb joint effort, together with the effort from Editorial Board members, the International Advisory Board and referees.

'In my period we have seen the Impact Factor go above the "magic" 3.0, the journal citations and downloads have been extremely high and it is clear from comments I receive that the coverage and quality of the journal is valued worldwide. Our acceptance rate has crept downwards because we aim for the very highest standards.

'Simon Cherry is PMB's first Editor to be based in the USA and in a way this may put an end to any last vestiges of thought that PMB is anything but an international journal. I shall miss PMB enormously and I wish Simon Cherry and the whole team good luck for a glittering future.'

Professor Cherry's experienced research background makes him a natural fit to lead PMB. His primary research area is the rapidly growing field of molecular imaging, with a focus on positron emission tomography (PET) and its application to small-animal preclinical imaging. He is also involved in exploring the integration of PET imaging technology with the high-resolution anatomical imaging provided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as the development of optical imaging techniques such as Cerenkov luminescence imaging.

You can read Physics in Medicine & Biology on IOPscience.


Article evolution starts here

12 September 2011
Bristol, UK

The online scientific article is evolving. IOP Publishing (IOP) has today announced the start of its article evolution programme, a new project designed to improve the online delivery of research articles, enabling readers to interact with research in new ways.

The first online release from the project has gone live today providing an enhanced HTML view for all new published articles in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical and Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter.

This enhanced view improves the appearance of an article and increases the potential ways the reader can interact with research online, such as the ability to zoom in and out of images, making it easier to look at complex details and structures and export them into presentations. Video abstracts are now embedded within the enhanced HTML article and the option to view mathematics using MathJax technology has also been made available for the first time on IOPscience.

Olaf Ernst, commercial director of IOP said 'The article evolution project is a long-term commitment to innovation and this first release is a significant step towards our goal of delivering the best publishing and reading experience. We have employed the best of the newer web technologies to make it possible for our users to better engage with and use our content and to offer authors new ways to present their research online.

'We will work closely with all our users to build on this first phase to continue refining and advancing the article view to meet the needs of the research community.'

In order to make these changes possible IOP has harnessed the power of XML by investing in MarkLogic technology, meaning that future developments can be rolled out quickly, making it easier for IOP to respond to customer feedback on the article evolution project.

All other IOP-owned and selected partner journals will adopt the new enhanced article view and features for their 2012 volumes.

Initial feedback from researchers collaborating on the project has been extremely positive and IOP is now actively seeking feedback from the wider community. Over the next few weeks, starting today, screen shots of the new developments will be posted on the IOPscience twitter account for feedback. The IOPscience product manager and developers will be available to answer questions, respond to feedback and take suggestions for the next phases of development. Please visit twitter for more information.

For more information on the article evolution project and how this looks on IOPscience, please go to the information page.


IOP Publishing is moving

29 July 2011
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing's UK office is moving. From Monday August 1 2011 IOP Publishing will be based at the following address: IOP Publishing, Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol, BS1 6BE, UK

The move accommodates the company's ongoing growth and enables IOP to provide a better working environment for its 280 UK based staff.

Steven Hall, Managing Director, said: 'Our internal working practices have become much more integrated and the new workspace will smooth the way for more effective cross-functional working and teamwork. We look forward to welcoming our customers and contacts to our office very soon. The new location is well positioned and allows for easy access from the city centre, train station and Bristol international airport.'

IOP Publishing is a truly international operation with offices in Philadelphia, Washington, Munich, Wroclaw, St Petersburg, Moscow, Beijing and Tokyo.

Telephone numbers and e-mail addresses will remain the same.


Physics World wins 'Best Editorial and Marketing Collaboration' at the SIPA Awards

15 July 2011
London, UK

The Physics World/physicsworld.com team won the award for ‘Best Editorial and Marketing Collaboration' at the 5th Annual Specialised Information Publishers Association (SIPA) awards in London earlier this month. The recognition from SIPA follows hot on the heels of physicsworld.com’s success in winning ‘Best specialist site for journalism’ at the inaugural Online Media Awards in June.

The SIPA award recognizes the collaborative efforts of Physics World’s editorial and marketing team to fully embrace new media channels to promote content and drive readership. The judges were impressed by the team’s efforts to find innovative ways to engage with the physics community and their implementation of a mix of multimedia services – video, webinar and audio – coupled with Twitter campaigns, blogging, the development of a news app and an enhanced rich-media digital edition of the magazine.

