living-reviews-in-relativity - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: living-reviews-in-relativity description: Use when targeting Living Reviews in Relativity (LRR) or deciding whether an invited, continuously updated authoritative review in relativity and gravitation fits this very-high-impact Springer venue that publishes no primary research. Encodes the journal's fit, framing, evidence bar, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics.

Living Reviews in Relativity (living-reviews-in-relativity)

Journal positioning

Living Reviews in Relativity is a Springer journal that publishes invited, continuously updated, authoritative review articles in relativity and gravitation. Its defining character is the "living" model: an article is maintained and revised by its authors as the field evolves, so each review remains the current definitive reference on its topic. LRR is among the highest-impact journals in all of science precisely because each article is a comprehensive, expert, and up-to-date survey that the entire gravitation community relies on. It publishes no primary research; the currency is exhaustive, balanced, pedagogical synthesis with a long maintenance commitment. Readership is the international relativity, gravitation, cosmology, and gravitational-wave community, including graduate students entering the field. This skill is a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool. It does not replace the journal's current official submission guidelines. Before proposing, re-check the live author and invitation instructions on the Living Reviews in Relativity Springer site.

When to trigger

The author is considering a comprehensive, maintainable review of a relativity/gravitation topic for Living Reviews in Relativity.
A leading group is asked, or wishes to propose, an authoritative living survey they will commit to updating over years.
An author is choosing between Living Reviews in Relativity, Reviews of Modern Physics, and a topical-review format for a definitive gravitation review.
The author needs LRR's invitation model, comprehensiveness and maintenance expectations, and desk-reject criteria before drafting.

Scope & topic fit

Comprehensive reviews of established or rapidly developing topics in general relativity and gravitation, written as standing references.
Cosmology and relativistic astrophysics surveys — inflation, dark energy, structure formation, compact objects — at reference depth.
Gravitational-wave science: source modeling, detection methods, data analysis, and tests of GR, maintained against an evolving observational record.
Numerical relativity and approximation methods (post-Newtonian, perturbation theory) as complete methodological references.
Quantum gravity and semiclassical gravity: comprehensive surveys of a program's formalism, results, and open problems.
Mathematical relativity: rigorous, exhaustive treatments of a problem area suitable as a long-lived reference.

Method & evidence bar

The review must be comprehensive, balanced, and authoritative — the definitive current account of its topic, fairly covering competing approaches and open problems.
Authors must be recognized leaders able to develop the formalism and results in a self-contained, pedagogical way for newcomers and experts alike.
The "living" commitment is part of the bar: authors must be willing and able to maintain and update the article as the field advances.
Claims and results must be accurately attributed with comprehensive, current citation; derivations and figures should be correct, original, and pedagogical.
LRR articles are invited or arise from accepted proposals; a scope-and-outline proposal demonstrating coverage and the maintenance commitment is expected.
No primary research data are reported; any analysis is illustrative and clearly secondary to the review's synthetic, reference purpose.

Structure & house style

LRR articles use a long, hierarchically structured reference format: extended introduction, full development of formalism, results, applications, and open problems.
Length follows completeness; the article must stand alone so a reader can learn the topic from it without prior specialist background.
Use the journal's LaTeX class with consistent relativistic conventions (signature, units, indices) stated explicitly and maintained throughout.
Figures, tables, and appendices carry derivations, parameter compilations, and worked examples; schematics that clarify formalism are valued.
Versioning is part of the format: revisions are tracked and the article records its update history under the living model.
Citation is exhaustive and kept current at each revision, reflecting the article's standing-reference role.

Official-submission checklist

Before giving submission-ready advice, read ../../resources/source-basis.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md; start from the official source anchors for this journal family, then cite the current journal-specific page you checked.
Search the live site for "Living Reviews in Relativity author guidelines" and follow the current Springer version.
Re-check the invitation/proposal process and the requirements and commitment for maintaining a living article over time.
Re-check article structure, length, versioning, and figure/notation conventions for the living format.
Re-check competing-interests, funding, AI-use, and figure-permission disclosure requirements; confirm preprint/update policy.
If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.

Pre-submission self-check

One sentence — the relativity/gravitation topic this review will become the definitive living reference for.
The article is comprehensive, balanced, and self-contained, developing the formalism for newcomers and experts.
The author team can commit to maintaining and updating the article as the field evolves.
Competing approaches and open problems are fairly and currently covered; citation is exhaustive.
Figures, derivations, and conventions are original, correct, and consistent throughout.
A proposal with scope, outline, and the maintenance commitment is prepared, or an invitation is in hand.

Common desk-reject triggers

A primary-research manuscript submitted as a review; LRR publishes no original research.
A normal-length or one-sided survey lacking the comprehensiveness and balance of a standing reference.
A review with no credible commitment to the ongoing maintenance the living model requires.
A self-promotional account foregrounding the authors' own program and omitting competing approaches.
A full manuscript submitted without a proposal/invitation where the journal's commissioning model requires one.

Re-routing decision

Definitive, technical, specialist review of a physics topic in the broad Physical Review family: reviews-of-modern-physics.
Accessible, cross-disciplinary, editor-commissioned review for the broad physics readership: nature-reviews-physics.
Comprehensive, monograph-length one-time topical review across physics: physics-reports.
A complete primary-research study in gravitation rather than a review: classical-and-quantum-gravity or physical-review-d.

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] Living Reviews in Relativity
[Topic tags] <2–3 closest topics>
[Method/evidence] <is this a comprehensive, balanced, self-contained living reference, by leaders who can commit to maintaining it?>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <invitation/proposal / maintenance commitment / structure & versioning / notation / disclosure / permissions>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>