The New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science is an international journal advancing research in crop and horticultural production, protection, postharvest handling, and innovation.
Oxidative stress is considered as an imbalance between the generation and buildup of oxidants (oxygen and nitrogen reactive species (ROS/RNS)) and the antioxidant system’s capacity to eliminate these reactive products.
For crop and horticultural produce, oxidative stress can be generated both pre-harvest, through abiotic (salt, drought, heavy metals, nutritional, UV stress etc) and biotic stresses (pathogen and pest attack), and during post-harvest handling. This ultimately causes yield and quality reductions in fruit, vegetable, and floriculture products.
Various strategies have been proposed to tackle the oxidative stress condition. Breeding of crops for oxidative stress tolerance is a time consuming and laborious task.
As a convenient method, application of different protectants such as signaling molecules, nanoparticles, melatonin, biostimulants, and growth regulators offers a sustainable and cost-effective strategy to mitigate the oxidative stress condition both pre- and post-harvest.
To address knowledge gaps, a special issue of the NZJCHS aims to acquire novel studies (research articles) and insightful reviews on the mitigation of oxidative stress via pre- and post-harvest applications (seed priming, foliar applications, etc.) of protectants with a special focus on achieving sustainability.
Submission Information
A preliminary title, indicative author list and a short descriptive paragraph outlining the scope of your proposed manuscript should be sent to Managing Guest Editor, Dr Faisal Zulfiqar at ch.faisal.zulfiqar@gmail.com by 31 May 2025. Your Expressions of Interest will be considered by the guest editor team.
Authors will be notified of the result and formally invited for full submission by 30 June, while the final submission deadline is 31 December, with the aim of getting the special issue formally published in mid-2026.
Individual articles will be published online with a DOI before they appear in the special issue.
Manuscripts should be submitted online through the journal’s submission system. Authors should select the relevant special issue title during the submission process.
There are no page charges or publication fees under the traditional subscription-based publishing model. Additionally, authors affiliated with a growing range of global institutions may be eligible to publish your articles Open Access at no cost to yourself.
Source: Royal Society of New Zealand
