Writing Physics Papers
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WRITINGWRITING PHYSICSPHYSICS PAPERSPAPERS 101101 Publish or Perish J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results readingreading aboutabout physicsphysics writingwriting M.M. Alley,Alley, TheThe craftcraft ofof scientificscientific writingwriting,, 33rd Ed.,Ed., SpringerSpringer NewNew York,York, 1996.1996. B.B. GossGoss Levi:Levi: SomeSome simplesimple rulesrules ofof writingwriting http://www.research.att.com/kbl/APS/dec97/rules.html D.D. MerminMermin:: WhatWhat’’ss wrongwrong withwith thisthis prose?prose? Physics Today, May 1989, p.9 D.D. MerminMermin,, WhatWhat‘‘ss wrongwrong withwith thesethese equationsequations?? Physics Today, October 1989, p.9 D.D. MerminMermin:: WritingWriting physicsphysics http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/~cew2/KnightLecture.html J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results OUTLINEOUTLINE WhyWhy areare wewe writingwriting papers?papers? WhatWhat physicsphysics journalsjournals therethere are?are? StructureStructure ofof aa physicsphysics articlearticle LaTeXLaTeX 001001 HintsHints forfor effectiveeffective writingwriting SubmitSubmit && fightfight J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results WHYWHY AREARE WEWE WRITINGWRITING PAPERS?PAPERS? J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results ToTo communicatecommunicate ourour original,original, interesting,interesting, andand usefuluseful researchresearch ToTo letlet othersothers knowknow whatwhat wewe areare workingworking onon (and(and thatthat wewe areare workingworking atat all)all) ToTo organizeorganize ourour thoughtsthoughts ToTo formulateformulate ourour researchresearch inin aa comprehensiblecomprehensible wayway ToTo securesecure furtherfurther fundingfunding ToTo furtherfurther ourour careerscareers ToTo makemake ourour publicationpublication listslists looklook moremore impressiveimpressive ToTo havehave fun?fun? BecauseBecause wewe believebelieve someonesomeone isis goinggoing toto readread it!!!it!!! J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results WHATWHAT PHYSICSPHYSICS JOURNALSJOURNALS AREARE THERE?THERE? J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results HardHard--sciencescience journalsjournals PhysicalPhysical ReviewsReviews seriesseries 9 Physical Review A 9 Physical Review E pra.aps.org pre.aps.org atomic, molecular, and optical physics 9 Physical Review B statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics 9 prb.aps.org 9 Physical Review Letters (PRL) condensed matter and materials physics prl.aps.org 9 Physical Review C breakthroughs in all areas prc.aps.org 9 Reviews of Modern Physics nuclear physics rmp.aps.org 9 Physical Review D reviews in all areas prd.aps.org particles, fields, gravitation and cosmology J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results AppliedApplied PhysicsPhysics SeriesSeries 99 JournalJournal ofof AppliedApplied PhysicsPhysics jap.aip.org 99 AppliedApplied PhysicsPhysics LettersLetters apl.aip.org J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results EuropeanEuropean PhysicsPhysics JournalJournal SeriesSeries 99 EPJEPJ AA 99EPJEPJ EE www.edpsciences.org/epja www.edpsciences.org/epje hadrons and nuclei 99 EPJEPJ BB soft matter www.edpsciences.org/epjab 99EurophysicsEurophysics LettersLetters condensed matter www.edpsciences.org/epl 99 EPJEPJ CC all areas: breakthroughs www.edpsciences.org/epjc particles and fields 99 EPJEPJ DD www.edpsciences.org/epjd atoms, molecules, and clusters J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results NatureNature andand ScienceScience NatureNature ScienceScience http://www.nature.com http://www.sciencemag.org J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results SoftSoft--sciencescience journalsjournals 9 Physics Today www.physicstoday.org official journal of APS, good review articles and reseach news 9 Physics World physicsweb.org Institute of Physics, good review articles 9 Scientific American www.sciam.com popular science articles 9 American Journal of Physics ojps.aip.org/ajp pedagogical physics research articles J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results ImpactImpact FactorsFactors howhow muchmuch isis youryour articlearticle worth?worth? InstituteInstitute forfor ScientificScientific InformationInformation (ISI)(ISI) isi6.isiknowledge.comisi6.isiknowledge.com Roughly average citation per article J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results Nature 30.432 Science 28.956 Rev. Mod. Phys. 23.672 Adv. Phys. 13.952 Phys. Rep. 12.645 Phys. Rev. Lett. 7.523 Nucl. Phys. B 5.409 Phys. Today 5.000 ISI 2002 impact factors of selected Phys. Rev. D 4.358 physics journals Appl. Phys. Lett. 4.207 Phys. Rev. B 3.327 Phys. Rev. A 2.986 Phys. Rev. C 2.848 Phys. Rev. E 2.397 J. Appl. Phys. 2.281 EPJ E 2.188 EPJ B 1.741 J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results CitationsCitations howhow muchmuch isis youryour articlearticle reallyreally worthworth?? isi6.isiknowledge.comisi6.isiknowledge.com SPIRES