At the end of February, the APS Publications Board met to discuss PhytoFrontiers™, the newest APS journal,
an interdisciplinary open-access journal that will publish high-quality, rigorous research covering basic to applied aspects of plant health. This new journal will be led by Nik Grünwald, who will serve as editor-in-chief, and Steve Klosterman, who will be associate editor-in-chief.
APS Publications Board meeting.
“There are three main features distinguishing
PhytoFrontiers™ from most of the APS journals,” said Grünwald. “One is that it’s open access. This is very important because some of our colleagues around the world are required to publish in open-access journals. Secondly, this journal strives to publish all research that is rigorous, regardless of perceived impact. And third,
PhytoFrontiers™ will publish a lot of papers that are out of scope in our other journals and provides a new venue for APS members and nonmembers to publish their work.”
An APS Journals Task Force, comprised of editors-in-chiefs past and present, recommended
PhytoFrontiers™ to APS Council in December 2019. According to Krishna Subbarao, chair of the Publications Board, this journal is not only a response to market forces but also a trendsetter. In addition to offering members another open-access platform,
PhytoFrontiers™ will also be the first APS journal that allows the plant pathology community to publish in nontraditional research areas.
Grünwald and Klosterman are excited to lead this new journal. “For me, the most exciting part of this journal is that we can publish negative results or results that are perceived as having no impact,” said Grünwald. “There is a real bias in modern science, where only results that have significant differences can be published.
PhytoFrontiers™ is a very important step for our society.”
“Another exciting aspect of the journal is its broad scope,” said Klosterman. “In the past, APS members planning to publish their out of the scope manuscripts had to go elsewhere, but now they can publish such manuscripts in
PhytoFrontiers™ because the scope is so broad.”
APS is preparing to launch this journal in 2020 and will be positioned to start accepting papers sometime in the coming months.
PhytoFrontiers™ will be online only, with “First Look” articles available to readers immediately upon acceptance, and edited and formatted articles posted as soon as they are ready, ahead of each issue.
For more information, read this interview with Nik Grünwald.
