Bala Iyer, Living Reviews in Relativity editorial board member and IndIGO chairperson, has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).

Professor Iyer, theoretical physicist at Raman Research Institute, is one of the pioneers in modeling the dynamics and gravitational waves from the inspiral of compact-object binaries (black holes and neutron stars) employing post-Newtonian theory. Searches for gravitational wave from inspiralling compact binaries (which are among the most promising astrophysical sources for the first detection of gravitational waves) crucially depend on the theoretical ‘templates’ of the expected signals, as computed by post-Newtonian theory and numerical relativity. Professor Iyer also played a leading role in building an active community of gravitational-wave physicists in India and is a key organizer of the proposed LIGO-India initiative.

APS is the world’s second largest organization of physicists, with more than 50,000 members. The APS citation to Bala Iyer reads: “For his important contributions to gravitational theory, in particular the post-Newtonian approximation and equations of motion, his outstanding leadership in creating the gravitational wave community in India through the IndIGO consortium, and his key role in the LIGO-India initiative”.

[http://gw-indigo.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=44]

High Impact Factors for MPG Open Access Journals

Living Reviews physics journals top their categories

The open access physics journal Living Reviews in Relativity, published by the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam, again leads the category Physics, Particles & Fields in the 2011 Journal Citation Reports released by Thomson Reuters on June 29, 2012. The unique review journal received an impact factor of 17.462, thus improving last year’s performance and rising to #54 in JCR’s complete list of about 8000 indexed journals.

Living Reviews in Solar Physics, published by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, has just received its very first impact factor (12.500).  The journal thus ranks among the top three in the category Astronomy & Astrophysics, after it was included in the Science Citation Index (SCI) only in 2011. With an impressive #103 in the complete list, the ‘newcomer’ barely missed JCR’s Top 100.

Living Reviews in Solar Physics was the second publication in the family of review journals initiated by Max Planck director Bernard Schutz. The concept of ‘living’ articles takes advantage of web-based electronic publishing, allowing authors to frequently incorporate the latest developments and research findings by updating their reviews. To ensure high-quality scientific content, all articles are subject to peer review and solicited by an international editorial board from expert scientists.

The journals have become one of the first places researchers look for information about work in their fields.  The successful concept was adopted by other publications in various fields ranging from astronomy to political science. Currently, five Living Reviews journals are published by partners from the Max Planck Society, the European Community Studies Association Austria, the Leibniz Association, and the ETH and the University of Zurich.

The Journal Impact Factor is one of the most widely used tools for assessing scientific journals. It allows users to objectively evaluate a journal’s performance and its influence on research globally. The impact factor of a journal is the average number of citations to those papers that were published during the two preceding years.

Pressemitteilung als PDF [445 KB]

Press Release as PDF [432 KB]

MPG Open Access Journal ranks best in its category

The open access physics journal Living Reviews in Relativity, published by the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam, leads the category Physics, Particles & Fields in the 2010 Journal Citation Reports released by Thomson Reuters on June 29, 2011. The unique review journal received an impact factor of 12.625, thus improving last year’s performance and rising to #95 in JCR’s complete list of almost 8000 indexed journals.

In March 2011, Living Reviews in Relativity has published its 100th review article in the field of relativity and gravitational physics. The journal currently maintains 72 articles on various topics, which are regularly updated by their authors to incorporate the latest developments and research findings.

Living Reviews‘ successful concept was adopted by other publications in other fields ranging from astronomy to political science. To date, five Living Reviews journals are published by partners from the Max Planck Society, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and ECSA, the Leibniz Association, and the ETH and University of Zurich.

The second journal of the family, Living Reviews in Solar Physics, was just included in Thomson Reuters‘ JCR and SCI in April 2011, therefore missing the deadline for the 2010 Journal Citation Reports by only a few days. However, it would have had received an impressive first impact factor of about 11, ranking 4th in the category Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Although controversial, the Journal Impact Factor is one of the most widely used tools for assessing scientific journals. It allows users to evaluate a journal’s performance and its influence on research. The impact factor of a journal is the average number of citations to those papers that were published during the two preceding years.

With todays new review article on “Varying Constants, Gravitation and Cosmology” by Jean-Philippe Uzan, Living Reviews in Relativity offers 100 review articles on 72 different topics in in various areas of relativity. All full texts are free of charge, following the principles of the Open Access to Scientific Knowledge movement. The journal’s reference database now contains about 20,000 references which are linked to the reviews and can be exported in various formats.

