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Reviews of Modern Physics
Peer-reviewed journal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Reviews of Modern Physics (often abbreviated RMP) is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society. Michael Thoennessen is the current editor-in-chief. Established in 1929,[1] the journal publishes review articles, usually by established researchers, on all aspects of physics and related fields. It is one of the most prestigious journals of its kind today.[2] Its intended readers include not just professional physicists, but also university students, university and high-school instructors, as well as scientifically literate members of the general public.[2] The RMP occasionally publishes articles concerning topics that are also of interest to people outside of physics, such as the safety of light-water nuclear reactors, the feasibility of the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), and the nature of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule.[3]
Over the years, the editors of the journal included John Torrence Tate (1929–41, 1947), who worked on antisubmarine warfare during the Second World War; Samuel Goudsmit (1951–57), co-discover of quantum spin; and Edward Condon (1951–68), member of the Manhattan Engineer District.[3] The journal has published several historically significant papers on quantum foundations,[4] as well as the development of the Standard Model of particle physics.[5][6]
During the early years of the journal, the United States was supplanting Germany as the leading nation for physics, and English was becoming more common in scientific communications.[2] While review papers were nothing new, they were published only sporadically. The RMP was the first of its kind, fulfilling an unmet need among physicists. [2] At that time, the focus was on reviewing the research literature on largely established branches of physics. Fields in which there were controversies or unanswered questions were generally excluded.[3] By the 1950s and 1960s, however, the journal faced falling readership and the editorial board decided to expand the scope of the journal to include topics at the frontier of research.[3] Former editor Edward Condon was of the opinion that writing review articles should be part of the training of graduate students in physics and one of the responsibilities of physicists.[3]
Among the most cited papers in the Reviews of Modern Physics are three by Hans Bethe on nuclear physics (1936–7),[2] one my Enrico Fermi on quantum electrodynamics (1932), one by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar on stochastic processes in astronomy and physics (1943);[3] one by Howard Percy Robertson on relativistic cosmology (1931),[2] two by Clemens Roothaan on molecular orbitals (1951) and electronic systems (1960),[3] and one by Kurt Alder, Aage Bohr, Torben Huus, Ben Mottelson, and Aage Winther on nuclear structure (1956).[3] Some of the top papers in this journal were written by Nobel laureates.[3] Since the 1960s, multiple authorship has become more frequent.[3] Authors of the most cited papers were affiliated with Bell Laboratories; the University of Chicago; the Argonne National Laboratory, the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology); and the University of California at Berkeley, Irvine, and San Diego.[3]
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