Living Reviews in Relativity

Living Reviews in Relativity (commonly abbreviated as ''Living Rev. Relativ.') is a review journal in general relativity published by Springer. Founded in 1998 by Bernard F. Schutz, one of the founding figures of general relativity, and closely associated with the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, it is fully open access, with a 2025 impact factor of 64.6.Living Reviews in Relativity（常用缩写 Living Rev. Relativ.）是 Springer 出版的广义相对论综述期刊，1998 年由广义相对论的重要奠基人之一 Bernard F. Schutz 创办，与马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所关系密切，是完全开放获取刊物，2025 年影响因子为 64.6。^[1]

Scope

• Genre: the journal publishes reviews only. It accepts no original research papers and no short communications, and its editorial policy explicitly asks for the completeness of a textbook chapter rather than a mere compilation of existing literature.体裁定位： 本刊只刊综述，不刊发原创研究论文，且不刊短篇通讯，其编辑方针明确要求文章具备教材式的完整性，而非仅仅把既有文献罗列一遍。
• Subject coverage: the journal covers general relativity and gravitation, including black hole physics, compact objects and gravitational waves, cosmology, spacetime geometry and global relativity, quantum gravity, and the observational and applied sides of relativistic astrophysics.收录范围： 覆盖广义相对论与引力学，包括黑洞物理、致密天体与引力波、宇宙学、时空几何与全局相对论、量子引力，以及相对论天体物理的观测与应用。
• Length: reviews are usually long, with the editors indicating a guideline of roughly 8,000 to 12,000 words. Diagram-rich writing is explicitly welcomed, and the editors recommend additional didactic figures and derivations.文章体量： 综述篇幅通常很长，编辑部给出的指导区间约为 8000 至 12000 词，并明确欢迎图解丰富的写法，建议增设教学性的图表与推导。
• Full open access: the journal is fully open access. Every article has appeared under an open access licence since the journal was founded, and no article processing charge is levied.完全开放获取： 期刊为完全开放获取，全部文章自创刊起即以开放获取许可发表，不收取文章处理费。
• Commissioned workflow: the journal does not accept unsolicited submissions. An author must first make contact with the editors, and a formal invitation follows only once the editors are satisfied that the subject suits the journal. This arrangement is the defining feature of the Living Reviews series.邀请制的编辑流程： 本刊不接受自由投稿，作者须先与编辑部联系，编辑在确认选题适合之后才会发出正式邀请，这一制度是活页综述系列的核心特征。
• Indexing and metrics: the journal is indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and in Scopus, holding the first quartile in Physics, Particles and Fields. Its 2025 impact factor stands at 64.6, among the highest of any journal in this library, while its self-citation rate of only about 0.4 percent indicates that its articles are cited overwhelmingly by readers from outside the field.收录与指标： 收录于科学引文索引扩展版与 Scopus，在物理：粒子与场物理类别中保持第一区，2025 年影响因子高达 64.6，是本库中影响因子最高的期刊之一，自引率仅约 0.4%，说明其文献几乎完全被领域外的读者引用。^[2]

