What's the process for getting a physics paper published?

Question

I'm a physics student in VA, what's the best way to go about getting a physics paper publisehd in major journals..if it is indeed ground breaking?

Other than what my professor, says get a Ph.D first...

Answer 1

You don't need a Ph.D. to get published, but you do need an original idea backed up by evidence or math. If you've got that, great. The first thing you'll need to do is typeset it correctly. Find the website for the Physical Review Letters (biggest physics journal) and find out what their submission requirements are - you can do it online. You'll probably need to typeset it in LaTeX, which you can get for free. Then just submit it. If it makes it past the screening process (typeset correctly, right subject area/apropriate for the journal, obviously not a quack) then the main editor will send it to a referree in the same area of study (probably not anyone you would be aquainted with) who will read it over and check that you didn't make any major mistakes or misinterpret your results/conclusions. If they have any changes for you to make, they'll send it back, or if you have a major misconception/problem, they'll reject it. If they want you to fix it, then they'll publish it when you've resubmitted it and gone through the review process again.

If they don't reject it out of hand, it can take between 6 months to a year to get it published. To get earlier response, you can post it on a preprint site (arxiv.org) - but you open yourself up to a lot of criticism and possibly people stealing your results that way.

Submit here: http://authors.aps.org/ESUB/

Answer 2

For AIP journals, go to the link below, click Authors for general information, or click the journal icon you're most interested in to track down journal specific information for authors. Most will accept of number of formats (Word, Wordperfect, Revtex, etc). Use whatever is suitable for your subject. If you'll have lots of equations and references, for example, consider Revtex (Scientific Workplace has a good GUI for this). Otherwise, MS Word is easier to use.

Answer 3

Ask a physics prof.