Audience and mission

The mission of the American Journal of Physics (AJP) is to publish articles on the educational and cultural aspects of physics that are useful, interesting, and accessible to a diverse audience of physics students, educators, and researchers who are generally reading outside their specialties in order to broaden their understanding of physics and to expand and enhance their pedagogical toolkits at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We particularly encourage manuscripts that discuss already published contemporary research that can be used directly or indirectly in the classroom.

Before submitting a manuscript to AJP, please read this document and also consult the “Statement of Editorial Policy.”

Authors are expected to perform a thorough literature search before submitting a manuscript. It is particularly easy to search AJP using the search function at AJP Online. Most other journals have similar facilities. Manuscripts with clearly inadequate references will be returned without review.

To be publishable in AJP, a manuscript should be evidently written for and useful, interesting, and accessible to physicists from outside the specific subdiscipline that is the subject of the manuscript.

Technical correctness is a necessary, but entirely insufficient criterion for acceptance. Other expectations include clarity of presentation and a significant level of general interest to AJP's diverse audience. Authors should ask a colleague to read and critique their manuscripts before submission. Authors whose native language is not English should have someone with an excellent command of written English read their manuscript and help them with revisions to improve the grammar and usage.

Criteria that will be used in evaluating the appropriateness of submitted manuscripts include the following:

• Would it be of value to undergraduate or graduate teachers or students of physics? (This criterion does not mean that the content needs to be immediately applicable in the classroom — the benefit may be, and often is indirect. Nevertheless, the educational motivation of the manuscript should be evident and unstrained.)
• Would it aid significantly in the process of learning physics?
• Does it provide enough background information to be accessible to readers from other subdisciplines of physics?
• Does it describe new ways of understanding, demonstrating, describing or teaching physics?
• Does it take proper cognizance of previous work on the same subject, regardless of where it may have appeared?
• Is it well organized and written in a clear and interesting manner?
• Especially for more theoretical/mathematical manuscripts: Is the presentation clearly motivated by application to physical phenomena and does it provide significant insight about the phenomena?
• Especially for manuscripts significantly longer than our average of 4000 to 5000 words: Is the length justified by the value of the contents?

Manuscripts that are not acceptable include but are not limited to the following:

• Those announcing new theories or experimental results.
• Those that seem to have been written for research journals.
• Those that merely solve a textbook type problem.
• Those that provide a detailed calculation with little or no physical insight.
• Those that provide an alternative derivation of a standard result, without providing significant new insight, a significantly new way of thinking, or a much simpler approach.
• Those that have very limited interest.

1. Initial Processing

Upon receipt of a new submission, an acknowledgment will be sent to the submitting author. Each manuscript is given an AJP editorial office manuscript number. Please use this number in all correspondence with the editorial office and label any subsequent revisions with this number.

The Editor will perform a cursory review to determine whether or not

• the topic, level, and intended audience of the manuscript are reasonably aligned with AJP's Editorial Policy,
• the writing is sufficiently clear 1) so that reviewers will not needlessly expend their own valuable time trying to interpret the author's intent and 2) so that a fair review may be obtained,
• the introduction and references therein suggest that a thorough literature search has been performed, and
• the format of the manuscript reasonably observes the instructions in this document.

If the manuscript is found not to meet these most fundamental requirements it may be summarily rejected.

If the manuscript is sent out for review, we try to provide a report to authors within three (3) months of the date of receipt. Often it takes less time, but delays are also sometimes unavoidable. Correspondence concerning manuscripts with more than one author should come from the originally submitting author and include the AJP editorial office manuscript number.

2. External review

The external review process is initiated when the Editor sends the manuscript out for review. Reviewers are asked to review the Information for Reviewers document and to submit a report addressing the items indicated in our Report Form.

When the reports are returned, the Editor makes a decision based on the recommendations received and the number of previous revisions and informs the submitter in a decision letter.

Decisions on initial submissions

• If the reviews are negative or insufficiently strong to support continued editorial consideration, the manuscript will be rejected. (Note: Because of the very large number of submissions that AJP receives and our high standards for interest, usefulness, and accessibility to our audience, only about 40% of those manuscripts that qualify for external review are ultimately accepted for publication.)
• In most other cases, including cases where the reviews are mixed, the manuscript will be returned for revision with suggestions and directions for resubmission. With the resubmission, authors must include a cover letter that summarizes the revisions and provides responses to the issues and questions raised by the Editor and/or the reviewers. Upon resubmission the manuscript will usually be sent back to the previous reviewers and occasionally to new reviewers for re-review.
• In very rare cases the initial reviews are strong enough to support conditional acceptance (see below).

