<em>Physics</em> Is Flourishing

Readership has been growing for the online publication Physics, launched last fall by APS. The publication features articles summarizing the most interesting and important results in the Physical Review journals. The articles in Physics are aimed at a broad readership of physicists and scientists in related areas. Physics is freely available online.

About 16,000 people visited the site in the first week in February. The number of site visits has been increasing steadily since the publication was launched, growing at a rate of about 15% per month since last fall.  

David Voss, editor of Physics, notes that another indicator of the growing popularity of Physics is that when one types “physics” into a Google search, the APS publication comes up among the first several results.

Physics publishes three types of articles: “Viewpoints,” short pieces of about 1000-1500 words, focus on a specific paper in PRL or PR A-E., explaining and discussing the significance of the work. Longer pieces, called “Trends,” highlight areas of current research, reviewing recent results and identifying questions and directions for more research, and “Synopses,” which are short (150-200 word) items written by APS journal editors explaining recent papers of particular interest. Several “synopses” are published each week, along with one or two “viewpoints,” while “trends” come out somewhat less frequently. 

  Physics - the free online journal