About Reports on Progress in Physics

Reports on Progress in Physics is a highly selective journal with a mission to publish ground-breaking new research and authoritative invited reviews of the highest quality and significance across all areas of physics and related areas. Articles must be essential reading for specialists, and likely to be of broader multidisciplinary interest with the expectation for long-term scientific impact and influence on the current state and/or future direction of a field.

NEW FOR 2023:

Building on the journal’s long-standing reputation as a source of landmark seminal reviews in all areas of physics, Reports on Progress in Physics is now open for original research submissions with an open access option for all authors. Read the announcement.

“Reports on Progress in Physics (ROPP) has a long history of serving the entire physics community. It is established as one of the world’s most authoritative journals for the field, boasting an archive of seminal and influential review content. The introduction of original research as a new option for authors means that ROPP will be a home for even more essential research content for the benefit of its multidisciplinary audience. The original research content will reinforce the journal’s long-standing reputation as one of the most important resources for physicists at all career stages.”

– Subir Sachdev, Editor-in-Chief, Harvard University, USA

In addition to all fundamental areas of physics, Reports on Progress in Physics encourages interdisciplinary and applied research at the interface of established disciplines across the physical sciences. Core areas of coverage include (but are not limited to):

• Astrophysics, cosmology and space science
• Atomic and molecular physics
• Biophysics and soft matter
• Computational science and machine learning
• Condensed matter and materials science
• Environmental science, energy and sustainability
• Nuclear and high energy particle physics
• Mathematical physics
• Measurement and instrumentation
• Medical physics
• Nanotechnology
• Optics, photonics and imaging
• Physical chemistry
• Plasma science
• Quantum science and technology
• Statistical physics and complex systems

NEW FOR 2023:

Building on the journal’s long-standing reputation as a source of landmark seminal reviews in all areas of physics, Reports on Progress in Physics is now open for original research submissions with an open access option for all authors. The journal welcomes submissions of the following article types:

• Letters: concise, high urgency research articles that report a new result/advance that is essential reading for specialists, and likely to be of broader multidisciplinary interest with the expectation for long-term scientific impact and influence on the current state and/or future direction of a field. As a guide, Letters should not generally be more than eight journal pages (or around 4500 words) in length. Authors are required to provide a cover letter including a Justification Statement as part of the submission process (see below).
• Research Papers: longer articles that report a new result/advance that is essential reading for specialists, and likely to be of broader multidisciplinary interest with the expectation for long-term scientific impact and influence on the current state and/or future direction of a field. Article length is flexible but as a guide, Research Papers are typically of the order of 12,000 words. Authors are required to provide a cover letter including a Justification Statement as part of the submission process (see below).
• Review Articles: present the mature development of an area of physics that has resulted in significant advances of wide interest to physics and related disciplines. Interpretations and conclusions of the research reviewed have achieved broad consensus, and the intent of the article is to organize and clearly present these accomplishments to a broader scientific community. The review is a scholarly work and should be reasonably exhaustive in citations and bibliography, but should not be considered a monograph intended for a restricted community of specialists. Review articles are typically about 30 journal pages in length.
• Reports on Progress: a report on progress recounts the present status of a rapidly evolving field of intense interest but whose final contours have not yet fully developed. A report on progress provides an accurate and well-organized presentation of the present status of research results even if these results and their interpretation are not in universal accord. Indeed, one of the essential features of a report on progress is to identify significant disagreements whose resolution would lead to further advances. Citations and bibliography should provide key entry points into the field but need not be as exhaustive as a review article. Reports on progress are typically about 20 journal pages in length.
• Key Issues Reviews: a key issues review identifies critical questions in a line of physics research that continues to develop, where important advances are widely acknowledged, but whose ultimate significance and goals have not yet been realized or are in dispute. The key issues review is a scientific report with supporting arguments, citations and bibliography but is written from a personal standpoint Reports on Progress in Physics may publish more than one key issue review on the same physics from widely different perspectives or that frankly disagree. Key issues reviews are typically about 10 journal pages in length.

