- Focus and Coverage
- Editors
- Editorial Advisory Board
- Editorial Policies
- Publication Charges &
Open Access Fees - Contact
Focus and Coverage
Applied Physics Letters features concise, up-to-date reports on significant new findings in applied physics. Emphasizing rapid dissemination of key data and new physical insights, Applied Physics Letters offers prompt publication of new experimental and theoretical papers bearing on applications of physics phenomena to all branches of science, engineering, and modern technology.
Topics covered in Applied Physics Letters are diverse and reflect the most important subjects in applied physics, including:
Photonics and Optoelectronics
Surfaces and Interfaces
Structural, Mechanical, Optical, and Thermodynamic Properties of Advanced Materials
Semiconductors
Magnetics and Spintronics
Superconductivity and Superconducting Electronics
Dielectrics, Ferroelectrics, and Multiferroics
Nanoscale Science and Technology
Organic Electronics and Photonics
Device Physics
Biophysics and Bio-Inspired Systems
Energy Conversion and Storage
Interdisciplinary and General Physics
2013 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2014)*:
Applied Physics Letters retains the top spot as the most highly cited
journal in Applied Physics, (Thomson Reuters, 2014)
Five-Year Impact Factor | 3.739 |
Impact Factor | 3.515 |
Immediacy Index | 0.616 |
Cited Half-Life | 6.4 |
EigenFactor Score | 0.58820 |
Article Influence Score | 1.351 |
* Data from the 2013 Journal Citation Reports® Science Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2014).
ISSN
The international standard serial number (ISSN) for Applied Physics Letters is 0003-6951.
The CODEN is APPLAB.
Editors
Editor-in-Chief
Reuben T. Collins (click for biography)
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA
http://physics.mines.edu/people/phpfiles/collins.php
Deputy Editors
Alexander A. Balandin (click for biography)
University of California-Riverside, CA, USA
http://www.ee.ucr.edu/~balandin/
Qing Hu (click for biography)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
http://www.rle.mit.edu/people/directory/qing-hu/
David Long Price (click for biography)
CNRS-Centre de Recherche sur les Matériaux à Haute Température, Orleans, France
http://www.cemhti.cnrs-orleans.fr/contact/PeopleFile.aspx?Id=35
Associate Editors
Orlando Auciello (The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA) |
Samuel D. Bader (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA) |
Dongmin Chen (Peking University, Beijing, China) |
Fabrizio Cleri (Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, France) |
Shanhui Fan (Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA) |
Hong-Jun Gao (Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China) |
Christoph H. Grein (University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA) |
David S. Kupperman (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA) |
Roger K. Lake (University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA) |
Liang-Sheng Liao (Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials, Soochow University, China) |
Minn-Tsong Lin (National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan) |
Maria Antonietta Loi (University College Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands) |
Kenjiro Miyano (National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan) |
Paul R. Okamoto (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA) |
Lynn E. Rehn (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA) |
Marie-Louise Saboungi (CNRS- Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux, et de Cosmochimie, Paris, France |
Alessandro Tredicucci (Instituto Nanoscienze, Consiglio Nazionale Delle Richerche, Pisa, Italy) |
Susan E. Trolier-McKinstry (Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA) |
Linda Young (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA) |
Editor, 1994 – 2014: | Nghi Q. Lam |
Editor, 1990 – 1994: | Hartmut Wiedersich |
Editor, 1976 – 1989: | Gilbert J. Perlow |
Editor, 1974 – 1975 (Acting): | Thomas H. Braid |
Editor, 1971 – 1973: | Gilbert J. Perlow |
Editor, 1965 – 1970: | Frank E. Myers |
Editor, 1962 – 1964: | J. H. Crawford, Jr. |
Editorial Advisory Board
-
Term ending 31 December 2015
Yasuhiko Arakawa (University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan)
Cid B. de Araújo (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil)
Xi-Qiao Feng (Tsinghua University, Beijing, China)
Kevin L. Jensen (Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA)
Sergei V. Kalinin (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA)
Beatriz Noheda (University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)
James S. Speck (University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA) -
Term ending 31 December 2016
David G. Cahill (University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA)
Shangjr Gwo (National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan)
Tae Won Noh (Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea) -
Term ending 31 December 2017
Long-Qing Chen (Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA)
Mark Hersam (Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA)
Thomas F. Kuech (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA)
Nghi Q. Lam (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA)
José Menéndez (Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA)
Hiro Munekata (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan)
Jochen M. Schneider (RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany)
P. James Viccaro (The University of Chicago, Chiacgo, IL, USA)
Editorial Policies
The Review Process
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Applied Physics Letters (APL) is published by the AIP Publishing LLC. The Editor, aided by the Associate Editors and the Editorial Board, is responsible for the content and other editorial matters related to the Journal. Submitted manuscripts are initially screened for their suitability by our Reviewing Editors in the Editorial Office, and those that appear appropriate for publication in APL are sent to an expert referee for evaluation, and may be sent to another referee for a second review. It is our intention to reach a decision on the disposition of a paper on the basis of no more than two rounds of reviewing. Only for exceptional situations will an additional review be undertaken. Such extended reviews are time-consuming, and should not be used as a mechanism to change an otherwise unacceptable manuscript into an acceptable publication.
