Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research (May 1, 2005)

The American Physical Society is pleased to announce that Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research, a peer reviewed electronic-only journal, will begin receiving submissions (for guidelines please go to http://authors.aps.org) starting 9 May 2005 (9:00 am EDT or 1:00 pm GMT). This journal will be distributed without charge, and financed by publication charges to the authors or to the authors' institutions. These charges will be made up of two components - a per article charge of $700 to defray the editorial expenses plus a length dependent charge of $80 per 125 lines to defray production and composition expenses. The length of the manuscript is estimated using the APS's standard guidelines (see Length Estimate Guidelines).

Payment of these charges is necessary to maintain free access to the journal. Accepted manuscripts will not be forwarded to production until the publication charges are paid in full. If an author or the author's institution is unable to pay the charges in full, the author may request a reduction of the publication charge by sending a formal request to stper-waiver@aps.org. We ask that all requests include a justification for the reduction and the amount of aid needed. The aid will come from limited funds donated by the sponsoring organizations, American Association of Physics Teachers and the APS Forum on Education.

As a special incentive, manuscripts which are submitted in 2005 and accepted for publication will have the per article charge of $700 waived. This charge will be paid by the Editor through a grant from the NSF. Starting in 2006, this incentive will no longer be available.

We are especially fortunate that Professor Robert Beichner of North Carolina State University has accepted the position of Editor of the journal. He was recently elected to be an APS Fellow for his efforts in advancing the field of physics education research and promoting the application of its findings in the nation's classroom. Also, Nobel Laureate Professor Carl Wieman of the University of Colorado has agreed to Chair the Editorial Board.

The criteria for acceptance of articles will include the high scholarly and technical standards of our other Physical Review journals. The scope of the journal will cover the full range of experimental and theoretical research on the teaching and/or learning of physics. Review articles, replication studies, descriptions of the development and use of new assessment tools, presentation of research techniques, and methodology comparisons/critiques are welcomed.

Please go to http://prst-per.aps.org for additional information.