AIP Publishing Launches Subscribe to Open Pilot in Two Flagship Journals

MELVILLE, N.Y., July 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AIP Publishing is excited to announce the launch of a pilot program for the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model in two of its most esteemed journals, Physics of Plasmas and Journal of Applied Physics.

The pilot, which reflects AIP Publishing's commitment to equity, accessibility, and open science, is set to launch in 2024.

The S2O model helps publications and publishers bridge the transition into open access (OA). It works like this: Current subscribers are offered continued access to their publications through the normal subscription process. If enough subscribers renew and meet a preset revenue target, that year's content for those publications is then flipped over to OA. Copyrights are amended to CC-BY licenses, and any authors who have paid author select fees or article processing charges for 2024 content in those publications will be refunded.

Importantly, all of this is done without service disruption, additional costs, or extra effort on the part of the consumer. Subscribers need only to renew their subscriptions normally, and the articles are made OA at no direct cost to authors. 

It's a bold, experimental step forward for AIP Publishing, which will be the largest STM-only publisher thus far to undertake the model.

"As we continue to navigate our transition to open science, it's incumbent upon AIP Publishing to explore groundbreaking options like S2O," said Penelope Lewis, Chief Publishing Officer at AIP Publishing. "We have a responsibility to authors, editors, librarians, and the broader research community to experiment — to pinpoint ways to move into OA that maximize equity, minimize risk, and promote open science without any additional burden to our subscribers."

For institutions, it means an opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to open science through their current subscriptions in a cost-neutral way while elevating the impact of their researchers. For authors, it means increased visibility and reach without the fees normally associated with OA publishing. For AIP Publishing, it underscores our organizational mission to bring together people and ideas from across the physical sciences.

AIP Publishing will closely monitor the impact of the S2O pilot and continues to explore an array of sustainable OA solutions including Gold OA, Author Select, Read & Publish agreements, Rearch4Life and World Bank waivers, and post publication through Green OA, CHORUS, scholarly communication networks, and institutional archives.

"AIP Publishing's enthusiasm for OA publishing has long been evidenced by the number of options we provide, and S2O is an exciting, significant addition to that selection," said Lewis. "Science belongs to everybody, regardless of means, and we are delighted to help push scholarly publishing toward a more open, accessible future."

For more information on the S2O model and its implementation at AIP Publishing, please click here.

ABOUT AIP PUBLISHING

AIP Publishing's mission is to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity by breaking barriers to open, equitable research communication and empowering researchers to accelerate global progress. AIP Publishing is a wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and supports the charitable, scientific, and educational purposes of AIP through scholarly publishing activities on its behalf and on behalf of our publishing partners.

SOURCE AIP Publishing