Physical Review Explained

Physical Review
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Former Names:-->
Abbreviation:Phys. Rev.
Editor:Randall Kamien
Publisher:American Physical Society
Country:United States
History:1893–1913 Series I
1913–1970 Series II


1993–present Phys. Rev. E
1998–present Phys. Rev. AB
2005–present Phys. Rev. PER
2008–present Physics
2011–present Phys. Rev. X
2014–present Phys. Rev. Applied
2016–present Phys. Rev. Fluids
2017–present Phys. Rev. Materials
2019–present Phys. Rev. Research
2020–present PRX Quantum
Issn:0031-899X
Eissn:1536-6065
Lccn:12037719
Oclc:01715212
Website:http://journals.aps.org/
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Physical Review is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the American Physical Society (APS). The journal is in its third series, and is split in several sub-journals each covering a particular field of physics. It has a sister journal, Physical Review Letters, which publishes shorter articles of broader interest.

History

Physical Review commenced publication in July 1893, organized by Cornell University professor Edward Nichols and helped by the new president of Cornell, J. Gould Schurman. The journal was managed and edited at Cornell in upstate New York from 1893 to 1913 by Nichols, Ernest Merritt, and Frederick Bedell. The 33 volumes published during this time constitute Physical Review Series I.

The American Physical Society (APS), founded in 1899, took over its publication in 1913 and started Physical Review Series II. The journal remained at Cornell under editor-in-chief G. S. Fulcher from 1913 to 1926, before relocating to the location of editor John Torrence Tate, Sr. at the University of Minnesota. In 1929, the APS started publishing Reviews of Modern Physics, a venue for longer review articles. In 1932, the newly formed American Institute of Physics took over publication of Physical Review.[1]

During the Great Depression, wealthy scientist Alfred Loomis anonymously paid the journal's fees for authors who could not afford them.[2]

After Tate's death in 1950, the journals were managed on an interim basis still in Minnesota by E. L. Hill and J. William Buchta until Samuel Goudsmit and Simon Pasternack were appointed and the editorial office moved to Brookhaven National Laboratory on Eastern Long Island, New York. In July 1958, the sister journal Physical Review Letters was introduced to publish short articles of particularly broad interest, initially edited by George L. Trigg, who remained as editor until 1988.

In 1970, Physical Review split into sub-journals Physical Review A, B, C, and D. A fifth member of the family, Physical Review E, was introduced in 1993 to a large part to accommodate the huge amount of new research in nonlinear dynamics. Combined, these constitute Physical Review Series III.

The editorial office moved in 1980 to its present location across the expressway from Brookhaven National Laboratory. Goudsmit retired in 1974 and Pasternack in the mid-1970s. Past Editors in Chief include David Lazarus (1980–1990; University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign), Benjamin Bederson (1990–1996; New York University), Martin Blume (1996–2007; Brookhaven National Laboratory), and Gene Sprouse (2007–2015; SUNY Stony Brook). The current Editor in Chief is Michael Thoennessen, whose term began in September 2017.[3]

To celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the journal, a memoir was published jointly by the APS and AIP.[4]

In 1998, the first issue of Physical Review Special Topics: Accelerators and Beams was published, and in 2005, Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research was launched. In January 2016 the names of both journals were changed to remove "Special Topics".[5] Physical Review also started an online magazine, Physical Review Focus, in 1998 to explain and provide historical context for selected articles from Physical Review and Physical Review Letters. This was merged into Physics in 2011. The Special Topics journals are open access; Physics Education Research requires page charges from the authors, but Accelerators and Beams does not. Though not fully open access, Physical Review Letters also requires an author page charge, although this is voluntary. The other journals require such a charge only if manuscripts are not prepared in one of the preferred formats.[6] Since 2011, authors can pay an article processing charge to make their papers open access.[7] Such papers are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (CC-BY).[8] Physical Review Letters celebrated their 50th birthday in 2008.[9] The APS has a copyright policy to permit the author to reuse parts of the published article in a derivative or new work, including on Wikipedia.[10]

The APS has an online publication entitled Physics,[11] aiming to help physicists and physics students to learn about new developments outside of their own subfield. This now includes the general-interest articles that appeared as Physical Review Focus. A short-lived journal, also called Physics, was published by Pergamon Press and Physics Publishing Co. from 1964 through 1968, with the goal of printing "a selection of papers which are worth the attention of all physicists."[12] The four volumes of this journal were eventually made freely available online by the APS under the alternative title Physics Physique Физика, reflecting how the title was originally printed on the journal covers and how it was sometimes referred to in the years since.[13] [14]

It also publishes Physical Review X,[15] an online-only open access journal. It is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes, as timely as possible, original research papers from all areas of pure, applied, and interdisciplinary physics. In 2014 Physical Review Applied[16] began publishing research across all aspects of experimental and theoretical applications of physics, including their interactions with other sciences, engineering, and industry. In 2016 the APS launched Physical Review Fluids "to include additional areas of fluid dynamics research",[17] and in 2017 it launched Physical Review Materials "to fill a gap" in the coverage of materials research.[18] In 2019 Physical Review Research was launched to provide a broad fully open-access journal at about the same selectivity level as the older AE journals. In 2020, PRX Quantum was launched to provide a home for and connection between the numerous research communities that make up quantum information science and technology, spanning from pure science to engineering to computer science and beyond.[19] In 2023 PRX Life was launched to advance research from the interdisciplinary communities at the interface of the physical and life sciences.[20]

