P.R.L

Du Ke was a little stunned.

As for sophomore Xu Weijun, he was simply green with envy. Appreciated by the editorial board, he had been assigned to run errands at the Journal of Chemical Physics editorial office. Yet when Graduate Students wanted to join the editorial board, the board had never said yes or no.

But this newcomer had only published three papers, and even Dean Chen Yang had shamelessly jumped in, competing to become Du Ke's doctoral advisor.

There was no justice in the world!

Where was the fairness?

"Xu, go get the waiter to bring some rice. We can't keep drinking. If we drink any more, we won't make it home," an editorial board member called out.

Xu Weijun immediately stood up and said eagerly, "All right, I'll go get the waiter." He hurried out of the private room, and when he returned, he was carrying a huge steaming bowl of white rice.

"Which professors want rice?" he called, then began serving the editorial board members.

He even obediently asked Du Ke, "Senior Brother Du, would you like some rice? I'll serve you."

"Oh, yes, yes. I'll do it myself." Too embarrassed to let him do it, Du Ke grabbed the rice spoon and served himself less than half a bowl.

As they ate, the conversation returned to the papers.

Chen Yang said, "Some of your ideas and concepts, Du, could still be turned into a fourth paper. You can start developing it first, then see how the first three papers are received after they're published. If the response is good, I'll write you a recommendation and submit it directly to Physical Review B. If Physical Review B accepts your fourth paper, you can keep at it and combine all four papers into a review article, then try submitting it to Physical Review Letters. Once you have a paper in Physical Review Letters, nothing will stand in your way in the field of physics."

P.R.L. stood for Physical Review Letters. Published by the American Physical Society, it was essentially a holy land in the eyes of physics researchers.

Physical Review Letters required significant research results in first-level physics disciplines, making it extraordinarily difficult to publish in.

The American Physical Society also had several journals beneath it, generally representing the top journals in second-level disciplines: the Physical Review series, including A, B, C, D, and E. Among them, P.R.B., Physical Review B, covered the second-level physics discipline of condensed matter physics.

"Taken as a whole, your electron flow theory should belong to a completely new and special branch of condensed matter physics, perhaps on equal footing with superconductivity, semiconductors, and magnetism," Chen Yang continued. "Of course, if Physical Review B rejects it, there's no need to submit elsewhere. Just publish your papers in stages in the Journal of Chemical Physics, then devote yourself to electron flow and strive to submit to Cell, Nature, Science."

CNS referred to the three major journals: Cell, Nature, and Science.

In physics, it could basically be said that Nature and Science occupied one tier, followed by Physical Review Letters, then the physics subjournals of Nature and Science, followed by American Physical Society journals like Physical Review B. Of course, Physical Review Letters did not have an especially high impact factor, generally remaining around 7 to 8 over the years. There were physics journals with higher impact factors, but most were invitation-only and did not accept unsolicited submissions.

Physical Review B's impact factor this year was 3.4, which was not high either. There were even several domestic physics journals with higher impact factors, but in terms of academic standing, they truly could not compare.

It was like the three major journals, whose impact factors could only hover somewhere between the teens and twenties, yet that did nothing to diminish their status as top-tier SCI journals.

Impact factor was only one measure of a journal. Some journals published many papers across a wide range of topics, diluting citation counts and inevitably lowering their impact factors. Others focused on specialized papers with many cross-citations, naturally giving them high impact factors. For example, the legendary Clinical Cancer Journal for Physicians had an impact factor as high as 292, enough to frighten anyone to death. The reason was simple: it published only a few dozen top papers each year, which were naturally cited by countless people.

Physical Review B published several thousand papers a year. Averaged out, being cited three or four times was already no easy feat.

After Chen Yang's guidance, Du Ke had a rough idea of the weight of his papers. What remained was figuring out how to publish them. To publish in Physical Review B, he would need to polish the paper carefully, and the English translation had to be good. His English had barely passed CET-4, so he certainly could not write anything elegant. Tao Xun's English was limited as well; he could write, but he could not make it shine either.

"You'd be better off writing directly in English. That way, what you write will fit foreigners' way of thinking better. Of course, if you and Tao Xun aren't sure about something, you can come find me. If I have time, I can help revise it," Chen Yang said.

After returning home, Du Ke sobered up for a while and began reflecting on the day's socializing. He had kept his words under control, making sure he had not revealed any important secrets, and he had also restrained himself from getting drunk.

Although he knew that when drunk, he would only collapse into bed and sleep rather than babble nonsense, he still needed to be careful to avoid exposing the secret he carried.

A cautious sailor sails for ten thousand years.

So he was in no hurry to write the fourth paper. Three in a row were already shocking enough; adding a fourth would be too much for people to take. Thus, he spent more of his time on experiments, gradually deciphering the Cell Chain structure of the Long-Haired Bomb. The most important secret hidden within this Bomb Caterpillar from Fantasy World was slowly shedding its layers, revealing its most mysterious depths.

At the same time, Du Ke continued making money while cramming biology knowledge, especially anything related to DNA.

The reason was simple. He wanted to conduct DNA tests on species from Fantasy World, to see whether these wondrous creatures, so similar to Earth's carbon-based lifeforms, possessed double-helix DNA structures and what strange structures existed within their cells that allowed them to cast such miraculous magic. The Shield Crow's magic shield and the Horned Roc's Fire Resistance Ring were both almost unbelievable.

In the blink of an eye, another month passed.

Du Ke spent all of April working frantically yet steadily. Aside from going to work at the modified-car factory, he barely wasted any free time. If he was not conducting experiments, he was cramming DNA knowledge or looking for more instruments and equipment to replicate. Whenever he occasionally wanted to relax his mind, he practiced Touch of Mind, trying to "communicate telepathically" with the beautiful woman in the neighboring villa.

As for the papers, Chen Yang and Tao Xun had both come urging him on. He gave them the same answer: he had not found the right direction yet. They stopped pressing him afterward, since writing papers was something measured in years.

Even leading experts needed several years to polish a heavyweight paper.

Not everyone was like the prodigy Cao Yuan, who could publish two Nature papers in a single year at twenty-two, then another two Nature papers at twenty-four. He had published four Nature papers all by himself. Once he finished his studies and returned to China, he would probably start directly as a professor, perhaps even have a key laboratory prepared for him. Of course, Du Ke was still writing papers resembling reviews and peripheral work. Once it truly involved the core of electron flow, he might well publish Physical Review Letters one after another, or even Nature and Science.

"Whew. The energy for my second world crossing is almost gathered. Just wait a little longer. When May arrives, I'll begin a new round of crossing... This time, I'm staying in Fantasy World for a few more days!"