An author may appeal an editor's decision to reject a manuscript by making a request to the editor that the case be reviewed by the Publisher of AIP. The Publisher will not make direct decisions whether or not a paper should be accepted for publication, but rather will assess whether procedures were followed properly. Additional rounds of review or adjudication would only be called for if proper procedures were not followed.
Criteria For Publication
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Papers are accepted for publication in APL according to the following criteria:
Content: APL offers prompt publication of short experimental and theoretical reports on significant findings in applied physics and closely related disciplines. To be acceptable for publication in APL, the submission should accomplish one or more of the following:
- * Report research that makes a substantial advance in applied physics and closely related disciplines
- * Advance new or emerging fields that influence the direction of applied science
- * Develop innovative technology using underlying physical principles
- * Present scientific advances that cross multiple disciplines generating new avenues of science dialogue
- * Take critical steps toward real world applications
Novelty: Emphasizing rapid dissemination of key data and new physical insights, APL only publishes papers containing new results that have not been submitted elsewhere. With rapid growth in journal size, we are no longer able to consider for publication every submission that is merely free from error. We aim at publishing papers that represent substantial advancement of established knowledge or that report significant novel developments. .Particular requirements have been established for papers that focus on device proposals and materials preparations.
We discourage use of words like "new" and "novel" because of their redundancy. In fact, if the findings are not new or novel, they should not be submitted to APL. Other trivial priority claims, such as "for the first time," should also be eliminated. Similarly, the escape clause "to our knowledge" should be avoided, because the reader has no idea of how diligently and competently the writer has searched for prior work in the field.
Timeliness: One of the questions on the reviewer's checklist is: "Is the paper especially important, interesting, and timely enough to warrant rapid publication in Applied Physics Letters?" A fraction of papers, which report new results but in a mature field, do not fulfill the condition of timeliness required by APL, and should be submitted for consideration as a Communication elsewhere.
Serial Submissions: Publication of ongoing work in a series of papers should be avoided. We believe that, while there is a need for rapid communication of important results, the literature becomes fractured and less accessible when serial publication of specialized advances becomes the norm. Serial submissions designed solely to meet the length requirement are not suitable for publication in APL. Instead, the authors should report their results in a full-length paper for submission to a regular journal. The scientific community will be better served by a comprehensive paper than by several separate Letters.
Readability: Manuscripts must be written in correct American English. This is the responsibility of the authors, not the editors. Papers that are judged to be below the standards for APL will be returned to the authors for rewriting and can be rejected for the language reason alone. Such problems may be avoided and publication expedited if the manuscript is edited by an English-speaking colleague or a professional editing service before the initial submission.
Length: Applied Physics Letters has a firm policy of returning manuscripts that exceed the length limit of 3500 words to the author for shortening before consideration. If a manuscript requires more than this it is not a Letter and should be submitted to a regular journal. Guidelines for estimating length are included in the Author Instructions
Format: Author Instructions are published in the first issue of every volume, twice a year, and is also posted on the Journal's website. Rapid changes in publication technology require that authors follow the instructions for preparation of figures with particular care (for detailed information, see
http://publishing.aip.org/authors/journal-guidelines).
Bylines: It is the responsibility of the person submitting the paper to ensure that all authors approve the inclusion of their names on the byline. In addition, whenever the name of a co-author is removed from, or added to, the byline of a paper after the date of submission, we must have a signed concurrence of that co-author before publication.
Copyright: Applied Physics Letters requires that copyright be assigned to the American Institute of Physics. It is a tradition of long standing that submission to APL implies that the work has neither been copyrighted, nor accepted for publication elsewhere. Since copyright transfer is required before publication, electronic acceptance of the Transfer of Copyright Agreement during the submission process can prevent unnecessary delays. APL also requires authors to inform the editors if a paper has been previously submitted to another journal, whether or not it is currently active with that journal.
Patents: Submission of manuscripts that contain patentable ideas is at the author's risk, and neither APL nor the American Institute of Physics assumes any responsibility in this regard.
Comments and Responses
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Although our text pages are reserved for reports on original research, from time to time APL also publishes a section of short Comments and Responses. The following rules apply:
1. The main purpose of the Comment is to point out and correct significant errors or deficiencies in APL articles or to take issue with the conclusions reached. Another purpose is to inject additional insight or corroboration even when the article is not believed to contain an error. We would like Comments to be concise, substantive, and free of polemics. They are meant to address scientific issues only. We wish to avoid controversy on all questions of priority; the scientific community at large derives insufficient benefits from such comments. In addition, calling attention to an oversight in a reference list will generally not be considered publishable.
