About APS Open Science
APS Open Science is a trusted, community-driven open access journal that publishes high-quality, useful research through rigorous peer review that ensures research from every stage of the scientific process receives the recognition it deserves.
Where Every Research Step Builds Knowledge
APS Open Science is a fully open access, peer-reviewed journal for physics and related fields, that supports the global open science movement by providing a welcoming space for researchers worldwide.
By advancing and disseminating scientific research with an objective approach, APS Open Science directly supports the APS mission to advance physics by fostering a vibrant global community dedicated to science and society.
APS Open Science offers unique features designed to serve authors in the open science community. The journal aims to provide flexible article formats and new article types for diverse research outputs, with rapid peer review and publication processes. Beyond research papers, APS Open Science welcomes data and software advances, replication studies, as well as negative and null results that contribute valuable knowledge, recognizing their importance for scientific progress. Additionally, we provide efficient manuscript transfers from Physical Review journals.
By Scientists, For Scientists
Like all journals in the APS Publications portfolio, APS Open Science is shaped by researchers to serve the research community. This ensures that its mission, standards, and policies prioritize the needs of researchers and the broader scientific community; this commitment is reinforced by APS’s promise as a founding member of the Purpose-Led Publishing coalition.
APS Open Science welcomes papers from the full spectrum of research topics of interest to the physics community, its subdisciplines, and adjacent fields. Research coverage in the journal comprises: fundamental and applied; theoretical and experimental, including technical and methodological advances; and interdisciplinary and newly emerging areas. For a detailed description of the journal's scope, see the full scope statement.
Submitted manuscripts should:
- Present high-quality primary research using appropriate methods with scientific rigor
- Be technically correct with rigorous execution and proper application of methods yielding valid, reliable, and useful results
- Add meaningfully to existing knowledge in physics or related fields
- Provide transparency with sufficient detail for verification and follow research integrity standards
APS Open Science serves as an experimental sandbox for APS Publications, where new initiatives can be tested and refined to better serve the community. The journal will:
- Regularly incorporate feedback from researchers and stakeholders
- Test innovative features that may later be adopted across APS publications
- Stay at the leading edge of research communication innovation
- Explore potential evolution into broader open publishing platforms
This journal is fully open access with all articles freely available for readers anywhere in the world.
- This journal is funded through article publication charges (APCs), which are due once an article is accepted for publication.
- All articles are published with an open CC-BY (4.0 International) license with authors retaining copyright. This license permits anyone to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work with proper attribution. APS reviews APCs regularly to ensure that it offers a reasonable and cost-effective publishing option for authors in line with APS’s status as a not-for-profit society publisher.
- APS authors are free to post the final version of their articles on their laboratory, institutional or departmental web sites.
- APS offers authors from lower-income countries the opportunity to publish open access at no cost by automatically offering APC waivers for articles accepted into all hybrid and gold open access titles. Learn more here.
Editorial Team
APS Open Science is managed by a professional editorial team of Ph.D. scientists with extensive research experience at major academic institutions and research laboratories around the world. All editorial decisions will be based on the journal’s objective acceptance criteria, prioritizing high-quality research, technical correctness, ethical compliance, and clear presentation.
Editorial Advisory Board
The Editorial Advisory Board of APS Open Science’s will be a diverse, global group of active scientists representing all subdisciplines of physics as well as adjacent research areas. In alignment with the journal’s aims, the board will comprise diverse representation across career stages, regions, and other dimensions of diversity. They can advise the editors at any stage of the review process. APS Open Science’s editorial advisory board serves as a community-based sounding board for the ongoing evolution of the journal and its editorial policies.
Editorial Board
The Editorial Board of APS Open Science is a diverse, global group of active, distinguished scientists, selected by editors and appointed by the Executive Editor. Board members advise the editorial staff throughout the review and formal appeal processes.
High Visibility, Broad Dissemination
APS Open Science authors will gain value through high visibility and broad dissemination of their work in a fully open access publication. Benefits include:
- Open Access: Immediate free access worldwide under CC-BY licensing increases readership and enables broad reuse
- Efficient Transfers: Seamless manuscript transfer from Physical Review journals improves author experience
- Rapid Publication: Streamlined processes for faster time to publication
- Broad Scope: Multidisciplinary coverage reaches diverse audiences across physics and related fields
- Indexing: Articles receive DOIs and are discoverable immediately via Crossref and major scholarly search engines (e.g., Google Scholar). The journal is pursuing inclusion in leading indexing services (e.g., Web of Science, Scopus, Inspec, DOAJ); details will be updated as approvals are confirmed.
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Editorial and Publishing Policies
All journals published by APS follow a common set of Editorial Policies and Practices, which cover Editorial Oversight and Decision Making, Authorship, Submissions, Resubmissions, and Transfers, Peer Review, Ethics and Research Integrity, Post Publication, and Open Access and Publications Rights.
All APS journals follow a common set of Editorial Policies and Practices, covering Editorial Oversight and Decision-Making, Authorship, Submission and Transfer, Peer Review, Ethics and Research Integrity, Post-Publication practices, and Open Access & Publication Rights.
APS Open Science is published electronically one article at a time. Articles are identified by volume and a six-digit article number (e.g., Journal 1, XXXXXX (Year)).