General Editorial Policies

Read JAP's Information for Contributors 

Journal of Applied Physics (JAP) is published by the American Institute of Physics. The Editor, aided by the Associate Editors and the Editorial Board, is responsible for the scientific content and other editorial matters relating to the Journal. Manuscripts submitted are first screened by the editors; those on subject matters within the scope of the Journal are sent to an expert referee for evaluation and may be sent to a second reviewer if necessary. This two-tier screening process helps to assure an appropriate focus as well as high scientific quality of the Journal.

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal that have been previously peer-reviewed for Applied Physics Letters must include a response or rebuttal of the original review as well as a list of changes. Consideration of these submissions is at the discretion of the Journal.

Authors of scientific publications in the Journal are jointly responsible for their content. Credit for the content and responsibility for errors or fraud are borne equally by all authors.

An author may appeal an editor’s decision to reject a manuscript by making a request to the editor that the case be reviewed by the Executive Director of AIP. The Executive Director will not make direct decisions whether or not a paper should be accepted for publication, but rather will assess whether procedures were followed properly. Additional rounds of review or adjudication would only be called for if proper procedures were not followed.

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Criteria for Publication

1. Content. Journal of Applied Physics publishes papers describing original research in applied physics. We strive to publish papers that contain substantial advancement of established knowledge or that report significant new developments in the field. Our instructions to reviewers state:

"A paper to be published in Journal of Applied Physics should be not only a useful report, but should also contain physics in the sense of interpreting or analyzing the phenomena observed experimentally in terms of basic mechanisms. Theoretical papers should indicate possible applications."

Papers that, in the reviewer's or editor's opinion, fall short of this standard will be rejected.

For the benefit of the growing scientific community contributing to the Journal, we give details for three subjects on which we receive many manuscripts.

Device proposals, fabrication or performance: Our policy is to consider such manuscripts only if the underlying physics is clearly described and is new and interesting.

Materials synthesis: Our criterion for manuscripts in this area, including thin film growth, is that the paper contain physics, such as the mechanism of growth or formation, or the underlying physics of how the processing affects the properties obtained. A recipe followed only by characterization of the structure is usually not sufficient.

Instruments and experimental techniques: Papers, the main thrust of which is instrumentation or experimental technique, should be sent to Review of Scientific Instruments.

2. Novelty. Papers must contain new results to be published. Submission of an article implies that it has not been published or submitted elsewhere. Material previously published in a letters journal or in a conference proceedings can be included in an article in the Journal that presents significantly more detail and/or results, leading to a substantially improved understanding of the subject. Figures, tables, or text material should not be repeated. Claims of novelty such as "for the first time" should be avoided, even when qualified by escape clauses such as "to our knowledge." Trust the readers to know when something is new and when it is not.

3. Language. Papers must be written in standard American English. This is the responsibility of the author, not the editors. Papers below the standard for the Journal will be returned to the authors for rewriting and can be rejected for this reason alone. Such problems may be avoided and publication expedited if the manuscript is edited by an English-speaking colleague or a professional editing service before the initial submission.

4. Length. The length of a regular paper should be kept to the minimum consistent with comprehensibility. The length of a Communication is limited to three printed pages. The same standards of scientific content and quality apply to Communications as to regular articles. Papers occupying more than ten printed pages in the Journal will be assessed a mandatory "excess page fee" of $150 per additional page. The length of the abstract should not exceed one-third of a printed page.

5. Format. Instructions to contributors are published in the front of the Journal twice a year, and are posted on the Journal's web page. Because of rapid changes in publication technology, authors are asked to follow the instructions for preparation of figures with particular care.

6. Patents. Submission of manuscripts that contain ideas which may be patentable is at the author's risk, and neither Journal of Applied Physics or the American Institute of Physics assumes any responsibility in this regard.

7. Byline. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all authors approve the inclusion of their names on the byline. If the name of a co-author is removed, the approval of all original authors is required. A co-author being added must send his approval in writing. Papers are not published until the required signatures are received.

8. Equal Contribution Footnote. Because being the first author on a paper indicates to the scientific community that this individual did the bulk of the experimental work, it is sometimes necessary for the authors to indicate that more than one person is responsible for the experiments. This is indicated by a footnote (alphabetic) after the authors' names on the author line of the title page and by a footnote at the bottom of the Title page. The following form is used to indicate equal contributions:
^a)S. Smith and O. Jones contributed equally to this work.

