One hundred and twenty-five years of the Annals of Botany. Part 2: the years 1937 to 2012

Abstract

Background: Annals of Botany is a peer-reviewed plant biology journal. It was started in 1887, making it the oldest continuously published plant science title. A previous article [Jackson MB. 2015. One hundred and twenty-five years of the Annals of Botany Part 1: the first 50 years (1887-1936). Annals of Botany 115: : 1-18] summarized events leading to its founding, highlighted the individuals involved and examined the Journal's achievements and management practices over the first 50 years to 1937. This second article covers the next 75 years.

Sources of information: The account draws principally on the Journal's own records, minute books, financial accounts, original letters and notes held by the Annals of Botany Company, the Journal's owners and managers.

Content: In 1937, its 51st year, the Journal was re-launched as Annals of Botany New Series and its volume numbers were reset to No. I. The present article evaluates the evolution of the New Series up to 2012, Annals of Botany's 125th anniversary year. The period includes a 2-year run-up to World War II, six war years and their immediate aftermath, and then on through increasingly competitive times. The ebb and flow of the Journal's fortunes are set against a roll-call of the often highly distinguished scientists who managed and edited the Journal. The article also examines an internal crisis in the 1980s that radically altered the Journal's organization in ways that were, ultimately, to its benefit. The narrative is set against changes to economic conditions in Great Britain over the period, to the evolving nature and geographical distribution of much experimental plant science and to the digital revolution that, from the late 20th century, transformed the workings of Annals of Botany and of scientific publishing more generally.

Keywords: Academic Press; Annals of Botany; Annals of Botany Company; Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press; botany; history of science; not-for-profit publishing; plant science; science journal history.

Fig. 1

Sir Albert Charles Seward FRS (left) and Vernon Herbert Blackman FRS (right). Seward was the Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 1934 to 1941 (portrait from Thomas, 1941). Blackman was the Editor of Annals of Botany from 1921 to 1947 (portrait from Brown, 1968).

Fig. 2

Title page of a flier prepared in 1936 advertising the launch of Annals of Botany New Series the following year.

Fig. 3

Front cover designs for Annals of Botany Old Series and New Series. (Top left) Old Series design used from 1910 to 1937. (Top right) First New Series design, used from 1937 to 1950. (Bottom left) Design used from 1950 to 1956. (Bottom right) Design used from 1957 to 1962, when Roman numerals were finally abandoned and coloured ink was used for the first time. The dimensions of the Journal were approximately 6 3/8 inches × 9 3/8 inches (16·2 cm × 23·8 cm).

Fig. 4

Financial reserves accumulated by the Annals of Botany Company from 1937 to 2012. Figures are shown as original historic values and after adjusting for consumer price inflation to 2012 according to www.Safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion/ (Website 3).

Fig. 5

The number of subscriptions to Annals of Botany from 1937 to 1999. Consortial licences increasingly replaced individual library subscriptions after 1999. Thereafter, subscriber numbers no longer reflect the true extent of the Journal’s distribution. By 2012, the proportion of income from individual library subscriptions was 41 % of the total.

Fig. 6

Felix Eugen Fritsch FRS (left) and William Harold Pearsall FRS (right). Fritsch was Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 1941 to 1954 (portrait from Salisbury, 1954). Pearsall was Editor or joint Editor of Annals of Botany between 1948 and 1963 (portrait from Clapham, 1971).

Fig. 7

The number of papers published annually between 1937 and 2012.

Fig. 8

Dust cover (front and spine) of Annals of Botany Memoir No. 1. The Memoir, A monograph of Clavaria and Allied Genera, by E. J. H. Corner, was published in 1950 and reprinted in 1967 by Messrs Dawson and Co. This was the first of three Memoirs. The initial ambition was for many more.

Fig. 9

Thomas Maxwell Harris FRS (left) and John (‘Jack’) Heslop-Harrison FRS (right). Harris was Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 1954 to 1961 (portrait from Chaloner, 1985). Heslop-Harrison was the Editor or joint Editor of Annals of Botany from 1961 to 1967, Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 1971 to 1984 and Honorary Member of the Company from 1985 to 1998 (portrait from Gunning, 2000).

