Two APS Publications to be Discontinued

Due to drastically decreased demand for the print version of Physical Review Abstracts, the publication will be discontinued as of January 1, 1999. The last issue of PR Abstracts to be printed will be the December 15, 1998 issue so that the American Physical Society may fulfill its obligations to nonmember subscribers. Demand for the print version of PR Abstracts decreased sharply soon after the APS made PR Abstracts available online free of charge. The severe drop in print subscription has made it economically unfeasible to continue print production. The APS will not be accepting any new or renewed member subscriptions to PR Abstracts as of January 1, 1998.

With the July 1, 1997, release of Physical Review B Online, which covers the full contents of PRB1, PRB15, and PRB-Rapid Communications, the APS accomplished one of its more important goals, which is to distribute the largest component of Physical Review on the World Wide Web. As an attempt to make at least one small part of PRB available to APS members on the Web as soon as possible, Physical Review B-Rapid Communications Online was released on July 1, 1996 and was made available to members only. Because of the current duplicate coverage of PRB-Rapid Communications articles in both online offerings, PRB-Rapid Communications as a separate publication will be discontinued as of July 1, 1998. The APS is no longer accepting any new or renewed subscriptions to PRB-Rapid Communications.

The APS would like to emphasize that it is discontinuing PRB-Rapid Communications as a separate publication only because of duplicate coverage and that it has no intentions to alter the availability of any of its online journals. The APS is committed to bringing to its membership and to the scientific community at large quality physics research at affordable prices, and the electronic medium is seen as one possible means to achieve that objective.

Questions or comments about member subscriptions should be directed to the APS Membership Department. Questions or comments about nonmember subscriptions should be directed to the APS Associate Publisher.