Decisions on resubmissions

The bar is set a little higher for resubmissions that have enjoyed the benefit of initial review. This is the time to end editorial consideration of any manuscript that fails to show very significant promise of conditional acceptance after one more review.

• If the reviews are not, at this point, relatively strong, the manuscript will be rejected.
• Some manuscripts will enjoy strong reviews, but still need to be returned for further revisions. Resubmissions must include a cover letter that summarizes the new revisions and provides responses to the remaining issues and questions raised by the Editor and/or the reviewers.
• Manuscripts with strong reviews including only optional suggestions for further revision and that are essentially publishable in their current form (other than relatively minor issues of format and English grammar and usage), will be conditionally accepted.

"Conditional acceptance" is an indication that a manuscript has completed the external review process and is now qualified for internal review and editing. Note: No manuscript is "accepted for publication" until it has completed the internal review and editing process.

3. Internal review (after conditional acceptance)

The external review process is the first stage that a manuscript goes through to be considered for publication. Manuscripts are accepted only after both the Editor and the Associate Editor have edited the manuscript. The reason for this additional editing is that reviewers may miss aspects of a manuscript that only become evident upon detailed editing. Often reviewers are too close to the subject of the manuscript and may not flag portions that are unclear to a more general audience.

During the internal review process, the editors perform their own careful review of the manuscript and work with authors to improve a manuscript's clarity and general readability and to remove redundancy. The process generally includes one or more correspondences asking the author to approve changes, to remove ambiguities, to rewrite sections, to submit better figures, etc. Authors have the final say on all matters including wording and the editors will generally accept an author's preferred language as long as it conforms to accepted standards of English grammar and usage.

Only when the editors and authors are satisfied with a manuscript, is it accepted for publication and sent to the American Institute of Physics (AIP) for detailed copy editing and publication.

4. Copy editing and publication (after acceptance for publication)

After a manuscript is accepted for publication and sent to AIP, the author will be asked to submit a Transfer of Copyright Form and to correspond with AIP as necessary on other matters including correction and approval of the completed galley proofs sent to them by AIP.

Authors should return any corrections to the galleys to AIP as soon as possible. A limited number of alterations in proof are unavoidable, but the cost of making extensive corrections and changes after an article has been composed will be charged to the author. Final responsibility for correcting errors lies with the author.

The information in the Manuscript Format Details section below generally applies to all manuscripts submitted to AJP. (And remember that all materials should be submitted online as indicated in the How to Submit section.)

What you submit, however, depends on the stage of the review process:

INITIAL SUBMISSIONS: Single, self-contained PDF of entire manuscript

For initial submissions and all resubmissions during the external review process, we require a single PDF document (strongly preferred) or MSWord document (but see below) comprising the entire manuscript (including figures) and under 1.0 MB in size if at all possible so that it does not cause difficulties when sent by email to reviewers.

AFTER CONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE: Editable package

After conditional acceptance and during the internal review process, we require the submission of an editable package* consisting of

1. A single LaTeX/REVTeX document (strongly preferred) or MSWord (but see below) document that includes everything except the figures.

• Check your manuscript for conformance with the Manuscript Format Details section of this document.
• Do not separate out the bibliography, appendices, acknowledgements, etc.
• Collect all tables and table captions after everything except figure captions.
• Collect all figure captions at the very end of the document.
• Name the document in the form: Author_name.tex or Author_name.doc
• Most important of all : Perform a final, very careful proofreading—and ask a trusted colleague to do the same—not merely to eliminate any remaining typos and grammatical errors, but especially to make sure
  • that every word is chosen with care,
  • that every sentence says just what you mean it to say as economically, yet unambiguously as possible,
  • that all terms and symbols are well defined, and
  • that the likely needs of your audience are well attended to at every step.

2. All figures in individual EPS (preferred), PS, or TIFF documents.

• Label figure files in the form: Author_nameFig04.eps
• Multipart figures should be composed as a single figure with part labels (e.g., a, b, etc) included in the figure, but may be submitted in parts (e.g., "...Fig04a.eps, ...Fig04b.eps, etc.")

