"The Physical Review and Physics Publishing: Past
and Future"
The Physical Review has a remarkable history going back
to its founding in
1893. The articles published in its pages have changed
our view of the
universe and the way we live. We are now in the midst
of an electronic
revolution in the distribution of the results of physics
research, and
physicists are playing a leading role in determining
the directions of that
revolution. This presentation focuses on the past of
physics publishing and
on possible new directions. The golden future can be
visualized, albeit
dimly, but there are many pitfalls in the path to that
future. In this
talk, with a demonstration of live electronic access,
some of these will
(with bad luck) be illustrated. So too (with good luck)
for the new
capabilities.