The following guidelines can be used to determine the length of a manuscript submitted to the Physical Review journals. The general formula for calculating a manuscript’s length is:
Total Word Count = Text + Displayed Math + Figures + Tables
| Guidelines For Letters and Short Papers, Including Comments | |
|---|---|
| Text | Include
Exclude
|
| Displayed Math | The word equivalent for displayed math is 16 words per row for single-column equations. Two-column equations count as 32 words per row. |
| Figures | To estimate the word equivalent for figures use the figure’s aspect ratio (width / height). The estimate is [(150 / aspect ratio) + 20 words] for single-column figures, and [300 / (0.5 * aspect ratio)] + 40 words for double-column figures. |
| Tables | The word equivalent for tables is 13 words plus 6.5 words per line for single-column tables. Double-column tables count as 26 words plus 13 words per line. |
| Guidelines For PRX and Review Articles in PRApplied, PRMaterials, and RMP | |
|---|---|
| Text | Include
Exclude
|
| Displayed Math | The word equivalent for displayed math is 16 words per row for single-column equations. Two-column equations count as 32 words per row. |
| Figures | The word equivalent for figures is 170 words per figure for single-column figures. Two-column figures count as 340 words per figure. |
| Tables | The word equivalent for tables is 13 words plus 6.5 words per line for single-column tables. Double-column tables count as 26 words plus 13 words per line. |
Authors are advised to use REVTeX 4.2 for the preparation of their manuscript, using the proper journal option (‘prl’ for Physical Review Letters for instance). Manuscripts that fit within the following page limits are likely to conform to the length guidelines: Letters and PRPER Short Papers: 4 pages, Letters: 4 pages for PRB; 5 pages for Physical Review A, C, D, E, Fluids, Materials, and Research. Alternatively, you can determine the word count of a REVTeX 4.2 file by:
The paper should still run under LaTeX. To get a precise word count, you can then use the wordcount.tex file found at https://ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/wordcount.
To count the number of words in a Word document, make a copy of your manuscript and remove all of the text and other elements that aren’t counted under the guidelines. Then use Word’s built-in word count function.
GhostScript can be used to determine the bounding box of Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) and PDF figures:
| cat figure.eps | gs -q -dSAFER -dBATCH -sDEVICE=bbox - |
You can then use the size of the bounding box to figure out the exact width and height of the figure. Various image programs will display the dimensions of JPEG, GIF, PNG, and other types of figure files. Alternatively, you may use a PDF viewer with cropping capabilities to draw a crop box around the figure and read off the dimensions. Finally, you may simply print out the figure and measure its dimensions. The units are arbitrary because the guidelines use the aspect ratio, which is the width/height.
The length restrictions for different article types vary among the Physical Review journals. The length limits are given in the following table:
| Article Length Limits | ||
|---|---|---|
| PRL | Letter Comment/Reply |
3,750 words 750 words |
| PRX | Comment/Reply | 3,500 words |
| PRX Energy | Perspective Review article Tutorial Comment/Reply |
3,000 words 7,000 words No limit 3,500 words |
| Length limits for Perspective and Review articles are guidelines. Authors should consult PRX Energy editors if needed. | ||
| PRX Life | Perspective Review article Comment/Reply |
3,000 words 7,000 words 3,500 words |
| Length limits for Perspectives and Review articles are guidelines. Authors should consult PRX Life editors if needed. | ||
| PRX Quantum | Perspective Tutorial Comment/Reply |
7,500 words 37,500 words 3,500 words |
| Length limits for Perspective and Tutorial articles are just a guideline. The authors should consult PRX Quantum editors if needed. | ||
| RMP | Article Colloquium |
50,000 words 20,000 words |
| PRA | Letter Comment/Reply |
4,500 words 3,500 words |
| PRB | Letter Comment/Reply |
4,500 words 3,500 words |
| PRC | Letter Comment/Reply |
4,500 words 1,500 words |
| PRD | Letter Comment/Reply |
4,500 words 3,500 words |
| PRE | Letter Comment/Reply |
4,500 words 3,500 words |
| PRResearch | Letter Comment/Reply |
4,500 words 3,500 words |
| PRAB | No limit | |
| PRApplied | Review Article Comment/Reply Letter |
30,000 words 3,500 words 3,500 words |
| PRFluids | Letter Comment/Reply |
4,500 words 3,500 words |
| PRMaterials | Review Article Research Update Letter Comment/Reply |
30,000 words 10,000 words 4,500 words 3,500 words |
| PRPER | Review Article Comment/Reply |
No limit 3,500 words |