Current Opinion in Plant Biology

Current Opinion in Plant Biology is published by Elsevier Ltd and is in Zone 2 of Biology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Plant Molecular Biology Research, Plant Reproductive Biology and Plant nutrient uptake and metabolism, together about 36.1% of its articles. Its main subfields are Plant Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Excellence paves the way With Current Opinion in Plant BiologyPlease note that review articles in Current Opinion in Plant Biology are by invitation only.Expertise: Editors and Editorial Board bring depth and breadth of expertise and experience to the journal.Discoverability: Articles get high visibility and maximum exposure on an industry-leading platform that reaches a vast global audience.The Current Opinion journals were developed out of the recognition that it is increasingly difficult for specialists to keep up to date with the expanding volume of information published in their subject. In Current Opinion in Plant Biology, we help the reader by providing in a systematic manner:1. The views of experts on current advances in plant biology in a clear and readable form. 2. Evaluations of the most interesting papers, annotated by experts, from the great wealth of original publications.Division of the subject into sections: The subject of plant biology is divided into themed sections which are reviewed regularly to keep them relevant. Presently they are: Growth and development - Genome studies and molecular genetics (+ Plant biotechnology every other year) - Cell biology and cell signaling - Epigenetics and gene regulation - Physiology and metabolism (+ Abiotic stress every other year) - Biotic interactionsSelection of topics to be reviewed: Section Editors, who are major authorities in the field, are appointed by the Editors of the journal. They divide their section into a number of topics, ensuring that the field is comprehensively covered and that all issues of current importance are emphasised. Section Editors commission reviews from authorities on each topic that they have selected.Reviews: Authors write short review articles in which they present recent developments in their subject, emphasising the aspects that, in their opinion, are most important. In addition, they provide short annotations to the papers that they consider to be most interesting from all those published in their topic over the previous year.Editorial Overview: Section Editors write an Introduction at the beginning of the section to give an overview about the topic and introduce the reviews and to draw the reader's attention to any particularly interesting developments.Ethics in Publishing - General Statement: The Editor(s) and Publisher of this Journal believe that there are fundamental principles underlying scholarly or professional publishing. While this may not amount to a formal 'code of conduct', these fundamental principles with respect to the authors' paper are that the paper should: i) be the authors' own original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere, ii) reflect the authors' own research and analysis and do so in a truthful and complete manner, iii) properly credit the meaningful contributions of co-authors and co-researchers, iv) not be submitted to more than one journal for consideration, and v) be appropriately placed in the context of prior and existing research. Of equal importance are ethical guidelines dealing with research methods and research funding, including issues dealing with informed consent, research subject privacy rights, conflicts of interest, and sources of funding. While it may not be possible to draft a 'code' that applies adequately to all instances and circumstances, we believe it useful to outline our expectations of authors and procedures that the Journal will employ in the event of questions concerning author conduct. With respect to conflicts of interest, the Publisher now requires authors to declare any conflicts of interest that relate to papers accepted for publication in this Journal. A conflict of interest may exist when an author or the author's institution has a financial or other relationship with other people or organizations that may inappropriately influence the author's work. A conflict can be actual or potential and full disclosure to the Journal is the safest course. All submissions

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Plant Sciences

Editorial board by country: 8 in mainland China (about 14%); most named United States 19, United Kingdom 9, Mainland China 8, Germany 7, Japan 2 (57 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CAS Journal Ranking

Database indexing

SCIEScopusLetPub

International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub

Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.

Impact

Impact factor

7.28LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher)

7.3Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CiteScore 2026-06

14.6LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher)

14.6Publisher website · 2026-10-01

SJR 2026-06

3.15LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

1.74LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

185LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

286OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

2,663OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

6.8OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

1.4%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

50.32%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

95LetPub · 2026-09-13

Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.

Other sources

Average review time (community reports)

6–12 weeksLetPub · 2026-09-13

Average acceptance (community reports)

Fairly hardLetPub · 2026-09-13

Submission to first decision

5 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

First decision after review

41 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Submission to acceptance

85 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Acceptance to publication

25 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

Peer review

Single anonymous peer reviewPublisher website

Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.

A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.

The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.

Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd

Country or region

ENGLAND

Language

English

Frequency

Bimonthly

Founded

1998

ISSN

1369-5266

Electronic ISSN

1879-0356

Official links

• Journal homepage ↗LetPub
• Submission system ↗LetPub
• Special issues ↗Publisher website