Physics information at bargain prices

Are the American Institute of Physics and its Member Societies offering their research journals to subscribers at rates comparable to those of the publishers of other journals? This question is often asked not only by physicists but by those responsible at the AIP for the publishing of journals. In order to suggest an answer, a comparison has been made of the cost per word, based on subscription rates, for those journals published by the AIP and Member Societies with major physics journals not published by the AIP or Member Societies. Findings from the present study are given in the accompanying table.