A Comprehensive Analysis and Scientific Impact of ASHS Cross-commodity Publication Awards

Established in 1985, the Cross-Commodity Publication Award recognizes authors of the most outstanding paper on horticultural cross-commodity research, including broadly applicable methodology, pre- and postharvest physiology, genetics, anatomy, morphology, ecology, crop production systems, modeling, and management, published in the previous year’s issues of the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science (JASHS), HortScience, or HortTechnology. Through the 39-year span (1985–2023), there were 38 papers that have been awarded (Table 1). Among all papers, two of them were published in HortTechnology, nine in HortScience, and 27 in the JASHS. Most of the awarded papers were basic research, which was aiming to understand the occurrence of a phenomenon and the response of plants; and applicable methodology, which was developed to facilitate efficient phenotyping or plant propagation and production. In addition, most of the studies were conducted under controlled environment and laboratory conditions, and there were several papers studying multiple crops spanning from fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals within one experimental set.