Physiological Reviews

Physiological Reviews (commonly abbreviated as Physiol. Rev. or ''PRV') is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Physiological Society (APS), issued in four numbers in January, April, July and October, with articles appearing individually online first. It publishes reviews only, no original research articles, and every review is invited by the editorial board, making it the longest established and most heavily cited review journal in physiology.《生理学评论》（Physiological Reviews'，常用缩写为 Physiol. Rev. 或 PRV'''''）是美国生理学会（American Physiological Society 简称 APS）出版的同行评审学术期刊，每年于一、四、七、十月出版四期，文章逐篇在线先行。该刊只刊发综述而不刊发原创研究论文，全部综述均由编委会邀请，是生理学界历史最悠久、引用量最高的综述刊物。

Scope

The genre position of the journal was fixed in its founding statutes: the main purpose is to furnish a means whereby those interested in the physiological sciences may keep in touch with contemporary research, by publishing a series of short but comprehensive articles dealing with the recent literature in physiology, the term physiology being used in a broad sense to include biochemistry, biophysics, experimental pharmacology and experimental pathology. Two features of this matter for a prospective author: the journal does only the work of integrating already-published literature into a usable narrative and never publishes new data, and because it operates by invitation the practical route in is to submit a preliminary proposal to the editors and write only once invited本刊的体裁定位在创刊章程里就已写定：旨在为生理科学界提供追踪当代研究的手段，具体做法是发表一批短而全面的文章，以综述近期生理学文献为体裁，其中生理学一词按广义使用，涵盖生物化学、生物物理学、实验药理学与实验病理学。理解这一体裁有两个要点：一是本刊只做「把已成型的文献整合为一个可用叙述」这项工作，不发表新数据；二是约稿制意味着外部作者的实际入口是先向编辑部提交预提案，获邀后再撰稿，学会明确欢迎主动投来的社论。收文覆盖的主要方向包括： the society does welcome unsolicited editorials. Its principal subject areas include:^[1]

• Cardiovascular and respiratory physiology: cardiac electrophysiology and the regulation of circulation, pulmonary function and gas exchange, and hemodynamics and microcirculation.心血管与呼吸生理： 心脏电生理与循环调控、肺功能与气体交换、血流动力学与微循环。

• Renal and fluid physiology: glomerular filtration and tubular transport, body fluid and electrolyte balance, acid-base balance, and renal endocrinology.肾脏与体液生理： 肾小球滤过与肾小管转运、体液与电解质平衡、酸碱平衡与肾脏内分泌。

• Neuroscience: neuronal electrophysiology and synaptic transmission, sensory and motor systems, and plasticity in the central nervous system.神经科学： 神经元的电生理与突触传递、感觉与运动系统、中枢神经系统的可塑性。

• Endocrinology and metabolism: mechanisms of hormone action, receptor signalling pathways, and physiological regulation of energy metabolism.内分泌与代谢： 激素的作用机制、受体信号通路、能量代谢的生理调控。

• Digestion and absorption: gastrointestinal motility and secretion, nutrient absorption, and intestinal endocrinology and microbial interaction.消化与吸收： 胃肠动力与分泌、营养物质吸收、肠道内分泌与微生物互作。

• Comparative and integrative physiology: environmental and high-altitude physiology, evolutionary physiology, and comparative work across organ systems.比较与整合生理： 环境与高原生理、演化生理学、跨器官系统的比较研究。

The journal is published in hybrid mode: authors are not charged on the subscription route, while an article processing charge applies to authors choosing open access. The society reports an average time to first decision of 3.3 months and an average of 33.6 days to early online publication本刊属混合出版模式，订阅路线不向作者收费，选择开放获取则须支付文章处理费。学会公布本刊平均首次决定时间为 3.3 个月、提前上线平均 33.6 天；由于全部综述均为邀稿，录用比例在本刊不适用，学会亦未公布。 because every review is commissioned, an acceptance rate does not apply and the society publishes none.^[2]

History

• The proposal (1919): the founding of the journal did not proceed from a narrative of disciplinary transformation, but from a specific gap in the literature. Physiological writing was by then too voluminous and scattered for even specialists to track their own field, while the comparative review work of that kind was being carried by European venues such as Ergebnisse der Physiologie and the Harvey Lectures, leaving the discipline without a vehicle of its own. The move came from Donald Russell Hooker, then executive editor of the American Journal of Physiology, in April 1919, and was submitted in the name of his mentor William Henry Howell.创刊动议（1919年）： 本刊的提议并非来自「应用物理学到生理学的学科转型」这一叙事，而是出自一个具体的文献缺口。当时生理学文献过于庞杂分散，即便专才也难以跟踪本学科进展，而承担这类比较性综述工作的多为欧洲的《生理学成果》与哈维讲座等出版物，本学科领域缺少一份自有载体。动议由当时《美国生理学杂志》执行编辑唐纳德·拉塞尔·胡克提出，时间是一九一九年四月，且以其导师威廉·亨利·豪威尔的名义提交。^[1]

