Contemporary Physics is a peer-reviewed

Peer review

Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...

 scientific journal

Scientific journal

In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...

 publishing introductory articles on important recent developments in physics. Editorial screening and peer review is accomplished by members of the editorial board.

Overview

Contemporary Physics is published at six issues per year by Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in the United Kingdom which publishes books and academic journals. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Kingdom-based publisher and conference company.- Overview :...

. The subjects covered by this journal are: astrophysics

Astrophysics

Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...

, atomic and nuclear physics, chemical physics, computational physics, condensed matter physics

Condensed matter physics

Condensed matter physics deals with the physical properties of condensed phases of matter. These properties appear when a number of atoms at the supramolecular and macromolecular scale interact strongly and adhere to each other or are otherwise highly concentrated in a system. The most familiar...

, environmental physics, experimental physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

, general physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

, particle & high energy physics

Particle physics

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...

, plasma physics, space science, and theoretical physics.
The first issue of this journal appeared in 1959.

The top ten downloaded articles in 2008 were:

• Power laws, Pareto distributions and Zipf's law. Volume 46 (5), 2005. Newman, MEJ
• Introduction to protein folding for physicists. Volume 48 (2), 2007 Echenique, Pablo
• Quantum communication through spin chain dynamics: an introductory overview. Volume 48 (1), 2007 Bose, Sougato
• Molecular magnets. Volume 48 (5), 2007 Blundell, Stephen J.
• Coherent thermal radiation. Volume 48 (4), 2007 Greffet, Jean-Jacques; Henkel, Carsten
• Lights, action: optical tweezers. Volume 43 (4), 2002 Molloy, Justin E.; Padgett, Miles J.
• Higgs bosons, electroweak symmetry breaking, and the physics of the Large Hadron Collider. Volume 48 (1), 2007 Quigg, Chris
• Detecting quantum light. Volume 48 (3), 2007 Silberhorn, Christine
• Negative refraction. Volume 45 (3), 2004 Pendry, JB
• An introduction to quantum information processing: applications and realizations. Volume 46 (6), 2005 Kok, Pieter et al.

Aims

The journal intends to be of particular use to undergraduates, teachers, and lecturers and those starting postgraduate studies.

Abstracting and indexing

According to the Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports

Journal Citation Reports is an annual publication by the Healthcare & Science division of Thomson Reuters. It has been integrated with the Web of Knowledge, by Thomson Reuters, and is accessed from the Web of Science to JCR Web. It provides information about academic journals in the sciences and...

 the journal had a 2008 5-year impact factor

Impact factor

The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...

 of 3.736. Contemporary Physics is abstracted and indexed in Inspec

Inspec

Inspec is a major indexing database of scientific and technical literature, published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology , and formerly by the Institution of Electrical Engineers , one of the IET's forerunners....

, EBSCO Publishing, Current Contents

Current Contents

Current Contents is a rapid alerting service database from the Institute for Scientific Information, now part of Thomson Reuters, that is published online and in several different printed subject sections.-History:...

, Current Mathematical Publications, Mathematical Reviews, SciSearch, and SciBase.