9. Serial Publication. Publication of ongoing work in a series of papers is strongly discouraged. Instead, a single comprehensive article should be submitted.

10. Copyright. Journal of Applied Physics requires that copyright be assigned to the American Institute of Physics. It is a tradition of long standing that submission to the Journal implies that the work has neither been copyrighted, nor accepted for publication elsewhere. Since copyright transfer is required before publication, electronic acceptance of the Transfer of Copyright Agreement during the submission process can prevent unnecessary delays. Journal of Applied Physics also requires authors to inform the editors if a paper has been previously submitted to another journal, whether or not it is currently active with that journal.

The AIP grants to the author(s) of papers submitted to Journal of Applied Physics the right to post and update the original article on an author's personal web page as well as on e-print servers. The final AIP version may be posted on the author's personal website, the author's institutional website and institutional repository. It is also possible to create a link to the Journal of Applied Physics publication.

11. Review articles. Applied Physics Reviews are published in the Journal. Manuscripts should be sent to one of the Editors, either: John M. Poate, Editor, Applied Physics Reviews, Vice President of Research and Technology Transfer, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, CO 80401, or Bill R. Appleton, Editor, Applied Physics Reviews, Nanoscience Institute for Medical and Engineering Technologies, University of Florida, 311 Weil Hall, P.O. Box 116550, Gainesville, FL 32611. Authors are strongly advised to contact one of the Editors before writing a manuscript.

12. Comments and Responses. The Journal publishes Comments. The purpose of a Comment is to correct significant errors in articles published in the Journal, to take issue with the conclusions reached, or to provide additional insight or corroboration.

Comments must be concise, substantive, and free of polemics. They must address scientific issues only. Comments on questions of priority or calling attention to an oversight in a reference list do not benefit our readers enough to be published and can be settled by the author of the original paper by writing an Addendum. If the author of the Comment is wrong, or if he/she has simply misunderstood the original, it will be best to settle the matter privately.

The Comment is limited to no more than three printed pages. The title should read: Comment on "original title" [J. Appl. Phys., vol., page (year)]. The author is given an opportunity to reply. The Response should take up no more than one printed page. The title should read: Response to "Comment on 'original title' " [J. Appl. Phys., vol., page (year)].

The Comment and Response will then be reviewed. If the Comment is rejected, neither will be published. If the Response alone is rejected, the Comment will be published without the Response. No further exchange beyond this point can be considered for publication.

13. Errata. The Journal publishes errata, in which authors correct significant errors of substance in their published manuscripts. The title should read: Erratum: "original title" [J. Appl. Phys., vol., page(year)]. This is followed by the authors' names and institutions, and the text of the corrected version. Errata should be as short as consistent with clarity.

14. Supplemental Material. The Editors and AIP encourage authors to submit supplemental material that may only be of interest to a few readers who are working on the problem for example, for publication alongside their manuscript. Long data tables, large numbers of figures, and long and detailed portions of text not necessary for an overall understanding of the scientific argument of the paper are appropriate. Supplemental material is linked to the electronic version of the journal and is immediately available to the interested reader. Long data sets are more useful to the reader when published this way as there is at least the possibility of electronic manipulation by the reader. There is no restriction on the format of supplemental files, but the Editors strongly encourage the use of ASCII text for the presentation of data. Word processing packages change in time, and ASCII text files are more likely to be readable in the future. Formats such as PDF and PostScript that cannot be edited are less useful to the reader who wishes to manipulate the data.

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Retraction and Correction Policies

AIP takes its responsibility to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record of our content for all end users very seriously. AIP places great importance on the authority of articles after they have been published and our policy is based on best practice in the academic publishing community. Changes to articles after they have been published online may only be made under the circumstances outlined in AIP's Retraction and Correction Policies which can be accessed here.

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Transfers

It is possible to transfer a rejected manuscript to another AIP journal for consideration. A list and descriptions can be found here: http://journals.aip.org/. Carefully review the acceptance criteria for the journal you believe would be appropriate for your manuscript. If you feel that your manuscript would be appropriate for publication in another of AIP's journals you may request a transfer by email. Please note that transferring manuscript files does not guarantee that the manuscript will be considered by the receiving journal. It is only meant to offer the technical facility to allow transfer of manuscript files and correspondence without the inconvenience of having to resubmit from journal to journal.

Editor
(Revised March 2012)

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