British & Irish Botany: first issue published

Ian Denholm, B&IB Editor-in-Chief
Image: L. Marsh

We are delighted to announce that the first issue of British & Irish Botany (B&IB), our replacement for New Journal of Botany, has now been published.

We hope that with this new online journal we are keeping all the advantages of its predecessor - great papers from some of Britain and Ireland's finest botanists and a helpful team to support prospective authors - while making the new journal even more accessible and user-friendly, for authors, readers and researchers. 

We think we've achieved that and at a much lower cost than with New Journal of Botany, freeing up funds that can be re-directed towards BSBI's core activities, ie our training, research and outreach programmes. 

Check out this presentation by Editor-in-Chief Ian Denholm to see just how much of a financial saving we are making! 

Detail of rare plant found only in Cheddar Gorge
Want to know what it is?
You'll have to read British & Irish Botany!
Image: T. Rich

Ian said "Our ambition behind setting up B&IB was to produce an online journal that would be  entirely free to publish in, entirely free to anyone who wants to read or download articles, and as accessible and user-friendly as possible to all potential authors. It has been a steep learning curve to adapt proprietary software to meet our needs, but now that we are underway please do consider submitting a full research paper, a short report or a topical review article. If in doubt about its suitability, we are here to advise and help." 

So, what's in this first issue? 69 pages covering five papers on subjects ranging from mistletoe growing on oaks to Clive Stace and fellow taxonomists talking about dog-roses; from one rare arctic-alpine plant growing on Ben Lawers to another rare plant growing in Cheddar gorge; and we look at responses of moorland vegetation to 20 years of conservation management in two Cairngorm glens. 

But here's the best thing of all...

Mistletoe growing on oak
Image: J. Box

In the past, whenever I told you about the great papers in a new issue of New Journal of Botany, this was the point at which I'd have to say 'sorry, but you can only see these papers if you are a BSBI member' - no more! British & Irish Botany is open access, free to all - member or non-member, everybody can read or publish in this new journal completely free of charge. 

So please head over to the new British & Irish Botany website, read all About the journal, find out who is on the Editorial Team, and who to contact if you want to discuss a submission, find out how to register as a reader or as an author and check our Privacy Policy to be reassured that we won't be passing on your email address to any third parties... and then head over here to find out about the first issue and start downloading papers. 

Let us know here what you think about our new journal. We hope you will enjoy reading our first issue and will register to receive alerts about subsequent issues.