In the early 20th century, the field of botany was rapidly expanding, but the publications in which botanists could publish remained limited and heavily backlogged.

[2] On 31 December 1907, the Botanical Society of America met in Chicago and formally recommended forming a committee as an "aid to publication".

At the same meeting, a new committee of three members, headed by Frederick Charles Newcombe, a professor of botany at the University of Michigan, was formed.

Newcombe had trained in Germany, given the limited educational opportunities in the United States at the time, and founded the Botanical Journal Club at the University of Michigan.

He had expressed concerns, as early as 1895, about the dearth of high-quality American botanical journals that could compare to German ones such as Botanische Zeitung (published 1843-1910).