It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to the new In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Plant journal. Several important changes have taken place over the last 6 mo. Firstly, you will see that the association’s name has changed to the International Association for Plant Biotechnology (IAPB), and secondly, the editorial office has rotated and is now based at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, MO, USA. In addition, on January 1, 2007, we transitioned to working with a new international publisher, Springer. We hope that you like the revised four-color cover and inside article designs, which are intended to modernize the layout of the content as we move forward into the 21st century.

The change to Springer also provides real benefits to authors and readers alike, including:

  • Manuscript submission and peer review for the journals are now handled online through Editorial Manager, one of the most prestigious online manuscript tracking systems.

  • Articles will be published online first in citable forms weeks before distribution of the print journal.

  • There are no additional page charges to publish in the journal and no additional black-and-white illustration charges as in the past

  • Costs for four-color publication have been reduced to a flat rate of US$534 for as many color figures as you wish within an article.

  • We now offer Open Choice, whereby authors can have their journal articles made available with full open access in exchange for payment of a basic fee.

While IAPB will retain responsibility for production of two issues each year, we continue our close collaboration with the Society for In Vitro Biology and the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Greg Phillips. Our collective goal is to steadily increase the uniformity and quality of the journal, while serving the needs and interests of the membership of both organizations.

I hope you will agree that these represent positive and exciting changes for IAPB, our journal, our authors, and our readers and that you will seriously consider In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology – Plant as you publish your research.

Nigel Taylor, PhD

Editor-in-Chief

IAPB