| Physics Essays | |
| Cover: | Physics Essays Cover Page PNG.png |
| Abbreviation: | Phys. Essays |
| Discipline: | Physics |
| Editor: | Emilio Panarella |
| Publisher: | Physics Essays Publication |
| History: | 1988–present |
| Frequency: | Quarterly |
| Impact: | 0.6 |
| Impact-Year: | 2023 |
| Issn: | 0836-1398 |
| Eissn: | 2371-2236 |
| Coden: | PHESEM |
| Lccn: | cn88039057 |
| Oclc: | 643949195 |
| Website: | http://physicsessays.org |
| Link2: | https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/pe/pe |
| Link2-Name: | Online archive |
Physics Essays is a quarterly journal supposedly covering theoretical and experimental physics. It was established in 1988 and the editor-in-chief is Emilio Panarella.
The journal has a reputation for being a "free forum where extravagant views on physics (in particular, those involving parapsychology) are welcome".[1] The journal has been accused of charging authors for publication without disclosing the fees up front.[2]
In the 1990s, the journal was published by University of Toronto Press.[2] Beginning in 2009, and for some period of time, the journal was affiliated with the American Institute of Physics, which managed subscriptions.[3] [4] [5] [6] In 2003, the journal published a paper describing Randell Mills' hydrino theory, which is at odds with quantum mechanics and widely rejected by physicists.[7] [8] In 2004, the journal published a paper claiming proof that the usual mathematical expression of mass-energy equivalence was not valid in general, a claim the author said was being ignored by the wider scientific community.[9] [10] In 2017, the journal published an article from an amateur physicist who claimed to redefine the elementary charge and eliminate the fine structure constant, directly in contradiction to mainstream physics.[11]
The journal is indexed and abstracted in the following bibliographic databases:
The journal was indexed in Current Contents/Physical, Chemical, and Earth Sciences and the Science Citation Index Expanded until it was dropped in 2015.[15] Its last impact factor, according to the 2014 Journal Citation Reports, was 0.245 for 2013.[16] Scopus similarly dropped its coverage in 2017.[17] As of 2022, it is included in the Emerging Sources Citation Index[14] with a 2023 impact factor of 0.6.[18]
In 2024, the Norwegian Scientific Index downgraded the journal from a level-1 journal to level 0, meaning that publication there no longer counts in the official academic career system or towards public funding of research institutions.[19]