Guidelines for Calculating Length - Letters and Short Papers

These simple guidelines are used to determine the lengths of Letters and short papers, including Comments, in the Physical Review; for details on the length scheme applied to articles in Physical Review X (PRX) and Reviews of Modern Physics see Guidelines for Calculating Length - Physical Review X and Reviews of Modern Physics [1]. Length restrictions for Letters and the different short-paper sections of the journals are defined by word count limits which can be found at the end of the document. The procedure for estimating the word count, including the conversion of displayed math, figures, and tables into word equivalents, is given below.

WORD COUNT PROCEDURE

Text

Include:

• Any text in the body of the article
• Any text in a figure caption or table caption
• Any text in a footnote or an endnote

Exclude:

• Title
• Author and affiliation listing
• Abstract
• Receipt date, published date, and other publication history
• PACS or Keywords and DOI
• References
• Author byline footnotes
• Acknowledgments

Displayed Math

The word equivalent for displayed math is 16 words per row for single-column equations. Two-column equations count as 32 words per row.

Figures

Estimating the word equivalent for figures can be simplified by using the aspect ratio (width / height) of the figure. The estimates would be [(150 / aspect ratio) + 20 words] for single-column figures, and {[300 / (0.5 * aspect ratio)] + 40 words} for double column figures.

Tables

The word equivalent for tables is 13 words plus 6.5 words per line for single-column tables. Two-column tables count as 26 words plus 13 words per line.

Total Word Count = Text count + Displayed math + Figures + Tables

For more details see the Length Guide FAQ [2].

WORD COUNT LIMITS

PRL:

Letter	3500 words
Comment / Reply	750 words

PRA:

Rapid Communication	3500 words
Brief Report	3500 words
Comment / Reply	3500 words

PRB:

Rapid Communication	3500 words
Brief Report	3500 words
Comment / Reply	3500 words

PRC:

Rapid Communication	4500 words
Brief Report	3500 words
Comment / Reply	1500 words

PRD:

Rapid Communication	4500 words
Brief Report	3500 words
Comment / Reply	3500 words

PRE:

Rapid Communication	3500 words
Brief Report	3500 words
Comment / Reply	3500 words

PRST-PER:

Short Papers	3500 words
Comment / Reply	3500 words