Editorial

Acta Botanica Neerlandica (ABN) was first published in March 1952. Since then it has been the single scientific journal of the Royal Botanical Society of The Netherlands. Actually, the strength of the journal lies in the fact that results from specialized research are discussed in a wider context, thus serving a forum of botanists from the fields of molecular and cellular biology, biosystematics, plant physiology, and plant ecology. The editors challenge authors of all papers to act as good specialists who also keep their eyes open in the arena of general botany. The review papers, published from 1988 onwards, in particular meet this objective. Since 1991, the Impact Factor of ABN has stabilized at IT, after a three-fold increase. The Cited Half-Life amounts to over 10 years. ABN has obtained a prominent position among the Plant Sciences journals. During the first century of the Society’s existence there were two different journals, namely the Nederlandsch Kruidkundig Archief (1846-1951), which dealt mainly with aspects of flora and taxonomy and was written in Dutch, and the Recueil des Travaux Botaniques Neerlandais (1904-1951). Papers in the latter journal were written in English, German or French, and focused on experimental botany. In the editorial of the first issue of Acta Botanica Neerlandica the Society’s president wrote: ‘This journal will cover the work of member botanists in their different branches, performed in Holland, in the tropics or elsewhere. The varied nature of the articles must prove of particular value to all botanists in this era of overspecialisation.’ The present editors are pleased to have seen the journal maturing to the initially proposed status since the late eighties. ABN does not shy away from publishing results from specialized research, but does want them to be read by other specialists in the field of botany.