Dear Colleagues,

Last summer, I became Chief Editor of AoB PLANTS, an open-access journal established in 2009 and published by Oxford University Press.  This non-profit journal provides a fast-track pathway for publishing high-quality research, where papers are available online to anyone, anywhere, free of charge.  Although AoB PLANTS publishes peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of basic and applied plant biology, we are intensifying the journal’s focus on environmental biology, including ecology, ecophysiology, evolution, biological invasions, plant-animal and plant-pathogen interactions, and global change biology.  I’m excited about the future of AoB PLANTS and am writing to tell you about the journal and to encourage your interest in it. 

At the outset, I want to acknowledge that there has been a tremendous proliferation of journals in the past few years and that scientists are constantly bombarded with mailings about them.  Many of these new journals are of unknown quality and it is not clear whether they will survive.  I mention this issue here because the situation is very different for AoB PLANTS.  

Here’s why the journal is worthy of your attention: 

1) AoB PLANTS is owned by a non-profit organization that has over 100 years of experience publishing plant research;
2) The journal has distinguished Advisory and Editorial Boards composed of scientists from around the world;
3) It has published influential and widely cited articles since its establishment in 2009, with ~6,000 article downloads/month;
4) Submitted manuscripts are assessed rapidly using double-blind peer review, aiming for first decisions in 30 days;
5) Papers are published online within days of acceptance;
6) Articles are published under the most widely-accepted form of open-access license (CC-BY); and
7) The journal has one the lowest open-access fees for a journal in the biological sciences, and they have been waived entirely for 2013. 

Here’s what people are saying about AoB PLANTS:

“PLOS is delighted that AoB PLANTS is bringing together leaders in the field to articulate an open-access vision that is aligned with the future of scholarly communication.”
Cameron Neylon - PLOS Advocacy Director

"At this time of uncertainty in the future of scientific publications, AoB PLANTS is showing the path forward by combining open access with the long-term experience and reputation of Oxford University Press."
Osvaldo Sala - Julie A. Wrigley Chair & Foundation Professor, Arizona State University

“With broad coverage of the plant sciences and an intensifying focus on environmental biology, AoB PLANTS publishes articles of great interest and embraces an open-access policy that ensures they are widely read.”
Daniel Simberloff - Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Science, University of Tennessee; Editor-in-Chief, Biological Invasions

AoB PLANTS has commissioned the following review articles for publication in 2013:

Floral precision and speciation in flowering plants
Scott Armbruster (University of Portsmouth)

Early angiosperm evolution viewed through an ecophysiological prism
Taylor Feild (James Cook University)

Hitting the right target: taxonomic challenges of and for biological invasions
Petr Pysek (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), Philip E. Hulme (Lincoln University), David M. Richardson (University of Stellenbosch) and others

Phenological niches and the future of invaded ecosystems with climate change
Elizabeth M. Wolkovich (University of British Columbia) and Elsa E. Cleland (University of California, San Diego)

Why find the genes for ecologically important traits?  A rationale for the QTN program
Young Wha Lee, Billie A. Gould, John R. Stinchcombe (University of Toronto)

If you are interested in ecological and evolutionary research with a plant focus, please check out AoB PLANTS at www.aobplants.oxfordjournals.org.

Many thanks,

Hall Cushman
Chief Editor, AoB PLANTS