报告摘要：

On July 1, 1958, Physical Review Letters (PRL) began as an experiment to rapidly publish important results in physics.  The experiment was a great success, and PRL has published many of the fundamental developments in physics in the past 50 years.  We will discuss the growth of PRL and its gradual shift to become an international journal, publishing papers from around the world.   This growth continues today, not only for PRL, but for all of the journals of the American Physical Society, and recently a large part of the growth has come from China.   Peer review is crucial to all successful journals, including those of the Chinese and American Physical Societies.  All scientists (including Chinese scientists) who publish papers must share in this process, which not only keeps weak papers out of the journals, but improves most published papers with referee comments and suggestions.   We will discuss how manuscripts make their way through the peer review process, and mention things authors can do to improve their papers.   We will give a preview of a new online publication that we are developing to make the latest physics results accessible to all physicists and physics students.