Physics Reports

About Physics Reports

Overview

Physics Reports is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier (Netherlands) since 1971. It is formally the review section of Physics Letters, and it has a single, sharply defined mission: to publish long, deep reviews on all aspects of physics. Where most journals traffic in short research articles, Physics Reports specializes in the opposite — comprehensive review papers whose average length is comparable to a short book, with individual articles routinely running to one or two hundred pages.

The journal's reviews aim to make their main points intelligible to non-specialists, a deliberate editorial choice that gives the title its unusual breadth of readership. Professional physicists use it to master fields outside their own; graduate students use it as advanced background reading; and researchers in neighboring disciplines — chemistry, materials science, biology, applied mathematics — use it as a reliable bridge into physics. Its articles frequently serve as foundational references for emerging fields and are cited across numerous disciplines.

By the standard citation metrics, Physics Reports is one of the highest-impact journals in all of physics. Its Journal Impact Factor has been reported as high as 27.5 for 2025, and its CiteScore has exceeded 48 — figures that place it among the most cited periodicals in the physical sciences. It publishes on a weekly schedule (48 issues per year), making it one of the most prolific review journals in science.

History

Physics Reports was founded in 1971 as the review section of Physics Letters, Elsevier's long-running letters journal. The concept was straightforward and has never changed: physics needed a venue for the kind of long, authoritative review that no longer fit comfortably in general research journals, and Physics Letters — already one of the central rapid-publication venues in physics — was the natural institutional home.

The journal's early decades coincided with some of the most fertile periods in modern theoretical physics, and its pages captured them. In 1974 it published Kenneth G. Wilson's "The renormalization group and the ε expansion" — Wilson, who would receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1982, used the journal's long format to lay out the renormalization-group program that reshaped statistical physics and quantum field theory. The article remains one of the most cited in the journal's history and exemplifies what the long-review format makes possible: a definitive exposition too extensive for any ordinary journal.

As physics diversified, so did the journal. The 2000s brought landmark reviews that defined new interdisciplinary fields: Metzler and Klafter's "The random walk's guide to anomalous diffusion" (2000), Boccaletti and colleagues' "Complex networks: Structure and dynamics" (2006) — one of the most cited physics papers of its decade — and Fortunato's "Community detection in graphs" (2010). The journal also became the venue of choice for major syntheses in cosmology and particle physics, from Bertone, Hooper and Silk's "Particle dark matter" (2005) to Nojiri and Odintsov's "Unified cosmic history in modified gravity" (2011).

Throughout its history the journal has maintained its distinctive format: reviews long enough to be genuinely comprehensive, written to be intelligible beyond the immediate specialist community, and published frequently enough — now weekly — to keep pace with a fast-moving field. Its archive, stretching back to 1971, is effectively a book-length history of modern physics as told by its leading practitioners.

Aims and Scope

Physics Reports publishes long and deep reviews on all aspects of physics. The scope is intentionally universal within the discipline:

• High-energy and particle physics, including quantum chromodynamics and beyond-standard-model physics
• Condensed matter and solid-state physics
• Quantum mechanics, quantum information, and quantum computing
• Statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics, and complex systems
• Astrophysics, cosmology, and gravitation
• Nuclear physics
• Plasma physics and fusion
• Atomic, molecular, and optical physics
• Biophysics and the physics of living systems
• Interdisciplinary topics where physical methods illuminate other sciences — network science, econophysics, and anomalous transport among them

The defining editorial requirement is depth combined with accessibility: reviews should be comprehensive enough to serve as the standard reference on their topic, yet written so that their main points are intelligible to non-specialists. In practice this means authors are expected to provide historical context, theoretical foundations, critical comparison of competing approaches, and a clear statement of open problems — the full apparatus of a scholarly monograph, delivered in journal form.

Editorial Leadership

The journal's editor is listed as M. Kamionkowski (as reported on the journal's Wikipedia page). Because editorial appointments can change, readers who need the current masthead — including the full editorial board — should confirm it on the official Elsevier journal page for Physics Reports.

As the review section of Physics Letters, the journal operates within Elsevier's editorial infrastructure for the physics portfolio. Reviews are typically commissioned or proposed to the editors and undergo peer review before acceptance; the journal's reputation rests on maintaining the highest standards of comprehensiveness and accuracy in a format where errors would propagate widely.

