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PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
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General Information
The Journal of Experimental Botany publishes high-quality primary research papers together with Review articles and Gene Notes in the plant sciences.
Full-length primary papers should contribute to our understanding of how plants develop and function, and should provide new insights into biological processes. The journal will not publish purely descriptive papers or papers that report a well-known process in a species in which the process has not been identified previously. Articles should be concise and generally limited to 10 printed pages. Authors may suggest under which of the following section headings they wish their paper to appear: Cell and Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Physiology, Regulation of Growth, Development and Whole Organism Physiology, or Plants and the Environment.
Review Articles are published regularly as Perspectives in Experimental Botany. Opinion papers that express a particular point of view on a controversial topic relevant to any aspect of plant science are also considered. Outlines of proposed reviews and opinions should be submitted to the Editor for consideration before preparation of a full manuscript.
Papers describing regulation of expression or important functional information of new sequences may be published as Gene Notes. The paper must fit into two printed pages; this is approximately equivalent to 1200 words (including abstract, text, acknowledgements, references, and figure legends) plus one small single column figure and one small single column table.
Special Issues containing reviews and occasionally one or two primary papers in a specified subject area are published at intervals. Reviews should not be encyclopaedic, will ideally contain the author's views and be pitched at a level that will appeal to the non-specialist as well as those who work in the field. If primary papers are submitted for a Special Issue, then the Introduction should be longer than usual to help orientate the reader within the field, and the Discussion should also help to explain the context of the work.
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Submission of Manuscripts
Manuscripts should be submitted in electronic format by post, electronic-mail or on-line, and should be presented in accordance with the guidelines for presentation. All manuscripts should be accompanied by a covering letter. If reference is made to a paper "in press", a proof of this should also be submitted. In the case of review manuscripts, material from other publications should be clearly referenced and copyright permission sought before submission.
Ideally manuscripts should be submitted as a single Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) file. This form of submission will expedite the processing of the paper because it is the format used for reviewing. Manuscripts not submitted in .PDF format must be in one of our specified formats and will be returned to the corresponding author as a .PDF file for approval before being sent to referees.
By post:
Disks should be sent to the Journal of Experimental Botany, Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancashire LA1 4YQ, UK. We can accept 3.5" disk, Iomega Zip disk or CD-ROM (PC formatted). Please identify the disk by labelling it with the names of the authors and title of the manuscript.
Via email:
Manuscripts should be sent to: j.exp.bot@lancaster.ac.uk
For manuscript file(s) exceeding 3 MB, the on-line submission is recommended.
On-line submission:
Manuscript files can be uploaded from http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/jexb/submissions/
Files should be submitted preferably in .PDF; otherwise, Word or WordPerfect are also accepted.
Other formats:
Manuscripts not submitted in .PDF should be prepared using Microsoft Word or WordPerfect for the PC. All elements should be included in one single file (Title Page, Abstract, Text, References, Figure Legends, Tables and Figures). Alternatively, send an .RTF file. If figures are not included in the text, they should be submitted as .JPG, .GIF, and should be clearly numbered. If figures (and photographs) are not available electronically, please send one high-quality hard copy suitable for scanning (see details below).
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Covering Letter
In the covering letter authors should state that all the material is original (excluding Reviews), that no part has been submitted for publication elsewhere, and that all authors have agreed to submission. Other additional information may be included, e.g. section heading for the manuscript to appear in the journal, suggestion of suitable referees (please provide full addresses of your potential reviewers), request for exclusion of referees on conflict grounds, or anything that the author(s) wish to highlight. IMPORTANT: Do not include the covering letter in the body of the manuscript!
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Format for Accepted Manuscripts
Authors of accepted manuscripts will be asked to supply two high quality hard copies together with an electronic copy. At that stage, the file containing all the text elements (Title Page, Abstract, Text, References, Figure Legends and Tables) should be provided as Microsoft Word, WordPerfect for the PC or .RTF. Figures should be saved as .TIFF files. It is essential that the final version of the hard copy and the disk are identical.
Guidelines for Presentation
Manuscripts should be typewritten on one side only of an A4 sheet, double-spaced throughout and with at least a 4 cm margin on the left. All pages should be numbered consecutively and each line should be numbered in the left-hand margin. The first page should contain the title, the name(s) of the author(s), the name(s) and address(es) of the institution(s) where the work was carried out, followed by the contact details of the author to whom correspondence should be sent (address, telephone, fax, and e-mail). The date of submission and the number of tables and figures should also be given on the first page. The Title should be specific and concise but informative to those scanning contents listings and abstract journals. Authors should also suggest a short running title. An Abstract, not exceeding 250 words, will be published at the beginning of each paper: it should contain no discursive matter or references. Authors are asked to suggest not more than ten Key words for their article in alphabetical order. Generally, manuscripts should be divided into Introduction; Materials and methods; Results; and Discussion and may contain subheadings. If appropriate, Results and Discussion may be combined. Authors should write as clearly and concisely as possible, and in the third person. Large bodies of primary data should not be presented, and data should not be presented in both tabular and graphical form.
