Thank You, Editors and Reviewers of The Plant Cell

• © 2020 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.

We are eternally grateful to members of the editorial board and all of our reviewers, whose care and diligence in handling and reviewing the work of your colleagues is vital to the quality of the scientific literature and the advancement of science.

At The Plant Cell, we engage in pre-review consultations with multiple editors to determine suitability of submissions for external review, and we host post-review consultations between editors and reviewers to help guide decisions. We aim to provide authors with clear decisions as quickly as possible, yet based on careful consideration through true peer review.

We know it is deeply disappointing to have your manuscript declined without external review—yet we do this to save time and effort for authors as well as reviewers, and potentially speed the path to publication in another journal. The internal review can take a week or more, as it involves multiple editors who consider the work carefully. When a manuscript is declined without external review, it is because the editors unanimously judge that the work will not fare well with reviewers. We aim to provide useful and constructive comments reflecting our internal discussions as part of these decisions. Thus, we return the manuscript to the authors as quickly as possible, both to allow the authors a chance to revise and resubmit—whether to us or to another journal for more rapid publication—and, importantly, to save reviewers the time and effort of reviewing manuscripts that are unlikely to meet with a positive outcome. On the other hand, enthusiasm from a single editor is sufficient to move the manuscript to external review. And for manuscripts that do get reviewed, we hope that reviewers will use the time saved to put a little extra effort into the post-review consultation, reading through the other reviews and engaging in discussion with other reviewers and the reviewing editor to help shape the decision and provide concise, constructive comments to the authors.

Many authors have reported that they appreciate the extra effort that has gone into the decision-making process, even when a manuscript has been declined. This is either because the decision was made quickly and/or the decision letter reflected a fair and thorough assessment of the work. This process requires commitment and considerable investment of time from editors and reviewers alike, and we are deeply appreciative of all those who have volunteered their time in the service of The Plant Cell.

In late 2019/early 2020, we expanded the group of Senior Editors to 13 with the promotion to Senior Editor of Siobhán Brady, Liz Haswell, and Lucia Strader (all having served previously for several years as Reviewing Editors), and the addition of Xuemei Chen. The senior editors of The Plant Cell have a special responsibility for guiding the pre-review consultations, assigning reviewing editors, mentoring newer members of the editorial board, and helping to set standards for publication in the journal. At present we have 13 senior editors, 33 reviewing editors, 46 guest editors, two consulting editors, and 26 assistant features editors representing more than 70 institutions from around the world. We have added a number of new editors, and will continue to seek out additional editors to ensure adequate expertise in all areas of submissions and to expand the diversity of the editorial board. Please view the profiles of our editors at https://plantcelledboard.weebly.com/ (or look for the link on the journal website, as this URL may change in the future). When you submit your next manuscript to The Plant Cell, we ask that you recommend several editors who can appreciate your work.

We extend special thanks to the following editors who are leaving the board this year: Ortrun Mittelsten Scheid (Reviewing Editor 2015 to 2020), Andreas Weber (Reviewing Editor 2015 to 2020), Clint Chapple (Reviewing Editor 2016 to 2020), Andrew Leakey (Guest Editor 2017 to 2020), and Oliver Jensen (Consulting Editor 2015 to 2020). In addition, we thank Robert Augustine, Phil Carella, Rachel Shahan, Josh Strable, Christopher Whitewoods, and Xiaoyu Weng, who are completing their terms as Assistant Features Editors at the end of 2020.

We offer a sincere thank you to our many external reviewers, on behalf of all our authors, editors, and readers, for your willingness to provide thoughtful and constructive reviews. Reviewers who served the journal between November 1, 2019 and October 1, 2020 are listed below.