'We are delighted to have our hard work recognized by this award,' said Jo Allen, head of B2B and marketing at IOP Publishing. 'The team has worked tirelessly to innovate and improve our services to the physics community. By making high-value content such as video, mobile apps and webinars available and making effective use of social media channels such as Facebook and YouTube, we have been able to provide services that are truly useful to physicists wherever they are based.'



IOP Publishing and Chinese Academy of Sciences sign archive agreement

25 July 2011
Beijing, China

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) are now able to access nearly 140 years of scientific research thanks to a new deal signed in Beijing by CAS and IOP Publishing (IOP).

The new arrangement gives researchers access to content published in 2003-2007 and follows previous long-term preservation agreements signed in 2010 and the national license agreement signed with the National Science and Technology Library for the historic archive in 2008. As a result of these arrangements researchers at CAS now have access to IOP content from 1874 to the present day and keep all this data as dark archive.

Mr Zhang Xiaolin, Director, National Science Library, CAS commented 'We very much appreciated the willingness and support from IOP Publishing to cooperate with the Chinese library community to explore the appropriate arrangements on long-term digital preservation. We think that a commitment from a publisher on long-term preservation for library customers is essential to gain customer commitment on the acquisition and utilization of its content and lays a solid foundation to a mutually-beneficial strategic cooperation. We strongly believe that preservation-friendly is equal to market-friendly and user-friendly. Thus I thank everyone involved for the wise and profound decision IOP Publishing made on long-term digital preservation for the Chinese market.'

Dr Olaf Ernst, Commercial Director of IOP Publishing said 'This is an important milestone in IOP's successful long term collaboration with the Chinese library and research community. I would like to personally thank everyone involved for their hard work to make this possible.'

Rick Liu, IOP's Regional Manager for China said 'The long-term digital preservation arrangement and the new deal to make IOP’s recent archive content available gives invaluable assurance to our Chinese customers about their access to essential research material. I am delighted to have played a role in this arrangement and to have had the opportunity to help push the strategic cooperation between IOP Publishing and the Chinese library community into a new era.'



Journals from IOP Publishing celebrate major Impact Factor growth for the seventh year running

29 June 2011
Bristol, UK

The 2010 Impact Factors published by Thomson Reuters, show significant growth for many of the journals published by IOP Publishing (IOP) for the seventh year running.

This year, 73% of the titles published by IOP have seen an increase in Impact Factor from last year. Journals published by IOP have had an average increase in Impact Factor of 7%, with 25 titles achieving an Impact Factor increase of over 10%. Additionally, 27 journals have Impact Factors above 2.000 and 14 journals have Impact Factors above 3.000.

Steven Hall, managing director of IOP Publishing said: 'This year's results once again demonstrate the quality and influence of the journals published by IOP and show that researchers who publish with us are in the right place to be cited by their peers. On behalf of the entire team at IOP Publishing, I'd like to thank our many authors, referees and boards for their hard work and their vital support which is such a huge part of our continued growth and success.'

There were high performances from individual journals including:

To celebrate this year's outstanding results, a selection of the most-cited papers from some of the best performing journals have been made into a special collection that is free to read online until 31 August 2011.



Physicsworld.com wins 'Best specialist site for journalism' at the Online Media Awards

27 June 2011
Bristol, UK

Physicsworld.com has won 'Best specialist site for journalism' at the 2011 Online Media Awards, announced at the inaugural ceremony in London, UK.

The Online Media Awards recognises the very best in online journalism and attracts entries from the world's leading websites. The winners are decided by an international panel of experienced journalists.

Chairman of the judging panel, Noel Young, Owner, Report Boston, said, "All the editorial staff are trained physicists and are passionate about their subject and this certainly shows. One of a number of impressive achievements is a pool of regular freelance writers in China to cover the country's emergence as a scientific superpower".

"The physicsworld.com editorial team are the real deal so we are delighted to see them recognised in this way," said Jo Allen, Head of Marketing and B2B at IOP Publishing, the owner of physicsworld.com.

She added: "Physics is a truly global subject and our goal is to be the 'world service' for that international endeavour. Physicsworld.com aims to clarify and explain this technically demanding field, making physics news and analysis accessible to an international audience."