The success of Living Reviews in Relativity has been acknowledged by its high Impact Factor (10.600), and just recently by SPIRES including 10 reviews in the Top Cited Articles during 2010 in gr-qc. Overall, nine articles made it to the list of the 100 most highly cited papers of all time.

We’d like to thank all our readers and authors for their interest and support!

The Living Reviews team.

10 articles from Living Reviews in Relativity are included in SPIRES’ Top Cited Articles during 2010 in gr-qc, listing the 100 most highly cited papers during 2010 in the gr-qc e-print arXiv. Overall, nine articles made it to the list of the 100 most highly cited papers of all time.

The review of “f(R) Theories” by Antonio De Felice and Shinji Tsujikawa came in fourth with already more than 100 citations by December 2010.

Living Reviews is a green publisher, i.e. allows self-archiving of pre- and postprints, which also improves the visibility of our articles online.

We are happy to welcome our new editor Mukund Rangamani from Durham University to the editorial board of Living Reviews in Relativity!  He is taking over the responsibilities for the field of  “String Theory and Gravitation” from Don Marolf, who will continue to be a member of the board.

High Impact Factor for MPG Open Access Journal

Living Reviews in Relativity second best in its category

The open access physics journal Living Reviews in Relativity, published by the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam, has received its first impact factor of 10.600 in the 2009 Journal Citation Reports released by Thomson Reuters on June 17, 2010. The unique review journal ranks second in the category Physics, Particles & Fields.

Living Reviews were initiated by Max Planck director Bernard Schutz in 1998. The concept of ‘living’ articles is taking advantage of web-based electronic publishing, allowing authors to frequently incorporate the latest developments and research findings by updating their reviews. To ensure high-quality scientific content, all articles are subject to peer review and solicited by an international editorial board from experts in their fields.

Today, Living Reviews in Relativity maintains 68 topical reviews, which have been cited more than 4,800 times by other authors. The journal has become one of the first places scientists look for information about work in the fields of gravitational physics.  Its successful concept was adopted by other publications in various fields ranging from astronomy to political science. Currently, five Living Reviews journals are published by partners from the Max Planck Society, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and ECSA, the Leibniz Association, and the ETH  and the University of Zurich.

The Journal Impact Factor is one of the most widely used tools for assessing scientific journals. It allows users to objectively evaluate a journal’s performance and its influence on research globally. The impact factor of a journal is the average number of citations to those papers that were published during the two preceding years.

Pressemitteilung als PDF [157 KB]

Press Release as PDF [131 KB]

Become a fan of Living Reviews in Relativity at Facebook now to be notified about latest news from the journal!

Living Reviews in Relativity has introduced a new LaTeX macro that allows authors to link their articles to an identifier query in the SIMBAD Astronomical Database. SIMBAD provides basic data, cross-identifications, bibliography and measurements for astronomical objects outside the solar system. It currently contains information about more than 4.6 million objects with 235,000 bibliographical references.

Sample LRR articles linking to SIMBAD:

• “Binary and Millisecond Pulsars” by Duncan R. Lorimer (lrr-2008-8)
• “The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems” by Konstantin A. Postnov and Lev R. Yungelson (lrr-2006-6)
• “Testing General Relativity with Pulsar Timing” by Ingrid H. Stairs (lrr-2003-5)

Hyperspace@aei has been designed and developed to increase the exchange of information and foster the interaction among scientists working in general relativity and gravitation. It replaces the QMUL hyperspace service, which has been maintained for 20 years by Malcolm MacCallum. The new site is edited by Luciano Rezzolla with support from the Max Planck Digital Library, the Living Reviews team, and it is hosted at the Albert Einstein Institute (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics) in Germany. This site is also sponsored by the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation, (ISGRG).

Hyperspace@aei provides the opportunity to post announcements about conferences, job opportunities, and general news. All of this information can be easily accessed on the site and is collected in the form of a bulletin which is sent to the hyperspace mailing list (which replaces MacCallum’s GRG list) at the beginning of each month. In addition, the information in the bulletin is also stored in calendars and RSS feeds which can be browsed on the site but also imported for private use.

URL: http://hyperspace.aei.mpg.de/