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APS selects five Lab researchers as outstanding journal referees

Five Laboratory researchers have been selected by the American Physical Society (APS) editors as outstanding referees of APS journals.

Peter Beiersdorfer, Mau Hsiung Chen and Ian Thompson, of the Physical Sciences Directorate, Charles Cerjan of the Weapons and Complex Integration Principal Directorate, along with former LLNL researcher William Hoover are recipients.

The outstanding referee program was instituted this year. The highly selective award program recognizes scientists who have been exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication in APS journals. The program will recognize approximately 130 of the 42,000 currently active referees annually, but in the inaugural year a larger group of 534 referees has been selected for the outstanding referee designation.

Like fellowship in the APS, this is a lifetime award. By initiating the program, APS expresses its appreciation to all referees, whose efforts in peer review not only keep the standards of the journals at a high level, but in many cases also help authors to improve the quality and readability of their articles — even those that are not published by APS.

The selection of outstanding referees was made based on two decades of database records on more than 50,000 referees (some no longer in active service) who have been called upon to review manuscripts, of which 33,000 were submitted in 2007. Most of the referees chosen in this inaugural year have given dedicated service for many years.

The basis for choosing the 534 honorees was the quality, number and timeliness of their reports, without regard for membership in the APS, country of origin or field of research. Individuals with current or very recent direct connections to the journals, such as editors and editorial board members, were excluded.

Each outstanding referee will receive a personalized certificate and an outstanding referee lapel pin from APS. In addition, APS plans to further recognize the outstanding referees during the prize and award session at the 2008 APS March meeting in New Orleans and at the April meeting in St. Louis.

March 28, 2008