2. The Comment should take up not more than one journal page, roughly 1000 words. The title should read: Comment on "original title" [APL volume, page (year)]. Reference lists, tables, figures, and figure captions must all be considered when estimating page length.
3. A Response to the Comment will normally be solicited from the authors of the Letter in question. Just as the Comment, the Response must also conform to the above requirements, and can only contain 1000 words or less. The title of the response should read: Response to 'Comment on "original title"' [APL volume, page (year)]. Both Comment and Response will be reviewed by an anonymous referee. If the Comment is rejected, neither will be published. If the Response alone is rejected, the Comment will be published without the Response. No further exchange beyond this point can be considered for publication. If both are accepted, the Comment and the Response will appear in the same issue. As these processes can be time consuming, we cannot guarantee as rapid a publication schedule as we maintain for regular submissions.
4. Since a Comment is published only if it is informative to the readership and if the same result cannot be achieved either by an Erratum, Addendum, or by a separate article in another journal, authors of a Comment are encouraged to first contact the authors of the Letter in question for a direct response before submitting their Comment to APL. However, the Editor does not require such a step.
Retraction and Correction Policies
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AIP takes its responsibility to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record of our content for all end users very seriously. AIP places great importance on the authority of articles after they have been published and our policy is based on best practice in the academic publishing community. Changes to articles after they have been published online may only be made under the circumstances outlined in AIP's Retraction and Correction Policies which can be accessed here.
Transfers
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It is possible to transfer a rejected manuscript to another AIP journal for consideration. A list and descriptions can be found here: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip. Carefully review the acceptance criteria for the journal you believe would be appropriate for your manuscript. If you feel that your manuscript would be appropriate for publication in another of AIP's journals you may request a transfer by email. Please note that transferring manuscript files does not guarantee that the manuscript will be considered by the receiving journal. It is only meant to offer the technical facility to allow transfer of manuscript files and correspondence without the inconvenience of having to resubmit from journal to journal.
Publication Charges
Page & Open Access Charges
To support the cost of wide dissemination of research results through publication of journal pages and production of a database of articles, the author's institution is requested to pay a page charge of $115 per page (with a one-page minimum) and an article charge of $20 per article. For Errata the minimum page charge is $115, with no article charge.
Through participation in Author Select® and payment of a $2200 fee in support of both publication and archiving costs, authors can provide free online access to a published article, in perpetuity, to any online user. More details on this option may be found in the Open Access Publication section of this website. Authors may indicate their intention to participate in Author Select when submitting new or revised manuscripts at the journal’s submission website. Payment of the $2200 Author Select fee includes all charges other than for reprints and must be paid prior to publication of your article
Information regarding payment of these charges will be provided following acceptance for publication. Inquiries concerning page charge and open access fees should be addressed to:
Publication Page Charge and Reprints
AIP Publishing LLC
1305 Walt Whitman Road
Suite 300
Melville, NY 11747-4502
USA
Telephone: 1-800-344-6909 (U.S. and Canada) or +1 516-576-2270
FAX: +1 516-349-9704
E-mail: pcr@aip.org
Color Printing
Illustrations will appear in color in the online journal free of charge to authors. To take advantage of this free service, authors must (i) supply usable color graphics files (.eps, .ps, .tif, or .pdf only), (ii) transmit graphics files in time for utilization during the production process, (iii) submit only one version of each graphics file, (iv) ensure that colors chosen will reproduce well when printed in black & white, and (v) ensure that descriptions of figures in text will be sufficiently clear for both print and online versions.
Authors or their institutions must bear the cost of any color they wish to use in the printed journal. As of 1 January 2009, a fixed rate of $325 for each color figure applies for color in print. For multipart figures, a single charge will apply only if all parts are submitted as a single piece of artwork.
For color in the printed journal, authors are required to sign an acknowledgment of color charges prior to publication of an article with color figures. When ordering reprints with color, authors will be charged an additional $40 per color page per 100 reprints.
Direct inquiries concerning free online color and color printing charges to AIP Production Services.
Contact
Editorial Office
Contact the APL Editorial Office at:
Applied Physics LettersAIP Publishing LLC
1305 Walt Whitman Road
Suite 300
Melville, NY 11747-4300, USA
Telephone: +1 516-576-2344
E-mail: apl-edoffice@aip.org
AIP Publishing Production Office
Authors of accepted manuscripts may contact the AIP Production Office at:
Editorial SupervisorApplied Physics Letters
AIP Publishing LLC
1305 Walt Whitman Road
Suite 300
Melville, NY 11747-4300, USA
Telephone: +1 516-576-2345/2371/2417
Fax: +1 516-576-2233
E-mail: apl@aip.org