Numbers up to ten should be spelled out in the text except when referring to measurements. Numbers higher than ten are to be represented as numerals except at the beginning of a sentence. Fractions are to be expressed as decimals.
Dates should be cited thus: 7 June 2001 and the 24 hour clock should be used.
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Abbreviations
Abbreviations and their explanation should be composed in a list. Standard chemical symbols may be used in the text where desirable in the interests of conciseness. For long chemical names and other cumbersome terms, widely accepted abbreviations may be used in the text (e.g. ATP, DNA); the list of standard abbreviations published by The Biochemical Journal (http://www.biochemj.org/bj/bji2a.htm#nomemclature) is an acceptable guide for the journal. Abbreviations for the names of less common compounds may be used, but the full term should be given on first mention. It is confusing and unnecessary to use abbreviations for common English words (e.g. L for light).
Scientific Names
The complete scientific name (genus, species, and authority, and cultivar where appropriate) must be cited for every organism at the first mention. The generic name may be abbreviated to the initial thereafter except where intervening references to other genera with the same initial could cause confusion. If vernacular names are employed, they must be accompanied by the correct scientific name on first use.
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Chemical and Molecular Biology Nomenclature
Follow Chemical Abstracts and its indexes for chemical names. The IUPAC and IUBMB recommendations on chemical, biochemical, and molecular biology nomenclature should be followed (see http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iupac and /iubmb).
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Units of Measurement
The metric system is adopted as standard. The system of units known as 'SI' should be used. If non-standard abbreviations must be used they should be defined in the text. Units of measurement should be spelled out except when preceded by a numeral, when they should be abbreviated in the standard form: g, mg, cm3, etc. and not followed by full stops. Use negative exponents to indicate units in the denominator (i.e. mmol m-2 s-1).
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Sequence Data
Deposition of amino acid sequences of proteins or nucleotide sequences is required before publication, and the database accession number must be given in the text of the manuscript.
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Tables
Tables should be numbered in Arabic numerals with an appropriate legend at the head. The preferred position in the text should be indicated. If possible they should be included in the text file.
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Figures
Figures should be self-explanatory and contain as much information as is consistent with clarity. Wherever possible, figures should be grouped to fill a page. All figures must carry the figure number in Arabic numerals. Citation in the text should take the form Fig. 1A etc.
Figures must be supplied as .TIFF. The minimum resolution for the figures is 300 dpi for tone or colour, 1200 dpi for line art at approximately the correct size for publication. Colour figures should be CMYK (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black).
Line drawings should be clear: faint shading or stippling will be lost upon reproduction and should be avoided and heavy shading or stippling may appear black. Lines and symbols should be drawn boldly enough to stand reduction to the desired size. For graphs where reduction to one-half in linear dimensions is intended, a suitable thickness for the axis would be 0.3 mm and for the other lines 0.4 or 1.0 mm depending on the complexity of the graph. The preferred symbols are closed circle, open circle, closed square, open square, closed triangle, and open triangle and should be no smaller than 2 mm (height/diameter) for reduction to one-half. The symbols x and + should be avoided. The typeface used for lettering should be of a type similar in style to the text of the journal, i.e. in a clear sans-serif font (e.g. Arial or Helvetica). The height of the lettering should be uniform throughout and should have a capital height of 4.0 mm on the originals for reduction to one-half.
Photographs not supplied electronically, must be of high quality, printed on glossy paper and mounted neatly on a thin white card base, leaving a narrow gap between each print. Irregular and asymmetrically distributed groups of photographs will not be accepted. Individual figures should be lettered, A, B, C, etc. on the photograph using a lettering set. Other lettering, arrows, etc. may be put on the photograph by the author; otherwise they should be indicated in the exact position required on a transparent or translucent self-locating overlay. On no account should any marks be made on the photograph itself.
Colour figures will be printed free of charge if the Editor believes that they enhance the scientific presentation of the paper. Authors should combine colour plates to make a single composite figure whenever possible. A scale should be included; otherwise the scale of the original should be stated in the legends so that the final scale can be calculated.
Legends: A separate typewritten, double-spaced list of legends of all figures must be supplied and included in the text file. Each legend should contain sufficient explanation to be meaningful without cross-referencing. A scale of the original should be included in the legend unless already indicated in the picture.