3. (Optional, but recommended) An author's reference PDF file (labeled in the form: Author_name.au.pdf) of the entire manuscript including the figures (and captions) and tables (and captions) in their intended approximate positions.

4. If the package includes an EPAPS archive submission, put all of the EPAPS materials in a folder labeled in the form: Author_name_EPAPS.

All of these materials should be conbined into a single ZIP archive and uploaded into the submission form as the manuscript.

* NOTE: The internal review process usually entails one or more rounds of additional revision. However, after the initial submission of an editable package, you need only resubmit the revised or new elements.

Important note: LaTeX or MSWord?

Authors are strongly encouraged to use LaTeX/REVTeX for the composition of their manuscript. Equations can be set easily and with more precision and because LaTeX documents are plain text, they have complete cross-platform compatibility and can significantly speed the internal review process. The desired style for REVTeX4 is prb. Avoid using uncommon style files. See the Introduction to LaTeX document on the AJP Web site for more information. See especially the LaTeX sample file that you should use as a template. Follow the format used in that file for references and remember that citation superscripts are placed after, not before punctuation marks.

We do tentatively accept MSWord documents subject to the requirement that we can read and work with the files, including especially equations. MSWord is generally a poor choice for scientific word processing. It is slower to write down and edit equations in MSWord than in LaTEX, and the control over formatting is usually very poor. Also, authors may be tempted to use add-ons that we do not have. Thus, use only the equation editor that is built into MSWord and use only standard fonts. Frequently, authors must redo their MSWord submissions because various symbols and equations do not appear when we read their files on our computers. MSWord files must be readable in both Windows and Macintosh OSX operating systems. Refer to the AIP instructions on the use of MSWord documents and consider using the template provided at that site.

Form

Manuscript should be double-spaced (approximately 3 lines/inch), using standard font size (approximately 10 characters/inch). Margins of about 1.5 inch width should be left on the top, sides, and bottom. All manuscript pages should be numbered.

General Style

The Style Manual of the American Institute of Physics, 4th ed. (1990) contains further information on the preparation of manuscripts, including a list of standard abbreviations, correct rules of punctuation, spelling, choice of symbols, and suggestions for the arrangement and numbering of equations. Although this document is dated and no longer in print it is generally to be considered the authoritative reference unless there is a conflict with information appearing on the AJP website, in which case the latter takes precedence.

Authors are expected to cooperate with the editors in wording their manuscripts in a manner consistent with the fact that the physicists, students, and teachers who read AJP include both women and men.

Length

Authors should understand that, all other things being equal, readership and length are inversely related. The average AJP paper consists of 4000 to 5000 words. Longer manuscripts will be subject to higher expectations with respect to the interest and usefulness of their content during the review process.

Abstracts

Every article in the PAPERS section of the Journal must be prefaced by an abstract. Abstracts are optional for contributions to the NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS section.

Organization

Organize your manuscript into sections using roman numerals and all cap titles (e.g., "IV. DISCUSSION".) Subsections are indicated by capital letters and mixed case titles (e.g. "B. Study 2: The algebra-based course") .

Manuscripts generally begin (after the abstract) with an INTRODUCTION that is followed by sections that are titled as appropriate and end with CONCLUSIONS (or CONCLUDING REMARKS) and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Appendices, if any, appear immediately after the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and before the (untitled) list of endnotes.

Introduction

Because AJP readers will in general not be specialists in the subject matter, it is especially incumbent upon authors to provide sufficient background material in the introduction. Extra effort should be expended to insure that the introduction is inviting, interesting, informative, and generally useful in its own right.

Toward the end of the introduction, provide a brief outline of the rest of the paper organized by the contents of each subsequent (numbered) section.

Units

Authors are encouraged to use SI units, but use of SI units is not mandatory if other units are more appropriate.

Equations

Each equation should appear on a separate line with proper punctuation placed before and after it.

All equations must be numbered sequentially. The number of the equation, in parentheses, should be placed near the right-hand margin.

Avoid bars either above or below letters. Avoid subscripts on subscripts, etc. Adequate space must be allowed for marking of inferior and superior letters or numbers. Crowded equations lead to errors in composition.

Use the following format to refer to equations in the text:

"Equation (5) follows from substituting Eqs. (2) and (3) into Eq. (4)."

