About Rev. Mod. Phys.
[ RMP News | Service Description | Getting Started ]

Reviews of Modern Physics (RMP) serves both students and senior researchers in a broad range of fields. Its review articles offer in-depth treatment of a research area, surveying recent work and providing an introduction that is aimed at physics graduate students and nonspecialists. These reviews also feature bibliographies that are of great value to the specialist. The journal's shorter Colloquia describe recent work of interest to all physicists, especially work at the frontiers of physics, which may have an impact on several different subfields.

This document contains information about this online service. It introduces recently added new features, describes the available services, and provides information users may find helpful in getting started. As part of an Online Help compendium the present document refers to Scitation. Scitation houses the current year of journal content plus the previous three years. Earlier volumes are contained in the Physical Review Online Archive (PROLA), for which a separate document is available (see About PROLA).

While many features of this online service are freely available, some require a personal or institutional subscription. If you are able to access full-text articles and view linked references without being prompted for a password and username, you are doing so via a subscription paid for by your library or institution.


RMP News

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    Service Description

    Reviews of Modern Physics (RMP) is published electronically one article at a time four times a year. A new issue is "opened" as articles complete the production process and are published in that issue. The issue is "closed" when those articles scheduled for that issue have been published. RMP is published in January, April, July and October (4 issues per volume, one volume per year).

    Users can select from a list of all available volumes and browse any HTML TOC, read abstracts, and view PDF (and PostScript) articles (or place a document delivery order). Reviews of Modern Physics offers the following features:

    Available Volumes

    • Direct access to the Tables of Contents of recent issues including the latest, open issue.

    • Browse the list of articles accepted for publication (ordered by month of acceptance). The abstracts of electronically submitted articles are also available. These can be found on the homepage in the drop down menu of Recent and Future Issues below the current issue(s).

    • Access to the issue index of any volume in the current year plus the previous three years.

    • Access to earlier volumes via the Physical Review Online Archive (PROLA).

    Tables of Contents

    • Browse an HTML version of the Table of Contents (TOC) of any issue, including the latest open issue. The HTML TOCs contain hyperlinks from individual titles to the abstract of each title as well as options to view full-text PDF or PostScript articles and place both online and offline document delivery orders. For more information on viewing and printing PostScript files, consult the Online Help specific to working with compressed PostScript.

    • Browse PDF versions of the TOCs for the last few years, which contain weblinks to the HTML abstracts.

    Abstracts

    • The abstract "view" shows bibliographic information including the citation, title, author name(s), and abstract. In addition, author affiliation(s), PACS categories, and hyperlinked references are available as well as links to the full-text PDF or PostScript version of the article (see below).

    • Reference sections are available in the abstracts for subscribers. They include links to those citations available in PROLA, AIP's SPIN database, IEE's INSPEC database, and the arXiv.org E-print archive. Read Reference Sections and Reference Linking in Abstracts for more information.

    • From the abstract "view," users can view the full-text PDF or PostScript version of the article, including all figures, tables, and references. Or, an "Order Document" link will allow users to place an order for offline document delivery.

    • Links to related papers are available in the abstracts; that is, crosslinks within a series of papers (Papers I, II, etc.), from a Comment to the Article commented on and its Reply, and from an Article to its Erratum (and in most cases, the link are bidirectional; that is, the Comment features a link to the Reply and vice versa). For more information, read Related-Paper ("See Also") Citations and Links in Abstracts in Online Help.

    • "Citing Articles" links (i.e., "forward" reference links to other articles on Scitation citing the article currently being viewed) are available for the last few years. These links appear after the Reference Section, and are available for subscribers. Read Reference Sections and Reference Linking in Abstracts for more information.

    • A tabular array containing additional bibliographic information can be accessed by following the "Additional Information" link appearing after the PACS numbers.

    Searching

    • Search a "Current Issue" database which includes the most recently closed issue plus the issue currently building.

    • Search a database covering recent volumes (i.e., the current year plus the previous three years of contents).

    • Search a database of earlier volumes in the Physical Review Online Archive (PROLA).

    • An Author Search Interface is available for effective searching on names with initials.

    Free Access to Some Areas

    • The Tables of Contents (PDF and HTML), the abstract view and searching of articles are not password protected. Password/username will only be requested for viewing full text and references, and entrance to AIP's SPIN database via the Search SPIN database link appearing on the search pages. When a password/username does apply, it is requested only once per "session." A "session" is the period between successful login (authentication) and logout (exiting), or 15 minutes of "idle" time (after which the user is automatically logged out). Password/username is NOT requested, at any point, for access via an institutional subscription.

    Important Links

    • The “Accepted Papers” tab on the home page provides access to listings of papers to appear in future issues of Reviews of Modern Physics.

    • The home page provides links to other APS journals and to the Physical Review Online Archive (PROLA).

    Other Features

    • A password-changing mechanism is available for individual users. For access, click here and, for more information, consult the Online Help.

    • An "Exit" button (or textual equivalent) appears at the bottom of all RMP pages. The login system tracks the number of concurrent users on the system (i.e., the number of logins per login name). There are limits that are set per user and per institutional login. In order to free up a "slot" for the next user, it is recommended that you use the "Exit" button. If you do not, the next person logging in from your institution may not be able to access the service for up to 15 minutes.


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    Getting Started

    Here's a recommended checklist for first-time RMP users:

    • Make sure you have a current browser that supports (a) authentication (login and password), (b) HTML forms (for database queries), (c) HTML tables, (d) JavaScript (JavaScript support must be enabled to take full advantage of all Article Collection functions, as well as some functions of the reference-linking, related-article-linking, and user-interface enhancing functions), and (e) cookies.

      IMPORTANT:
      Authentication requires that cookies be enabled in a cookie-capable browser; more information is available in the Online Help.

      While several other browsers are "Netscape-compliant," and their use should allow you to take full advantage of all of the journal's features, we recommend Netscape Navigator (more details are available from the Online Help page). As stated, authentication is required in order to enforce the publisher's subscription controls over its journals. This control is based on Netscape software products, and depends on the Netscape "cookie" mechanism (please refer to the RMP FAQ for more information on cookies) to authenticate and track both individual and institutional users throughout the system. While browsers that do not support this mechanism may function adequately, technical support in regard to authentication problems will NOT be extended to users who are not running either Netscape Navigator (version 2.0 or higher) or Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 2.0 or higher).

    • To view full-text PDF versions of RMP articles, as well as PDF versions of issue tables of contents, you must have one of the following applications:
      1. the Adobe Acrobat Reader,
      2. the Adobe Acrobat Reader browser plug-in,
      3. Adobe Acrobat Exchange, or
      4. another "viewer" that can display or otherwise manipulate PDF files.
      More details are available from the Online Help page. An Acrobat Tutorial is also available.

    • To view full-text PostScript versions of articles, you must have a PostScript viewer or any other application that enables you to otherwise manipulate PostScript files [all PostScript files delivered via Scitation (i.e., the last few years of contents) are in compressed ("gzipped") format]. More information is available from the Online Help regarding working with compressed PostScript.

    • RMP has been designed for Internet access corresponding to a 14,400 bps or faster modem connection. Tips on configuring your browser for slower connections (and to optimize any connection) are available from the Online Help page.

    • Consult the RMP FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for a compendium of capsulized information about RMP.

    • Consult the Online Help, especially with regard to using the Acrobat products in conjunction with your browser, and for detailed tutorials on how to search the RMP databases.

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