[1][2] Founded by Philip Warren Anderson and Bernd T. Matthias, who were inspired by wide-circulation literary magazines like Harper's, the journal's original goal was to print papers of interest to scientists in all branches of physics.

[4] The four volumes of this journal were eventually made freely available online by the American Physical Society.

Because the journal did not provide free reprints of articles for the authors to distribute, however, Bell had to spend the money he received to buy copies that he could send to other physicists.

[4] While the articles printed in the journal themselves listed the publication's name simply as Physics, the covers carried the trilingual version Physics Physique Физика to reflect that it would print articles in English, French and Russian.

[8] The following are among the most highly cited articles published in the journal during its four-year time span.