• Approval and the first volume (1919–1921): the proposal was approved by the council in December 1919, statements of intent were issued in 1920, and the first volume appeared in 1921. It carried nineteen articles, on such subjects as cardiac impulse conduction, capillary and venous function, the regulation of blood volume, regulation of the pulmonary circulation, afferent pathways of visceral reflexes, and the effects of altitude.审批与首卷（1919—1921年）： 动议于一九一九年十二月经学会理事会批准，一九二〇年发出发行说明书，一九二一年出版第一卷。首卷共十九篇，主题包括心脏冲动传导、毛细血管与静脉功能、血量调节、肺循环调节、内脏反射传入路与高原生理效应等。^[3]

• A successful launch: cash subscriptions collected before the first volume appeared, at six dollars a year, covered the initial costs, leaving the three-thousand-dollar reserve untouched创刊即成功： 首卷之前即以每年六美元的现金预订阅覆盖了初期开支，三千美元备用金未被动用；首年末订户达八百三十八户，不久突破「预期一千份」的目标。这一表现在同类新刊中相当罕见。 the journal closed its first year with 838 subscribers and soon passed the anticipated thousand. Such a performance is unusual for a new journal.^[3]

• Founding editor: Donald Russell Hooker served as the first editor until his death in 1946, with William Henry Howell as the first chair of the editorial board until 1932. The founding board included, alongside Hooker, Howell, John Macleod and Lafayette B. Lee of the society itself, Reid Hunt, H. Gideon Wells and Lafayette B. Mendel drawn from the society's three sister organizations in the then Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.首任编辑： 唐纳德·拉塞尔·胡克任首任编辑直至一九四六年去世，其间首任编委会主席为威廉·亨利·豪威尔（任至 1932 年），首届编委除学会本会的胡克、豪威尔、约翰·麦克劳德与劳埃德·李之外，还包括来自当时生理学联合会其余三个学会的拉斐尔·门德尔、里德·亨特与希迪恩·威尔斯。^[3]

• Centenary: in 2021 the society published a centenary editorial for the journal, recording that more than thirty-six Nobel laureates had written for it over the years, a quantifiable landmark in the journal's history.百年纪念与长期作者： 二〇二一年学会为本刊百年出版了纪念社论，指出曾为本刊撰稿的诺贝尔奖得主超过三十六位，这在本刊的历史上是一个可量化的标志。^[3]

• Publishing model and metrics: the current model is individual articles appearing online and then gathered into a quarterly number. The society's official metrics page reports a 2025 impact factor of 35.7, first in physiology, a 2025 Scopus CiteScore of 55.1, also first in physiology, and a Google Scholar h-index of 92, again first, with a cited half-life of 11.5 years.出版模式与指标： 本刊现行的出版模式是文章逐篇在线先行、再汇入季度刊。学会官方指标页显示，本刊二〇二五年影响因子 35.7，在生理学类居第一；斯科普斯引用分数 55.1 同列生理学类第一；谷歌学术 h 指数 92 同样居首；被引半衰期 11.5 年。^[2]

Editors

The journal is edited by an editor-in-chief with a deputy managing editor, and all material is invited by the editorial board, with outside authors invited to submit a preliminary proposal. The society's article-types page states that invitations are issued by the editorial board while unsolicited editorials are welcome. This arrangement places the editorial centre of gravity not on refereeing but on topic selection: the editors must judge which areas have matured to the point where a synthesis is possible.本刊实行主编统筹，另设副执行编辑一位；全部稿件由编委会邀请，外部作者宜先提交预提案。学会的官方体裁页明确本刊的邀请由编辑委员会发出，同时欢迎主动投来的社论。这一体裁安排决定了本刊的编辑工作重心不在审稿而在选题——编者需要判断哪些领域的发展已经成熟到可以被综述整合。^[4]

• Sadis Matalon (editor-in-chief since May 2017): based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he took office in May 2017 and has now held the editorship for nine years. In his editorial marking the appointment he described the journal as among the most prestigious physiology journals in the world, invoking the society's motto, physiology is medicine, as the statement of what the post entails.萨迪斯·马塔隆（2017年5月起任）： 供职于阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校，二〇一七年五月就任，本刊主编任期已延续九年。就任时他撰文称本刊是「最有声望的生理学杂志」之一，并引用学会格言「生理学即医学」自述其职分所在。^[5]

• Dennis Brown (1950–2017): a professor at Harvard Medical School who held the editorship for sixty-seven years, among the longest tenures in the journal's history and the figure who held the journal's standing through the molecular era丹尼斯·布朗（1950—2017年）： 哈佛医学院教授，任主编六十七年，是本刊历史上任期最长者之一，也是本刊在分子生理学时代维持综述地位的关口人物；其卸任后由马塔隆接任。 he was succeeded by Matalon.^[5]

• Founding editor: Donald Russell Hooker served as the first editor for twenty-five years, from 1921 until his death in 1946, and carried the journal through its entire passage from founding to established standing.首任编辑： 唐纳德·拉塞尔·胡克任首任编辑二十五年（1921—1946），在其手上本刊完成了从创刊到确立地位的整个过程。^[3]

• Standing in physiology: the journal places first in its category on all three of impact factor, CiteScore and Google Scholar h-index, and its reviews are heavily cited as baseline sources in textbooks and later research, which makes it a place where the discipline's agenda and its consensus are formed.学科地位： 本刊在影响因子、引用分数与谷歌学术 h 指数三项指标上同时居生理学类首位，其综述文章被大量再引用为教科书与后续研究的基准来源，也因此成为生理学界议程与共识形成的场所。^[2]