The American Institute of Physics (AIP), the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) share a building in College Park, Maryland. The building is managed by the American Center for Physics (ACP), which has no other business. ACP has issued $26 million in revenue bonds, which are secured by lease payments from the three scientific organizations. The rating on the bonds is partly a function of the financial health of those organizations, which in turn is partly a function of the "threat of open access". If you're still with me, you'll see that the ACP's bond-rating service suddenly has to investigate the fortunes of OA in physics. Today Fitch Ratingsaffirmed the previous AA- rating for the ACP bonds, citing this evidence:
Both AIP and APS have responded to the transition of academia from print to online publication delivery by creating online products and pricing structures that should sustain their established franchises. AIP has responded to the emergence of Open Access publishing, which is a new business model involving the author paying a flat fee to have an article made available to all. AIP offers the choice to authors of paying an upfront fee for this service for three of its journals. According to AIP management, this model has not gained enough traction to affect its operations.
(PS: Sounds like Fitch thinks that OA hasn't helped or hurt AIP so far. Right?)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/30/2005 04:44:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
