Academic journal
Physical Review Letters
(
PRL
), established in 1958, is a
peer-reviewed
,
scientific journal
that is published 52 times per year by the
American Physical Society
. As also confirmed by various measurement standards, which include the
Journal Citation Reports
impact factor
and the journal
h
-index
proposed by
Google Scholar
, many physicists and other scientists consider
Physical Review Letters
to be one of the most prestigious journals in the field of
physics
.
[1]
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[3]
PRL
is published as a print journal, and is in electronic format, online and CD-ROM. Its focus is rapid dissemination of significant, or notable, results of
fundamental research
on all topics related to all fields of
physics
. This is accomplished by rapid publication of short reports, called "Letters". Papers are published and available electronically one article at a time. When published in such a manner, the paper is available to be cited by other work. The Lead Editor is Hugues Chate. The Managing Editor is Robert Garisto.
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Scope and organizational format
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]
Physical Review Letters
is an internationally read physics journal with a diverse readership. Advances in physics, as well as cross disciplinary developments, are disseminated weekly, via this publication. Topics covered by this journal are also the explicit titles for each section of the journal. Sections are delineated (in the table of contents) as follows:
[1]
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- General Physics
:
Statistical
and
Quantum mechanics
,
Quantum information
, etc.
- Gravitation
and
astrophysics
- Elementary particles
and
fields
- Nuclear physics
- Atomic, molecular, and optical physics
- Nonlinear dynamics
,
Fluid dynamics
,
Classical optics
, etc.
- Plasma
and
beam physics
- Condensed matter
: Structure, etc.
- Condensed Matter:
Semiconductor-Electronic
properties, etc.
- Polymer
,
Soft matter
, Biological, and
Interdisciplinary physics
Worthy of note is a section at the front of the table of contents which consists of articles that are highlighted for their particular importance and interest. This section contains articles suggested by the editors of the journal or which have been covered by the site "Physics" (formerly
Physical Review Focus
).
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Historical overview
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]
On May 20, 1899, 36
physicists
gathered to establish the
American Physical Society
at
Columbia University
, in the
City of New York
. These 36 decided that the mission of the APS would be "to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics". In the beginning the dissemination of physics knowledge took place only through
quarterly
scientific meetings. In 1913, the APS took over the operation of
Physical Review
, already in existence since 1893. Hence, journal publication also became an important goal, second only to its original mission. During the late 1950s, the then editor
Sam Goudsmit
collected, organized and published Letters to the Editor of Physical Review into a new standalone journal. This established the
Physical Review Letters
, Volume 1, Issue 1 was published on July 1, 1958 (see archives link). As the years passed the research fields in physics multiplied, and so did the number of submissions. Consequently,
Physical Review
was divided into five separate sections after December 1969 into
Physical Review A
,
B
,
C
,
D
and
E
, which are distinct from
Physical Review Letters
.
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Abstracting, indexing, and impact factor
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]
Physical Review Letters
is indexed in the following bibliographic databases:
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See also
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References
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]
External links
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]
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