Trends in Plant Science

Trends in Plant Science is published by Elsevier Ltd and is in Zone 1 of Biology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Plant Molecular Biology Research, Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms and Plant Reproductive Biology, together about 30.1% of its articles. Its main subfields are Plant Science and Molecular Biology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)

Trends in Plant Science is the original and leading monthly review journal in plant science, featuring broad coverage of basic plant science, from molecular biology through to ecology. Succinct and readable reviews and opinions on basic research topics provide instant overviews of current thinking and new developments in plant biology. Aimed at researchers, students and teachers, our articles are always authoritative, and are written by both leaders in the field and rising stars.Articles for Trends in Plant Science are generally invited by the editor, but proposals for articles are welcome. Prospective authors should use the presubmission inquiry form.Please note that Trends in Plant Science is not a primary research journal and thus cannot consider manuscripts that rely on unpublished data.Reviews Review articles form the core of each monthly issue and are invited from leading researchers in a specific field. These articles offer a balanced account of newly emerging or rapidly progressing fields and provide a guide to the most relevant recent literature and prospects for future research.Opinions Opinion articles present a personal viewpoint of a field- or research-related subject. They can cover timely controversial topics or debates, provide a new interpretation of an old problem or current issue, or speculate in depth on the implications of some recently published research or data. Opinion articles aim to stimulate debate rather than provide a comprehensive review of a topic.Frontmatter The front section of the journal contains letters, forum articles, scientific life, spotlights, science & society type articles, and book reviews articles:Letters usually discuss a recent article in Trends in Plant Science or, very occasionally, a matter of general interest. Where letters discuss a Trends in Plant Science article, the author of that article will normally be invited to reply, thereby providing a forum for debate within the journal.Scientific life are short essays written on topics relating to a scientist’s life and career aiming to provide commentary on broader issues relevant to the community.Forum articles featuring single-point hypotheses and novel models are intended to provide a forum for discussion of issues and advancements that are of broad significance to the plant science community. Possible topics can include future outlook essays that serve to introduce or encourage research in a new field, reflections and new insights on long-standing questions and debates, and general analyses of common scientific practices or tools used in a field.Spotlight articles are intended to provide a forum for discussion of events and advancements that are not limited to a discussion of previously published research articles. Possible topics can include both, future outlook essays that serve to introduce or encourage research in a new field and general analyses of common scientific practices or tools used in a field.Science & society type articles aim to discuss important issues at the interface of academic research and society, such as those relating to policy, environment or health. These articles will be aimed at a broad audience, written in a journalistic style and are intended to be provocative and to stimulate debate.

From the journal's Aims & Scope

Research area (LetPub): Plant Sciences

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

20.51LetPub · 2026-09-13

Impact factor (publisher)

21.2Publisher website · 2026-10-01

CiteScore 2026-06

34.8LetPub · 2026-09-13

CiteScore (publisher)

34.8Publisher website · 2026-10-01

SJR 2026-06

3.32LetPub · 2026-09-13

SNIP 2026-06

4.25LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

233LetPub · 2026-09-13

h-index

383OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

i10-index

3,118OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

2-year mean citedness

8.61OpenAlex · 2026-10-01

Self-citation rate

0.9%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Share of gold OA articles

33.33%LetPub · 2026-09-13

Volume

Articles per year

89LetPub · 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)

Mostly invited papersLetPub · 2026-09-13

Submission to acceptance

82 daysPublisher website · 2026-10-01

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

Monthly

Founded

1996

ISSN

1360-1385

Electronic ISSN

1878-4372

Official links

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