April is a good month to evaluate the publication record of any research group, academic Department or an Institute like FABI. The reason is that by this time all publications that were published 'online early' during 2016, but that were finally published with 2017 volume and page numbers, have appeared. This means that only papers with 2016 as final publication date can be considered for evaluation purposes and numbers are thus not inflated with online early papers. With this in mind we now revisited the publication list of FABI for 2016.

Repeating their success of 2015, FABIans again set a new record for the highest number of research or review papers in internationally recognized journals since the Institute was established in 1998. The 131 papers of 2016 were published in 58 different journals, and were 26 more than the record of 105 papers set in 2015. It is thus only the second year in FABI's history that more than 100 papers were produced.

The two journals in which the most FABI papers were published last year were Persoonia (Impact factor 5.725) and Fungal Biology (IF 2.244) with nine papers each, followed by Biological Invasions (IF 2.855) and Forest Pathology (IF 1.437) with eight papers each, and then Studies in Mycology (IF 13.889), Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (IF 1.944) and IMA Fungus with seven papers each. The latter is the relatively young official journal of the International Mycological Association (IMA), anticipating its first impact factor to be announced this year. Several more papers were published in journals with impact factors above 5.0: two in New Phytologist (IF 7.21), one in PLoS Pathogens (IF 7.003), one in Current Opinion in Plant Biology (IF 6.780), two in Plant Physiology (IF 6.280), one in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (IF 5.847), one in The Plant Journal (IF 5.468), and one in Functional Ecology (IF 5.21).

To date 36 FABI papers have already appeared online in 2017, including one in PNAS (IF 9.423) and one in Studies in Mycology (IF 13.889). These will certainly serve to encourage FABIans to aim even higher during the remainder of the year, proudly contributing to the international standing of the University of Pretoria.

A complete list of all FABI publications can be viewed here.