Providing breaking news, in-depth analysis and exclusive multimedia content, physicsworld.com enables its users to engage with others in the international physics community. The website has strong links with Physics World, the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics.



IOP Publishing appoints Dr Graham McCann as head of product management and innovation

16 June 2011
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing (IOP), one of the world's leading publishers in physics and related sciences, has today announced the appointment of Dr Graham McCann as head of product management and innovation.

Reporting to Dr Olaf Ernst, commercial director of IOP, Dr McCann will take responsibility for developing and implementing the company's electronic publishing strategy.

Dr McCann will be based in the company's Bristol head office and will join the business on 20 June 2011. Commenting on Dr McCann’s appointment, Olaf Ernst said 'We are delighted Graham is joining the team. This is a pivotal role which is central to IOP’s commitment to providing first class products and services for our researchers, librarians and publishing partners. Graham has many years of experience and a strong track record in product development which will be a huge asset to the team.'

Dr McCann's most recent role was as publisher of electronic products at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), where he was responsible for the development of the RSC's new delivery platform for books, journals and database content. He also previously developed and launched the RSC's eBook Collection. He has led the in-house development of editorial article submission and workflow systems, and recently outsourced the submission system to Scholar One. In earlier roles at the RSC, Dr McCann was responsible for developing a suite of journals in the chemical sciences, as a Publisher and as a Managing Editor. He also led the RSC's successful journal article growth programme. He has a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Cambridge and a first degree from the University of Strathclyde. He also spent a year as a Royal Society Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Auckland.

Dr McCann said 'I am really looking forward to joining the team at IOP and working closely with my new colleagues and our customers and partners not only to grow and develop IOP's existing online services, but also to find and create opportunities where we can lead the way with new innovations that support the needs of the worldwide scientific community.'



IOP Publishing backs comprehensive new 'Customer Insight Framework'

16 June 2011
Oxford, UK

Several of the biggest names in scholarly publishing have confirmed their backing for a comprehensive new model of the complex world of individual, institutional, and 'big deal' customers. The 'Customer Insight Framework', published today by data integration specialists DataSalon and available for free download from www.datasalon.com/customer_insight, has been endorsed by IOP Publishing, the American Institute of Physics, BMJ Group, Oxford University Press and the Royal Society of Chemistry - all of whom are placing customer insight programmes at the heart of their sales and marketing activities.

The framework presents a concise set of 12 guiding principles, which define a shared roadmap towards the end goal of a complete and fully-integrated customer view. Such a model provides an essential foundation for almost all sales and marketing activities: including effective up-selling and cross-selling, targeted campaigns to drive renewals, article submissions and email signups, and accurate analysis of market share and key prospects.

As customer insight becomes an increasingly valuable sales and marketing tool, it’s essential to establish a single view of customer data which accurately reflects the real world of institutional and corporate deals, and of individual contacts who in turn may be authors, subscribers, librarians, or a combination of roles. Traditionally, publishers have had to hold all of this valuable customer data in separate silos, making it difficult to create joined-up and targeted sales and marketing campaigns.

The model defines guiding principles for establishing a single, unique record for each individual, institution or company, and consortium. It highlights all of the different types of information to be aggregated for each customer to establish a 360 degree view (eg. contact details and permissions, product holdings, usage data, author submissions). The model also identifies the relationships which need to be modelled - including those between individuals, institutions, and buying consortia – and the network of content access right that exists between those different levels.

Nick Andrews, Managing Director of DataSalon, said: “The complex nature of customer data within scholarly publishing is often overlooked as one of the major challenges to truly effective sales and marketing. We have put together the ‘Customer Insight Framework’ in order to raise awareness of these issues within the industry, and are extremely pleased to have the backing of so many major publishers”.



Congratulations to the 2011 PAM Travel Stipend Winners

9 June 2011
Philadelphia, USA

The SLA-PAM Professional Development Committee and IOP Publishing once again joined forces to sponsor four conference travel stipends to help new librarians with the expenses of attending the SLA Annual Conference.

