About The Horticulture Journal
The Horticulture Journal (Hort. J.), which has been renamed from the Journal of the Japanese Society for Horticultural Science (JJSHS) since 2015, has been published with the primary objective of enhancing access to research information offered by the Japanese Society for Horticultural Science, which was founded for the purpose of advancing research and technology related to the production, distribution, and processing of horticultural crops. Since the first issue of JJSHS in 1925, Hort. J./JJSHS has been central to the publication of study results from researchers of an extensive range of horticultural crops, including fruit trees, vegetables, and ornamental plants. The journal is highly regarded overseas as well, and is ranked equally with journals of European and American horticultural societies.
Hort. J./JJSHS publishes a large number of articles that delve deeply into issues related to the production, distribution, and processing of horticultural crops from the perspectives of basic and applied sciences. Throughout the history of the journal — which has spanned almost 90 years since the first issue — many important basic science studies that support technological advances in the horticultural industry have been published. Some articles form the basis for production, such as cultivation management, soil fertilizers, and pests, while others pertain to the investigation and discovery of new genetic resources, or the elucidation of physiological phenomena inherent to horticultural plants. Numerous physiologically, morphologically, or ecologically interesting phenomena are exhibited by a wide array of horticultural plants. Many articles have elaborated on those phenomena, and contain academically valuable studies rich in novelty. As such, Hort. J./JJSHS offers a voluminous collection of articles encompassing a wide range of research topics, from practical issues to biotechnology that utilizes basic research and molecular biology techniques. Please refer to Aims and Scope for details.
Full articles of Hort. J./JJSHS can be accessed for free at J-STAGE and PubHort. Moreover, in cooperation with Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), we have archived all published papers starting with Volume 1, No. 1, and all issues are now available through J-STAGE Predecessor. Furthermore, we started Advance Publication in 2014.
The titles and abstracts of articles published in Hort. J. are indexed by Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubHort, Agricola, CiNii, and a number of other databases overseas. In addition, article publication information is transmitted via Facebook and Twitter at all times.
Starting with Volume 76, No. 1 in 2007, JJSHS has been issued as a full English-language journal. At the same time, we have increased the number of foreign editorial board members from two to eight. Please refer to Editorial Board for details. As a reflection of our resolve to actively employ foreign reviewers, the number of articles reviewed by foreign reviewers has doubled. In the future, we plan to further increase the number of foreign reviewers.
In 2006, the online submission system was implemented in order to facilitate submission of articles from abroad, and currently, we accept articles submitted online via Editorial Manager. In addition, to encourage submission of papers from abroad, the membership fee for non-domestic members has been largely reduced, and articles with up to 6 published pages are published free of charge, starting in 2015.
The reputation of Hort. J./JJSHS has seen a significant surge; this is proven by the increase of the Impact Factor by more than threefold in recent years, exceeding 1.0 in 2009 and maintaining a high rating thereafter. This impact factor is high for a Japanese agricultural journal, and is one of the highest values among horticultural journals including international ones.
