Press Release from APS Editorial Office

[Daniel Kulp <dan@ridge.aps.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Amy Halsted
American Physical Society
halsted@aps.org
631-591-4232

APS Offers Author Names in Alternate Language Alphabets

Ridge, NY, 3 December 2007 -- A new program announced today 
[http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v99/e230001] by the American 
Physical Society offers authors the option to include their names 
in either Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters, following the 
name as it appears in Latin characters.  The program is offered 
for author bylines throughout the Physical Review journals, 
including Physical Review Letters.

The option offers advantages to these authors and to readers of 
the journal.  Many names that are different when expressed in 
characters become the same when transliterated into English. 
Showing the characters after the transliterated name removes the 
ambiguity, and enables readers to know definitively whose work is 
whose.

The program is the brainchild of Gene Sprouse, APS 
Editor-in-Chief. "A person's name is important.  It is the first 
word that a child learns to write, and it stays with him or her 
throughout life," he observed. "Authors who choose to have their 
names printed this way can show their name on their paper to a 
friend or family member who may not read English!  Our 
international submissions are growing and we occasionally have 
trouble ourselves distinguishing one Asian author from another. 
We value these authors and we want to be welcoming to them in our 
journals," he said.

The pilot program for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters is 
now available, and with time and more experience additional 
languages may be offered. Full instructions are given for authors 
on how to supply the proper Unicode characters at the time of 
submission [http://authors.aps.org/names.html].

About the APS: The American Physical Society is the world's largest 
professional body of physicists, representing over 46,000 physicists
in academia and industry in the US and internationally. It has 
offices in Ridge, NY; Washington, DC; and College Park, MD. For more
information: www.aps.org

****