Letters and Research Papers:

To be publishable in Reports on Progress in Physics a Letter or Research Paper must report a new advance that is essential reading for specialists, and likely to be of broader multidisciplinary interest with the expectation for long-term scientific impact and influence on the current state and/or future direction of a field. An essential requirement for publication is for the work to have the potential to significantly advance a specific field and/or report on a fundamental new discovery/concept with envisaged long-term importance.

Submissions that do not meet the journal’s strict acceptance criteria may be transferred for consideration to another more editorially suitable journal within the IOP Publishing portfolio (subject to the peer review process and author approval).

Cover Letter and Justification Statement

Authors are required to provide a cover letter that includes a Justification Statement as part of their submission to Reports on Progress in Physics. This material is intended to help convey the significance of the work to the journal’s Editors and will be influential as part of the initial editorial assessment process. Specifically, the Justification Statement should concisely (in less than 150 words):

1. Summarise the main scientific result/advance being reported;
2. Outline the expected long-term influence of the work on the current state and/or future direction of the immediate field;
3. Highlight any broader implications of the research for other disciplines.

Review Articles:

Review articles are normally commissioned on behalf of the Editorial Board from leading international authorities in their respective fields. Submitted proposals to write review articles are considered by the Editorial Board, but authors are strongly advised to contact the editorial office before writing reviews because of the special requirements of this journal and because similar articles may already be in preparation. All inquiries should be sent to the journal team.

Medical research involving human or animal subjects

Manuscripts reporting studies of humans or animals should pay due attention to the ethical aspects of the study. Such studies must conform with local statutory requirements. Reports on Progress in Physics endorses fully the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Where appropriate a statement should be made that the study has been carried out with ethical committee approval. Studies involving experimental animals must attend to the welfare of the animals; the guidelines of the United Kingdom Coordinating Committee on Cancer Research (UKCCCR) provide a basis for welfare considerations. Authors should also be aware of Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources. Please state if the work has been subject to animal ethics committee approval.

Reports on Progress in Physics is a hybrid open access journal. Authors have the option to pay an article publication charge (APC) to publish their article on a gold open access basis under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. Articles published on a gold open access basis are freely available to everyone to read and reuse immediately upon publication, provided the terms of the licence are followed and clear attribution to the author is given.

Alternatively, authors who do not select the gold open access option can choose a green open access route to publication.

For more information on IOP Publishing’s open access policies please see our Open access page. For our author rights policies please see our Author rights page.

Reports on Progress in Physics has now introduced a gold open access option for all authors. Publication on a subscription-access basis is free of charge.

Authors have the option to pay the following article publication charge (APC) to publish their article on an open access basis under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence.

*excluding VAT where applicable

**eligibility criteria can be found here

APCs only apply to articles accepted for publication; there are no submission charges.

Transformative Agreements

Letters and Research Papers published in Reports on Progress in Physics are included in our transformative agreements which allow authors from some institutions to publish open access without paying an APC. Review articles published in the journal are currently not included in transformative agreements.

Find out if you’re covered by an agreement

If you are covered by an agreement, use our author guide to help you submit your paper.

Countries where we have transformative agreements include:
Austria, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.

Paying for open access

Various discounts, waivers and funding arrangements are available to support our authors. Visit our Paying for open access page for further details.

We work with our authors to help make their work as easy to discover as possible. Reports on Progress in Physics is currently included in the following abstracting and discovery services:

• ISI (Science Citation Index®, SciSearch®, ISI Alerting Services, Index to Scientific Reviews®, Current Contents®/Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences)
• Scopus
• Inspec
• Chemical Abstracts Service
• GeoRef
• INIS Atomindex (International Nuclear Information System)
• MathSciNet
• NASA Astrophysics Data System
• VINITI Abstracts Journal (Referativnyi Zhurnal)