Chief Editor Behind the World’s Most-Cited Physics Journal Aims for Expansion

Physical Review Letters is a peer-reviewed, short-format physics journal that publishes research in any physics or physics-adjacent field. According to Clarivate Analytics’ latest Journal Citation Reports, the journal has the most total annual citations in the field of physics. Since its launch in 1958, it has published a larger volume of Nobel-Prize-winning physics research than any other journal. Even with this impeccable track record, the journal’s editors are always looking for ways to improve. We chatted with Robert Garisto, the journal’s chief editor, to learn more about how it is evolving to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse and expansive physics research community.

What makes Physical Review Letters different from other journals?

Physical Review Letters has considerable impact — not just in the physics world, but compared to any journal that covers a single field, like physics, chemistry, or biology. We stand as the most-cited physics journal in the world, and the second most-cited journal covering an entire field. We also hold our own with journals like Nature and Science, which cover all scientific disciplines, by publishing groundbreaking studies like the first observation of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo collaborations.

We are also larger than journals of similar scope and selectivity. We publish roughly 2,000 Letters per year, and we welcome and encourage research from any physics or physics-adjacent field — including interdisciplinary and applied research. We are unique in our combination of longevity, selectivity, size, and breadth.

You joined the American Physical Society as an editor for Physical Review Letters 30 years ago, but you stepped into your current role as chief editor in 2022. What have you been up to since taking the helm?

About half of my time is still spent handling paper submissions — that is, selecting peer reviewers from the external research community, and ultimately deciding whether a paper is impactful, innovative, and interesting enough to warrant acceptance in the journal. I also engage with scientists at research conferences around the world to learn about what they’re working on, and, sometimes, encourage submission of that work.

The other half of my role is focused on managing a large, talented team of editors, and on implementing changes that will expand the journal’s scope, accessibility, and reach. This includes, among other things, format changes to make Letters clearer and more versatile. Our Letters are limited to four pages to prioritize conciseness and broad readership, but we’ll soon be allowing authors to include up to about two extra pages of specialized content, like appendices, which we’ve named “End Matter.”

We’ve also introduced and are currently formalizing a new type of article, called an Essay, which focuses on the open problems in a particular area — like a review paper, but forward looking. It’s a great introduction to future directions of certain research areas, which could be especially useful for early-career and interdisciplinary scientists.

In what direction do you hope to take the journal in the future?

I’d like to break down barriers and expand our scope. Many researchers in the community aren’t aware that we publish more than just fundamental physics research. We liken ourselves to a large marketplace of ideas with many well-stocked stalls. We’re looking for all physics-related research — materials, biophysics, chemical physics, astrophysics, climate physics. The list goes on. In an effort to publish more climate-related studies, we recently introduced a new subsection that focuses specifically on climate physics, mitigation, and renewable technology.

The American Physical Society would also like to expand its global reach, especially in China. We’re grateful for the expertise brought to all of the Society’s journals by 28 board members and two associate editors based in China, who help us build connections with research communities there. Recently, we have been organizing outreach visits with faculty and junior researchers at Chinese research institutions to strengthen our relationships with these scientists. In fact, last month we virtually met and chatted with leading physicists at Zhejiang University. We plan to do more of this kind of outreach in the future. We’d like to be a resource for scientists from around the globe who want to submit their papers and participate in the peer review process.