4 ms·

Quantum – Open journal for quantum science

45 points by mathgenius 10y ago

JadeNB 10y ago
I had some difficulty finding anything about Quantum that wasn't from their web site. For example, I had no idea whether or not it's a legitimate, or a vanity, journal. (I am not a physicist, so looking at authors' names is no use to me.) A bit of DDG'ing turned up the Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal , which had a broken link to a Physics Today article (https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/5c3zzb/article_on_quantum_in_physics_today https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/5c3zzb/arti...) that I think was supposed to point to http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2050/full http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2050/full .
- lisper 10y ago
  I am not a physicist either, but I've been studying QM as a hobby for almost thirty years. I took a quick look and didn't see anything to set off my bogometer. I wouldn't bet my entire life savings on it, but it seems legit to me.
- shoyer 10y ago
  Hey, that's my PhD advisor on the steering board! So clearly it must be legit :)
- jessriedel 10y ago
  This is my field. The editors and steering committee members are very respectable and have set a new standard for transparency in founding a journal. If you select "Top posts"/"all time" on the subreddit, you can see them do their best to gather feedback from the (very fractured) community. "Code of conduct for Quantum?" "Should Quantum accept all correct papers or judge for quality?" "Terms and conditions of Quantum. Feedback appreciated!" "Should open data be a requirement for publication in Quantum?" https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/top/?sort=top&t=all https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/top/?sort=top&t=all The second one, in particular, is worth reading through. https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/50lucs/should_quantum_accept_all_correct_papers_or_judge/ https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/50lucs/shou... The publication fee ($215) is optional and far-and-away the lowest among open-access quantum info journals (all others > $1k). http://imgur.com/a/Mf86p http://imgur.com/a/Mf86p https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100919693768184&set=p.10100919693768184&type=3&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100919693768184&se... ArXiv overlay journals are a very promising idea, but they have been slow to develop. Watching all the work that went into launching Quantum gave me a new appreciation for how hard this is. Time will tell whether it succeeds as a journal and, more importantly, actually has an impact on the journal ecosystem. But it's definitely a valiant attempt.
  - JadeNB 10y ago
    Thank you for this very detailed response and roadmap to evaluating the journal. I was hoping to get a response from someone who could speak from a position of expertise, and, as usual, HN delivers.
da-bacon 10y ago
Very excited to see this because it is a big step in a community (quantum computing/info) taking control back of the peer review process from for-profit (and to a smaller degree non-profit society-based) journals. The challenge will be in how the larger cs/physics community sees it, but I don't think you can figure that out without trying.

45 points by mathgenius 10y ago

I had some difficulty finding anything about Quantum that wasn't from their web site. For example, I had no idea whether or not it's a legitimate, or a vanity, journal. (I am not a physicist, so looking at authors' names is no use to me.) A bit of DDG'ing turned up the Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal , which had a broken link to a Physics Today article (https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/5c3zzb/article_on_quantum_in_physics_today https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/5c3zzb/arti...) that I think was supposed to point to http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2050/full http://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2050/full .

lisper 10y ago
I am not a physicist either, but I've been studying QM as a hobby for almost thirty years. I took a quick look and didn't see anything to set off my bogometer. I wouldn't bet my entire life savings on it, but it seems legit to me.
shoyer 10y ago
Hey, that's my PhD advisor on the steering board! So clearly it must be legit :)
jessriedel 10y ago
This is my field. The editors and steering committee members are very respectable and have set a new standard for transparency in founding a journal. If you select "Top posts"/"all time" on the subreddit, you can see them do their best to gather feedback from the (very fractured) community. "Code of conduct for Quantum?" "Should Quantum accept all correct papers or judge for quality?" "Terms and conditions of Quantum. Feedback appreciated!" "Should open data be a requirement for publication in Quantum?" https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/top/?sort=top&t=all https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/top/?sort=top&t=all The second one, in particular, is worth reading through. https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/50lucs/should_quantum_accept_all_correct_papers_or_judge/ https://www.reddit.com/r/quantumjournal/comments/50lucs/shou... The publication fee ($215) is optional and far-and-away the lowest among open-access quantum info journals (all others > $1k). http://imgur.com/a/Mf86p http://imgur.com/a/Mf86p https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100919693768184&set=p.10100919693768184&type=3&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100919693768184&se... ArXiv overlay journals are a very promising idea, but they have been slow to develop. Watching all the work that went into launching Quantum gave me a new appreciation for how hard this is. Time will tell whether it succeeds as a journal and, more importantly, actually has an impact on the journal ecosystem. But it's definitely a valiant attempt.
- JadeNB 10y ago
  Thank you for this very detailed response and roadmap to evaluating the journal. I was hoping to get a response from someone who could speak from a position of expertise, and, as usual, HN delivers.

da-bacon 10y ago

Very excited to see this because it is a big step in a community (quantum computing/info) taking control back of the peer review process from for-profit (and to a smaller degree non-profit society-based) journals. The challenge will be in how the larger cs/physics community sees it, but I don't think you can figure that out without trying.