new-phytologist

# New Phytologist (new-phytologist) ## Journal positioning New Phytologist, published by the New Phytologist Foundation, is a plant-science journal with a long-standing strength in **plant ecology, physiology, environmental interactions, and symbiosis** — mycorrhizal and other plant–microbe relationships, whole-plant function, and processes that scale from organism to community and ecosystem. Its defining expectation is a **conceptual advance with integrative breadth**: a study that changes how a process is understood by connecting levels of organization, rather than a tightly bounded mechanistic result. A study whose contribution is a single gene-to-function molecular mechanism with no physiological, ecological, or whole-organism reach usually fits a cellular/molecular journal better. This skill is a **fit / venue-selection / re-framing** tool. It does not replace the journal's current author guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live New Phytologist author guidance. ## When to trigger - The author names New Phytologist and wants a fit/framing check for an integrative plant-ecology, physiology, or symbiosis paper. - A whole-plant or ecosystem-scale result must be framed as a conceptual advance that connects mechanism to function across scales. - The author is deciding between New Phytologist and `the-plant-journal` and needs the ecology/physiology-breadth versus molecular-mechanism distinction made explicit. - The author needs New Phytologist's desk-reject heuristics and a credible alternative route. ## Scope & topic fit - Plant physiology and whole-plant function: water relations, carbon and nutrient economy, photosynthesis, and stress ecophysiology with conceptual reach. - Plant–microbe and plant–plant interactions, especially mycorrhizal and other symbioses, including nutrient exchange and community consequences. - Plant ecology and environmental responses, including community, ecosystem, and global-change-relevant processes anchored in plant function. - Plant–environment interactions spanning soil, climate, and biotic context where the plant is central to the process. - Evolutionary ecology, functional and trait-based approaches that integrate across levels. - Methods and conceptual syntheses that advance integrative plant science. ## Method & evidence bar - The contribution must be an **integrative conceptual advance**: it should connect levels (molecule → organism → community/ecosystem) or generalize beyond one system. - Physiological and ecological claims need adequate replication, defensible experimental or observational design, and appropriate mixed-model or multivariate statistics. - Field and common-garden studies must address environmental variation, pseudoreplication, and scale of inference explicitly. - Symbiosis and interaction studies need controls that isolate the interaction and quantify fluxes or fitness consequences, not just co-occurrence. - Data and, where applicable, code/sequence data should be deposited in FAIR community repositories with accessions cited. ## Structure & house style - New Phytologist publishes research articles, rapid reports, and commissioned reviews/ viewpoints (Tansley reviews/insights); re-check current article types on the live guide. - The introduction must frame the conceptual question and the integrative gap, not catalogue a study system. - Figures should make the cross-scale or mechanistic-to-functional argument visible; experimental design and statistics must be transparent. - Methods and data-availability statements must let a reader reproduce the analysis; ecological metadata and sampling design should be complete. ## Official-submission checklist - Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md` and `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the official source anchors, then cite the current New Phytologist page you checked. - Search the live site for "New Phytologist author guidelines" and follow the current New Phytologist Foundation/Wiley version. - Re-check article types (research vs. rapid report vs. review/viewpoint), word and figure expectations, and abstract format. - Confirm data, code, and sequence/accession deposition requirements and FAIR expectations. - Re-check competing-interests, funding, author-contribution, and AI-use disclosure, and open-access terms. - If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win. ## Pre-submission self-check - [ ] The contribution is an integrative conceptual advance, not a bounded single-level mechanism. - [ ] The work connects scales or generalizes beyond one system/site. - [ ] Design addresses replication, pseudoreplication, environmental variation, and scale of inference. - [ ] Interaction/symbiosis claims have controls that isolate the interaction and quantify effects. - [ ] Data, code, and any sequence accessions are deposited in FAIR repositories. - [ ] Article type, statistics reporting, and data-availability statements are prepared. ## Common desk-reject triggers - A single gene-to-function molecular result with no physiological, ecological, or whole-plant reach. - A descriptive survey or correlation with no conceptual question or integrative framing. - Pot/glasshouse results over-generalized to field or ecosystem scale without justification. - Pseudoreplicated or under-replicated ecology presented as general, with weak statistics. - Symbiosis claims from co-occurrence alone, with no flux/fitness quantification or controls. ## Re-routing decision - Molecular/cellular/biochemical gene-to-function mechanism is the core → `the-plant-journal`. - Broad, headline plant-science significance for a Nature audience → `nature-plants`. - Field-scale crop yield and agronomy → `field-crops-research`. - Climate/global-change process at large scale dominant → `global-change-biology`. - Agroecosystem environment outcomes (nutrients, GHG, biodiversity) → `agriculture-ecosystems-and-environment`. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] New Phytologist [Topic tags] <2–3 closest integrative plant topics> [Conceptual advance] <how it connects scales or generalizes beyond one system> [Method/evidence] <does design + replication + data deposition clear New Phytologist's bar?> [Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection> [Official items to re-check] <article type / statistics / data + accession policy / disclosures> [Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue> ```