IOP Publishing

What IOP Publishing does

IOP Publishing Limited (IOPP) is a society-owned scientific publisher and the publishing arm of the Institute of Physics, registered in England and Wales. The company publishes a portfolio of over 100 open access and hybrid journals, ebooks, conference proceedings, and science-news media, with its flagship consumer brand Physics World reaching approximately 695,000 average monthly page views and reporting 99% reader reliability. IOPP publishes on behalf of multiple learned societies including the American Physical Society, the European Physical Society, the Chinese Physical Society, the Japan Society of Applied Physics, the London Mathematical Society, and others, and 100% of its profits are reinvested into scientific and public good.

The company operates the IOPScience content delivery platform, serving approximately 90% of usage via institutional access, and integrates with OpenAthens, SeamlessAccess, and IPregristry.org for federated authentication. IOPP has built proprietary AI tools — the Duplicate Review Checker (machine-learning based, processing ~500,000 reviewer reports since 2020 and flagging ~2,500 duplicate-review cases) and Alchemist Review (an AI editorial assistant expanded across the majority of its proprietary journal portfolio in late 2025) — and is deploying AI-based citation-hallucination detection on manuscript submissions.

IOPP monetises through subscription-based institutional journal access, article publication charges (APCs) for open access, multi-year transformative read-and-publish agreements with consortia (including the TIB Consortium covering 80 German institutions and MALMAD covering Israeli institutions), and licensing of conference proceedings and ebooks. The go-to-market model is enterprise field sales targeting university, research institution, and corporate R&D accounts globally, supplemented by consortium partnerships and content licensing to platforms such as Elsevier's LeapSpace. Customer segments span academic researchers, institutional libraries, learned societies, and AI/technology companies licensing scientific content. IOPP maintains offices in Bristol (headquarters), Beijing, Tokyo, and Philadelphia, and operates the Peer Review Excellence certification programme with over 7,000 graduates and 22,000+ Trusted Reviewers.

Name

IOP Publishing

Legal name

IOP Publishing Limited

Website

https://ioppublishing.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1874

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

IOP Publishing is a society-owned scientific publisher, the publishing arm of the Institute of Physics, producing over 100 open access and hybrid journals, ebooks, and conference proceedings for the global physical-sciences research community via institutional, consortium, and transformative agreements.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic and Scientific Publishing

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (513120), Book Publishers (513130), Publishing Industries (513)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

Academic & Scholarly Journals Publishing (Peer-Reviewed) (MPAJABAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open Educational Resources (OER) & Open Access Academic Publishing (MPAJABAG), Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Scholarly Publishing (EDAGAFAI), Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs (EDAGAFAJ), Textbook & Academic Print-on-Demand (Coursepacks, Monographs, Journals) (MPAJANAB)

Keywords

• Scientific publishing
• Scholarly journals
• Open access publishing
• Physics research content
• Academic content platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Journal Subscriptions: Subscription-based access to IOP Publishing's portfolio of over 100 open access and hybrid journals, including access to paywalled content through institutional licenses.
2. Open Access Publishing (Article Publication Charges): Authors pay article publication charges (APCs) to publish open access in hybrid and fully OA journals. Discounts and waivers available for researchers from lower-income economies.
3. Transformative Agreements: Read and publish agreements with institutional consortia (like TIB Consortium, MALMAD) where institutions pay centrally for both reading access and OA publishing rights for their researchers.
4. Books and Conference Proceedings: Revenue from publishing ebooks and conference series.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

IOP Publishing is the publishing arm of the Institute of Physics, producing and distributing peer-reviewed scientific journals, ebooks, conference proceedings, and the Physics World magazine via the IOPscience platform. The portfolio includes over 100 open access and hybrid journals, supported by AI-powered peer review integrity tools and global institutional access via federated authentication.

Product overview

IOP Publishing is a society-owned scientific publisher providing a diverse portfolio of over 100 open access and hybrid journals, ebooks, conference proceedings, and science news media products. The core publishing platform IOPscience delivers access to peer-reviewed research in the physical sciences. The portfolio includes flagship products like Physics World magazine and specialized journals like Materials Futures. IOP Publishing also offers researcher services including the Peer Review Excellence certification programme, and has developed proprietary AI tools (Duplicate Review Checker, Alchemist Review) integrated into its editorial workflow.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Physics World: World leading physics magazine covering broad range of disciplines including quantum, medical physics, materials science, and optics and photonics
• IOP Science
• Physics World Jobs
• Physics World Careers
• ESRFnews
• Sustainability Collection
• Peer Review Excellence
• Transparent Peer Review
• Duplicate Review Checker
• IOPscience

Products and services

• IOPscience Platform Online platform hosting peer-reviewed scientific journals, ebooks, conference proceedings, and the Physics World magazine from IOP Publishing, providing searchable access to scholarly content for researchers, librarians, and institutions worldwide.
• Scientific Journals Portfolio Collection of more than 100 peer-reviewed open access and hybrid journals covering physics and related disciplines, available via subscription or open access with article publication charges.
• Physics World Magazine Flagship magazine brand of IOP Publishing covering physics news, research developments, and industry features for the global physics community.
• Materials Futures Journal Peer-reviewed open access journal publishing research in materials science and related interdisciplinary fields, available through IOPscience.
• Conference Proceedings Series Published proceedings from physics and related-discipline conferences, distributed via IOPscience for institutional and individual subscribers.
• Scientific Books Authored and edited scholarly books across physics and related disciplines published by IOP Publishing, distributed digitally via IOPscience.
• Peer Review Excellence Training Training program developed by IOP Publishing to support researchers in conducting high-quality peer review across scholarly publishing.

