New Journal Launch: Physical Review Research

APS has announced the newest title in its portfolio of peer-reviewed journals—Physical Review Research (PRResearch). The publication will be fully open-access (OA) and cover the entire range of physics, including interdisciplinary and newly emerging areas. The journal will open for submissions this spring with the aim to publish its first papers in the second half of this year.

"As we continue to expand publishing options for our authors and readers, Physical Review Research is the latest addition to our world-leading family of journals in physics and related research areas,” says APS Publisher Matthew Salter. “This new journal will aim to advance and disseminate scientific research and discovery, promote physics, and serve the broader physics community. In these ways it will directly support our mission at APS.”

PRResearch will become the fourth fully OA journal within the APS suite of peer-reviewed journals, which also includes nine prestigious hybrid titles. All articles published in the new journal will be immediately free to read, and readers anywhere in the world may reuse the content according to the terms of a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

“PRResearch will be positioned alongside Physical Review A-E, with similar selection criteria to these established topical titles” explains Michael Thoennessen, Editor in Chief for the APS journals. “It will offer a fully OA option for all authors who prefer or require that model and seek the Physical Review refereeing and publishing experience they value and trust.”

Among the open access titles published by APS, PRResearch will complement Physical Review X (PRX), which has a similarly broad scope but is extremely selective as the highest impact, fully OA, multidisciplinary physics journal in the world. According to the author guidelines, manuscripts directly submitted, or transferred from PRX or another journal in the family, to PRResearch should:

• Present important and novel results that advance a particular field of research
• Generate interest for readers with a connection to physics
• Represent an authoritative and substantive addition to the body of literature
• Explore the subject matter comprehensively and thoroughly

“Submissions to PRResearch will be handled by the same professional editorial team of Ph.D. scientists who manage peer review for all of the Physical Review titles,” says Thoennessen. “We are currently recruiting active researchers to serve as editorial board members who will support the development of this new journal.”

In addition to reaching a broad audience of readers across all of physics, papers of particular interest published in PRResearch will receive promotion via the journals website, social media, Physics magazine, and other outlets. These features are intended to maximize recognition of researchers and the impact of the work they publish in the journal.

“The Physical Review journals have served physics well for over 125 years, and this new journal is a step towards ensuring that they continue to do so well into the future,” says Jeff Lewandowski, Associate Publisher at APS. “As science evolves to be more collaborative and global, Physical Review Research aims to meet the needs of the broadest research community, including the next generation of physicists and researchers working in related fields. With this new journal we hope to initiate conversations across traditional boundaries, invite new opportunities for collaboration, and enable future discoveries.”

For more information on Physical Review Research and to sign up for e-alerts, visit the journal website at journals.aps.org/prresearch.