Physical Review B: Rapid Communications

Quality

A Rapid Communication should present work that is notably important, interesting, or timely to those in a particular subfield. In 2010 about 40% of the 1562 papers submitted to the section were published as Rapid Communications, while the acceptance rate for PRB overall was about 60%.

While an Impact Factor is traditionally associated only with an entire journal, it is possible to determine such a number for any subsection of a journal. Using data from the Web of Science, the 2010 'Impact Factor' of the Rapid Communications section in PRB is estimated to be 5.3. This number should be compared to the overall 2010 PRB Impact Factor of 3.772.

Speed

Every Rapid Communication receives prioritized handling by the editors. For a direct submission an initial decision, accompanied by referee comments, can be expected in about 25 days, and the current median time from receipt to acceptance is less than two months.

In rapidly developing fields, for instance, in the case of iron-based superconductors, editors have accelerated peer review and accepted papers in as little as a week. We invite our authors to request such expedited handling at the submittal stage.

Rapid Communications Editors

Julie Kim-Zajonz
Matt Eager
Ashot Melikyan