| Discipline | Physics |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Randall Kamien Debbie Brodbar |
| Publication details | |
| History | 1929–present |
| Publisher | American Physical Society (United States) |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| 44.1 (2022) | |
| Standard abbreviations | |
| ISO 4 | Rev. Mod. Phys. |
| MathSciNet | Rev. Modern Phys. |
| Indexing | |
| CODEN | RMPHAT |
| ISSN | 0034-6861 (print) 1539-0756 (web) |
| LCCN | 31021290 |
| OCLC no. | 5975699 |
| Links | |
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]