A press release I received this morning from American Institute of Physics highlights a new trend that I’ve been peripherally aware of for some months now — publishers digitizing their entire archives. Yep, back to volume 1 number 1. The AIP announced it has put its 8 journal, over 50,000 article, backfile online. The oldest is Review of Scientific Instruments (1930). Two others, Journal of Applied Physics and The Journal of Chemical Physics also date back to the early 1930s. The “baby” of the bunch is Chaos, which started in 1991.

I said “online,” but I didn’t say free. Subscribers to AIP journals automatically receive a five year backfile, but must pay an additional fee for the full backfile.