The Annual Review of Physical Chemistry published its first volume in 1950. Its founding editor was University of California chemist Gerhard Krohn Rollefson. Some branches of physical chemistry were designated to be reviewed with each volume, while other branches would be reviewed less frequently. Upon Rollefsons death in 1955, he was succeeded by Henry Eyring. The editorial committee considered changing the name of the journal in the 1980s to the Annual Review of Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics', though decided against it by 1988. In addition to publishing reviews about physical chemistry, many volumes contain a prefatory chapter with an informal review of a chemist or institution. As of 2020, it was published both in print and electronically.
It defines its scope as covering recent developments in the fields of biophysical chemistry, chemical kinetics, colloids, electrochemistry, geochemistry, cosmochemistry, atmospheric chemistry, laser chemistry and ultrafast processes, the liquid state, magnetic resonance, physical organic chemistry, polymers, and macromolecules. As of 2023, Journal Citation Reports gives it a 2022 impact factor of 14.7, ranking it sixteenth of 161 journal titles in the category "Physical Chemistry".