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Aims and Scope

New Phytologist publishes excellent, novel, rigorous and timely research and scholarship in plant science and its applications.

 

Falling within five sections – Physiology & Development, Environment, Interaction, Evolution and Transformative Plant Biotechnology – articles cover topics that range from intracellular processes to global environmental change. Cross-disciplinary approaches are particularly encouraged, but for guidance the journal is organised as below. We recognise that techniques from molecular and cell biology, and functional genomics through to modelling and system-based approaches will be applied across the whole spectrum of plant science:

  • Physiology & Development: intra / inter-cellular signalling, long-distance signalling, physiology, development, eco-devo – phenotypic plasticity, transport, biochemistry.
  • Environment: global change and Earth system functioning, environmental stress, ecophysiology, plant–soil interactions, heavy metals.
  • Interaction: plant–biotic interactions (including viruses, prokaryotes, oomycetes, fungi/mycorrhizas, viruses, nematodes and insects), symbionts, endophytes, pathogens, plant microbiome, fungal genomics, multitrophic systems, plant–microbe–soil interactions.
  • Evolution: molecular evolution, population or quantitative genetics, mating systems, phylogenetics, speciation, plant–enemy coevolution, evo–devo.
  • Transformative Plant Biotechnology: plant bioengineering, plant biotechnology, plant gene editing, genetic manipulation or engineering of plant biosynthetic pathways or regulatory circuits or signalling cascades, plant synthetic biology. 

The following policies on scope apply:

  • Fungal papers: New Phytologist accepts papers that deal with the interactions between fungi and living plants (essentially mycorrhizal fungi, plant pathogens, endophytes, rhizosphere/phyllospere organisms and lichens) or with the biology/molecular biology/genetics/evolution of those fungi relevant to their interactions with plants. Papers on general mycological topics (e.g. databasing, bioinformatics, fungal evolution) which are of particular relevance to those working with plant-associated fungi are also accepted.
  • Fungal and microbial decomposition: we will consider work that focuses on microbial and fungal decomposition of plant materials where the work is considered in the context of the plant ecosystem and/or explicitly linked to a core aspect of plant biology.
  • Plant-relevant soil processes: New Phytologist considers studies in soil microbiology and biogeochemical cycling where these are explicitly linked to an aspect of plant performance or plant community processes.
  • Use of transgenic organisms: New Phytologist expects transgenic studies to generate at least 10 independent lines for preliminary characterisation. From these lines, data from two or more independent lines that show a common and stable phenotype should be analysed and presented.

 

All New Phytologist submissions should focus on timely research that provides new insights into the broad principles of plant science. The original research should address clear hypotheses or questions and offer new insights on topics of interest to a broad cross-section of our readers. In addition to original research articles, short Letters, and other submissions to the Forum section, as well as Research reviews, Rapid reports and both Modelling / Theory and Methods papers, and Viewpoints are also encouraged. Please refer to the full Author Guidelines for further information. New Phytologist is owned by a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of plant science, facilitating projects from frequent events to free access for our Tansley reviews.

 

Watch Editor-in-Chief Alistair Hetherington's short guide to publishing in New Phytologist, for early-career researchers:

 

 

About New Phytologist

  • New Phytologist is owned by the New Phytologist Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of plant science, facilitating projects from symposia to open access for our Tansley reviews.
  • We are committed to rapid processing, from online submission through to publication ‘as ready’ via Early View – our average time to decision is <28 days.
  • There are no page or colour charges. Authors may opt to make their article ‘open access’ by subscribing to the Wiley OnlineOpen service.
  • The journal is available online at Wiley Online Library. Visit www.newphytologist.com to search the articles and register for table of contents email alerts.
  • For submission instructions, subscription and all the latest information visit www.newphytologist.com.
  • If you have any questions, do get in touch with Central Office.

 

Thank you to our reviewers

We offer our thanks to all the individuals who have acted as reviewers of manuscripts. The Editorial Board and Central Office staff greatly appreciate the contribution of our reviewers, each of whom volunteered their time and expertise to provide comment on new submissions. The input of these individuals is crucial in maintaining the excellence of the journal.

 

Download the Reviewers' acknowledgement from 2014 onwards below: