SEB Bulletin March 2007
Journal of Experimental Botany: Travelling with the times
In 1950 two events occurred, one on either side of the Atlantic, which were destined to have a major impact on the history of publishing. Intriguingly both had a plant sciences theme. The first was the appearance of the comic strip character Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, in a number of US newspapers, the second, as many stalwart SEB members will be aware, was the publication of the Journal of Experimental Botany (JXB).
The first volume of JXB was filled with papers from the senior plant scientists of the day - surprisingly, perhaps, often as single author contributions. Manuscripts primarily had a physiological orientation focusing on aspects of transpiration, photosynthesis, mineral nutrition, photoperiod and even abscission! The 400 or so pages of text and diagrams could be accommodated by the publication of three issues a year until, in 1965, the steady accumulation of material required the journal to appear quarterly. In 1973, JXB went bimonthly publishing in excess of 1275 pages and finally in 1983 it was necessary to publish on a monthly basis as page numbers topped 1775. In 2006 the journal exceeded 4275 pages packed into 15 'bumper' issues.
Plant scientists within the UK were the catalyst for the establishment of JXB and for many years the journal was seen primarily as a publication outlet for members from this community. The modern journal is truly international and submissions from the UK are dwarfed by those from continental Europe, USA, and Australasia. In 2006 14% of the submitted manuscripts originated from plant biologists working in institutions in China. Submissions cover a range of disciplines from molecular and cellular physiology and biochemistry through whole plant physiology to community physiology.
Whilst the first issue of JXB was not quite assembled as an illuminated manuscript by monks in an Oxford monastery its production was relatively crude by contemporary standards. Photographs could be included but their quality was not high. Modern day postgraduates and postdoctoral workers would be dumbstruck to discover that, unless you had a personal subscription, you had to visit a building called a 'library' to read the journal. Nowadays every issue of JXB can be accessed on line and papers can be accompanied by supplementary figures, tables, video or even audio material. Furthermore, following up on a cited work involves no more than a click of a mouse and the days of rifling through the dusty shelves of a library basement, only to discover the volume you were searching for had gone missing, are long gone.
Major developments have taken place in journal publishing over the last ten years fuelled to a substantial extent by the dark force of Impact Factor. Whilst this term might once have described the damage incurred by a volume falling from a library shelf it is now a principal driver behind editorial decision making. In short, IF has become the gold standard by which one's research prowess is assessed. Whilst it is gratifying to hear that the assessment of outputs in the forthcoming RAE exercise will not slavishly follow IF it is difficult to imagine that this metric will not have some sort of subliminal 'impact' on the rating awarded. On the positive side, for JXB authors, the IF of the journal has steadily increased over the last ten years going from 1.988 in 1997 to 3.336 in 2005. The latest data place JXB in a highly creditable eighth position in the league of primary plant science journals.
Most recently journals have had to wrestle with the even more challenging issue of Open Access. Many researchers are still poorly briefed about OA and the consequences that it might have on the future of publishing. The ultimate objective of the OA protagonists is to move to a position where all contributions to a journal, once published, would be freely accessible on line. Whilst this can be viewed as a worthy crusade it should not be forgotten that even in this virtually paper free age there is a finite cost to publishing an article and electronically setting the text and figures to ensure maximum versatility. This cost has to be recovered either through subscription income or through page charges, or a hybrid of the two. As yet no sustainable model has been devised to ensure that sufficient revenue would be generated to maintain the future of a journal that went wholeheartedly down the OA road. SEB members should take note that without the profits from its journals the Society would not have the finances to run any scientific meetings and might even have to stop publishing the Bulletin!
One of the main reasons for penning this article was to celebrate the achievements of Bill Davies as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Botany who completed his term of office on 31 December 2006. During Bill's ten-year stewardship the journal has become one of the top international journals in the plant sciences field. It has become well known for its publication of highly cited Special Issues and Perspective Articles and the assembly of topical papers into themed Treatise in Experimental Botany (TEXBOT) editions for teaching and research. Bill has been keenly interested in the revolutionary changes that have taken place in publishing with the development of electronic means of disseminating information and he has encouraged JXB to embrace actively these new developments. Indeed, JXB was the first plant science journal to offer authors the opportunity to publish their papers under Open Access and this experiment has played a major role in informing recent debate on this subject. It has been an exciting ten years with Bill at the helm of JXB and to commemorate his contribution a Bill Davies Special Issue, signed by all the Associate Editors, was given to him at the recent Editorial meeting in London. One of the signatories was John Hall, who preceded Bill as Editor-in-Chief and has just left the Editorial Board having completed 25 years of close association with the journal.
I was delighted to be asked to take over from Bill and see my job as one of maintaining the momentum that he has established and of exploring new opportunities for the journal over the coming years. As readers of this article will have noted there are plenty of challenges ahead - not least to ensure that, like Peanuts, JXB continues to educate its readers and, from time to time, even makes them smile!
Jerry Roberts
University of Nottingham