The perspective of a PRL Editor: You have your physics results, now what?

Dr Samindranath Mitra, editor of the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters (PRL), will deliver a talk on one of the most commonly asked questions in academia: ‘The perspective of a PRL Editor: You have your physics results, now what?’. 

The talk – co-organised by the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (EEE) and the Condensed Matter Materials Physics Group (CMMP), UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy – will seek to address the role that PRL plays in disseminating important scientific results and the impact of digitalisation and social media on this process. Attendees will also have an opportunity to engage in a Q&A session. 

PRL was established in 1958. It is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. PRL is an internationally read physics journal, describing a diverse multidisciplinary readership. Dr Samindranath Mitra has been an editor of PRL for more than twenty years.  

Abstract by Dr Mitra:
In a talk that I am hoping will morph into a free-flowing Q and A session, I will discuss the role that PRL plays in disseminating your physics results. The process is a cascading sequence that entails interacting with journal editors, referees, conference chairs, journalists, department chairs, deans, funding agencies, and others. The tools, however, have changed in recent years; the arrival of social media, search engines, and electronic repositories have us in a state of flux. PRL published its first paper 60+ years ago. Let's look back and forward.