Last year, we published two JPR symposium issues: “Regulatory networks in plant growth and development” under the supervision of Drs. Kengo Morohashi and Eugenia Russinova (Morohashi and Russinova 2019; March issue) and “Toward unveiling plant adaptation mechanisms to environmental stresses” under the supervision of Drs. Michitaro Shibata and Junro Mogami (Shibata and Mogami 2019; May issue). The first symposium, “Regulatory networks in plant growth and development”, collected papers on gene regulatory networks in various phenomena of plant growth and development; i.e., cell expansion (Ilias et al. 2019), secondary metabolisms (Shoji and Hashimoto 2019, Jamaluddin et al. 2019), and morphological development (Arai et al. 2019). The second symposium, “Toward unveiling plant adaptation mechanisms to environmental stresses”, collected two review articles on environmental signals for root development (Shibata and Sugimoto 2019) and on water transport, perception, and response in plants (Scharwies and Dinneny 2019).

We also published a virtual issue, “Ecology and evolution of pteridophytes in the era of molecular genetics”, edited by Drs. Joel H. Nitta and A. Ebihara (Nitta and Ebihara 2019), on the website of the Journal of Plant Research (https://www.springer.com/journal/10265/updates/17220618). The past quarter–century has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of the phylogenetics, systematics, and ecology of pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes), particularly due to the rapid accumulation of plastid sequence data and a renewed interest in the ecology of the sexual phase of the life cycle. This virtual issue contains 19 articles published after 2009 in the Journal of Plant Research (Chang et al. 2018; Chen et al. 2018; Ebihara and Nitta 2019; Ebihara et al. 2012; Fujiwara et al. 2018; Hori et al. 2014; Kessler and Lehnert 2009; Kuo et al. 2017; Lu et al. 2012; Nakato et al. 2012; Naugolnykh et al.2016; Ogura-Tsujita et al. 2013; 2019; Ootsuki et al. 2012; Tian et al. 2014; Yatabe et al. 2009; Yatabe-Kakugawa et al. 2013; Wang et al. 2015; Winther and Friedman 2009).

We welcome new Editors and Editorial Board members who begin their 4-year term in January 2020: Drs. Juan Núñez-Farfán, Akitoshi Iwamoto, Ali Ferjani, Kimitsune Ishizaki, Jutta Papenbrock, Shigemi Seo, and Michael Wrzaczek (Editor) and Drs. José Gutiérrez-Ortega, Qingxiang Han, Hossein Kazemi, Tianxiang Luo, Riichi Oguchi, Yoshihiro Suzuki, Kester Bull-Hereñu, Hirofumi Nakagami, Hokuto Nakayama, Satoko Yoshida, Jeffery Cruz, Toshiyuki Fukuhara, Atsushi Takeda, and Takumi Higaki (Editorial Board members).

We thank the Editors and Editorial Board members who rotate off: Drs. Eric DeChaine, Thomas Berberich, and Kintake Sonoike (Editor) and Drs. Steffi Ickert-Bond, Steven Manchester, Fernand Valladares, Wan-Jin Liao, Ülo Niinemets, Naoyuki Uchida, Gerrit Beemster, Misako Kato, Natsumaro Kutsuna, Toshio Sakamoto, Keiko Yoshioka, Kuo-Chen Yeh, Bhasker Gupta (Editorial Board members). Drs. Ichirou Karahara and Tomoaki Nishiyama also finished their terms as Editors, but rejoin us as Editorial Board members.

We have revised our Instructions to Authors (https://www.springer.com/journal/10265/submission-guidelines). Importantly, from 2020, we no longer impose page charges on authors irrespective of whether the authors are members of the Botanical Society of Japan. Page limitations have also been removed except for Technical notes and Letters. We welcome submissions of articles regardless of their length (however, the editor may require a paper to be shortened if it is considered unnecessarily long). We also clarify our scope on submitted papers: we will accept papers that contribute to general basic plant sciences. Papers targeted toward applied science such as agricultural or medical research may be rejected without review if they do not make significant contributions to general plant sciences.

We wish you a Very Happy New Year, and we welcome submissions of excellent articles in 2020.

Kouki Hikosaka

Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Plant Research