News release

From the University Library

09 February 2005

Free access to Institude of Physics journal archive

The University of Southampton now has free permanent access to the Institute of Physics Journal Archive (1874-1998) under an agreement announced on 24 January between the Institute of Physics and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), on behalf of the UK education community.

Now, thanks to this agreement, researchers and students at the University of Southampton are to directly benefit from free access to the UK's biggest archive of physics research journals.

Access to the archive will have a major impact on physics research in this country by making some of the most important discoveries of the last 130 years freely available for the first time. The archive includes over 110,000 articles and over 1.5 million pages of physics research including papers by Sir John Fleming, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Lord Rayleigh and Sir Edward Appleton.

The archive contains some of the most important breakthroughs in physics. In 1903, Sir Ernest Rutherford set out all the essential features of the physics of radioactivity (for which he won the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1908) in the journal Proceedings of the Physical Society. The archive also contains papers by British Nobel-prizewinning physicist Sir Edward Appleton, whose pioneering work on radio waves made radar possible.

More recent Nobel laureates whose work has appeared in the Institute of Physics Journal Archive include Harry Kroto, Herbert Kroemer, Anthony J Leggett and Vitaly Ginzburg.

The Institute of Physics comprehensively digitized its historic journal archive back to 1874 in 2002. The entire archive now represents some £30,000 worth of material and the agreement between JISC and the IoP means that significant savings can be made by all UK universities.

Jerry Cowhig, Managing Director of the Institute of Physics Publishing said:

"The Institute of Physics aims to ensure that every UK scientist who needs to read any paper it has published can do so. This agreement means that more libraries than ever before will be able to afford access to the UK's biggest archive of physics research".

Liam Earney, Collections Manager at JISC, said:

"This is an important national agreement for the higher education community. It means that universities can get free access to valuable research covering many of the key developments in physics from the last 130 years. JISC is delighted to have worked with the Institute of Physics and colleagues throughout higher education to make this possible."