in silico Plants

in silico Plants is an open-access journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company, and it has appeared since 2019.《计算机模拟植物》由牛津大学出版社代表植物学年鉴公司（Annals of Botany Company）出版，为开放获取期刊，2019 年创刊。

Its field is digital plant science, where models, simulation, data analysis and machine learning are the instruments by which a question about plants is answered.其领域为数字植物科学，模型和模拟、数据分析以及机器学习是回答植物学问题的工具。

The 2025 Journal Citation Reports give it an impact factor of 3.3 and a first-quartile place in Agronomy, with coverage in the Emerging Sources Citation Index.2025 年的期刊引证报告给出 3.3 的影响因子，农艺学类目位列 Q1，收录于新兴来源引文索引。

Scope

• The journal takes work in which computation carries the argument, so a model is the instrument of the paper rather than a decoration at its end.该刊接收以计算承担论证的稿件，模型是论文的工具，并非末尾的点缀。

• Growth and development are named among the areas, and a functional-structural study may tie a three-dimensional architecture to the light a canopy intercepts.生长与发育被列为覆盖领域，功能结构研究可以把三维构型与冠层截获的光联系起来。

• Crop systems and natural systems including forests are both named, and a study may test a simulated yield or a simulated stand against measurements gathered over several seasons.作物系统与包括森林在内的自然系统都被列入，研究可以用多季实测数据检验模拟产量或模拟林分。

• Metabolic pathways and gene networks are named, and a regulatory network may be handled as a dynamical system rather than as a list of parts.代谢途径与基因网络被列入范围，调控网络可以被当作动力系统来处理，而不只是一份零件清单。

• Machine-learning models are welcome and encouraged, with one condition: the data they generate must feed the datasets a computational model is built on rather than stand alone.机器学习模型受到欢迎和鼓励，不过附有一个条件，即由其生成的数据必须进入计算模型所依据的数据集，而不能孤立存在。

• Phenomics is named among the modelled areas, so work that measures a canopy with a camera rather than a ruler has a place.表型组学被列为建模领域之一，因此用相机而非尺子测量冠层的工作在此有其位置。

• Genomic prediction and gene networks are named among the areas, so a paper may rebuild a network from expression values alone.基因组预测与基因网络被列为覆盖领域，论文可以只凭表达量重建一个网络。

• Software, code libraries and databases find a place, and the description of a tool can count as a contribution in its own right.软件、代码库与数据库有其位置，一个工具的描述本身即可构成贡献。

• Models are fitted to observed data rather than merely described, because the scope runs to regional and earth systems where a simulation is judged against measurements.模型要被拟合到观测数据而非仅仅描述出来，因为范围延伸到区域与地球系统，在那里模拟结果要接受实测检验。

• Crop systems come under agronomy in the journal's own list of systems, so a model built for a field trial belongs here as squarely as one built for a cell.作物系统在该刊自列的系统中归入农艺学，因此为田间试验构建的模型与为细胞构建的模型同样正当。

• Physiology and ecophysiology are listed among the modelled areas, so a study may ask how a stand of wheat answers a warmer and a drier season.生理学与生态生理学被列为建模领域，研究可以追问一片麦田如何回应更暖更干的季节。

• Community dynamics and plant ecology are named, so a model may follow competition between species in a stand as readily as the growth of one plant.群落动态与植物生态学被明确列入，因此模型既可以追踪单株的生长，也可以追踪一片植被中物种之间的竞争。

• Plant improvement, including breeding, is among the named areas, and a paper may test a selection scheme in simulation before a single seed is sown.植物改良（含育种）属于列明的领域，论文可以在播下一粒种子之前先在模拟中检验一套选择方案。

• Engineering approaches appear too, and a study may test a design for a crop before anyone has planted it, since a design that fails in simulation is cheaper to abandon than one that fails in a field.工程取向的路径同样出现，研究可以在播种之前检验一种作物设计，在模拟中失败的设计比在田里失败的设计更容易被放弃。

• Work at the interface between mathematics, computer science, plant biology and crop sciences is what the journal asks for, so a model and a bench experiment may meet in the same paper.该刊征集的正是在数学、计算机科学、植物生物学与作物科学交界处的工作，因此模型与实验台可以在同一篇论文里相遇。

• Reviews appear, and a survey may set out the state of a modelling approach for readers who work outside it, with the assumptions of the method named plainly.综述也会出现，一篇综述可以为不在该领域工作的读者说明某种建模路径的现状，并把方法的假定讲清楚。

• Software and computational tools count as an Original Article in their own right, so the code behind a model can be the contribution rather than an appendix to it.软件与计算工具本身即可作为原创论文投稿，因此模型背后的代码可以是贡献本身，而不只是附录。

History

• The title was founded in 2019, and the first volume carried that year's date on every article.该刊创办于 2019 年，第一卷的每篇文章都带着那一年的日期。

