Annalen der Physik is one of the oldest scientific journals on physics and has been published since 1799. The journal publishes original, peer-reviewed papers in the areas of experimental, theoretical, applied, and mathematical physics and related areas. The current editor-in-chief is Stefan Hildebrandt. Prior to 2008, its ISO 4 abbreviation was Ann. Phys. , and after 2008 Ann. Phys. . The journal is the successor to Journal der Physik published from 1790 until 1794, and Neues Journal der Physik published from 1795 until 1797. The journal has been published under a variety of names during its history.
History
Originally, Annalen der Physik was published in German, then a leading scientific language. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the journal published in both German and English. Initially, only foreign authors contributed articles in English but from the 1970s German-speaking authors increasingly wrote in English in order to reach an international audience. After the German reunification in 1990, English became the only language of the journal. The importance of Annalen der Physik unquestionably peaked in 1905 with Albert Einstein'sAnnus Mirabilis papers. In the 1920s, the journal lost ground to the concurrent Zeitschrift für Physik. With the 1933 emigration wave, German-language journals lost many of their best authors. During Nazi Germany, it was considered to represent "the more conservative elements within the German physics community", alongside Physikalische Zeitschrift. From 1944–1946 publication was interrupted because of World War II, but resumed in 1947 under Soviet occupation rule. While Zeitschrift für Physik moved to Western Germany, Annalen der Physik served physicists in East Germany. After the German reunification, the journal was acquired by Wiley-VCH. A relaunch of the journal with new editor and new contents was announced for 2012. As a result of the 2012 relaunch, Annalen der Physik now features a refocused scope, an updated editorial board, and new, more modern cover designs.
With each editor, the numbering of volumes restarted from 1. The journal was often referred to by the editor's name: Gilberts Annalen, Poggendorfs Annalen, Wiedemann's Annalen and so on, or for short Pogg. Ann., Wied. Ann. After Drude, the work was divided between two editors: experimentalists Wilhelm Wien and Eduard Grüneisen and theoretician Max Planck. In these times, peer-review was not yet standard. Einstein, for example, just sent his manuscripts to Planck who then subsequently published them.
Notable published works
Some of the most famous papers published in Annalen der Physik were:
The journal is abstracted and indexed in: According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2015 impact factor of 3.443, ranking it 11th out of 79 journals in the category 'Physics Multidisciplinary'.
