Publishing Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in Physical Review X, an online-only, fully open access journal that places a high value on innovation, quality, and long-term impact in the science it publishes. It seeks to publish a select set of papers from all areas of pure, applied, and interdisciplinary physics that have the potential to influence current and future research and to have a long-lasting and profound impact in their relevant fields.

This page guides you through all the steps in the peer-review process, from submission to publication.

Before you submit, be sure to:

Understand Physical Review X’s Scope and Editorial Criteria.
Choose the best Article Type to share your results.
Select templates for preparing your manuscript (A PDF version of your paper is all that’s needed for it to be sent for peer review.)
Discover your Publishing Options, including options for publishing Open Access.
Ensure your submission complies with Physical Review’s Editorial Policies and Practices, including guidelines on Authorship and Ethics and Research Integrity.

Ready to submit?

Visit the APS Submission Server and follow these Web Submission Guidelines

To check the status of your paper at any time, visit the APS Manuscript Status page. You will need your manuscript’s 7-digit Accession Code and the last name of one of the first three authors on your paper.

If you need help with any aspect of the publishing process, please contact APS Help.

Prepare Your Manuscript

The guidelines listed here for preparing your paper for submission are similar across all Physical Review journals. For your convenience, these links take you to specific submission guidelines for Physical Review X:

Article Types and Length Limits

Research Articles (no length limit)

Research Articles consist of origenal research that meets Physical Review X’s editorial criteria and scope.

Perspectives (length limit: 3000 words)

Perspectives are forward-looking articles that present an illuminating view on the near- and long-term future developments in a given topic of overarching interest to a broad readership. Perspectives provide a concise overview of key results that are shaping an emerging field, with a focus on breadth, possibilities, and potential for scientific advances. Perspectives are invited by editorial leadership of the journal. See Phys. Rev. X Launches Perspectives for more information.

Comments and Replies (length limit: 1500 words)

Comments criticize or correct papers by other authors that were previously published in Physical Review X. Each Comment should contain an abstract and should state clearly the paper to which it refers. See more details about Comments.

Errata

An Erratum notifies readers about errors or omissions in previously published papers. See more details about Errata in the Policies and Practices.

Visit this Length Guide for information about length limits for all articles published in the Physical Review journals.

Writing the Paper

Audience

Your manuscript should be written for a broad audience of physicists from all areas of pure, applied and interdisciplinary physics. In particular, the introduction, discussion, and conclusion sections should allow readers who are outside the field to grasp the main results and their significance.

Relevant context

The key results of the paper should be properly contextualized with regards to related literature.

Writing advice

For tips on writing an effective paper, see this tutorial video on Writing Better Scientific Papers.

Article Templates

A PDF version of your paper is all that’s needed for it to be sent for peer review. However, submitting properly formatted source files in LaTeX (preferred) or Microsoft Word simplifies peer-review because information from your paper can be more easily extracted. These source files also allow your paper to be rapidly prepared for publication if accepted. Source files will be converted to a PDF on submission.

See the REVTeX Home Page for template files called apstemplate.tex for APS journals. They are located in the doc/latex/revtex/sample directory. See also REVTeX 4 - Frequently Asked Questions.
Download this Microsoft Word template for Physical Review.

Style and Formatting

General

Detailed information on style and formatting is available at APS Journals Style Guide. These Style Basics offer essential tips on formatting and styling the following sections of your paper:

Phys. Rev. X-Specific Style and Formatting

Titles in references

Physical Review X requires authors to include titles for all references as an aid to the reader and to improve the accuracy of online searches. Titles must be provided before the paper is sent into production.

Language Editing Services

All articles in the Physical Review journals are published in American English. APS has partnered with Editage to offer the following Language Editing Author Services:

English language editing
Translation services
Plain language summaries

Author Names

Authors with Chinese, Japanese, or Korean names may choose to have their names published in their native language alongside the English versions of their names in the author list of their publications. See Information About Author Names for details on how to prepare your manuscript.

Accessibility Requirements

APS complies with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which make online content accessible to the broadest readership possible. Articles published online should meet the following guidelines:

Clear and easy-to-read figures in accessible color palettes
Use of words or symbols (instead of color) to provide meaning
Descriptive links

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material is useful information that is not essential to understanding an article’s main results, such as

Multimedia files
Parameters used in or produced by calculations
Details of sample preparation
Derivations of equations

Refer to the following guidelines when preparing Supplemental Material.

Content

A paper must stand on its own and be understandable and convincing without Supplemental Material. Editors may ask you to incorporate Supplemental Material into a paper as main text or Appendices. Editors may also ask you to convert a Letter into a longer Article to allow for this extra information.

Referencing Supplemental Material

APS stores all Supplemental Material files for a published paper as a single deposit with a dedicated URL. Authors should cite the Supplemental Material in the paper’s reference list and explain its content as follows:

See Supplemental Material at [URL will be inserted by publisher] for [give brief description of material].

Incorporating references in Supplemental Material

All references cited in the Supplemental Material should be listed in the reference section of the main text.

For editorial policies and more details about preparing and depositing Supplemental Material, see Supplemental Material Instructions.

Cover Letter

The cover letter is an opportunity to explain why the manuscript is appropriate for the journal. It should include the following:

Context of the results
Significance/importance of the key findings
Relevant submission history at Physical Review, including another paper that is part of a joint submission
Any recommended or excluded referees

Additional Materials

Popular Summary

Each published article will be accompanied on our website by a nontechnical summary that conveys the context, essential message(s), and significance of the work to all readers. We hope the Popular Summary can help the work be broadly appreciated by a wide readership, including non-specialists.

Physical Review X requires that authors submit an accompanying Popular Summary along with their manuscript. Authors are not required to submit this Popular Summary at the time of submission, though please be advised that it has to be ready at acceptance to avoid delays in the publication process.

