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The Reviews of Modern Physics Colloquia describe recent research of interest to a broad audience of physicists. Their aim is to do for the published literature what colloquia do for institutions and laboratories, that is, communicate to one's colleagues, including junior graduate students, research results at the frontier and offer new insights into concepts that link many different subfields of physics. Talks prepared for departmental colloquia or for invited presentations at workshops or conferences may serve as the basis for an RMP Colloquium.
Some guidelines for prospective authors are offered here:
Subject: Your subject should be one in which recent progress has been noteworthy and which would be of interest to a broad audience of physicists. The introduction of your colloquium should make clear to readers why the subject should be of interest to nonspecialists.
Brevity: Focus on a topic that can be absorbed readily in about 40 minutes and adequately summarized in about 10 printed RMP pages, or about 15 single-spaced typewritten pages. (If you find that your chosen subject cannot be covered adequately within this compass, consider writing a longer article for RMP!) Manuscripts judged to have a length greater than 20 printed RMP pages will not be considered for publication.
Accessibility: Discuss the topic in a way that is accessible to graduate students and nonspecialists. Authors must, therefore, aim for clarity and focus of presentation and avoid jargon and acronyms defining and illustrating any terms that might be unfamiliar to the nonspecialist.
Perspective: Be sure that your Colloquium puts the described research in a broader perspective of the field. Colloquia are not expected to present a comprehensive review, but the introduction and references should place the subject in the context of related work.
Editing: Be prepared for the possibility that editing may be required to bring your article into line with the above-stated goals. In particular, note that each article is reviewed not only for technical content, adequacy of references, etc., but also for clarity and accessibility.
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