Fig. 10

Calculated mean cost to subscribers of each paper published by Annals of Botany in individual years from 1937 to 2012. Values were obtained by dividing the cost of a year’s subscription in the UK by the number of papers published in the same year. The graph gives values before and after adjusting for consumer price inflation to 2012 using Officer and Williamson (2014).

Fig. 11

Cecil Terence Ingold and James Frederick Sutcliffe. Ingold (left) was Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 1962 to 1971 (portrait from Money, 2012). Sutcliffe (right) was the Editor of Annals of Botany from to 1967 to 1973 (portrait from Anonymous, 1984).

Fig. 12

Changes in the cost of 1 year’s subscription to the printed version of Annals of Botany from 1937 to 2012. Each graph gives the historic subscription price and the price after adjusting for consumer price inflation to 2012 values using Officer and Williamson (2014). Graph A uses a linear scale to clarify the adjusted values. Graph B uses a log scale to clarify early changes to historic values. After the late 1990s, pricing was made more complex by the introduction of electronic versions and the emergence of consortial package deals where the cost of an individual journal to many individual libraries became unknowable.

Fig. 13

Front cover designs for Annals of Botany in use from 1962 until 1997. (Top left) Cover used from 1962 to 1970. (Top right) Cover used from 1971 to 1973. (Bottom left) Cover introduced in 1974 by Academic Press and used until 1984. (Bottom right) Cover used from 1985 to 1990. The dimensions of the Journal were approximately 7 inches × 10 inches (17·8 cm × 25·4 cm).

Fig. 14

Front cover of promotional flier prepared by the Clarendon Press in 1969. It was aimed primarily at American botanists.

Fig. 15

Anthony John Abbott (left) and John A. Bryant (right). Abbott and Bryant were appointed Associate Editors in 1982 and became joint Editors in Chief for a year from mid-1983 following the death of the Editor in Chief, James F. Sutcliffe. Abbott and Bryant continued under Cutler as members of a newly constituted Editorial Board from 1984 to 1987 and from 1984 to 1993 respectively.

Fig. 16

John Edgerton Dale (left) and David Frederick Cutler (right). Dale was Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 1985 to 1995. Cutler was Chief Editor of Annals of Botany from 1984 to 1990 and a member and Vice-chairman of the Annals of Botany Company to beyond 2012.

Fig. 17

Covers of Annals of Botany in use from 1987 to 2012. (Top left) Cover introduced in 1987 to mark the centennial year of the Journal (size approximately 7 inches × 10 inches (17·8 cm × 25·4 cm). (Top right) Cover introduced in January 1991 in broad format (approximately 21 cm × 27·8 cm) with monochrome artwork and text on a green metallic cover. (Bottom left) Cover introduced in 1997 as the Journal’s first full-colour cover. (Bottom right) Cover used in 2012.

Fig. 18

Flier promoting a symposium to celebrate the centenary of Annals of Botany.

Fig. 19

Jeff Moorby (left) and Roderick Hunt (right). Moorby was Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 1996 to 2004. Hunt was Chief Editor of Annals of Botany from 1990 to 1996 and Secretary and Treasurer of the Company from 1996 to beyond 2012.

Fig. 20

Changes in the ISI impact factor for Annals of Botany from 1988 to 2012 in comparison with competitor journals. (From 2008, the ISI impact factor became known as the Thomson Reuters impact factor.)

Fig. 21

Michael David Bennett (left) and Michael Barson Jackson (right). Bennett was Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 2003 to 2008. Jackson was Chief Editor of Annals of Botany from 1996 to 2008 and Chief Editor of AoB PLANTS from 2009 to 20012.

Fig. 22

ContentSnapshots and ContentSelect. These two introductions to the front matter of Annals of Botany were made in 2002 to help draw attention to papers appearing in each issue.

Fig. 23

Hugh Gordon Dickinson (left) and John Seymour (Pat) Heslop-Harrison (right). Dickinson was Chairman of the Annals of Botany Company from 2008 to beyond 2012. Heslop-Harrison was Chief Editor of Annals of Botany from 2008 to beyond 2012.