(2 June 2014, Washington DC) The American Astronomical Society (AAS) and IOP Publishing (IOP) have decided that all AAS research journals published with IOP will become electronic only and will no longer print paper editions. This transition will take effect with the 2015 subscription year and affects The Astronomical Journal (AJ) and The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), The Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL), and The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS).
The decision to move to electronic-only publishing was spurred by changes in the way that information in the astronomical sciences is being created, distributed, and consumed. Print publications are simply unable to accommodate the growing amount of content that is “born digital.” Moving to an electronic-only delivery mechanism aligns with the AAS’s forward-looking approach to the dissemination of scholarly knowledge. The Society began distributing its journals online in the mid-1990s, well before the Internet became a mass medium. Electronic-only publication will allow for further development of them outside of the constraints of print.
Read the press release.