• It was set up by the Annals of Botany Company, a not-for-profit educational charity in the United Kingdom that also owns Annals of Botany.创办方是植物学年鉴公司，一家位于英国的公益性教育慈善机构，它同时拥有《植物学年鉴》。

• The company had run plant science journals since 1887, and in silico Plants was its answer to a field that had grown up around computation.该公司自 1887 年起经营植物学期刊，《计算机模拟植物》是它对一个围绕计算成长起来的领域的回应。

• The company publishes three journals besides a plant science blog, and all three carry the same charitable ownership.除一个植物科学博客之外，该公司出版三种期刊，三者同属这一慈善机构所有。

• Only an electronic edition exists, with the number 2517-5025 and no print counterpart.该刊只有电子版，刊号为 2517-5025，没有对应的印本。

• A volume is numbered for the year in which it closes, so volume 8 carries 2026 and volume 5 carried 2023, while the papers inside may date from the year before.卷号取该卷收官之年，第 8 卷对应 2026 年，第 5 卷对应 2023 年，而其中的论文可能来自前一年。

• Two issues fill a volume, and papers appear as advance articles before the issue that collects them, so a paper may be read months before its volume closes.一卷由两期组成，论文以在线先行文章的形式先于收录它的那一期上线，因此一篇论文可以在整卷关闭前数月就读到。

• Everything is free to read from the day of publication, and the cost of the model falls on the author side rather than on a subscriber.所有文章自发表之日起免费阅读，这一模式的费用落在作者一侧，订阅者不承担。

• Web of Science covers it through the Emerging Sources Citation Index, and NLM records selected citations in PubMed.Web of Science 通过新兴来源引文索引收录该刊，美国国家医学图书馆在 PubMed 中记录其部分被引条目。

• Reported impact factors run 2.6 for 2023 and 2.4 for 2024, then 3.3 for 2025, with a five-year figure of 3.4.已公布的影响因子 2023 年为 2.6，2024 年为 2.4，2025 年为 3.3，五年影响因子为 3.4。

• Its 2025 ranks are 27 of 133 in Agronomy, 16 of 67 in Mathematical and Computational Biology and 89 of 285 in Plant Sciences.2025 年的类目排名为农艺学 27/133，数学生物学与计算生物学 16/67，植物科学 89/285。

• Clarivate counted about fifteen research items for the journal in 2025, and its papers had drawn some 419 citations by that count.科睿唯安统计该刊 2025 年约有 15 篇研究作品，按同一口径其论文累计被引约 419 次。

Editors

• The journal is owned and managed by the Annals of Botany Company, so the Chief Editor answers to that charity rather than to Oxford University Press.该刊由植物学年鉴公司所有并管理，主编因此对这家慈善机构负责，而不对牛津大学出版社负责。

• In 2026 the company advertised the Chief Editor post in the open press and invited applications from plant scientists with a record in modelling.2026 年，该公司在公开渠道刊登主编招聘，向在建模方面有积累的植物科学家征集申请。

• The advertisement described the journal as one for digital plant science, with computational modelling and AI-informed plant biology at its centre.招聘文字把该刊描述为面向数字植物科学的刊物，重点在计算建模与人工智能辅助的植物生物学。

• Seven article types are fixed by the journal, running from Original Articles and Technical Advances through Reviews, Opinions and Commentaries to Editorials and Letters to the Editor.该刊固定设有七种文章类型，从原创论文与技术进展，经综述、观点与评论，一直到社论与致编辑信。

• Original Articles are drawn widely enough to take in research and development, theory, methods, software and computational tools, so a code release enters by the same door as a modelling study.原创论文的口径足以容纳研究与发展、理论、方法、软件与计算工具，因此一份代码发布与一项建模研究走的是同一道门。

• Submissions run through Oxford University Press's own submission site, from which the editorial office passes a paper to the editors handling its subject.投稿经牛津大学出版社的投稿系统提交，编辑部再从那里把稿件分给负责相应主题的编辑。

• Reviews are one of the seven types, so the editors carry surveys of a modelling approach as well as primary work, and a review may do what a research paper cannot.综述是七种文章类型之一，因此编辑部既发表一手工作，也发表对某种建模路径的综览，而综述可以做研究论文做不到的事。

• Letters to the Editor give a reader a formal route to contest a published paper, and the journal lists them among the types it accepts.「致编辑信」为读者提供正式质疑已发表论文的渠道，该刊把它列为接收的文章类型之一。

• Special issues sit outside the ordinary run, and the editors invite proposals for them, so a modelling community can gather its work in one place.专辑不在常规刊期之内，由编辑部征集提案，一个建模社群因此可以把相关成果汇到一处。

• Because the owner is a charity established to promote plant science, editorial decisions answer to the field rather than to a commercial list.由于所有者是一家以推动植物科学为宗旨的慈善机构，编辑决定对学界负责，而不对商业产品线负责。

• Editorials are among the seven types, which lets the board state a position on where modelling should go without dressing the argument as a research finding.社论是七种文章类型之一，编委会因此可以就建模该往何处去表态，而不必把论点伪装成研究结果。