Content Types

Summary

In addition to more traditional article types, such as Reviews, Perspectives, Comments, Year in Review and Research Highlights, the journal will also include:

Expert Recommendations
Roadmaps
Technical Reviews

These will reflect the latest developments in all areas of physics. The majority of content is commissioned, but we do welcome proposals.

Review

A Review is an authoritative, balanced survey of recent developments in a research field. Although Reviews should be recognized as scholarly by specialists in the field, they should be written with a view to informing non-specialist readers. Thus, Reviews should be presented using simple prose, avoiding excessive jargon and technical detail.

Reviews are approximately 5,000–6,000 words long and typically include 7 display items (figures, tables or boxes). As a guideline, Reviews can contain up to 150 references, citations should be selective, and footnotes are not used. The scope of a Review should be broad enough that it is not dominated by the work of a single research institution and particularly not by the authors' own work. Read our guidelines for writing Reviews here.

Perspective

A Perspective is an opinionated review on an emerging field. They are more forward-looking and/or speculative than Reviews and may have a narrower scope. Despite being opinionated, they should remain balanced and are intended to stimulate discussion and new approaches.

Perspectives should typically be no more than 4,500 words long and include no more than 5 display items (figures, tables or boxes). Citations in Perspectives should be selective and as a guideline there should usually be no more than 100 references. Read our guidelines for writing Perspectives here.

Roadmap

A Roadmap is a forward-looking outline of the scientific and technical challenges and opportunities in a certain field or for a specific big project. Roadmaps provide a sense of direction and set out the necessary steps that probably need to be achieved. They may also list a set of open questions. Roadmaps are authored by panels of experts.

Roadmaps are approximately 6,000–8,000 words long and typically include 7 display items (figures, tables or boxes). As a guideline, they allow up to 100 references. Read our guidelines for writing Roadmap articles here.

Technical Review

A Technical Review surveys the current of state-of-the-art capabilities in a certain area. Technical Reviews provide accessible summaries of the state-of-the-art figures of merit for techniques, devices and/or materials; comparisons of different methods with an overview of their applicability; comparisons of scientific software codes for specific applications; guidelines for data analysis of specific datasets and in particular large data releases from big instruments.

Technical Reviews are approximately 5,000–6,000 words long and typically include 8 display items and 150 references. Read our guidelines for writing Technical Reviews here.

Expert Recommendation

Expert Recommendations are collective opinion pieces, authored by panels of specialists, that present the outcome of an analysis or discussion, and suggest a course of action, best scientific practices or methodological guidelines.

Expert Recommendations are typically 1,500–2,000 words long and may include up to 4 display items and 50 references. Read our guidelines for writing Expert Recommendations here. For examples of Expert Recommendations, please check out this Collection.

Comment

Comment articles can focus on policy, science and society, or purely scientific issues in physics. Single-author articles are preferred as this is an 'opinion' section of the journal. Comments are usually commissioned by the editors, but proposals are welcome. They should be of immediate interest to a broad readership and should be written in an accessible, non-technical style. The option to include a single display item (figure, table or box) can be discussed with the editor. Comments are typically no longer than 1,300 words and, as a guideline, allow maximum 10 references. Read our guidelines for writing Comments here.

World View

World View articles draw on personal experience or expertise to make a call for action to improve science, address injustice, reduce misery, or fulfil some other societal goal.

Year in Review

Year in Review articles discuss related results from three or more papers published during the past 12 months providing context and analysis. Year in Review articles are no more than 1,200 words long and may contain a maximum of 10 references.

Viewpoint

Viewpoint is a type of opinion piece that provides a forum for several researchers to discuss issues associated with a specific topic of interest. Viewpoint articles are commissioned by editors. They are not peer reviewed and provide an opportunity for researchers to express their views.

Feature

Feature articles are written or commissioned by the journal editors. However, we do consider pitches for exclusive stories, particularly conference coverage from locations where we do not have staff, or reports from interesting field work.

For details on how to pitch to Nature Reviews Physics, contact the Editor at natrevphys@nature.com. For advice on how to pitch, please check out this blog post.