This year, we received many applications from librarians across the world. The reviewers were impressed by the outstanding essays describing their first encounters with the library profession and specifically with the subject areas of PAM disciplines. The review committee had a very difficult choice in selecting the award winners, and congratulates the following librarians:

Margaret Lam, George Mason University, VA

Kathleen Lehman, University of Arkansas

Andrea Miller-Nesbitt, McGill University, Canada

Catherine Vu, California State University, Fullerton

For more details on the travel stipend, read the PAM Bulletin here.



Physics World launches mobile apps

6 June 2011

Physics World, the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics, has today launched a new app to provide IOP members with free access to the magazine from almost any smart phone or tablet.

The new Physics World app has been designed to complement the recently re-launched digital edition of the magazine, and to support the needs of growing membership in the international market.

"IOP is committed to proving a first-class service to its members, wherever they are based," said John Brindley, director of membership and business at the IOP. "Making Physics World available in these new formats was a natural evolutionary step in terms of both the publishing industry and how members are choosing to view information. It reflects our commitment as an organization to make access to scientific information as easy as possible."

The app allows members to read the latest issue of Physics World from the day it's published, access back issues since January 2011, and download issues for reading offline. It also boasts an easy-to-read text option for viewing articles on a smaller screen. More information about the apps can be found here.

The free app can be downloaded from the App Store and Android Market, with access to the magazine content restricted to members only. Find out more about membership options here.

Links

Android market

App store



IOP Publishing introduces open access option on 23 journals

2 June 2011

IOP Publishing (IOP) has today announced that it is introducing an open access publishing option on 23 subscription-based journals, effective immediately, so that authors will be able to make the final versions of their articles freely available on publication. This ‘hybrid open access model’ is being introduced to support authors who wish to publish on an open access basis, or who are mandated by their funding bodies, to do so in IOP's traditional subscription-based journals as well as its seven pure open access journals.

Authors will be able to pay an article publication charge of £1,700; $2,700; €1,950 to make their work open for everyone in perpetuity. The price will cover all costs associated with publishing and reflects the high quality and high rejection rates of the journals in IOP's portfolio. The option will be available on all article types with all submissions subject to IOP's normal rigorous peer-review process.

Steven Hall, Managing Director of IOP Publishing, said of the new service, 'IOP was a pioneer in open access publishing, launching the New Journal of Physics in 1998 in partnership with the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft and is now publishing seven pure open access journals. It is a natural extension to introduce an open access option on our traditional subscription journals. We want authors to be able to publish in their journal of choice, regardless of business model. Gold open access can be a sustainable complement or alternative to subscription publishing and we will work with funding bodies which seek to disseminate their research in this way.'

IOP Publishing will take revenues from article publication charges fully into account when setting prices for its subscription journals, to ensure that publication costs are not paid for twice, through both subscription and publication charges.

Open access articles will be published under a creative commons licence. Full details of the licensing policy are available on IOPscience.

IOP Publishing will also continue to support green open access by allowing authors to post the accepted manuscript of an article into an institutional or subject repository after an embargo period of 12-24 months, depending on the individual journal.

The 23 IOP wholly-owned titles which will now offer the hybrid open-access option includes all the Journal of Physics series, Classical and Quantum Gravity and Nanotechnology. IOP is currently in discussion with its publishing partners on the suitability of introducing the hybrid option on co-published journals.

Detailed information on the new service is available on IOPscience.



Nathan A. Baker appointed as Editor-in-Chief of Computational, Science & Discovery

5 May 2011
Washington, USA

Computational Science & Discovery (CSD), the multidisciplinary computational science journal from IOP Publishing, has appointed Dr. Nathan A. Baker as its new Editor-in-Chief. In his role Dr. Baker will oversee peer review, lead the Editorial Board, and take responsibility for the scientific content and development of the journal.

Dr. Baker has served on the Editorial Board of CSD since 2009 and has begun transitioning into his new role. He succeeds Dr. Anthony Mezzacappa of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who served as the journal's first Editor-in-Chief since its launch in 2008.

"I am delighted Nathan will step into this role," Dr. Mezzacappa commented. "I, the Board, and members of the IOP staff have been committed to the vision and success of CSD since its inception. We are confident Nathan will carry on that vision and ensure CSD's success."

Dr. Baker's diverse research background and interests make him a natural fit to lead a multidisciplinary journal like CSD. He is currently Chief Scientist for Signature Science at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a leading center for computational science in the U.S. He studied chemistry at University of Iowa and chemical physics, applied math, and computational biology at University of California-San Diego before joining the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 2002. He is well known for his Adaptive Poisson-Boltzmann Solver (APBS) software, which is freely available to the scientific community and now has more than 15,000 registered users.

