Physical Review Letters

*Physical Review Letters*
\|Subject \|Discipline}}	Physics
Language	English
Edited by	Hugues Chaté; Robert Garisto; Samindranath Mitra;
Publication details
History	1958–present
Publisher	American Physical Society (United States)
Frequency	Weekly
Open access	partial
Impact factor	9.0 (2024)
Standard abbreviations;
ISO 4	Phys. Rev. Lett.
Indexing
CODEN	PRLTAO
ISSN	0031-9007 (print); 1079-7114 (web);
LCCN	59037543
OCLC no.	1715834
	CD-ROM issue
ISSN	1092-0145;
Links
	Journal homepage; Archives;

Short description: Academic journal in physics

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. The journal is considered one of the most prestigious in the field of physics. Over a quarter of Physics Nobel Prize-winning papers between 1995 and 2017 were published in it.^[1]

PRL is published both online and as a print journal. Its focus is on short articles ("letters") intended for quick publication. The Lead Editor is Hugues Chaté. The Managing Editor is Robert Garisto.^[2]^[3]

History

The journal was created in 1958. Samuel Goudsmit, who was then the editor of Physical Review, the American Physical Society's flagship journal, organized and published Letters to the Editor of Physical Review into a new standalone journal, which became Physical Review Letters. It was the first journal intended for the rapid publication of short articles, a format that eventually became popular in many other fields.^[4]

Notable articles

1964 PRL symmetry breaking papers
First report of a functional scanning tunneling microscope (1982)^[5]
Invention of the atomic force microscope (1986)^[6]
First observation of gravitational waves (2016)^[7]

Scope

PRL covers all areas of physics. The journal is divided into the following sections:^[2]^[8]^[9]

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

A section before the table of contents highlights a small number of particularly notable articles in each edition.^[8]^[9]

Journal ranking summary

The following table presents the most recent journal ranking metrics for Physical Review Letters based on data from Scopus and Web of Science categories.

Journal ranking summary (2023) ^[10]

Source	Category	Rank	Percentile	Quartile
Scopus	General Physics and Astronomy in Physics and Astronomy	13/243	94.65	Q1
Web of Science (IF)	Physics, Multidisciplinary	8/110	93.20	Q1
Web of Science (JCI)	Physics, Multidisciplinary	8/110	92.73	Q1

Abstracting, indexing, and impact factor

Physical Review Letters is indexed in the following bibliographic databases:^[2]

Chemical Abstracts
Computer & Control Abstracts
Current Physics Index
Electrical & Electronics Index
Energy Research Abstracts
GeoRef
INSPEC
International Aerospace Abstracts
Mathematical Reviews
Medline
Metals Abstracts
Nuclear Science Abstracts
Physics Abstracts
PubSCIENCE
SPIN
World Aluminum Abstracts

References

↑ Conroy, Gemma (2020-01-16). "These four journals publish the most Nobel Prize-winning papers in physics" (in en). https://www.nature.com/nature-index/news/journals-publish-most-nobel-prize-winning-research-papers-physics.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 "About Physical Review Letters". American Physical Society. https://journals.aps.org/prl/about.
↑ "Physical Review Letters Staff". American Physical Society. 2007-12-03. https://journals.aps.org/prl/staff.
↑ Bederson, Benjamin (2008) (in en). Samuel Abraham Goudsmit: a Biographical Memoir. National Academy of Sciences. https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/goudsmit-samuel.pdf.
↑ Binnig, G.; Rohrer, H.; Gerber, Ch.; Weibel, E. (1982-07-05). "Surface Studies by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy" (in en). Physical Review Letters 49 (1): 57–61. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.57. ISSN 0031-9007. Bibcode: 1982PhRvL..49...57B. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.57.
↑ Binnig, G.; Quate, C. F.; Gerber, Ch. (1986-03-03). "Atomic Force Microscope" (in en). Physical Review Letters 56 (9): 930–933. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 10033323. Bibcode: 1986PhRvL..56..930B. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930.
↑ Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Abernathy, M. R.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.; Adams, C.; Adams, T. et al. (2016-02-11). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger" (in en). Physical Review Letters 116 (6). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 26918975. Bibcode: 2016PhRvL.116f1102A. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102.
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 "Table of Contents". Physical Review Letters 102 (17). 1 May 2009. https://journals.aps.org/prl/issues/102/17.
↑ ^9.0 ^9.1 "Table of Contents". Physical Review Letters 105 (1). 2 July 2010. https://journals.aps.org/prl/issues/105/1.
↑ JRank: Physical Review Letters – https://jrank.net/journals/phys-rev-lett/metrics

External links

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical Review Letters. Read more

[1] Conroy, Gemma (2020-01-16). "These four journals publish the most Nobel Prize-winning papers in physics" (in en). https://www.nature.com/nature-index/news/journals-publish-most-nobel-prize-winning-research-papers-physics.

[about-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 "About Physical Review Letters". American Physical Society. https://journals.aps.org/prl/about.

[editor-3] "Physical Review Letters Staff". American Physical Society. 2007-12-03. https://journals.aps.org/prl/staff.

[4] Bederson, Benjamin (2008) (in en). Samuel Abraham Goudsmit: a Biographical Memoir. National Academy of Sciences. https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/goudsmit-samuel.pdf.

[5] Binnig, G.; Rohrer, H.; Gerber, Ch.; Weibel, E. (1982-07-05). "Surface Studies by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy" (in en). Physical Review Letters 49 (1): 57–61. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.57. ISSN 0031-9007. Bibcode: 1982PhRvL..49...57B. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.57.

[6] Binnig, G.; Quate, C. F.; Gerber, Ch. (1986-03-03). "Atomic Force Microscope" (in en). Physical Review Letters 56 (9): 930–933. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 10033323. Bibcode: 1986PhRvL..56..930B. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930.

[7] Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, R.; Abbott, T. D.; Abernathy, M. R.; Acernese, F.; Ackley, K.; Adams, C.; Adams, T. et al. (2016-02-11). "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger" (in en). Physical Review Letters 116 (6). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. ISSN 0031-9007. PMID 26918975. Bibcode: 2016PhRvL.116f1102A. https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102.

[toc2009-8] 8.0 ^8.1 "Table of Contents". Physical Review Letters 102 (17). 1 May 2009. https://journals.aps.org/prl/issues/102/17.

[toc2010-9] 9.0 ^9.1 "Table of Contents". Physical Review Letters 105 (1). 2 July 2010. https://journals.aps.org/prl/issues/105/1.

[10] JRank: Physical Review Letters – https://jrank.net/journals/phys-rev-lett/metrics

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