Broadening Our Reach
Today, Physics introduces a new layout for the website and welcomes Physical Review Focus (now simply Focus) into its weekly content. Both changes enhance Physics as a venue for learning about emerging fields and keeping up with the fast pace of research.
Since launching in 2008, Physics has offered in-depth coverage (Viewpoints) and concise editor summaries (Synopses) of important and compelling papers in the Physical Review journals. Readers tell us they highly value this convenient way to “dip their toes” into a new field or discover papers they might have missed.
Focus stories, which have been published at focus.aps.org since 1998, are already familiar to many of our readers. Written by professional science writers in a journalistic style, these stories emphasize basic physics concepts to make results accessible to students and non-experts.
Bringing Focus into Physics makes it easier for readers to discover the content they enjoy on a single website. As with all of the articles in Physics, the full archive of Focus stories will be freely available at physics.aps.org. Pre-existing links to the old Focus website will redirect to their new pages in Physics (more details).
As we expand the content of Physics, it is time to give the website a fresh look. We recognize that readers come to the website in different ways and with particular interests. The new homepage layout makes it easier to see the latest content but still catch up on articles from recent weeks. Readers can now also choose from a menu of subject categories on the homepage, while enhancements to searching and browsing make it easier to access Physics’ growing archive. Since few scientific results can be viewed in isolation, links to related content on the right-hand side of each article will help readers keep up with overlapping research areas.
These changes reflect feedback from readers in the three years since Physics launched. We value your continued readership and invite you to send in comments about our new look to physics@aps.org .
Jessica Thomas, Editor