History

• 1998: the journal was founded by Bernard F. Schutz, who also became its first editor-in-chief.1998年： 期刊创刊，由 Bernard F. Schutz 创办并出任首任主编。
• Motivation for the founding: Schutz had long held society offices in the gravitation community. He saw that the literature of general relativity was scattered across dozens of physics journals, leaving beginners and researchers from adjacent fields without a coherent introduction or overview, and so he pressed for the journal, choosing the name Living Reviews to signal that articles would be revised and updated over time.创刊动机： Schutz 曾长期在引力领域担任学会职务，他看到广义相对论的文献分散在数十种物理期刊中，初学者与跨领域研究者难以获得一份连贯的入门与综述，于是推动创刊，并以 Living Reviews 之名表示文章会持续修订更新。
• The Living Reviews series: the journal is a founding member of the Living Reviews series, to which titles covering solar physics, relativistic astrophysics and other subjects were subsequently added. The family shares three institutional arrangements, namely commissioned authorship, comprehensive length and full open access.活页综述系列： 本刊是 Living Reviews 系列的创刊成员，该系列此后陆续添入涵盖太阳物理、相对论天体物理等方向的成员刊，共享邀请制撰写、篇幅完整与完全开放获取这三项制度安排。
• The editor's continuing duty: each review continues to be revised after publication. The editorial office maintains a dedicated editor for each article who tracks the succession of versions and supplies the authors with the exact date of every revision. This is the clearest difference between the series and an ordinary review journal.编辑的重任： 每一篇综述在发表之后仍会继续修订，编辑部为此配备专门的编辑跟踪每篇文章的版本更迭，并向作者提供每次修订的确切日期，这是该系列与普通综述刊最显著的区别。
• Publisher history: the journal is published by Springer and is part of Springer Nature. Its close association with the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics is a shared arrangement across the titles in the series.出版方沿革： 期刊由 Springer 出版，属 Springer Nature 的一部分，其与马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所的密切关系是该系列各刊的共同安排。
• Recent years: the impact factor has risen from about 6 at the journal's launch to 64.6 in 2025, making the journal the central title in the citation and dissemination of general relativity. Its very low self-citation rate indicates that its articles are cited overwhelmingly by readers from outside the field.近年： 影响因子由创刊之初的约 6 上升到 2025 年的 64.6，成为广义相对论领域引用与传播的中心刊物，其极低的自引率说明其文献几乎完全被领域外的读者引用。
• Position in this library: counted by impact factor the journal ranks among the highest cited titles in physics in this library. It is indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and holds the first quartile in Physics, Particles and Fields, and its very low self-citation rate bears out the distinctive structure of that citation pattern.在库中的定位： 期刊影响因子口径下的论文引用在物理类中位居前列，收录于科学引文索引扩展版，在物理：粒子与场物理类别中稳居第一区，其极低的自引率进一步印证了这一引用结构的特征。^[3]

Editors

• Editors-in-chief: the journal has two editors-in-chief, both gravitation physicists. Their responsibility is to judge whether to issue a formal invitation once an author has proposed a subject, and then to keep watch over the revision of the article after publication.共同主编： 期刊设两位共同主编，均为引力物理学者，其职责是在收到作者的选题意向后判断是否发出正式邀请，并在文章发表后持续监督其修订。
• Institutional background: the editorial office is closely interwoven with research at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, an arrangement that lets the journal draw directly on that institute's network of experts when judging proposed subjects.机构背景： 编辑部的成员与马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所的研究工作紧密交织，这一安排使期刊的选题判断能够直接借助该所的专家网络。
• Negotiating the manuscript: once a subject is agreed, the author and the editors discuss the outline, the division into sections and the figure plan at length. The editors state that they welcome advance discussion of the outline, so that the finished structure does not turn out lopsided.撰稿方式的协商： 主题一旦确定，作者与编辑部之间要就大纲、章节划分与图表方案反复商讨，编辑部明确表示欢迎作者就大纲先行沟通，以避免成稿结构失衡。
• Freedom of authorship: unlike most review journals, the journal places no restriction on the institution or nationality of an author. It welcomes scholars from different countries writing a single review together, provided the division of labour among co-authors is settled before drafting begins.作者身份的自由： 与多数综述刊不同，本刊对作者的机构与国籍不作限制，欢迎来自不同国家的学者共同撰写一篇综述，合作者在成文前须先行确定分工。
• Public version records: the journal publishes the revision history of every article on its own page, listing the publication date of each earlier version so that a reader can tell which version they are citing and when it appeared.版本记录的公开： 期刊在每篇文章页面上公开其修订历史，列出此前各版本的发表日期，使读者能够确认所引用的具体版本与提出日期。
• Citation and metrics: because its articles are long and are revised repeatedly, the journal sits in the highest band for impact factor in this library, while a self-citation rate of about 0.4 percent shows that its citations come almost entirely from outside gravitational physics.引用与指标口径： 因文章篇幅长且持续修订，影响因子在本库期刊中处于最高一档，而仅约 0.4% 的自引率说明其引用来源几乎完全在引力领域之外。^[4]