Plant Molecular Biology

Plant Molecular Biology (commonly abbreviated as Plant Mol. Biol.) is a journal of plant molecular biology published by Springer. Founded in 1981 by D. P. S. Verma and Jan van Rossum, it publishes original research in plant molecular biology, with a 2025 impact factor of 4.7.Plant Molecular Biology（常用缩写 Plant Mol. Biol.）是 Springer 出版的植物分子生物学期刊，1981 年由 D. P. S. Verma 与 Jan van Rossum 共同创办，刊载植物分子生物学领域的原创研究，2025 年影响因子为 4.7。^[1]

Scope

• Scope: the journal publishes original research in plant molecular biology. The molecular processes it addresses operate at the DNA, RNA and protein levels.学科定位： 刊发植物分子生物学领域的原创研究，刊物面向的基础层面是该学科在 DNA、RNA 与蛋白质三个层次上的分子过程。
• Subject coverage: the journal covers gene expression and transcriptional regulation in plants, plant genomes and chromatin structure, protein synthesis and degradation, the modification and localisation of plant proteins, and the establishment and improvement of methods in plant molecular biology.收录主题： 涵盖植物基因表达与转录调控、植物基因组与染色质结构、蛋白质的合成与降解、植物蛋白的修饰与定位，以及植物分子生物学方法的建立与改进。
• Division from genetics: the editorial policy asks that a manuscript make a clear molecular contribution. Papers reporting only a phenotype or an agronomic trait are out of scope, and cloning and expression analysis in themselves do not amount to a sufficient molecular contribution.与遗传学的分工： 期刊编辑方针要求稿件在分子层面的贡献清晰可辨，凡仅报告表型或农艺性状的论文不在收稿之列，基因克隆与表达分析本身不构成充分的分子贡献。
• Article types and open access: the journal carries original research papers. It also accepts review articles, which undergo the same rigorous peer review体裁与开放获取： 刊载原创研究论文，另接受综述类稿件并同样经过严格评审，编辑部按邀请与自发两种方式受理综述，并设有短讯栏目；期刊属混合开放获取刊物，订阅者可免费阅读全文，作者可选择付费立即开放，而在订阅模式下作者可免费使用彩图。 reviews are invited or unsolicited at the editors' discretion, and a short communication category is provided. The journal is a hybrid title: subscribers read the full text free of charge, authors may opt for paid immediate open access, and colour figures are free of charge in the subscription model.
• Indexing and metrics: the journal is indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and in Scopus, with a second-quartile position in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology category and a 2025 impact factor of 4.7.收录与指标： 收录于科学引文索引扩展版与 Scopus，在生化与分子生物学类别中分区为第二区，2025 年影响因子为 4.7。^[2]