"I am very excited about my new role" Dr. Baker said. "The journal fills an important need by recognizing the unique opportunities present at the interface between mathematical, computational, and physical/chemical/biological scientific disciplines. My goal is to grow the journal through targeted issues and topics that illustrate the nature of computing and mathematics in scientific discovery, and to highlight the challenges in scientific computing that cut across many different disciplines."

CSD is currently free to both authors and readers.

IOP Publishing announces appointment of new commercial director

31 March 2011
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing (IOP), one of the world's leading publishers in physics and related sciences, has announced today the appointment of Dr Olaf Ernst as the company's new commercial director. Reporting to Steven Hall, managing director of IOP Publishing, Dr Ernst will take responsibility for the sales, marketing business development, electronic product management and innovation activity of the company, whose portfolio includes the Journal of Physics Series, New Journal of Physics and Physics World.

Dr Ernst will be based in IOP's Bristol head office and will join the business on 4 April 2011. Dr Ernst brings with him a wealth of industry experience, vision, business development, and sales and marketing skills with which to lead IOP's global commercial operations.

Commenting on Dr Ernst's appointment, Steven Hall said 'We are delighted to welcome Olaf to the team at IOP and believe his insight, knowledge and experience will prove invaluable to the company. Olaf will play a key role in ensuring that we continue to innovate and excel in the services we provide to researchers, librarians and publishing partners'.

Dr Ernst's most recent role was that of President of eProduct Management and Innovation at Springer where he served on the Executive Management Board, being responsible for the management of the company's portfolio of electronic products, platforms and services. In an earlier role at Springer he led its pioneering eBooks programme, both in the development of the product itself and in its innovative business model. Before joining Springer he worked for Bertelsmann in business development and marketing and he has extensive management experience in marketing, sales and product development.

Dr Ernst said 'I am delighted to join IOP, one of the most prestigious publishers in the area of physics, at this exciting time. I look forward to working with my new colleagues, our customers and our partners to improve and extend the products and services that we provide to the worldwide scientific community'.



New Journal of Physics and Helmholtz Association announce open access funding arrangement

25 March 2011
Bristol, UK

The Helmholtz Association and New Journal of Physics (NJP) have today signed a funding agreement to cover article publication charges for all authors affiliated to any of the Helmholtz Research Centres who publish with NJP. The initial term of the agreement will extend until the end of 2011.

"The libraries of the Helmholtz Association fully share the view that open access is a substantial part of the future of scientific publishing. This agreement with NJP represents one further step in this direction," says Dr. Martin Köhler, Head of the Central Library of the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY).

"We are very proud to receive the endorsement of a research association with the stature of the Helmholtz Association" said Dr Tim Smith, Senior Publisher, at IOP Publishing. "We are looking forward to working with researchers at its member institutes to maximize the benefits for them of publishing with NJP."

Launched in 1998 by the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, NJP was the first open-access journal to cover the whole of physics. Now established as one of the leading journals in physics, NJP has an Impact Factor of 3.31 and every month articles in the journal are downloaded over 80,000 times by readers in more than 180 countries.

NJP's prime objective is to serve the whole physics community by providing the widest possible dissemination of peer-reviewed, cutting-edge research, and removing financial barriers for readers worldwide.



Embracing the digital revolution with Physics World

14 February 2011
Bristol, UK

Physics World, the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics, has today announced the launch of three digital content streams that will allow members access to the magazine in new ways.

The majority of members already receive a print edition of Physics World every month, and have previously been able to access a basic version online. The new online edition offers greatly improved functionality that for the first time gives readers a variety of viewing options, including the ability to flick through the magazine, download individual articles and search across all articles and images in any issue going back to January 2010.

In addition to this, from March 2011 readers will also be able to download an iPad and iPhone app, which has been developed to provide readers with anywhere, anytime access to current and back issues. An Android version is also in development for the near future.

The impetus for the change is the launch of IOPimember, the new digital membership grade that has been designed to open up membership beyond our traditional UK focus to a broader audience around the world. “IOPimember is an important new initiative to bring Physics World and IOP to a wider community using exciting new digital platforms as well as improving services to all IOP members,” says John Brindley, director of membership and business.

