Use when targeting The Plant Journal or deciding whether a plant-science manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the mechanistic gene-to-function and molecular-rigor bar, evidence and data-deposition expectations, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics.
SkillScore73Maintained
Automatic
◆Writing & Editing pack
Last verified 8/15/2026
What it changes
Passed 16 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 6 of 22 without it.
Without skill27%
With skill73%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
Includes [Target] set as The Plant Journal
Rates overall fit as Low in the [Fit] field
Uses the standard bracketed key labels throughout the report
and 11 more in the full report
10 fixed6 passed either way6 still failing0 broke
Pass-rate lift
+45 pp
Tokens
+33%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-38%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/15/2026v116 of 22 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 10 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 10
Prompt
We developed a novel high-throughput CRISPR-based tissue-specific gene editing tool that applies broadly across plant and animal system models. Assess suitability for The Plant Journal using structured blocks and suggest an appropriate interdisciplinary method venue.
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
Recommends nature-communications or science-advances as suitable re-route choices for cross-disciplinary methodological tools
Missed
Passed
Evaluates the tool's interdisciplinary scope under the re-routing evaluation block
Passed
Passed
case-10 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/15/2026 · answers are capped and redacted
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md115 linessingle file
The Plant Journal (the-plant-journal)
Journal positioning
The Plant Journal, published for the Society for Experimental Biology by Wiley, is a
plant-science journal focused on the molecular, cellular, biochemical, and genetic
mechanisms that govern plant biology — how genes, proteins, metabolites, and regulatory
networks produce plant function. Its defining expectation is rigorous mechanistic
evidence: a gene-to-function study that establishes how something works, supported by
genetics, biochemistry, and cell biology, not a phenotype with a plausible candidate. A
descriptive or whole-organism/ecological observation with no resolved molecular mechanism
fits an ecology/physiology journal better. This skill is a fit / venue-selection /
re-framing tool. It does not replace the journal's current author guidelines. Before
submitting, re-check the live The Plant Journal author guidance.
When to trigger
The author names The Plant Journal and wants a fit/framing check for a mechanistic
molecular-plant paper.
A phenotype or candidate-gene observation must be elevated into a resolved gene-to-function
mechanism with the right molecular evidence.
The author is deciding between The Plant Journal and new-phytologist and needs the
molecular-mechanism versus ecology/physiology-breadth distinction made explicit.
The author needs The Plant Journal's desk-reject heuristics and a credible alternative route.
Scope & topic fit
Gene function and regulation: transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and epigenetic control
established by loss/gain-of-function genetics.
Protein biochemistry, enzymology, and metabolic and signaling pathways with mechanistic
resolution.
Cell biology: organelle function, trafficking, cytoskeleton, and subcellular dynamics in
plants.
Plant development and physiology where the contribution is the underlying molecular/genetic
mechanism.
Plant–microbe and stress responses analyzed at the molecular and biochemical level.
Genomics, gene-editing, and tool/resource papers that enable mechanistic plant biology.
Use when targeting New Phytologist or deciding whether a plant-science manuscript fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the integrative conceptual-advance and whole-plant/ecosystem-scale bar, evidence and data-deposition expectations, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics.