Turpion Electronic Journals [Review]

  	
  	
  	
  


	Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship  	Spring 2000  


	DOI:10.5062/F4NZ85N8


  

  Journal Reviews and Reports
    Turpion Electronic Journals
http://www.turpion.org/

      Greg Youngen
  Physics/Astronomy Librarian
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
youngen@uiuc.edu    
    Turpion Ltd. was established by the Royal Society of Chemistry, in  association with Pion Ltd., to produce English translations of Russian  scientific journals in conjunction with the Russian Academy of Sciences  and the London Mathematical Society.     Turpion Titles:    

	Chemistry  
	
Mendeleev Communications  
	
Russian Chemical Reviews (translation of Uspekhi   Khimii)    


	Mathematics  
	
Sbornik: Mathematics (translation of Matematicheskii   Sbornik)  
	
Izvestiya: Mathematics (translation of Izvestiya RAN:   Seriya Matematicheskaya)  
	
Russian Mathematical Surveys (translation of Uspekhi   Matematicheskikh Nauk)   
	
Regular & Chaotic Dynamics    


	Physics  
	
Quantum Electronics (translation of Kvantovaya   Electronika)  
	
Physics-Uspekhi (translation of Uspekhi Fizicheskikh   Nauk)    


	Other Publishers  
	
Perspectives in Energy  



    Turpion's web site is well designed, easy to use and full of useful  information about the journals they publish. It also provides the access  point to the web sites of the individual titles. The Turpion site provides  links to a search engine, a page for setting up an e-mail table of  contents notification service (free), their licensing terms and  agreements, and the online registration form for full text access.    Each Turpion journal has its own web page that provides information on the  scope of coverage, the current editorial board, and a brief history of the  title. All current journals are available electronically in full text with  most having tables of contents available electronically from early to  mid-1990s. Two titles, Mendeleev Communications and  Perspectives in Energy, are not translated journals.  Their  original articles are published in English. The newest title in the  Turpion collection is Regular & Chaotic Dynamics. Turpion is  currently offering free electronic access (via password) to two years'  worth of this title upon registration through their home page. 

    The Turpion titles primarily publish articles by Russian authors.  Likewise, the majority of their editorial board memberships are from  Russian institutions. Their best-known title in physics, Physics  Uspekhi, has a respectable ISI impact factor of 1.476 and is one of  the very few physics titles with articles achieving a cited half-life of  over 10 years. (ISI Journal Citation Report 1998). 

    The publisher has an up-to-date subscription rate page with prices quoted  for annual subscriptions, package plans, and single issues. Several titles  provide price breaks for members of the American Mathematical Society,  London Mathematical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry, so read  the notes on this page carefully. One of the advantages of the Turpion  subscription is an end-of-volume CD-ROM that includes a PDF version of all  articles published at no extra charge.

    The Turpion web site search feature is slow to load and to return search  results.  It would probably be faster to use MathSciNet, INSPEC, or  Current Contents for known item searches in the Turpion publications. Most  of the Turpion journals are covered by these major abstracting and  indexing services, but you may want to check the title's web site to be  sure.