American Physical Society journals

American Physical Society journals
Title	American Physical Society journals
Discipline	Physics
Publisher	American Physical Society
Country	United States
Established	1899 (society); journals various
Frequency	Various

American Physical Society journals are a collection of peer-reviewed periodicals published by the American Physical Society, intended to disseminate research across multiple subfields of physics and related interdisciplinary domains. They serve authors and readers connected with institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University, and Princeton University, and are read by scientists affiliated with organizations including Brookhaven National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and CERN. The journals are recognized by repositories and indexing services like PubMed Central, Web of Science, Scopus, INSPIRE-HEP, and arXiv.

History and development

APS journals trace roots to professional activities of groups around the turn of the 20th century, contemporaneous with institutions like Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley, and events such as the Solvay Conference. Early editorial leadership included figures connected to J. J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, and developments linked to laboratories at Bell Labs and Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. During the interwar and postwar eras, publications evolved alongside projects like the Manhattan Project, collaborations with National Science Foundation, and initiatives at Imperial College London and ETH Zurich. Cold War-era growth saw contributions from researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Kurchatov Institute, Moscow State University, and partnerships that mirrored diplomatic science exchanges including visits tied to the Potsdam Conference and programs influenced by the Marshall Plan. The digital transition later intersected with platforms such as HighWire Press, JSTOR, Project Euclid, and the development of policies informed by organizations like Committee on Publication Ethics.

Scope and editorial policies

APS journals cover experimental and theoretical work with links to communities at CERN, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, DESY, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and European Southern Observatory. Editorial policy frameworks reference standards from groups like COPE, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and funding agencies such as National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy; authors hail from universities like Yale University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of Tokyo, and Seoul National University. Policies address conflicts of interest, data availability, and reproducibility, engaging stakeholders including Royal Society, National Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and foundations such as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Simons Foundation. Ethical oversight draws on precedents from cases involving institutions like Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and disciplinary norms evident at meetings hosted by the American Association of Physics Teachers and Optica.

List of journals and subject areas

APS publications encompass titles focused on condensed matter, quantum science, astrophysics, nuclear physics, and applied areas, attracting submissions from researchers at University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, Georgia Institute of Technology, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, University of Toronto, and McGill University. Major subject areas map to communities around conferences such as the American Physical Society March Meeting, International Conference on High Energy Physics, Neutrino Conference, Materials Research Society Fall Meeting, and Gordon Research Conferences. Specific topical coverage resonates with work from groups at Max Planck Institute for Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Riken, Kobe University, and Peking University.

Publication formats and access (print, online, open access)

APS journals are distributed in print and online formats to subscribers including university libraries like New York University, University of Michigan, Columbia University Libraries, and consortia such as Big Ten Academic Alliance. Online platforms interface with services like CrossRef, ORCID, DOAJ, and indexing by Chemical Abstracts Service and INSPEC. Open access options align with mandates from funders including Wellcome Trust, Horizon Europe, European Research Council, UK Research and Innovation, and national policies at Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, offering article processing charges and transformative agreements negotiated with publishers and institutions such as University of California and University of Edinburgh.

Peer review and editorial governance

Peer review in APS journals uses practices familiar to communities at American Institute of Physics, Institute of Physics, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and editorial boards composed of scientists from Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Rice University, Duke University, and University of British Columbia. Governance structures coordinate with the APS Council, committees akin to those in National Academy of Engineering, and advisory panels drawn from laboratories including NIST, SLAC, TRIUMF, and Idaho National Laboratory. Review processes incorporate single-blind and double-blind experiments, preprint-stage commentary as seen with arXiv, and editorial appeals paralleling mechanisms at Nature, Science, and specialist outlets such as Physical Review Letters and other flagship journals historically associated with professional societies.

Impact, indexing, and metrics

APS journals are tracked by citation indices maintained by Clarivate, Elsevier, and bibliometric analyses practiced at institutions like University College London, ETH Zurich, and Australian National University. Impact factors, h-index calculations, and altmetrics engage stakeholders at Google Scholar, PlumX, Mendeley, and policy units within European University Association and Association of Research Libraries. Coverage in subject databases supports visibility for work from collaborations involving LIGO Scientific Collaboration, ALMA Observatory, IceCube Neutrino Observatory, ITER Organization, and multinational consortia associated with projects at JAXA and NASA.

Category:Physics journals