HortScience is a monthly journal of interest to a broad array of horticultural scientists and others interested in horticulture. Its goals are to provide information on significant research, education, extension findings and methods, and developments and trends that affect the profession.

Subjects appropriate for submission to HortScience include original research results on various scientific and cultural aspects of horticulture and closely related subjects, such as:

• Breeding, cultivars, rootstocks, and germplasm resources
• Conservation and restoration
• Cropping efficiency
• Crop production - including: floricultural plants; grapes and berries; nursery and landscape plants; subtropical and tropical plants; temperate tree fruits and nuts; and vegetables
• Growth regulator applications
• Marketing and economics
• New cultivar and germplasm releases
• Pest management
• Plant pathology
• Postharvest biology and technology
• Propagation and tissue culture
• Seed technology
• Soil management, fertilization, and irrigation
• Turf management

Submission Fees for Papers in HortScience

This journal does not charge for manuscript submission, including reviewing the article, regardlsess of whether it is accepted or not. ASHS does charge for accepted and published manuscripts.

Publishing Fees for Papers in HortScience

The fees below will apply to all HortScience manuscripts:

Member Rate: $2,000*
Consulting Editors Rate: $1,500
Non-member Rate: $3,000

“Short Paper” Pricing (**see below for short paper limitations)
Member Rate: $750*
Consulting Editors Rate: $400
Non-member Rate: $1,000

*Papers must have at least one ASHS member as an author in order to qualify for the member rate.

**Short Papers -- must be less than 1800 words, including all titles, references, etc. May contain 2 scalable images only. Images may be either pictures or tables or a combination of both. Must indicate that paper is submitted as a Short Paper during the submission process. 

Please Note. All open access articles published in the ASHS journals (Journal of ASHS, HortScience, and HortTechnology) are distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This license permits noncommercial copying and redistribution of articles with proper attribution, and prohibits distribution of derivative content.

Publish Ahead of Print

Prior Publication

Any information that is already in the public domain in a scientific context will be considered published and will not be published again by the Society. Submission of a manuscript to ASHS implies no concurrent submission elsewhere. Manuscripts submitted to the Journal and HortScience should be substantially different from industry-oriented publications and locally published progress or extension reports. For HortTechnology, if a question exists about previous publication, send copies of the previously published material to the Editor. If industry-oriented publications will appear before the scientific article, make sure the industry report describes the take-home lesson and does not place the supporting data and graphs in a scientific context, as is customary in scientific articles. ASHS expects, but does not require, “first right” for publication of research reports presented at ASHS annual conferences.

Download a pdf copy of the ASHS Style Manual and additional instructions for submitting papers to any ASHS journal, 

To submit papers to HortScience online, go to hortsci.msubmit.net

If you have previously submitted a paper to HortScience, you will be required to log in with your log in name and password.

First-time users of the online submission system must register for an account.
Instructions on how to register for an account are accessed at the bottom of the login page.

After you have registered and logged in, you may submit a manuscript and check its progress through the system.

If you need additional help, you can click on the help signs spread throughout the system.

Before submitting a manuscript, please gather the following information:

• First and last names for all authors

• ASHS membership status for all authors

• Postal address (for corresponding author only)

• Work telephone number (for corresponding author only)

• E-mail addresses

• Title and running title (you can copy and paste this from your manuscript)

• Abstract (you can copy and paste this from your manuscript)

• Manuscript files in Word (Please make sure the "Language" is "English (U.S.)" via Tools->Language->Set Language), WordPerfect, EPS, or RTF format.
  If your paper is accepted for publication, the publisher will NOT be able to use PDF text files. PDF is acceptable for figure files for production but not for text. PDF is acceptable for the initial submission and review process.

• Names of two colleagues who reviewed the paper before submission. They may not be co-authors or potential reviewers of the paper. Insert their names in the "Manuscript Comment" text box online.

• Names, email addresses, and institutions of five potential reviewers for the paper. They may not be co-authors and may not be affiliated with the authors' universities or organizations.

• Figures/images may be embedded in the manuscript file or sent as separate files. (Tiff, jpg or pdf format preferred.)

Turn on the line number feature in your word processing program. Line numbers are used as reference points during the review process.

Provide contact information (e-mail address and institution) for any potential peer reviewers for your article.

Please do not confuse the cover letter with the title page. The cover letter is an optional letter that accompanies the manuscript at submission. The title page contains the title, and author names and affiliations.

If you have additional questions about online submissions to HortScience, please e-mail the ASHS Publications Dept. at hortscience@ashs.org.