A sample issue of the digital edition is now available as a taster for non-members here. Members can read the latest issue of Physics World on the new digital platform at myiop.org.



Announcing the launch of video abstracts in New Journal of Physics

3 February 2011
Bristol, UK

New Journal of Physics (NJP) has today announced the launch of video abstracts as a new integrated content stream that will give all authors the opportunity to go beyond the constraints of the written article to personally present the importance of their work to the journal’s global audience.The first examples of the new author-supplied videos are now live at http://www.njp.org/videoabstracts.

Early contributions include videos from the groups of David Wineland, National Institute of Standards and Technology and J Ignacio Cirac, Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, talking about scalable ion traps for quantum information processing, and quantum superposition of living organisms. Researchers from more than 25 countries are represented by the videos abstracts that are published today.

One of the first contributors, Neil Wilson of the University of Warwick, UK, said of the service “We are very excited to have the opportunity to feature a video abstract alongside our NJP article. Embracing the possibilities of online media in this way allows us to present our work as we see it, and helps focus interested readers on what we believe the key points to be. We hope that being able to put faces to names, and visualize some of the research in action, will add a human touch and so help the scientific community to grow closer”. His video on the structure and topography of free-standing chemically modified graphene can be viewed at http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/12/12/125010/.

Launched in 1998, NJP is an open-access journal co-owned by the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaftand published by IOP Publishing. The introduction of this new video service reflects the journal’s founding objectives to embrace the opportunities afforded by the online medium towards making physics research as accessible and available as possible worldwide.

“This is a first for a physics journal and is another example of how New Journal of Physics is looking to push boundaries to provide new online services for our authors and readers” said Professor Eberhard Bodenschatz, Editor-in-Chief of the journal. “Authors can convey their research in new and novel ways to provide increased visibility for them, and an enriched user experience for our wide readership.”

Video abstracts in NJP are permanently free-to-view and, in line with the journal’s open-access publishing model, include functionality for sharing through social media channels towards maximizing community engagement, interaction and visibility.

The new service is being launched using Brightcove video sharing technology. Brightcove is the current market leader in this arena. IOP Publishing has made this investment as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to developing and offering technological solutions to improve global scientific communication.



Nuclear Fusion complete archive now live

27 January 2011
Bristol, UK

The complete electronic archive for Nuclear Fusion, the leading journal in the field, has today been made available online for the first time.

This archive contains articles dating back to the journal’s first issue in 1960, and includes key papers from the history of fusion research.

The journal was founded in 1960 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Editorial Office is based at IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria. IOP Publishing has co-published the journal with the Agency since 2002 and is responsible for its production, distribution, subscription fulfilment and marketing.

For more information and to access the full Nuclear Fusion collection, please visit the journal website.

All papers will be free to read online until the end of February 2011.



Latest iPhone apps from IOP Publishing released

7 January 2011
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing has today released the latest versions its popular iPhone applications, IOPscience express and physicsworld.com newsflash.

The two apps have been designed to allow users to keep up to date with IOP’s flagship publications in the physical sciences. Significant improvements have been made to the functionality of both apps in response to feedback from customers, and the new versions are fully compliant with OS4 and reader friendly on the iPad.

The new apps can be downloaded free of charge via iTunes or the App Store and will replace the previous versions. "These two new editions of the apps have significantly improved on the first releases, making it even easier for our customers to keep on top of the latest in science news and research." said Nicola Gulley, Editorial Director of IOP Publishing "We welcome feedback and will continue to work closely with the scientific community to develop tools that reflect the changing work patterns and needs of our customers."

The IOPscience express app lets users download up to 20 articles per month, free of charge, from content published in the last two years in over 40 primary research journals. 16 new titles have been added to the latest release, including for the first time several journals published on behalf of partner organizations such as the American Astronomical Society. Improved search functionality allows users to find papers by author as well as by abstract and title. Please visit http://iopscience.iop.org/page/express

The physicsworld.com newsflash app allows users to search and download the latest news articles from physicsworld.com, and has been downloaded more than 23,000 times since its original release in January 2010. The updated app offers improved layout and navigation to make it much easier for users to read articles on their iPhone. It also now includes links to related stories, and users can share articles via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail. Please visit http://physicsworld.com/cws/pwnewsflash for more information.