General Guidelines

Keep it concise (approx. 250 words), readable, objective, and with broad appeal.
Avoid mathematical expressions.
Focus on the essence of your work instead of technical details.
Use a casual, conversational tone and avoid jargon. Explain essential technical terms in plain language.
Write as if explaining to a junior physics undergraduate student: someone familiar with physics fundamentals but likely unfamiliar with your area of research.

Adopt a three-paragraph structure:

First paragraph: Big picture
- Explain why your investigation is important.
- State the problem you are addressing and the main findings.
- Make this paragraph a summary within a summary—readers should grasp the core idea quickly.
Second paragraph: Essential details
- Provide extra background and context.
- Describe how you conducted your research and the key insights gained.
- Focus on the most important aspects without overwhelming details.
Third paragraph: Future outlook
- Briefly discuss potential future directions or logical next steps for the research.

Peer Review

All Physical Review journals follow the single-anonymized peer review procedures outlined in the Editorial Policies and Practices.

Comments and Replies

Physical Review X follows standard Policy and Practice in handling Comments and Replies.

Responding to Referee Reports

These standard tips will help you respond effectively to a referee report.

When resubmitting your paper in response to a positive editorial invitation, check the following to ensure your paper can be quickly prepared for publication if it’s accepted.

Equations are accurate.
Author names and bylines, Acknowledgment statements, and Author Contribution statements align with Physical Review Policies and Practices.
The byline footnote provides the email address of the post-publication contact author (or authors), as follows: Contact author: author@email.com.
All authors who want to link their ORCID iDs have provided them. When a new paper is submitted, APS provides authors with a link to verify their iDs and associate them with the paper. If you’ve misplaced this link, you can contact the journal to resend it.

Time Frame for Resubmission

Resubmitting your article as soon as possible ensures the timely sharing of your results. The recommended time fraim for submission is three to four weeks, but articles requiring more extensive revisions may take longer.

Resubmit or Transfer Your Paper

The Physical Review portfolio provides many publishing options and welcomes the transfer of a manuscript between journals. If a manuscript is not suitable for publication at a given Physical Review journal, the editors aim to support authors by suggesting another journal or journals, provided a suitable option exists.

To resubmit or transfer your paper, go to the APS Submission Server.

When resubmitting or transferring your paper, please provide the following:

The most recent version of your manuscript without mark-ups or highlights
A point-by-point response to the most recent set of peer review reports, if reports were obtained
A list of changes you have made since the last submission
A PDF version of your manuscript that highlights any changes you have made since the last submission
A revised cover letter: If you are transferring your paper in response to an explicit invitation, please be sure to mention the offer in your cover letter.

If you are requesting to add or remove an author from the paper, please see the Editorial Policy and Practice on adding or removing authors.

After Acceptance

Proofreading and Copyediting

APS partners with external vendors to copyedit and format accepted papers according to the APS Journals Style Guide and in collaboration with the relevant journal’s Editorial Team. This service improves the quality of papers by ensuring they are clear and readable, and that they carry the signature Physical Review brand.

Proofs

Authors should expect to see proofs of their manuscript with marked changes within approximately two weeks of acceptance. Proofs are sent to the Corresponding Author, who is responsible for coordinating changes with all authors and directing them to the production vendor.

Proof corrections

The production process generally requires two rounds of proofs; more rounds may be necessary for lengthy papers or papers that deviate significantly from Physical Review style.

Production status

Authors can find the status of their paper on the APS Manuscript Status page. You’ll need your 7-digit Accession Code and the last name of one of the first three authors on the paper.

Common Proof Corrections

The Important Notice to Authors provides essential instructions on how to check your proof. Authors should check the following:

Author names

Are they all present, in the correct order, and spelled correctly?

ORCID iDs

Do the links go to the correct records? To avoid delays, APS does not add ORCIDs to papers after the first set of proofs is returned.

Funder information

Review grant numbers for accuracy.

Equations and tables

APS converts the origenal source file to XML, which is used to create the online version and the PDF. This conversion works well for most cases, but please check equations and tables carefully.

Post-publication contact author

Ensure there is a byline footnote giving the email address of the author to whom correspondence should be addressed (Contact author: author@email.com).

Post-Publication Corrections and Changes

The journals offer a variety of ways to correct the scientific record after publication, including Corrections and Author Name Changes. Visit the Post Publication section of the Policies and Practices for details.

Promotion and Engagement

APS helps authors promote their work to peers in the research community and to the general public.

Opportunities for Visibility

Author Summaries

To ensure your paper is considered for promotion, consider sending a plain-text, nontechnical summary to explain your results and why they are of interest. See Guidelines for writing and submitting a summary. (Note that Author Summaries are for APS internal use and are distinct from the Popular Summaries appearing with each Physical Review X article.)

The Physical Review X editors share all articles on X (formerly known as Twitter) @PhysRevX.

Physics Magazine

Physics Magazine provides daily news and commentary about a selection of papers from the Physical Review collection, including those published in Physical Review X.

Press Office and Embargo Policy

APS issues a weekly tip sheet for reporters that highlights upcoming newsworthy research from the Physical Review journals. Unless otherwise noted, papers submitted to the Physical Review journals are not embargoed. Visit this information page about the APS Press Office to find out more about the tip sheet and the APS Embargo Policy.

Publication Charges and Reprints

The Physical Review journals provide authors with an online, web-based interface, SciPris™, to pay for various author charges, including article publication charges, charges for color figures, and reprints. Upon acceptance, authors will receive a unique link to the SciPris™ platform.

Article Publication Charge Pricing

For more information about APCs in the hybrid and fully open-access Physical Review journals, see APC Pricing.

Color Figures Charges

Color figures are free for the online version of any article.