Associate Editor, Physical Review Letters

Who we are

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance physics by fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and global community dedicated to science and society. APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and around the world.

Physical Review Letters (PRL) is the world’s premier physics letter journal and the American Physical Society’s flagship publication. Since 1958, PRL has contributed to the APS mission to advance physics by publishing many of the key results, including dozens of which led to Nobel prizes. As an Associate Editor of Physical Review Letters, you would handle all phases of the peer review process and ultimately decide which papers we publish.

We seek a dynamic and personable individual with a strong scientific background in gravitation, astrophysics, or cosmology. Editors stay engaged with the physics community, attend meetings, and participate in editorial initiatives and APS projects. No editorial experience is required, though familiarity with the review process as an author and referee is expected. Candidates with considerable editorial experience may qualify for a senior position.

APS offers a dynamic work environment with an outstanding total compensation package, including salary, benefits, and paid time off.

• Manage all aspects of peer review for a suite of manuscripts, including determining if review is warranted, selecting referees, evaluating responses, and deciding whether to publish.
• Maintain close contact with other PRL editors and with editors of other journals in the Physical Review portfolio.
• Help select and briefly summarize papers to highlight.
• Keep up with current and emerging physics research, and communicate such information with editors across the portfolio.
• Support the manuscript post‑acceptance process, including the acquisition of editorial summaries and images and the resolution of production issues.
• Perform editorial checks to ensure the overall quality and timeliness of published papers.
• Maintain high ethical standards and fairness at all editorial stages, ensuring that decisions align with editorial policy and practice.
• Gain mastery of the peer‑review management system.
• Represent the journals and APS at scientific conferences.
• Actively engage and develop strong relationships and trust with a broad network of researchers.
• Contribute to journal‑level projects and strategy, such as content commissioning, social media, organizing outreach events, and data analytics.
• Actively contribute to ensuring the journals are diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

• A PhD and postdoctoral experience in gravitation, astrophysics, or cosmology.

• A minimum of one year of postdoctoral experience.
• Excellent knowledge of the science and literature in their field.
• Familiarity with existing research groups in that area.
• Strong sense of integrity.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to make prompt independent evaluations and decisions.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Strong written and verbal English communication skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to work well both alone and as part of a team.

This role involves occasional travel, approximately up to 10%, for meetings with APS staff, departmental gatherings, and interactions with colleagues in the Long Island, NY, Washington, DC, and College Park, MD areas. Additionally, the position requires worldwide travel to attend conferences and events, and to interact with researchers at their institutions and universities.

The salary range for this position takes into account various factors influencing compensation decisions, such as skill sets, experience, training, and other business and organizational requirements. The salary listed within the specified ranges considers relevant experience. Our compensation philosophy at APS aims to maintain salaries at the midpoint of the market. As a result, we typically hire within the target starting range.

Exceptional, rare cases may merit reviews above…