New online journal on plant sciences to debut in Shanghai next year

A new open access journal focusing on research advances on all aspects of plant sciences will be launched in 2020 in Shanghai, according to an announcement on Friday.

The journal, titled Plant Communications, will be jointly published by the Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Society for Plant Biology, and Cell Press.

Scientists from around the world can now submit their papers to this new journal through the online submission system and publishing platform of Plant Communications, added the publishers.

The first edition of the journal is expected to be published on January 2020.

"We hope to build a high-level scientific and technological journal in the field of plant science, where outstanding scientific research papers and novel findings can be spread and reached across the globe," said Han Bin, the editor-in-chief of Plant Communications.

"The journal will serve as the first open access platform on plant sciences in China, giving the global community of plant scientists opportunities to share insights and advance basic and applied plant sciences," said Cui Xiaofeng, the executive editor-in-chief of the journal.

According to Cui, the journal aims to be among the top 10 plant-related SCI journals within five years.

Plant Communications was launched after the SCI impact factor of its sister publication, Molecular Plant - a subscription-based journal established in 2008 and sponsored by the Center and the Chinese Society of Plant Biology - soared to 10.812 in 2018 from less than three around a decade ago, according to a Journal Citation Report released on Thursday by US subscription-based service provider Clarivate Analytics.

Molecular Plant is ranked 4th out of 228 SCI journals in the field of plant science in the report.

The SCI impact factor reflects how often an article in a journal is cited in international academic publications.

"The increasing impact factor suggests that the academic quality of Molecular Plant has been growing during these years, which makes the journal one of the world-leading publications," said Cui, also the deputy editor-in-chief of Molecular Plant.