Quantifiable outcome

• 97% of users reporting time savings and more than half saving over 50% of research time with Elsevier's LeapSpace
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability6 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

22 partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and strategic.

• ElseviercoreTechnology or Integration · 25 June 2026IOP Publishing content (along with Emerald Publishing, NEJM Group, and Sage Publishing) licensed to Elsevier's LeapSpace research-grade AI workspace, drawing on 20+ million peer-reviewed articles and books. Elsevier reports 97% user satisfaction with time savings.
• IPregistry.orgcoreTechnology or Integration · 8 June 2026Automated IP address updates flowing directly from IPregristry.org into IOP Publishing systems, ensuring uninterrupted access for users and reducing authentication errors. IPregristry.org processes over 1,200 amendments monthly.
• TIB Consortium (Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 20 April 20263-year renewal agreement covering 80 German institutions with unlimited OA publishing in 53 hybrid and 22 fully OA journals. Projections show over 2,000 articles will be made freely available.
• HumcoreTechnology or Integration · 17 December 2025Hum's Alchemist Review AI editorial assistant expanded to cover majority of IOP Publishing's proprietary journal portfolio, with new features planned throughout 2026 to automate manuscript assessment and speed up submission-to-decision process.
• Climate Change Knowledge CooperativeminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 November 2021Partnership with 14 major publishers led by Kudos and Impact Science to provide easy-to-understand climate change research summaries for public consumption.
• DIMPACT / CarnstoneminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2021Joined DIMPACT collaborative project developed by University of Bristol and facilitated by Carnstone to map and manage digital carbon footprints of serving digital content.
• MALMAD (Israeli Inter University Centre for Digital Information Services)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 29 June 20213-year read and publish agreement covering Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University, and Israel Institute for Biological Research with no article publication charges for qualifying articles.
• Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (SLAB)strategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 June 2021Joint launch of Materials Futures open access journal with SLAB (affiliated with Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences). Professor Weihua Wang appointed as editors-in-chief.
• OpenAthenscoreTechnology or Integration · 9 June 2021Integration of OpenAthens' Wayfinder service with SeamlessAccess to streamline federated authentication for institutional users, resulting in 82% increase in federated authentication usage.
• SeamlessAccesscoreTechnology or Integration · 9 June 2021Coalition with GÉANT, Internet2, NISO, and STM Solutions to provide simplified sign-on for researchers, reducing friction in accessing content.
• UN SDG Publishers CompactcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 May 2021Signatory of UN Sustainable Development Goals Publishers Compact, pledging to achieve SDGs by 2030 through 10 action points including sustainable practices and annual reporting.
• Publishing DeclaresminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Founding signatory of Publishing Declares initiative led by UK Publishers Association to raise awareness of sustainability issues in book and journal publishing.
• American Astronomical SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublishing partner for society journals
• American Physical SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublishing partner for society journals
• European Physical SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublishing partner for society journals
• Chinese Physical SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublishing partner for society journals
• The Japan Society of Applied PhysicscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublishing partner for society journals
• London Mathematical SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublishing partner for society journals
• Biophysical SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublishing partner for society journals
• The Electrochemical SocietycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublishing partner for society journals
• Research4LifecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember of Research4Life which helps boost access to scientific research in low-income countries.
• Purpose-Led Publishing CoalitioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember of Purpose-Led Publishing coalition committed to publishing only content that genuinely adds to scientific knowledge and prioritising purpose over profit.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Elsevier (RELX Group): Elsevier is the largest STM publisher globally with thousands of journals across disciplines. It is a strategic partner via LeapSpace but also a broad incumbent competitor offering cross-disciplinary packages that compete with IOP Publishing for institutional procurement budgets.
• American Chemical Society (ACS): ACS is a large scientific society publisher with extensive journal and book coverage in chemistry and adjacent physical sciences. It is comparable as a society-owned STEM publisher with similar institutional licensing economics.

Direct peers

• Wiley: Wiley publishes hundreds of peer-reviewed journals across scientific and scholarly disciplines with significant physics and materials science coverage. It directly competes for institutional subscriptions and transformative agreements.
• American Physical Society (APS): APS publishes flagship physics journals (Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, etc.) and is both a society-publishing partner and a direct competitor in physics. Comparability is high given overlapping author bases and subject coverage.
• Springer Nature: Springer Nature is one of the largest academic publishers with extensive journal and book portfolios across STM and HSS. It directly competes with IOP Publishing for physics, materials science, and interdisciplinary journal submissions and library procurement contracts.
• Taylor & Francis (Informa): Taylor & Francis publishes over 2,700 journals across HSS and STM and competes directly with IOP Publishing for transformative agreements, institutional subscriptions, and physics-adjacent journals.
• Cambridge University Press: Cambridge University Press publishes a substantial journal portfolio in physical sciences and mathematics, with similar society publishing arrangements and academic positioning. Direct competitor for institutional consortia and physics journal submissions.
• Oxford University Press: Oxford University Press publishes peer-reviewed journals across scientific disciplines including physical sciences. As a mission-aligned university press, it competes for institutional OA agreements and society partnerships in overlapping subject areas.
• AIP Publishing: AIP Publishing is the publishing arm of the American Institute of Physics and a direct peer society publisher focused on physical sciences. It publishes Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, and other titles that overlap with IOPP's subject coverage.

Emerging players

• SAGE Publishing: SAGE Publishing is a LeapSpace content licensing co-partner with IOP Publishing. It is comparable as a society-publishing-aligned academic publisher with growing STM presence, though its portfolio is more concentrated in HSS than IOPP's physics-led mix.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC6sGrQTcmY8NpmfGEfRqRrg
• Facebookfacebook.com/ioppublishing
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/iop-publishing
• Xx.com/ioppublishing

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about IOP Publishing