Inaugural Editorial: Technology in Horticulture

Applied horticultural sciences and technologies address the most burning issues faced by our generation today. Our efforts to reduce planetary carbon emissions depend upon our ability to not only optimize horticultural production yields, but also eliminate the waste of horticultural products and derivatives which, in some cases, surpass half of what is produced. A lower incidence of chronic diseases and an overall higher quality of life have also been associated with the higher consumption of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and access to cut flowers and ornamentals. However, the consumption rate of fresh produce and access to overall horticultural commodities worldwide is unequal and generally deficient. These examples remind us that the production and handling of horticultural crops carry paramount social (health), economic, and environmental impacts.

Despite the tremendous influence that advances in horticulture could have on our society, international scientific journals reporting findings of horticultural applied sciences and technologies have not been fully recognized with the appropriate academic impact level if compared to other fields. This is due, to a large extent, to a lack of a well disseminated journal reporting cutting edge technology under diverse conditions, that can prompt further adoption and innovation and be used immediately by other researchers in their scientific endeavors. Moreover, access to solid non-commercial information by practitioners, farmers, and actors of the supply chain is limited as very few journals today are presented in an open format.

Recognizing the above situation, Technology in Horticulture (T-Hort) emerges as the journal to unify the worldwide research of breakthrough horticulture technology. T-Hort became possible through the vision of Zong-Ming (Max) Cheng, the Editor-in-Chief of the prominent Horticulture Research, originally by the Nature Publishing Group, now by Springer Nature. Max Cheng inferred the need for a reputable journal that would showcase the other dimension of research in horticulture: one that showcases readily applied technology. As methodologies and laboratory applications in fundamental sciences are generated at a fast speed, their translational counterpart needs to be equally disseminated and openly shared to coherently advance the horticulture industry. With the support of Maximum Academic Press (www.maxapress.com), T-Hort aims to become a premier global research journal for applied science and technology in horticulture.

T-Hort will strive to prompt many 'A-ha moments' of scientists, extensionists, and practitioners in general, through concrete findings to optimize operations across the production-supply chain. The Journal will support systemic views that go beyond just standard demonstrations of increased productivity. The potential improvements in the horticultural value chain would be linked to the bigger picture (with repercussions for the planet and society). Cross-disciplinary articles with novel findings will be of special interest. Articles that contribute to advance the circularity of the bioeconomy, sustainability of the food systems, and transboundary global health, will be of highest priority.

T-Hort will publish in the following (but not be limited to) scopes of research: culture practice, precision management across the production-supply chain, environmentally-sound management of soil, nutrition and cover crops in conventional or organic culture systems, artificial intelligence application to horticulture production, germplasm evaluation on disease and stress resistance and climate change, pollination and fruit set, propagation, fruit and produce quality control (in both pre- and post-harvest stages), environmentally controlled research, and fruit and produce quality. Crops of interest include all fruits, vegetables (including roots, tubers), herbs, ornamentals, edible fungi, and medicinal plants. In addition, T-Hort will support and guide emerging trends by routinely opening space for special issues. The Journal will also publish opinions on recent books, publications of international independent groups and multi-lateral agencies, and news on current events and hot topics where horticultural scientific discussion is needed.

The essence of the T-Hort mission is to provide top quality service for scientist’s publication needs, foster academic exchange, and to disseminate novel findings across all horticultural communities around the world. The ultimate goal is for T-Hort to become a flagship journal for the global community. The specific aims of the journal are to become: 1) a highly trusted source of innovative information and technologies; 2) an open-source archive for storing and accessing top-notch scholarly works; 3) a platform that will fill the gap for enabling worldwide academic exchange to accelerate production of findings and application of technology through efficient dissemination of knowledge.

There are numerous benefits to publishing in T-Hort. A response will be delivered to authors in 2–4 weeks while ensuring a rigorous review process. All accepted manuscripts will be finalized by professional editors for language and consistency of format. Manuscripts that have been reviewed in other highly impactful journals will automatically enter an accelerated review process if the reviewers’ comments from other journals are also included. Each accepted paper will be published online as open access shortly after acceptance for free view and download under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License. All papers published in T-Hort will receive the highest exposure to both professionals and popular press through online hosting on www.maxapress.com, and subsequently through various social media, including WeChat, Twitter, Facebook, and precision email promotion.

T-Hort will host webinars, workshops, and conferences on different topics with leading scientists in different fields, our editorial board members, and our top authors. We will encourage participants to submit manuscripts for Reviews, Methods, or Perspectives either individually or collaboratively. Opinion papers about global publications will also be encouraged, as well as short notes analyzing reports and publications that were only published in a non-English language, which merit global dissemination. The editorial board will also provide training opportunities for the T-Hort community − particularly graduate students and postdoctoral researchers − on research, publishing fundamentals and essentials, and ethics of research, which will help advance horticultural sciences and technology research and ensure the influx of quality manuscripts with solid data and analyses.

It is our privilege to collaborate with an outstanding team of Associate Editors to propel T-Hort to become a premier international journal, with high reputation among the academic, governmental, and industry arenas. We will jointly work for T-Hort to strictly follow the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. T-Hort will embrace public data storage and sharing to stimulate and advance applied horticultural research.

We wish to invite plant biologists, food scientists, biochemists, and agricultural engineers who are working with horticultural plants and products to submit manuscripts to report their discoveries to this new journal. T-Hort is born with the vision of a community journal that will break the cultural, discipline, and language barriers. We welcome your valuable suggestions and ideas so that this Journal is shaped in a way that all readers will be pleased by its contribution to the overall issues in our society.