Physics Colloquium: Scientific publishing in APS journals: Review Process & Citation Analysis

Abstract:

In the first part of the talk, I will present the editorial process in the Physical Review family of journals of the American Physical Society (APS). I will describe the main stages of the reviewing process for a manuscript, namely, initial internal review; decision whether to reject without external review; referee selection; consolidation of referees' input; handling of conflicting recommendations from referees & adjudication; consultation with Editorial Board Members; and highlighting processes and media for accepted papers. I will present some commonly used but counterproductive arguments from authors, and provide some tips for authors and referees for improving the review process.

Next, I will present some statistics on citation impact. I will explain a key feature of Journal Impact Factors(JIF) that is often overlooked, namely, that large journals cannot have high impact factors; and how this feature, in combination with the ever increasing pressure to publish in high-JIF venues, has led to the proliferation of small, highly selective journals. I will briefly discuss complementary metrics to assess research impact.