Links

physicsworld.com newsflash app: http://physicsworld.com/cws/pwnewsflash
IOPscience express: http://iopscience.iop.org/page/express
App Store: http://www.apple.com/uk/iPhone/apps-for-iPhone



IOP and IUPAP C20 sign 5-year open access agreement

5 November 2010
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing and the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Commission on Computational Physics have signed a five-year framework agreement for publishing open-access conference proceedings.

This is the first formal publishing agreement of its kind between IOP and IUPAP and will mean that the proceedings of the annual Conference on Computational Physics will be published as volumes within the open access Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS).

Professor James Gubernatis of the Commission said “We selected JPCS to help our conference organizers reduce time and administrative effort to meet the policies of IUPAP with regard to publishing accessible proceedings. Working with JPCS also assists them in predicting their costs, while offering the flexibility to meet special needs.”

Graham Douglas, Senior Publisher, said “We are delighted that IOP Publishing’s open-access proceedings journal has been recognized by the IUPAP as the most effective way to disseminate their proceedings. We look forward to a highly successful collaboration between our two societies, and to publications that will be of long-lasting value to physics communities worldwide.”

Launched in 2004, JPCS is a fully open-access proceedings journal which covers the entire spectrum of physics research, publishing more than 60 proceedings per year. Its rapid growth and adoption by the international physics community is reflected in more than 150,000 article downloads every month. Authors retain the copyright of their proceedings papers.

The new arrangement comes into effect immediately and the proceeding of the October 2011 event in Gatlinburg, TN USA will be the first to be published in JPCS.



IOP Publishing launches first Spanish language site

29 October 2010
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing has today announced the launch of its first Spanish language website to help create better access to its services in Latin America.


The site has been launched in response to research by IOP publishing among scientists, librarians, and students in Latin America about scholarly communications. “Latin America is an important market for us and we wanted to be sure our customers in this region felt sufficiently represented on the web” said Sharice Collins, Vice President of Marketing, IOP Publishing, Inc. “This new site is a dedicated forum for communication about scientific, librarian, or school related issues, and provides an online home for the Latin American physics community.”


The site will have information about upcoming scientific meetings in Latin America, the most recent scientific research coming out of the continent, and ways that researchers in Latin America are partnering with IOP.


The site is now live at www.latinoamerica.iop.org.


This is the third own language site launched by IOP Publishing in 2010 and follows the earlier launches of http://china.iop.org/ and http://japan.iop.org/.



Congratulations to the 2010 Nobel Prize® in Physics winners!

5 October 2010
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing would like to congratulate the winners of this year's Nobel Prizes® in Physics. To celebrate their achievements, all the winners' previous work published with IOP Publishing is now free to read until the end of 2010.


The 2010 Nobel Prize® in Physics has been awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their 'groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene'.


You can read their articles here.

Lectures by 2009 winners

In addition, Physica Scripta, which is published on behalf of the Physical Societies of the Nordic Countries by IOP Publishing and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, is pleased to announce a new publishing initiative with the Nobel Foundation. Physica Scripta will publish copies of the biographies of the 2009 Nobel Prize winners along with their lectures given at the prize ceremony.

You can read the biographies and lectures given by C K Kao, W S Boyle and G E Smith at the Physica Scripta website.



IOP Publishing achieves Impact Factor success for the sixth year running

18 June 2010
Bristol, UK

The 2009 Impact Factors, just released by Thomson Reuters, show significant growth for many journals published by IOP Publishing (IOP) for the sixth year running.

This year, 25 of the titles published by IOP have seen an increase in citations from last year. Additionally, 17 titles have had an increase of over 10% and over 40% have Impact Factors above 2.000.

This success reflects the quality and visibility of IOP journals, and shows that researchers who publish with us are in the right place to be cited by their peers.

Some of the best-performing IOP journals this year are:

Jerry Cowhig, Managing Director of IOP Publishing said: "Impact Factors continue to be an important measure of a journal's reputation and a focus of attention for authors and funding bodies. I'd like to thank our authors, referees, editorial boards and staff for their hard work that has contributed to the Impact Factors and all the other advancing attributes of IOP journals. We look forward to continuing to work with the scientific community to build on our journals' success in the future."

