The New Phytologist Trust, in partnership with John Wiley & Sons, is announcing the launch of a new crossdisciplinary Open Access journal: Plants, People, Planet, led by Professor Simon Hiscock (University of Oxford, UK and Director of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum). This exciting new journal will focus on the interface between plant science and society, offering a lively and accessible forum for plant science research and discussion in its broadest sense.
Plants are essential to life on Earth. They form a fundamental part of Earth's ecosystems, stabilising its soils with their roots, acting as a sink for carbon dioxide and providing oxygen and sugars via photosynthesis in their leaves. Plants are at the centre of our everyday lives: without them we would not have the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the medicines that keep us well, the clothes we wear, or the fuel to warm our homes. They are an important component of climate control for the planet. Plants also bring colour to our homes, gardens, streets and recreational areas, and provide a refuge from the stresses of modern life in the form of parks and woodlands.
Our complex relationship with plants has resulted in the world as we know it today, shaping not only the Earth's ecosystems, but also its societies and cultures. As the human race continues to grow the work of plant scientists has never been more important as it seeks to meet the global challenges of the 21st Century.
Plants, People, Planet will publish outstanding research across the plant sciences, placing it firmly within the context of its wider relevance to people, society and the planet. We therefore encourage scientists to consider carefully the impact or potential impact of their research on peoples' daily lives, on society, and on the world in which we live. We welcome submissions from all areas of plant sciences, from ecosystem studies to molecular genetics, and particularly encourage interdisciplinary studies -within the social and medical sciences and chemistry and engineering, for instance.
In the rapidly moving field of plant science, Plants, People, Planet offers a platform for new and emerging plant science subject areas that have the potential for societal impact. To highlight the impact or potential impact of the research to society, all submissions should be accompanied by a 'societal impact statement'.
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Media Contact
SARAH LENNON, Managing Editor, New Phytologist
New Phytologist Central Office, Bailrigg House, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YE, UK
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The New Phytologist Trust, registered charity number 1154867
About the Trust
The New Phytologist Trust is a UK-based not-for-profit organisation committed to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge and research in plant science, chaired by Professor Keith Lindsey (University of Durham, UK). The Trust currently fulfils this objective by publishing the scholarly journal New Phytologist and by funding a wide range of activities, such as the international New Phytologist Symposia and Workshop series, awarding grants, and the sponsorship of various awards for early career researchers, including the Tansley Medal, named after the journal's founder Sir Arthur Tansley.
About the Editor in Chief
Professor Simon Hiscock is Director of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum, Fellow of Christ Church College and Professor of Botany in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford. He obtained a BA in Botany from the University of Oxford (Worcester College, 1985), and after teaching Biology GCSE and A-level for three years began a PhD on self-incompatibility and interspecific incompatibility in the Brassicaceae, first at the University of Reading (School of Plant Sciences), and then at Oxford University (Department of Plant Sciences). Following post-doctoral research with Professor Hugh Dickinson and a Junior Research Fellowship at Worcester College, he was awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Research Fellowship to research the molecular genetics and evolution of self-incompatibility in Senecio squalidus (Oxford ragwort). He was appointed Lecturer in Plant Sciences in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol in 2002 and became Reader in Plant Sciences in 2004 and Professor of Botany in 2007. He was Director of the University of Bristol Botanic Garden from 2003 until 2016. Professor Hiscock is Fellow and Scientific Secretary of the Linnean Society of London and a core panel member of NERC's Peer Review College Panel E, having served on NERC's Peer Review College continuously since 2005. He is a member of RBG Edinburgh's Science Advisory Group and External Examiner for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew/Queen Mary, University of London's new MScs in Plant and Fungal Taxonomy and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He has been an Editor of Annals of Botany since 2007 and AoB Plants since 2013. He has been an Advisor to New Phytologist since 2014.
About the Chair of the Board of Trustees
Professor Keith Lindsey read Botany at St. Catherine's College Oxford, followed by a PhD from Edinburgh University. He carried out post-doc work in Edinburgh and then Rothamsted, before taking up a position as leader of the Plant Molecular Genetics Group at the Leicester Biocentre, and a lectureship at Leicester University (1989). He moved to a Chair in Durham in 1996.
His group's research programme is focused on the developmental biology of plants, and in particular on molecular control mechanisms in embryogenesis and root development, making make use of a range of techniques in functional genomics, and exploiting the many advantages of Arabidopsis thaliana as a model experimental organism. He is Visiting Professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, China. Professor Lindsey is an Editor of the journal New Phytologist and Chair of the Board of Trustees for the New Phytologist Trust. He was until recently a member BBSRC Council, the body that determines policy, priorities and strategy for BBSRC; Chair of BBSRC Appointments Board; and a member of the Defra Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), which advises Government Ministers on GM and related issues. He was President and Chair of Council of the Society for Experimental Biology and is currently Head of the School of Biological & Biomedical Sciences at Durham University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and of the Linnean Society of London.
About Wiley
Plants, People, Planet will be published in partnership with John Wiley & Sons, alongside New Phytologist. Wiley, a global company, helps people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Our online scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, combined with our digital learning, assessment and certification solutions help universities, learned societies, businesses, governments and individuals increase the academic and professional impact of their work. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to our stakeholders.