HEP reference search: www-library.desy.de/spires/hep/ J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results PreprintPreprint ArchivesArchives free,free, fast,fast, refereereferee freefree www.arxiv.orgwww.arxiv.org xxx.lanl.orgxxx.lanl.org J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results STRUCTURESTRUCTURE OFOF AA PHYSICSPHYSICS ARTICLEARTICLE J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results ShortShort lettersletters PRL,PRL, APL,APL, rapidrapid communications,communications, …… 11--44 pagespages TitleTitle AbstractAbstract HomogeneousHomogeneous bodybody includesincludes introductionintroduction andand acknowledgmentsacknowledgments 00--44 figuresfigures AtAt mostmost paragraphparagraph titlestitles J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results RegularRegular articlesarticles 44--500500 pagespages TitleTitle AbstractAbstract IntroductionIntroduction BodyBody sectionssections Conclusions/SummaryConclusions/Summary AcknowledgmentsAcknowledgments ReferencesReferences AppendicesAppendices J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results TitleTitle informative,informative, catchy,catchy, conciseconcise Semicolons?Semicolons? WhyWhy not,not, ifif itit helps,helps, thoughthough somesome considerconsider themthem badbad taste.taste. J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results AbstractAbstract concise,concise, direct,direct, informativeinformative PassivePassive oror activeactive voice?voice? II preferprefer passive,passive, thoughthough inin longerlonger abstractsabstracts anan occasionaloccasional activeactive assertionassertion maymay bebe enlivening.enlivening. Abstracts are now more important than ever due to the increasing large number of articles. One cannot read all the papers in each issue of PRL, not even in ones own field. Abstracts should state major findings, even some specifics (numbers, formulas showing basic trends). J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results examplesexamples J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results IntroductionIntroduction GiveGive thethe firstfirst impressionimpression aboutabout thethe paperpaper PlacePlace thethe workwork intointo broaderbroader contextcontext RelateRelate toto otherother relevantrelevant researchresearch SaySay whywhy isis thethe workwork important,important, inin plainplain languagelanguage StateState majormajor achievements/limitationsachievements/limitations StateState techniques/methodstechniques/methods DescribeDescribe organizationorganization ofof thethe paperpaper J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results BodyBody ofof thethe paperpaper DescribeDescribe youryour findingsfindings inin anan organized,organized, structured,structured, andand logicallogical wayway •Think about the organization ahead of actual writing •Create informative headings helping easy orientation J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results ConclusionsConclusions GiveGive youryour articlearticle closureclosure SummarySummary ofof majormajor resultsresults ProspectsProspects forfor futurefuture extensionsextensions PossiblePossible applications,applications, relevancerelevance toto otherother works,works, fieldsfields J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results ConclusionsConclusions exampleexample J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results LaTeXLaTeX 101101 text,text, equations,equations, figures,figures, tables,tables, referencesreferences J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results LaTexLaTex http://www.latexhttp://www.latex--project.orgproject.org// REVTeXREVTeX 44 ToTo compilecompile Phys.Phys. Rev.Rev. StyleStyle documentsdocuments http://publish.aps.org/revtex4/http://publish.aps.org/revtex4/ TeX archive network http://www.ctan.org/ctan/ J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results CompilingCompiling LaTexLaTex latexlatex paper.texpaper.tex % compile the file bibtexbibtex paper.texpaper.tex % compile references (if.bib) exists latexlatex paper.texpaper.tex % compile again latexlatex paper.texpaper.tex % compile yet again dvipsdvips paper.dvipaper.dvi % create a .ps file gvgv paper.pspaper.ps % view the .ps file J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results templatetemplate forfor PRLPRL \documentclass[aps,prl,floatfix,twocolumn,footinbib]{revtex4} \usepackage{epsfig} \begin{document} \title{Template} \author{Jaroslav Fabian} \affiliation{Institute for Theoretical Physics, Karl-Franzens University, Universit\"atsplatz 5, 8010 Graz, Austria} \author{Albert Newton} \affiliation{Center for extraterrestrial research, Washington DC} \begin{abstract} A LateX template is provided to generate physics papers fast and easy. \end{abstract}\maketitle J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results insertinginserting figuresfigures \begin{figure} \centerline{\psfig{file=fig.eps, width=1\linewidth}} \caption{Template figure. Put your caption here} \label{fig:1} \end{figure} J. F. Presentation of Scientific Results writingwriting equationsequations To place