About the Journal
About the Journal
Focus & Scope
Sibbaldia was established to communicate high quality and innovative horticultural practice in botanic gardens and similar institutions around the world. It publishes peer-reviewed articles and short notes on the cultivation, conservation, research, botany (but not taxonomic botany), history, landscaping, legislation, management and curation of plants in botanic and other gardens.
Sibbaldia exists to bring the work of horticulturists and garden managers to a worldwide audience. It is for horticulturists, managers and students of botanical, heritage and conservation landscapes. The Editor particularly welcomes articles on horticultural techniques, cultivation of species and the application of horticulture for conservation practice. Articles on the curation, plant science, health and heritage of plant collections and species are also welcomed.
Peer Review Process
All papers will be subject to review by at least two reviewers.
Reviewers are recruited based on their knowledge of or affinity with the main subjects of the article and all are known to the editors of Sibbaldia, or recommended by knowledgable others. Reviewers are asked to review for accuracy and suitability to the focus and scope of Sibbaldia, to comment on the structure and composition of the article and to make suggestions for improvements and recommendations where relevant.
Publication Frequency
Sibbaldia is published on an annual basis. Articles are published online throughout the year.
Open Access Policy
This journal provides immediate open access to its content, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Authors are not charged any APCs (Article Processing Charges) or other publication fees.
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
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Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons licence that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
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Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
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Authors are NOT permitted to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process.
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Authors are required to make sure submitted content does not infringe third-party copyright. Authors must obtain permission to reproduce any third-party material for online – and print, if applicable – publication in perpetuity. It is also the authors’ responsibility to include any acknowledgements requested by copyright holders, and to mark clearly third-party material used with permission, material that has separate licensing terms, and material used under exceptions or limitations to copyright.
More information is available from the UK's Intellectual Property Office and Creative Commons.
Publications Ethics Statement
Sibbaldia the Journal of Botanic Garden Horticulture is committed to maintaining high standards of publication ethics and procedures and the responsibilities of contributors to the publication process outlined below has been compiled with reference to guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is in line with the ethics of Edinburgh Diamond the online platform on which Sibbaldia is hosted.
Principles of Transparency
The Editors of Sibbaldia adhere to COPE’s Principles of Transparency (COPE/DOAJ/WAME, 2018). These can be found here.
For full details of the Publication Ethics Statement see this document.
Permissions
It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse articles published in this journal, provided that reuse is in line with the article’s Creative Commons licence and attribution to the author(s) and the published article is maintained. Please note that these terms do not extend to any material that has separate licensing terms specified or any material that is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Permission to reproduce third-party material must be obtained directly from the copyright holders concerned.
Archiving
A permanent archive of the journal is held by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for purposes of preservation and restoration.
Take Down Policy
What Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh will do if you believe content in this journal infringes any person's rights, or applicable UK laws:
We make every effort to ensure that published content does not infringe any person's rights, or applicable UK laws.
Should you discover content in this journal that you believe to be illegal, or that infringes any of your statutory rights, you may contact the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, who will review the complaint.
On receipt of your complaint, the Sibbaldia Editorial team will:
- Make an initial assessment of its validity
- Acknowledge receipt of the complaint by email
- For all but spurious complaints, cease access to the item that is subject to complaint pending the outcome of the investigation
- Where appropriate, refer the complaint to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Legal Advisor for comment and advice
- Seek to verify your identity and authority as complainant.
When the authenticity of your complaint has been verified and the Editor has been advised that it is ostensibly legitimate the item will be removed from public access.
If the Legal Advisor confirms that it does not breach any law then the item will be reinstated.
Please contact:
Sibbaldia Editor
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
20a Inverleith Row
Edinburgh EH3 5LR
Email: Sibbaldia@rbge.org.uk
Please note the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is staffed 9-5pm Monday-Friday
Journal History
Sibbaldia was established in 2003 by Dr David Rae, who was at that time Director of Horticulture and Learning at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The first three volumes had the subtitle 'An occasional series of horticultural notes from RBGE' and all authors were members of horticultural and scientific staff at the institution. When volume 4 was published it was decided to publsih one volume per year and was given the subtitle 'The Journal of Botanic Garden Horticulture'.
In 2018, Kate Hughes took over editorship of the journal following David's retiral. In 2020 the journal was given the subtitle 'The International Journal of Botanic Garden Horticulture' which more accurately reflects the global representation of authors and work published.
Journal Sponsorship
The publication of Sibbaldia is supported by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Privacy and Consent Policy
The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviours, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication.
This journal’s editorial team uses this data to guide its work in publishing and improving this journal. Data that will assist in developing this journal platform (Open Journal Systems – OJS) may be shared with its developer Public Knowledge Project (PKP) in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here.
This journal uses the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s journal platform (OJS), which is hosted by Edinburgh University Library.
Registered users
Users who register with this journal, including authors and peer reviewers where applicable, consent to having the personal information being stored in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s journal platform (OJS) and processed by the platform and journal editorial teams.
Authors
Authors who make a submission to this journal consent to the personal information they supply as part of the submission being stored in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s journal platform (OJS) and processed by the platform and journal editorial teams. Authors who make a submission have the responsibility to ensure that all contributors have read this Privacy and Consent policy and consent to having their personal information that is supplied as part of the submission process being stored in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s journal platform (OJS) and processed by the platform and journal editorial teams. Authors published in this journal are also responsible for the human subject data that figures in the research reported in the journal.
Website visitors
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s journal platform (OJS) collects anonymised usage log data, including IP addresses, pages visited, date visited, browser information, and geographical data. This information is not used to identify visitors personally and it is not used for any purpose other what is described here. The platform also uses cookies to manage session history and provide a better user experience – more details can be found in the Cookies section below.
Rights of the Individual
Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights” that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.
All users whose details are stored in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s OJS installation can exercise their rights of the individual, as they are detailed in the GDPR.
If you have a user account and wish to have it deleted, please email Sibbaldia@rbge.org.uk.
Cookies
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We use cookies to manage session history. A cookie titled OJSSID is created when first visiting a journal page and is stored on the visitor's computer. It is used only to store a session ID and to facilitate logins.
We also use performance cookies to analyse site usage so we can measure and improve site functionality. The tool we use most consistently is Google Analytics. Anonymous data about your visit is collected and amalgamated with that of other visitors so we can better understand how people use our website. You can opt out of providing us with this information if you wish, with no impact on your experience of our website.
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