The New Phytologist Foundation is calling for submission of abstracts for a joint special issue of New Phytologist and Plants, People, Planet on the theme of Global Plant Diversity and Distribution.
The deadline for abstract submission is 31 January 2022.
This collection of peer-reviewed papers will celebrate the completion in November 2021 of the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP) from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, an endeavour led by Rafaël Govaerts and his team over more than two decades. The dataset contains nearly 1.4 million plant names, of which 345,000 are accepted species. Since its inception in 1988, it has been continuously updated with newly published data, and is now complete, with geographic data for all taxa.
With this vast and robust dataset, either alone or integrated with other data, new and exciting questions can be explored with an increased level of confidence. The release of the full WCVP dataset (in advance for contributors to this joint issue, and in November 2022 for the wider public) is therefore likely to be transformational in biodiversity studies, helping to bring plant science up to speed with work on other organism groups, such as mammals and birds.
This critical mass of information means that there is now a perfect opportunity to synthesise and advance plant diversity and distribution knowledge on a global level. A team of editors is proposing to bring together the research community to attempt such a synthesis, in a series of papers that explore these plant data in the New Phytologist Foundation’s internationally leading journals: New Phytologist, and Plants, People, Planet. The papers will include analyses of the WCVP alone or in combination with other data sources. They may focus on multiple aspects of patterns and drivers of diversity, endemism, threat and bioregionalisation, gap analyses for collections, and priority areas for conservation, among others.
On submission of abstracts in response to this call, authors must specify their preferred journal and indicate whether they would also consent to consideration by the other journal, if judged appropriate by the editors. If you are unsure of which journal to specify, please contact the New Phytologist Foundation’s Executive Editor, Sarah Lennon.
New Phytologist publishes excellent, novel, rigorous and timely research and scholarship in plant science and its applications. Papers to be submitted to New Phytologist should be hypothesis-driven and offer new insights on topics of interest to a broad cross-section of our readers. Purely descriptive studies are not encouraged. While the majority of contributions should be empirical studies, a smaller number of reviews, methods and data papers will provide valuable complements. Contributions should have a global focus (or continental/regional if justified). The journal is particularly interested in findings that significantly extend our knowledge of plant sciences, e.g. a biological, developmental or evolutionary process.
Plants, People, Planet is a cross-disciplinary journal focusing on the interface between plants and society. The journal was launched in 2018, is included in Web of Science’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), and will feature in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) from summer 2022. Papers to be submitted to Plants, People, Planet could aim at unveiling compelling patterns, synthesising knowledge or providing perspectives and case studies, as original articles, reviews or other formats considered by the journal. The journal publishes outstanding plant-based research in its broadest sense and is particularly interested in studies that showcase how important plant-focused research is to society and people’s daily lives.
All authors whose abstract is selected to proceed to full manuscript submission will be provided with full access to the WCVP dataset, under a data supply agreement. A sample of the WCVP data will be available prior to abstract submission on request.
The Guest Editors for this collection are: Alexandre Antonelli, Rafaël Govaerts, Eimear Nic Lughadha, Renske Onstein, Rhian Smith and Alex Zizka. The Guest Editor team will be supported by the Editorial Board of New Phytologist and Plants, People, Planet.
Selection criteria
Selection of abstracts to proceed to submission will be based on:
Use of data from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants [Essential]
Clear hypothesis-driven research [Essential for New Phytologist submissions]
Wide geographical scope, at least continental-scale [Essential for New Phytologist submissions, but we are open to well-justified exceptions]
Novelty (in terms of novel scientific insights) (30% of total score)
Impact (in terms of likely scientific, environmental or societal influence) (30% of total score)
Quality (in terms of overall data used, methods & analyses) (40% of total score)
Societal impact [Essential for Plants, People, Planet submissions]
In addition, we will aim to balance the contributions in terms of overall diversity of geographic areas, taxa and authors. To promote scientific inclusion, diversity and equity, we particularly welcome submissions from under-represented groups, ethnic minorities, low-income countries, and authors at a diversity of career stages.
Timeline
Deadline for submissions to Open Call: 31 January 2022
Initial selection by editorial board and invitations to submit full manuscripts: 28 February 2022 (at the latest)
Deadline for submission of full manuscripts: 31 August 2022 (upload into preprint repository strongly encouraged).
Target publication date for the full Global Plant Diversity and Distribution collection: June 2023.
Note: individual papers that are accepted earlier will be published online first.
State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2023
Some of the papers accepted for publication in the Global Plant Diversity and Distribution collection may be identified as suitable to be featured in a forthcoming State of the World’s Plants 2023 report. Lead authors of such papers will be contacted and consulted after their paper is submitted.
Brief Author Guidelines for Authors of Special Issue papers
New Phytologist
Papers that are to be considered for New Phytologist special issues or features should conform to the full Author guidelines.
It is important to note that Special issue / feature papers are treated in exactly the same way as regular papers submitted to the journal (i.e. they will go through the same peer review system as regular papers and acceptance is not guaranteed). Special collection papers must therefore focus on timely research that provides new insights into the broad principles of plant science. In addressing such questions, Research manuscripts will focus entirely on the presentation of new data (mixed part review/part data papers are not encouraged). The word limit for research manuscripts is 6500 words.
Synthesis and Modelling/Theory papers will generally fall into the research manuscript category and the headings can be adapted accordingly (e.g. In the case of Modelling/Theory papers, include a heading of Description in place of Materials and Methods, to include description of the model or theoretical framework).
New Phytologist also publishes a number of additional formats under the Forum and Review sections. These are generally commissioned ahead of time, but please do get in touch should you have any suggestions.
To ensure inclusion within the Special Feature ALL papers must be submitted by the submission deadline, as outlined above and any subsequent dates set for the submission of revised manuscripts following peer review. We appreciate that the extent of revisions required for different papers may vary and our publication schedule is set to accommodate this. However, whilst we will do all we can to expedite the process of those papers rejected with resubmission encouraged, out of fairness to all authors and to maintain timeliness, we cannot guarantee inclusion within the special collection. We would of course include your article in the next available regular issue once accepted. We therefore advise you to submit your manuscript ahead of the deadline if possible.
Before submission, please refer to the full Author guidelines, which contain full information on how to compile the electronic version of your manuscript, style and legal requirements.
Plants, People, Planet
All papers submitted for consideration in Plants, People, Planet should conform to the journal’s Author Guidelines. Submitted papers will be subject to peer review and must meet the aims and scope and quality criteria of the journal. We especially welcome:
Review articles, these tend to be in the region of 4000 words, with up to six figures, however, please note that the journal has no strict limits on word length and number of figures/tables.
Research articles, which should report new and interesting insights into the relationships between plants, people and planet. Generally, research articles are in the region of 3500 – 4000 words, however, as above we have no strict limits.
Brief Reports highlight preliminary findings of research in progress, or a case report of particular interest. Brief Reports are usually in the region of 1500 words, with 20 references and two display items.
Submission procedure: Please submit your manuscript online and refer to the full Author Guidelines for final preparation as these contain detailed information on how to compile the electronic version of your manuscript, style and legal requirements.
All enquiries should be directed to Sarah Lennon, Executive Editor.
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