Key Facts

Metrics

Citation metrics for this journal, with source and year attribution:

• Journal Impact Factor: 27.5 (2025) — as reported on the journal's Wikipedia page citing the Journal Citation Reports. This profile's database record stores an Impact Factor of 30.51 from an earlier snapshot. Confirm the current figure with Clarivate before formal citation.
• CiteScore: 48.2 — as reported by Editage's journal metrics page, citing Scopus data.
• SJR: Q1 in Physics and Astronomy (all), best quartile Q1 (2024); SNIP 8.72 (both via Editage, citing Scopus). A third-party Scopus mirror (ores.su) reported an SJR of 8.069 based on 2020 data.
• H-index: 347 — figure stored in this profile's database record (SCImago-based).
• OpenAlex indicators: 6,087 works recorded, 850,992 citations recorded, OpenAlex H-index 463, covering 1971–2026 (OpenAlex source record, retrieved 2026-10-03; OpenAlex metrics differ from SCImago metrics and the Clarivate Journal Impact Factor).

These figures make Physics Reports one of the most cited journals in physics by any measure. Readers should note that review journals systematically out-cite original-research journals per article, so cross-format comparisons require care; within the review-journal category, however, Physics Reports sits at the very top.

Indexing and Abstracting

The journal is indexed in the major scientific databases, including:

• Scopus
• Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded)
• INSPIRE-HEP (the high-energy physics literature database)

Indexing in INSPIRE-HEP is particularly significant for the journal's particle physics and cosmology reviews, which form part of the core literature of those fields.

Landmark Papers

The following reviews rank among the journal's most cited of all time, identified via the Crossref API sorted by citation count in October 2026. Each DOI was individually verified as resolving.

• S. Boccaletti, V. Latora, Y. Moreno, M. Chavez and D.-U. Hwang, "Complex networks: Structure and dynamics," Vol. 424 (2006), pp. 175–308. DOI: 10.1016/j.physrep.2005.10.009. The review that consolidated network science as a branch of statistical physics; among the most cited physics papers of its decade.
• Santo Fortunato, "Community detection in graphs," Vol. 486 (2010), pp. 75–174. DOI: 10.1016/j.physrep.2009.11.002. The definitive survey of methods for finding communities in networks, cited across physics, computer science, and sociology.
• Ralf Metzler and Joseph Klafter, "The random walk's guide to anomalous diffusion: a fractional dynamics approach," Vol. 339 (2000), pp. 1–77. DOI: 10.1016/S0370-1573(00)00070-3. The landmark exposition of fractional dynamics for anomalous transport, foundational for the field.
• L.M. Malard, M.A. Pimenta, G. Dresselhaus and M.S. Dresselhaus, "Raman spectroscopy in graphene," Vol. 473 (2009), pp. 51–87. DOI: 10.1016/j.physrep.2009.02.003. The standard reference on Raman characterization of graphene, written as the material's research explosion was underway.
• Kenneth G. Wilson, "The renormalization group and the ε expansion," Vol. 12 (1974), pp. 75–199. DOI: 10.1016/0370-1573(74)90023-4. Wilson's full exposition of the renormalization-group program — Nobel Prize-winning work, published in the long format only this journal could offer.
• Gianfranco Bertone, Dan Hooper and Joseph Silk, "Particle dark matter: evidence, candidates and constraints," Vol. 405 (2005), pp. 279–390. DOI: 10.1016/j.physrep.2004.08.031. The comprehensive survey that defined the modern particle dark matter research program.
• O. Aharony, S.S. Gubser, J. Maldacena, H. Ooguri and Y. Oz, "Large N field theories, string theory and gravity," Vol. 323 (2000), pp. 183–386. DOI: 10.1016/S0370-1573(99)00083-6. The monumental review of the AdS/CFT correspondence that became the standard reference for holographic duality.

Why the Long Format Matters

The journal's commitment to book-length reviews is not a quirk but a deliberate scholarly strategy, and understanding it explains much of the title's influence. Many of the most important syntheses in physics cannot be compressed into a standard research article without losing the connective tissue — the historical development, the comparison of competing formalisms, the worked examples, the candid assessment of what remains unknown. Physics Reports gives authors the space to include all of it.

This has two consequences. First, the journal's articles become infrastructure: they are the documents new entrants actually read to enter a field, the references lecturers assign, and the citations authors use when they need to invoke an entire subfield in a single reference. Second, the format attracts a particular kind of author — senior figures willing to take public stock of their fields. Wilson's renormalization-group exposition, the AdS/CFT review, the complex-networks synthesis: each was written by leaders at moments when their fields needed consolidation, and each could only have appeared in a venue built for that purpose.

For readers, the practical advice is to treat the journal as a monograph series as much as a periodical. Browsing recent volumes is one of the most efficient ways to survey what physics as a whole considers important; reading a single review deeply is often the fastest route into a new research area.

Physics Reports Among Review Journals

To appreciate the journal's position, it helps to compare it with its peers. Reviews of Modern Physics (American Physical Society) is the most prestigious review journal in physics, but it publishes only a handful of articles per year, each a major event. The Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics publishes one volume annually in a single subfield. Physics Reports occupies the middle ground at scale: weekly publication, the whole of physics as its remit, and reviews long enough to be monographic. No other journal combines this breadth with this depth at this frequency.