A selection of the most-cited papers for the above best-performing IOP journals have been made free to read online. Papers can be accessed through the journal homepages on iopscience.org


IOP Publishing MD awarded MBE

16 June 2010
Bristol, UK

Jerry Cowhig, Managing Director of IOP Publishing, Bristol, has been named in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. He has been made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) "for services to science".

Having worked as Managing Director at IOP Publishing since 1995, Cowhig, 64, is due to retire this year. Over the last 15 years, IOP Publishing has seen a large expansion in its scientific publications. The company now publishes more than 60 journals.

Jerry Cowhig has represented IOP on many international bodies including the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers.

Mr Cowhig said, "I feel highly honoured by the award, and at the same time embarrassed to take credit for the success of IOP Publishing because it is down to a team effort".

Under Jerry Cowhig, IOP Publishing has become associated with cultural life in Bristol and the South West through sponsorship and staff involvement. IOP Publishing was recently placed 2nd by Bristol Media in the "Top 100 South West Creative Companies".


 

IOP Publishing awarded Top 10 position in 'South West Top 100 Creative Companies'

07 June 2010
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing, Bristol have been awarded 2nd place in the 'South West Top 100 Creative Companies' organized by Bristol Media.Through their creative work, which has included the redevelopment and relaunch of its community website, physicsworld.com, IOP Publishing have embraced web 2.0 potential with a range of multimedia and social media capabilities.

Part of the redevelopment programme of physicsworld.com, included exclusive interviews at leading laboratories such as CERN, Switzerland. IOP Publishing journalists and a Bristol-based camera crew were sent to film some of the hottest topics in science.

Using local companies to assist with developing and launching products, such as the smart phone application gurus Mubaloo, and commissioning independent film crew and post-production houses, IOP Publishing have supported creative companies within the region.

With Bristol Media receiving 357 applications from companies in the South West region, IOP Publishing are said to be delighted with their position within the Top 10. Jo Allen, Head of Marketing & B2B said, "We're delighted to have ranked so highly in Bristol Media's Top 100 directory. Its fantastic news for our current employees and I'm sure it will also help us with continuing to attract the best media, design, marketing, sales and publishing staff."

After the success of using multi-media to enhance physicsworld.com, IOP Publishing is now keen to enhance its core academic journals programme, along with social marketing and content syndication to support closer engagement with the physics community.IOP Publishing also looks forward to being able to work creatively with its new Managing Director, Steven Hall who will join IOP Publishing shortly taking over upon the retirement of Jerry Cowhig.


New Managing Director for IOP Publishing

30 April 2010
Bristol, UK

IOP Publishing today announced the appointment of Steven Hall as the company's new Managing Director.

Dr Robert Kirby-Harris, Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics, said: "Steven's track record in publishing, and STM in particular, is extensive and impressive. Having started out at Macmillan Press, Steven went on to Chadwyck-Healey as Sales and Marketing Director and then Managing Director. Following ProQuest's acquisition of Chadwyck-Healey, he was appointed Senior Vice-President, Publishing and Publisher Relations of ProQuest. He moved on in 2004 to become Journal Sales and Marketing Director for Blackwell Publishing and later Commercial Director for Wiley-Blackwell. Steven then used his considerable breadth of strategic experience to form and run his own scholarly publishing consultancy from 2008 onwards.

"Steven joins IOP Publishing at a particularly exciting time, both in terms of the company's strategic direction and also given the challenges and opportunities facing scientific publishing. He starts his appointment as Managing Director on 5 July, which will allow time for a smooth and effective transfer of operations from Jerry Cowhig.

"Jerry Cowhig will be retiring from IOP Publishing having successfully led the company for the past 15 years, during which time he has been the driving force in building its reputation, growth and effectiveness - both commercially and also in the eyes of the scientific community - with the result that IOP Publishing is regarded as one of the world's leading scientific publishers. He is recognised as a highly influential champion for the publishing industry, where he has played a significant worldwide representational role, including acting as Chairman of the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers from 2005 to 2008."

Jerry Cowhig said: "I am grateful to the Institute of Physics, and especially to its wonderful publishing staff, for the privilege and enjoyment of working with them over the past 15 years. I welcome Steven and I confidently wish him and the company a successful future."