Journals

JournalISO 4 abbreviationEditor(s)Impact factor (2023)PublishedScopeISSN
Physical Review LettersPhys. Rev. Lett.Hugues Chaté
Robert Garisto
Samindranath Mitra
8.11958–presentThe full range of applied, fundamental, and interdisciplinary physics research topics
(web)
Physical Review XPhys. Rev. XDenis Bartolo
Ling Miao
11.62011–presentPRX covers the full spectrum of subject areas in physics and pays particular attention to innovative interdisciplinary research of wide impact (web)
PRX EnergyPRX EnergyDavid Scanlon

Jacilynn (Brant) Otero

Margaret Hudson

2021– presentPRX Energy is a highly selective, open access journal featuring energy science and technology research with an emphasis on outstanding and lasting impact. (web)
PRX QuantumPRX QuantumStephen Bartlett
Katiuscia N. Cassemiro
9.32020–presentPRX Quantum publishes research in quantum information science and technology, spanning from pure science to engineering to computer science and beyond. (web)
PRX LifePRX LifeMargaret Gardel
Serena Bradde
2022–presentPRX Life will publish outstanding research at all scales of biological organization, including a focus on quantitative biological research.(web)
Reviews of Modern PhysicsRev. Mod. Phys.Randall Kamien
Debbie Brodbar
45.91929–presentThe full range of applied, fundamental, and interdisciplinary physics research topics
(web)
Physical Review APhys. Rev. AJan Michael Rost
Thomas Pattard
2.61970–presentAtomic, molecular, and optical physics, foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum information (print)
(web)
Physical Review BPhys. Rev. BStephen Nagler
Anthony M. Begley
3.21970–presentThe full range of condensed matter, materials physics, and related subfields (print)
(web)
Physical Review CPhys. Rev. CJoseph I. Kapusta
Christopher Wesselborg
3.21970–presentExperimental and theoretical results in all aspects of nuclear physics (print)
(web)
Physical Review DPhys. Rev. DMirjam Cvetič
Urs M. Heller
4.61970–presentExperimental and theoretical results in all aspects of particle physics, field theory, gravitation, and cosmology (print)
(web)
Physical Review EPhys. Rev. EUwe C. Täuber
Dirk Jan Bukman
2.21993–presentStatistical, nonlinear, biological and soft matter physics (print)
(web)
Physical Review ResearchPhys. Rev. Res.Nicola Spaldin
Raissa D’Souza
Juan-José Liétor-Santos
3.52019–presentAll research topics of interest to the physics community (web)
Physical Review Accelerators and BeamsPhys. Rev. Accel. BeamsFrank Zimmermann
Debbie Brodbar
1.51998–presentAll topics in accelerator science, applications, and technology (web)
Physical Review AppliedPhys. Rev. Appl.Stephen R. Forrest
Matthew Eager
3.82014–presentAll aspects of experimental and theoretical applications of physics (web)
Physical Review FluidsPhys. Rev. FluidsEric Lauga
Beverley McKeon
Bradley Rubin
2.52016–presentAll aspects of fluid dynamics research (web)
Physical Review MaterialsPhys. Rev. Mater.Chris Leighton
Athanasios Chantis
3.12017–presentWide range of topics on materials research (web)
Physical Review Physics Education ResearchPhys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.Charles Henderson
Debbie Brodbar
2.62005–presentExperimental and theoretical physics education research (web)
PhysicsPhysicsMatteo Rini2008–presentAll of Physics (web)
Physical Review, Series IPhys. Rev.1893–1912All of Physics
Physical Review, Series II Phys. Rev.1913–1969All of Physics
Physics Physique ФизикаPhilip Warren Anderson
B. T. Matthias
1964–1968

See also

External links

Index of freely available volumesThe term of copyright on volumes published before 1928 has expired. These volumes are available online for free in their entirety:

Notes and References

  1. Assmus . Alexi . Book Reviews: A Memoir on The Physical Review: A History of the First Hundred Years. Paul Hartman . Isis . 88 . 2 . 1997 . 0021-1753 . 10.1086/383738 . 355–355.
  2. Book: Conant, Jennet . 2002 . Tuxedo Park . 106 . . New York . 978-0-684-87287-2 . registration .
  3. Web site: Michael Thoennessen Appointed New APS Editor in Chief . David . Voss . June 2017. .
  4. Book: Hartman, Paul . 1994 . A Memoir on The Physical Review: A History of the First Hundred Years . 212 . . New York . 978-1-56396-282-0 .
  5. http://journals.aps.org/edannounce/renaming-the-aps-special-topics-series
  6. Web site: March 2008 . Submission guidelines.
  7. http://publish.aps.org/edannounce/CC-launch-press-release
  8. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  9. Web site: Physical Review Letters Celebrates 50 Years . American Physical Society. 2014-02-13 .
  10. Web site: 1 October 2008 . Gene D. Sprouse . APS now leaves copyright with authors for derivative works . American Physical Society.
  11. Web site: Physics . American Physical Society.
  12. Anderson. P. W.. Matthias. B. T.. 1964-07-01. Editorial foreword. Physics Physique Fizika. en. 1. 1. i. 10.1103/PhysicsPhysiqueFizika.1.i. 0554-128X. free.
  13. Book: 1964. Physics. Physique. Fizika.. OCLC. 1370169.
  14. News: Kaiser. David. Opinion Is Quantum Entanglement Real?. 2014-11-14. The New York Times. 2020-02-09. en-US. 0362-4331. David Kaiser (physicist).
  15. Web site: Physical Review X . American Physical Society.
  16. Web site: Physical Review Applied . .
  17. Web site: Physical Review Fluids . American Physical Society.
  18. Web site: Physical Review Materials . .
  19. Web site: PRX Quantum. American Physical Society.
  20. Web site: PRX Life. American Physical Society.