Cover illustrations will be taken from, or be associated with, an article that appears in the journal. Authors wishing to submit a potential cover illustration should indicate it at the time of submission. Authors submitting by post should send a hard copy with a short legend, and submissions via e-mail should send a .TIFF file with the short legend included in the covering letter.
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Supplementary Material for Online-only Publication
Supplementary data/information may be submitted for online only publication if it adds value for potential readers. However, it must not contain material critical to the understanding of the manuscript. The hard copy should stand alone, but it should be indicated in the text that supplementary material is available online. The availability of supplementary material should also be indicated in the manuscript by a paragraph to appear before the Acknowledgements and References. Electronic files of supplementary material are preferable as .GIFS or .JPEGS. The minimum acceptable resolution for viewing on screen is 120 dpi.
Videos: The preferred formats for video clips are .mov, .mpg, .avi, and animated .gif files. Authors are advised to use a readily available program to create movies so that they can be viewed easily with e.g., Windows Media Player or QuickTime.
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Literature Citation
Citations in the text should have the authors immediately followed by the date to facilitate the electronic linkages which are available on-line, for example: (Shen and Ma, 2001) or Shen and Ma (2001). If several papers by the same author in the same year are cited, they should be lettered in sequence (2000a, b), etc. When papers are by more than two authors they should be cited thus: (Shen et al., 2001). In the list, references must be placed in alphabetical order without serial numbering. The following standard form of citation should be used, including the title of each paper or book:
- Jiang Q, Gresshoff PM. 1993. Lotus japonicus - a model plant for structure–function analysis in nodulation and nitrogen fixation. In: Gresshoff PM, ed. Current topics of plant molecular biology, Vol. II. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 97?10.
- N’tchobo H. 1998. Sucrose unloading in tomato fruits. II. Subcellular distribution of acid invertase and possible roles in sucrose turnover and hexose storage in tomato fruit. PhD thesis, Laval University, Canada, 87?18.
- Richard C, Granier D, Inz?D, De Veylder L. 2001. Analysis of cell division parameters and cell cycle gene expression during the cultivation of Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspensions. Journal of Experimental Botany 52, 1625?633.
Only papers published or in press should be cited in the literature list. Unpublished results, including submitted manuscripts and those in preparation, should be cited as unpublished in the text. Journal titles should not be abbreviated but be given in full. Citation of articles from e-journals and journal articles published ahead of print should have the author names, year, title, journal title followed by the assigned digital object identifier (DOI) or the appropriate URL:
Parry MAJ, Andralojc PJ, Mitchell RAC, Madgwick PJ, Keys AJ. (March 14, 2003.) Manipulation of Rubisco: the amount, activity, function and regulation. Journal of Experimental Botany 10.1093/jxb/erg141.
Citation of the paper after print publication should be:
Parry MAJ, Andralojc PJ, Mitchell RAC, Madgwick PJ, Keys AJ. 2003. Manipulation of Rubisco: the amount, activity, function and regulation. Journal of Experimental Botany 54, 1321-1333. Advance access published on March 14, 2003; 10.1093/jxb/erg141.
Citation of other URL addresses (unless in reference to an e-journal) may be made in the text but should not be included in the reference list.
The list of literature must be typed double-spaced throughout and checked thoroughly before submission. If the list is not in the correct form it will be returned to the author for amendment and publication of the paper may be delayed.
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Proofs
Proofs will be sent electronically to the corresponding author as a .PDF file and will include illustrations set in the appropriate place in the type. The author should make a print copy and add any necessary typographical corrections before returning the corrected proofs by fax to Oxford University Press (+44 (0)1865 353773) within three days of receipt; otherwise the Editor reserves the right to correct the proofs and to send the material for publication. This is essential if all the material in a given issue is not to be delayed by the late receipt of one corrected proof.
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Review Procedure
The Editor makes the initial evaluation of the manuscript. If the topic is important and relevant to the journal readership, he assigns the manuscript to an Associate Editor, who oversees the review process. Manuscripts are reviewed by two independent experts in the particular area. The reviewers will make a scientific assessment and recommendation to the Editors. In case of a disagreement, the Associate Editor may ask a third independent expert to assess the manuscript. The Associate Editors will reach a final decision either to accept, accept with revision or reject a manuscript.
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Offprints
Contributors receive 25 offprints of their articles free of charge. Additional offprints may be ordered on the form sent out with the proof.
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Licence to Publish
It is a condition of publication in the journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to the Society for Experimental Biology. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning the licence, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press, on behalf of the SEB, is notified in writing and in advance.
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