AoB PLANTS: origins and features

INTRODUCTION: AoB PLANTS is a peer reviewed, Open Access (OA) journal owned and run by plant biologists and published by Oxford University Press. The journal publishes research papers, reviews and opinion papers on all aspects of land based plant biology. They are made available rapidly online and can be accessed without the need for subscriptions or payment. BACKGROUND: Several difficulties in conventional publishing of peer-reviewed manuscripts encouraged AoB PLANTS to adopt OA. Open Access helps sidestep library budgets which are struggling to purchase the increasing numbers of journals. Open Access makes research freely available both to the academic community and beyond while publishing online only eliminates the need to reject good manuscripts simply to control the size of the printed journal. Finally, the journal chose to go OA to ensure the widest possible international readership for the growing amount of high-quality plant science research being carried out worldwide in response to problems such as climate change and food shortages. Responses to a wide-ranging online questionnaire indicated strong international support for a journal such as AoB PLANTS. PRINCIPAL FEATURES: AoB PLANTS strives for fair and rapid peer review followed by fast publication of accepted papers. For an initial period, there will be no OA fees, and fees will remain modest once introduced. AoB PLANTS adopts double-blind peer review using published criteria for acceptability as a basis for decision-making. Accepted papers are published shortly after acceptance together with referees' analyses using Stanford University Libraries High Wire Press H2O platform. Authors retain ownership of the copyright in their papers.