This positioning explains its citation profile. Because it publishes many long reviews across all of physics, its total citation count is enormous — over 850,000 citations recorded in OpenAlex — and individual reviews routinely become the standard references of their fields. The complex-networks review (2006) did not merely summarize a field; for several years it effectively was the field's textbook. The same is true of the anomalous-diffusion review (2000) and the community-detection review (2010). When a Physics Reports review succeeds, it becomes infrastructure: the document everyone cites when they need to invoke the topic.

The trade-off is selectivity of a different kind. The journal does not compete on novelty — it publishes no original research articles at all — but on authority and completeness. A researcher deciding where to publish a major synthesis weighs Physics Reports against book publishers and against more specialized review journals; the journal's advantages are speed relative to books, visibility relative to niche reviews, and a readership that spans the whole discipline.

For Authors: Writing for Physics Reports

Prospective authors should understand what the journal demands. A Physics Reports review is not an extended research paper but a scholarly monograph in journal form, and it is judged as one. Successful reviews typically share several features: comprehensive coverage of the literature, including competing viewpoints treated fairly; a clear logical structure that a non-specialist can follow; historical context that explains why the topic matters; explicit comparison of theoretical approaches with their domains of validity; and a concluding assessment of open problems and future directions.

The length — often exceeding one hundred pages — is both the opportunity and the challenge. It allows authors to include derivations, worked examples, and extensive tables that shorter formats force into supplements or omit entirely. But it also demands unusual discipline: a two-hundred-page review that merely accumulates results without critical synthesis will not survive peer review. The journal's reputation rests on reviews that genuinely advance understanding by organizing it, and referees are chosen accordingly from among the world's leading experts.

Because reviews are frequently commissioned or developed in consultation with the editors, authors with a synthesis in mind should approach the editorial office with a proposal before writing. The proposal should make the case that the topic is ripe for definitive treatment, that the authors are positioned to provide it, and that the review will serve readers beyond the immediate specialist community — the intelligibility-to-non-specialists criterion is applied seriously.

Article Processing Charges and Submission

Physics Reports is a hybrid journal: it operates on a subscription model with a gold open-access option. OpenAlex, drawing on DOAJ data, reports list-price APCs of USD 6,240 (also listed as EUR 5,840, GBP 5,000, JPY 773,950) for the open-access option — confirm the current charges, taxes, waivers, and eligibility directly with Elsevier, as this is not a fee quotation and prices change. This profile's database record likewise stores a listed APC of USD 6,240. Authors typically submit via Elsevier's editorial system; reviews are often commissioned or proposed in consultation with the editors. No acceptance rate is officially published.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ISSN of Physics Reports?
Print ISSN 0370-1573; electronic ISSN 1873-6270 (ISSN-L 0370-1573).

Who publishes Physics Reports?
Elsevier B.V., Netherlands, since 1971.

What is its relationship to Physics Letters?
It is the review section of Physics Letters.

How long are its articles?
Reviews average the length of a short book — typically 50 to 200 pages.

How often is it published?
Weekly — 48 issues per year.

What is its Impact Factor?
Reported as 27.5 for 2025 (JCR, via Wikipedia); this profile's database stores 30.51 from an earlier snapshot. Confirm the current figure with Clarivate.

Who is the editor?
M. Kamionkowski is listed as editor (via Wikipedia); confirm the current masthead on Elsevier's journal page.

What is the open-access APC?
OpenAlex/DOAJ-derived list prices report USD 6,240 for the gold OA option — confirm current charges with Elsevier; this is not a quotation.

Where is it indexed?
Scopus, Web of Science, and INSPIRE-HEP, among others.

Sources

• Journal history, editor, metrics, relationship to Physics Letters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_Reports (used as a pointer to Elsevier sources; reports publication by Elsevier since 1971, editor M. Kamionkowski, IF 27.5 for 2025, ISSN 0370-1573, weekly/48 per year)
• Key metrics (CiteScore 48.2, SJR Q1, SNIP 8.72), aims and scope, FAQs: https://www.editage.com/research-solutions/journal/physics-reports/7101 (citing Scopus)
• Scopus metrics mirror: https://ores.su/en/journals/physics-reports/ (SJR 8.069 based on 2020 data)
• Scimago-based metrics: https://www.resurchify.com/impact/details/29229
• OpenAlex source record incl. reported OA list prices (works, citations, H-index, APC): https://openalex.org (retrieved 2026-10-03)
• DOI verification and citation ranking: Crossref REST API, https://api.crossref.org (October 2026)