A Plant Genetic Resources special edition or collection

Guest Editor: Katherine Baum: Australian Grains Genebank

Genebanks are essential for the preservation of, and providing access to, highly diverse plant genetic resources, crucial for environmental sustainability, climate adaptation, and future food security. The global network of genebanks consists of approximately 1,750 collections, conserving around 7.4 million accessions. The CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) network of 11 international genebanks only account for the conservation of approximately 10% of this total number, with most accessions conserved in national, or regional, genebanks. Despite this, national genebanks are often overlooked in global conservation strategies. However, with limited resources and a significant proportion of diversity currently under-utilised, genebanks must work collaboratively to strengthen conservation, diversity use, and global co-ordination.

This special issue/collection focuses on the status, challenges and needs of national genebanks and their role in the global system; as well as sharing the potential strategies and tools which can be used to improve the management of their ex-situ collections and increase users’ access to diversity.

Deadline 31 October 2025

We will consider full Research Articles, Short Communications and Critical Reviews (see Author Instructions here). If you wish to submit a manuscript, this will be subject to peer review in the usual manner for Plant Genetic Resources. To maximise impact and visibility of published articles, the special issue will be Open Access

Support for Gold Open Access

Cambridge has made open access agreements with over 2,500 institutions around the world to make Gold Open Access publication options available to authors. If the corresponding author of a research article is affiliated with one of these institutions, in the majority of cases these agreements will cover the full costs of publishing Gold Open Access (specific terms and conditions vary). Authors can use our eligibility checker to see if their institution has an active agreement.

The Cambridge Open Equity Initiative (COEI) also funds Gold Open Access publishing of research articles for authors from over 100 low- and middle-income countries, covering over 5,000 institutions. Eligibility is automatically established during the publication process and no Gold Open Access fees will be charged if the corresponding author of a research article is based in one of these countries. In other cases an article processing charge (APC) will be required to cover the costs of publishing Gold Open Access in this journal.