I am happy to announce that, as of January 1, 2016, the name of the journal Physical Review Special Topics – Accelerators and Beams (PRST-AB) has been changed to Physical Review Accelerators and Beams (PRAB).
For many years, the PRST-AB Editors, the PRST-AB Editorial Board and many PRST-AB authors have expressed concerns that the “Special Topics” in the journal title created confusion and diminished the standing of the journal. Indeed, from various institutes it was reported that the Special Topics label had lowered the perceived value of articles published in this journal, despite the fact that its acceptance criteria were (and are) essentially the same as those of the other Physical Review journals.
PRST-AB was one of two Physical Review journals designated as Special Topics. Originally, it was expected that many more Special Topics journals would be created by the APS. However, since the launch of these two journals, the Physical Review collection has continued to grow and it now includes two additional subject-specific journals—namely Physical Review Applied and Physical Review Fluids—neither of which carries Special Topics in its title. Thus, it has become apparent that the Special Topics name is no longer needed for any of the APS journals. Removing Special Topics also visually integrates PRAB into the Physical Review family of journals and better emphasizes its content.
While this name change clearly serves the best long-term interest of the accelerator community, some short-term difficulties may be encountered, such as the recent change to the journal ISSN. An immediate consequence of this name change will be the lack of a meaningful Impact Factor for up to two years.
This change in name is fully supported by the PRAB Editorial Board and APS leadership. A unanimous agreement has been reached that removing Special Topics will not only strengthen the reputation of the journal, but also the Physical Review family as a whole.
Frank Zimmermann
Editor
Published 25 January 2016
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.19.010001