''Physical Review Letters'' (''PRL''), established in 1958, is a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication designed to further the progress of science by disseminating new research findings to the scientific community. These journals serve as a platform for researchers, schola ...

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 Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

. Over a quarter of Physics Nobel Prize-winning papers between 1995 and 2017 were published in it. ''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.

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.

Notable articles

* 1964 ''PRL'' symmetry breaking papers * First report of a functional scanning tunneling microscope (1982) * Invention of the

atomic force microscope Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the diffr ...

(1986) * First observation of gravitational waves (2016)

Scope

''PRL'' covers all areas of physics. The journal is divided into the following sections: * General Physics:

Statistical Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

and

Quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

, Quantum information, etc. * Gravitation and astrophysics *

Elementary particle In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. The Standard Model presently recognizes seventeen distinct particles—twelve fermions and five bosons. As a c ...

s and fields *

Nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...

* Atomic, molecular, and optical physics * Nonlinear dynamics,

Fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...

, Classical optics, etc. * Plasma and beam physics * Condensed matter: Structure, etc. *Condensed Matter: Semiconductor-Electronic properties, etc. *

Polymer A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...

Soft matter Soft matter or soft condensed matter is a type of matter that can be deformed or structurally altered by thermal or mechanical stress which is of similar magnitude to thermal fluctuations. The science of soft matter is a subfield of condensed ...

, Biological, and Interdisciplinary physics A section before the table of contents highlights a small number of particularly notable articles in each edition.

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)'' JRank: Physical Review Letters �
https://jrank.net/journals/phys-rev-lett/metrics
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Abstracting, indexing, and impact factor

''Physical Review Letters'' is indexed in the following bibliographic databases: * 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

External links

*
All Volumes and Issues

Collections of articles

50th Anniversary Milestone Papers

"Physics"
{{Authority control Physics journals Academic journals established in 1958 Weekly journals English-language journals American Physical Society academic journals