Journal scope

NEW General Scientific Summaries
As a new feature aimed at increasing the accessibility of articles in New Journal of Physics (NJP) to a broad, non-specialist readership and raising the overall visibility and understanding of the journal's content, authors are invited to optionally submit a general scientific summary to accompany their work in NJP.

Subject coverage
NJP's coverage extends across the whole of physics, encompassing pure, applied, theoretical and experimental research, as well as interdisciplinary topics. Research areas covered by the journal include:

• Quantum physics (including quantum information)
• Atomic and molecular physics
• Optics
• Condensed matter
• Surface science
• Nanoscale science
• Photonics and device physics
• Soft matter and polymers
• Chemical physics
• Statistical mechanics, thermodynamics and nonlinear systems
• Fluid dynamics
• Plasmas
• Nuclear physics
• High energy particle physics
• Cosmology and astrophysics
• Biological and medical physics
• Earth science and geophysics

Article requirements
An NJP article must meet the highest scientific quality standards, both in terms of originality and significance, and the research results should make substantial advances within a particular subfield of physics. The impact of an NJP article should be such that it will appeal to the journal's broad readership. Towards ensuring high editorial standards, every article submission is preliminarily assessed by the Editorial Board before sending to independent referees. Further information can be found in the referee guidelines.

Article style
NJP publishes only original research. As a journal serving the whole physics community, article abstracts, introductions and conclusions should be accessible to the non-specialist, stressing any wider implications of the work within physics. However, the main body should not compromise on the scientific rigour and detail demanded by an international physics research journal. The broad readership that NJP attracts gives authors an opportunity to convey to a wider audience, as well as to specialists, the importance of the work.

Authors are encouraged to take full advantage of the electronic medium to include colour, video, audio or other innovative presentation formats and links to more extensive tutorial information or data. However, use of such presentation techniques is not a criterion for article acceptance, and should only serve to effectively communicate the physics.

Article length
As NJP is an electronic-only journal, NJP articles have no rigid length restrictions. They should contain sufficient technical detail for an expert reader to understand and assess the methods and results. However, the NJP Editors do encourage authors to be concise, and short, high-quality articles are welcome. Articles should not normally be longer than 18000 words (an A4 size journal page contains an average of 900 words).

Manuscripts reporting studies of humans or animals should pay due attention to the ethical aspects of the study. Such studies must conform with local statutory requirements. New Journal of Physics endorses fully the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects, the latest version of which may be found at www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm. Where appropriate a statement should be made that the study has been carried out with ethical committee approval. Studies involving experimental animals must attend to the welfare of the animals; the guidelines of the United Kingdom Coordinating Committee on Cancer Research (UKCCCR) provide a basis for welfare considerations. Authors should also be aware of Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, which may be found at www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats. Please state if the work has been subject to animal ethics committee approval.