History

• 1981: the journal was founded by D. P. S. Verma and Jan van Rossum. Verma was then in India and van Rossum in the Netherlands, and having met at a scientific meeting the two decided to establish together an international journal for plant molecular biology.1981年： 期刊创刊，由 D. P. S. Verma 与 Jan van Rossum 共同创办。Verma 当时在印度，van Rossum 当时在荷兰，两人在一次学术会议上结识后决定共同创办一份面向植物分子生物学的国际刊物。
• Background to the founding: plant molecular biology was then taking shape as a discipline, and the relevant papers were largely being sent to genetics or biochemistry journals. Verma and van Rossum judged that a dedicated home for molecular work in plants was needed.创刊背景： 当时植物分子生物学作为一个学科正在成形，相关论文多寄往遗传学或生物化学刊物，Verma 与 van Rossum 认为需要一个专门收载植物分子层面研究的场所。
• Founding editor-in-chief: Verma served as the first editor-in-chief, holding the post for more than thirty years from the journal's launch and standing down around 2024.首任主编： Verma 出任首任主编，主编任期自创刊起持续了三十余年，2024 年前后卸任。
• Publisher history: the publisher at the launch was the Dutch house Kluwer Academic Publishers. The journal later passed through the Elsevier group to Springer and is now part of Springer Nature.出版方沿革： 创刊时的出版方为荷兰的 Kluwer Academic Publishers，其后经 Elsevier 体系归于 Springer，最终成为 Springer Nature 的一部分。
• International composition from the outset: the members of the first board came from Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Four of the founding editors were not Dutch, so the international character of the editorial office was established at the launch.首任编委的国际化： 创刊号的编委成员来自澳大利亚、比利时、法国、德国、印度、以色列、意大利、日本、荷兰、英国与美国等多个国家，其中多数创刊编委并非来自荷兰本土，编辑部的国际化在创刊时即已确立。
• Contents of the first issue: the inaugural issue opened with an editorial from the editor-in-chief and then carried papers on the isolation of plant genes and on plant gene transformation, pointing directly at the central achievements of plant molecular genetics as they had just broken through.创刊号的内容： 创刊号以主编社论开场，随后刊出关于植物基因分离与植物基因转化的论文，方向直指当时刚取得突破的植物分子遗传学核心成果。
• Recent years: the impact factor has settled in a range of 4 to 5, holding the second quartile in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology while the journal remains one of the principal venues in plant molecular biology.近年： 期刊影响因子稳定在 4 至 5 区间，在生化与分子生物学类别中保持第二区，同时在植物分子生物学领域维持着该学科主要发表阵地的地位。^[3]

Editors

• Editor-in-chief: the journal is led by Dr Anna De Meyer of the University of York in the United Kingdom, whose work concentrates on signal transduction within the plant cell and on transport between organelles.现任主编： 期刊主编为 Anna De Meyer 博士，来自英国约克大学，其研究关注植物细胞内信号传导与细胞器之间的转运。
• Co-editor-in-chief: the journal also has a co-editor-in-chief at Kansas State University in the United States, working in plant genomics and chromatin structure. Together with the editor-in-chief this covers the journal's two main directions.共同主编： 期刊另设共同主编，来自美国堪萨斯州立大学，研究领域为植物基因组学与染色质结构，与主编的分工共同覆盖本刊的两条主要方向。
• Associate editors and editorial board: the associate editors are based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Japan and China, covering gene regulation, protein metabolism, RNA biology and plant immunity. The board itself is small, an arrangement that matches the journal's strict threshold on molecular contribution, the board's main function being to guard the standard rather than to widen the intake of submissions.副编辑与编委： 副编辑由来自美国、英国、德国、荷兰、法国、日本与中国的研究者担任，分属基因调控、蛋白代谢、RNA 生物学与植物免疫等方向；编委规模较小，人数不多，这一安排与本刊严守分子贡献门槛的编辑方针相配合，编委的主要职责是把关而非扩展收稿面。
• Submission system and peer review: manuscripts are lodged through the publisher's online submission system. Review is double-blind, so neither author nor referees know each other's identity, and the editors publish handling times for each class of article.投稿系统与评审： 稿件通过出版方在线投稿系统递交，采用双匿名评审，即作者与审稿人互不知晓身份，编辑部同时公开各类稿件的处理时间。
• Judging molecular contribution: the editorial policy asks a manuscript to state plainly what molecular mechanism it reveals or what generally applicable new method it offers. Papers that merely describe a new expression pattern or phenotypic difference are sent back. This is the criterion that distinguishes the journal from a general plant science title.对分子贡献的判断： 编辑方针要求稿件明确回答该研究揭示了何种分子机制，或提出了何种可推广的新方法，凡仅描述新的表达模式与表型差异的稿件会被退回，这一判准是本刊区别于一般植物学刊物的地方。
• Handling of reviews: reviews are held to the same standard as original research papers. The editors accept them by invitation or unsolicited and discuss the subject with a prospective author before reaching a decision.综述的处理： 综述与原创研究论文适用同样的评审标准，编辑部按邀请与自发两种方式受理综述，并在决定前先与拟撰作者沟通选题。^[4]