If using LaTeX (much preferred), equations should be labeled as \label{eqname} and referred to in the text by Eq.~(\ref{eqname}) or Eq.~\eqref{eqname}.

Illustrations and Figures

(NOTE: Please refer to the "What to Submit" section of this document for important information about the differing requirements for figures during the external versus internal review phases.)

Figures must be clear, well labeled, and not cluttered. Curves in graphs should not cover any text or axis labels.

Number figures in the order in which they are referred to in the text.

Include a caption with each figure as "Fig. 5. A schematic diagram of the circuit." Captions should be reasonably brief, but must adequately and clearly explain the figure contents.

Use the following format to refer to figures in the text:

"Figure 5 shows the results of the new analysis in the same format as Fig. 4."

Figures should be rendered in high resolution for publication. (Note: During the external review phase, it may be necessary to reduce the resolution somewhat to insure that the submitted manuscript is smaller than 1 MB in size.)

Remember that if and when your manuscript is "conditionally accepted," you will be required to submit each figure individually in EPS (preferred), PS, or TIFF format.

Color Figures

Figures submitted in color will appear in color online, but will not be printed in color unless the author is willing to assume responsibility for the expense.

Authors submitting color figures that will be printed in black and white are obliged to insure that the figures do not depend on color and that neither the manuscript nor the figure captions refer to the colors except that figure captions may include "(color online)" to indicate that a color version is available online.

Additional details about the costs for printing color figures and the expectations for color figures to be reproduced in black and white are available here.

Tables

(NOTE: See the "What to Submit" section of this document for information about the differing requirements for tables during the external versus internal review phases.)

Number tables with roman numerals in the order in which they are referred to in the text

Include a brief caption with each table as "Table IV. The raw data as obtained from . . . "

Use the following format to refer to tables in the text:

"As shown in Table IV, . . ."

Endnotes and Citations

AJP does not use footnotes, which appear at the bottom of a page; instead, AJP uses endnotes. Endnotes include auxiliary author information, literature citations, and explanatory annotations.

Endnotes should be double-spaced, grouped together at the end of the manuscript, in the same sequence that they first appear in the body of the manuscript.

Auxiliary author information, for instance including email addresses, should be listed at the beginning of the endnote section using superscripted Latin letters followed by right parentheses (e.g.," ^c) ").

Literature citations, and explanatory annotations use superscripted numbers (e.g.," ³ ").

Within the body of the manuscript, references to endnotes should appear as superscripts placed after any punctuation (CORRECT: ". . . as shown by Einstein.³ ", INCORRECT". . . as shown by Einstein³. ") or, when necessary, as "online citations" (e.g., ". . . as shown by Eq. 5 in Ref. 3, . . . ")

Explanatory endnotes may not themselves be footnoted.

The abstract must not contain endnoted references.

Format of Literature References

Endnote references to articles in periodicals should have the following form with the title of the article and the final (as well as the initial) page numbers. Use of the issue number is encouraged but not required unless the reference would otherwise be ambiguous (as for example for articles in Physics Today).

Freeman J. Dyson, “Feynman's proof of the Maxwell equations,” Am. J. Phys. 58 (3), 209-211 (1990).

An endnote reference to a book should have the following form (include page number or numbers when appropriate):

David J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 2nd ed. (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989), pp. 331–334.

Example of an article in an edited volume:

M. R. Flannery, “Elastic scattering,” in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Handbook, edited by G. W. F. Drake (AIP Press, NY, 1996), p. 520.

References to online material should include a brief description and/or title and the url enclosed in angle brackets:

Formatting information is available in the "Information for Contributors" document at the American Journal of Physics home page, <http://www.kzoo.edu/ajp/docs/information.html>.

Acknowledging the Help of Anonymous Reviewers

While it is not appropriate to acknowledge the assistance of the editors, it is always appropriate—and we urge authors—to consider acknowledging helpful comments and advice from our generous, conscientious, and anonymous reviewers.

EPAPS

If a manuscript has many figures, color figures, computer programs, or other material that is too lengthy to appear in the published paper, this material should be placed on EPAPS. This electronic depository is also useful for other media that cannot be put in print. See the AIP website for further details.

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How to Submit

Please submit materials online. See the Manuscript Submission Procedures document available from the AJP home page.