- American Society of Plant Biologists
The advent of online publishing has made it possible for scientific journals to bring new research to the attention of their readers faster than ever before. The Plant Cell, for instance, posts a copyedited and proofed final version of each primary research article ∼1 month, on average, after final acceptance of a manuscript.
One complication arising from rapid online publication, however, is the existence of dual publication dates, one for the official online version and a later one that appears in the print edition. This is particularly problematic when the online date occurs in one year (say, December 10, 2006) and the article later appears in the January, 2007, print issue. Such an article might then be cited by other authors either as, for instance, Jones et al. (2006) or Jones et al. (2007). This situation pertains to practically all journals that publish primary research articles ahead of print. Because The Plant Cell is formally an online journal, which also publishes a print version for the convenience of readers and libraries who still wish to have a traditional paper issue, authors should technically cite an article's online date of publication and its DOI (digital object identifier) number, rather than the print publication date and page numbers. However, authors rarely choose to use the DOI over the traditional citation format, unless they are citing prior to the appearance of the print issue. As a consequence, an article that has been published online in final form in one year is usually cited as having been published the following year.
Rather than attempt to coerce authors to do what they obviously do not want to do, The Plant Cell is introducing an innovative new approach to ensure that articles published online in final form will always have the same publication date in print as they do online. Beginning January, 2007, all articles published online during that month are also being published in the print issue dated January, 2007, whereas previously they would have appeared in a later issue. To achieve this, several months ago the journal began shifting its print publication dates such that by the end of the year, all articles published in the December, 2006, print issue of The Plant Cell had been published online in final form during 2006. As a result, more than 30 articles that, under past practice, would have appeared in print in a 2007 issue will have received a 2006 print publication date, a substantial benefit to authors whose papers are accepted late in the year, which, to our knowledge, no other online and print journal presently offers. (Although a consequence is an apparent several-week “delay” in receiving the print issue, articles merely appear in an issue that is dated earlier than otherwise and readers will receive print articles with no actual delay relative to past practice.)
In addition, to improve our stakeholders' understanding of the research we publish, The Plant Cell recently added half-page In Briefs, which serve to introduce readers to two articles in that issue, in addition to the article(s) that is discussed at greater length in the In This Issue feature. Beginning this month, short Synopses of every Research Article will appear in the journal's online Table of Contents to help communicate to readers reasons why an article might be of interest to them. The Plant Cell will also make a greater effort to get the word out to science writers and journalists about the great science the journal is publishing via a new Plant Cell Alerts subscription service, available prior to publication under embargo at no charge. Our News and Reviews Editor, Dr. Nancy Eckardt, is responsible for implementing each of these new features.
Perspectives and/or Commentaries are now a regular feature that readers can expect to find in virtually every issue. The number of such articles has increased substantially from 2005 to 2006 and will increase even more during 2007. Further down the road, readers can expect to find several new Special Series of Perspective Essays that will address a variety of general areas in more depth than any single Perspective Essay could. I would like to encourage authors to consider submitting proposals for Commentaries and Letters that address current topics of particular importance to plant biologists today. We seek high-level discussion of new ideas as well as new syntheses of concepts in emerging fields; in doing so, we encourage authors to challenge assumptions, take measured risks, and look ahead to exciting new developments in plant biology.
