Submissions

Author Guidelines

   Publication Guidelines

   About Authorship

Authorship is a correct way of giving credit for an individual’s intellectual work. The corresponding author will solely responsible for disagreements over authorship arise. Any change to the author's list after submissions, such as a change in the order of the authors or the deletion or addition of authors needs to be approved by a signed letter from every author. Submission to Plantae Scientia means that all the listed authors have agreed with all of the contents. In the case of multiple authors, each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Authors should provide a description of what each contributed, and editors should publish that information. 

   Acknowledgements

All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the Acknowledgments, and what they did should be described.

List all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

Peer-Review Policy

Plantae Scientia aims at rapid publication of high-quality research while maintaining rigorous Cooperative peer-review process. Research papers with significant results will be reviewed and published at the highest priority and speed. Research papers other than those that are of insufficient quality, not in prescribed format or unlikely to be competitive enough for publication will be peer-reviewed by two or more experts in the fields, and a decision is returned to the authors in about one month.

If minor revision is required, authors should return a revised version as soon as possible within 15 days. If major revision is required, authors should return a revised version within 25 days.

   About Duplicate publication

The author is responsible to get permission from the previous publisher or copyright holder if an author is re-using any part of the paper (i.e. figure or figures) published elsewhere, or that is copyrighted.
The editors consider all material in good faith that their journals have full permission to publish every part of the submitted material including illustrations.

Consideration by the Plantae Scientia is possible if the main result, conclusion, or implications are not apparent from the other work, or if there are other factors, for example, if the other work is published in a language other than English.

   About Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as one's own original work. Duplicate publication, sometimes called self-plagiarism, occurs when an author reuses substantial parts of his or her own published work without providing the appropriate references. This can range from getting an identical paper published in multiple journals, where authors add small amounts of new data to a previous paper.

Plagiarism can be said to have clearly occurred when large chunks of text have been cut and pasted. Such Research papers would not be considered for publication in Plantae Scientia.

If a case of plagiarism comes to light after a paper is published in Plantae Scientia, the journal will conduct a preliminary investigation. If plagiarism is found, the journal will contact the author's institute and funding agencies. A determination of misconduct will lead the International Association of Plant Science Researchers to run a statement, directionally linked online to and from the original paper, to note the plagiarism and to provide a reference to the plagiarized material. The paper containing the plagiarism will also be obviously marked on each page of the PDF. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.

   Suggesting Reviewers

Authors can provide the names and e-mail addresses of at least three suitable reviewers, on the understanding that the editor is not bound by any such nomination. Suggesting or excluding reviewers can significantly increase a Research paper's chances of being accepted.

      General Format

Note: Before submission of the new Research paper authors should consider the following general rules for the preparation of the Research paper. Please read these instructions carefully and follow the guidelines strictly.

  Research papers must be typed/ submitted electronically on A4 (210 × 297 mm) paper, double-spaced throughout and with ample margins of at least 2.5 cm.

  Font-Times or Times New Roman 12 point size only (other sizes as specified), and Symbol font for mathematical symbols (in the text and in the figures).

justification should be set to full.

  Do not underline: Use italics, bold or bold italics instead.

  Line spacing should be set at 2 (Double).

  Leave a line space between paragraphs and sections.

  Leave a line space between section titles and text.

  Leave only one space after a full stop.

  All pages must be numbered consecutively. Starting with the title page as p.1, the text, which begins with p.2, is to be arranged in the following order: abstract, brief introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, references, figure legends, tables.

  The first page of the full Research paper must begin with the title of the paper centred on the page in 14 points Bold Title Case (title case means the first letter of each main word capitalized).

  The names of the authors (Family Name– followed by a period - Initials – followed by a period each) with the main author’s name mentioned first, the names and locations of the authors’ affiliations (Title Case), and the e-mail address of the main author or corresponding author.

  The title should be brief and should indicate the species studied. The title page must provide the title in English, a short title of not more than 45 characters (including spaces) to be used as running head, up to five topical keywords in English for subject indexing, the full postal address of the corresponding author to whom proofs will be sent.

  The abstract should not exceed 250 words, should be one in paragraph and should be free of references and abbreviations. It should indicate clearly the scope and main conclusions of the paper.

  The introduction should give the relevant background to the study, study area and should explain why the work was done.

  The materials and methods (or methodology) should give essential details, including experimental design and statistical analysis in detail with supporting references.

  The discussion should cover, but not simply repeat the new findings and should present the author's results in the broader context of other work on the subject interpreting them with a minimum of speculation.

  The results & conclusions should present the findings of the research. They should be free from discussion. Results should be written in the past tense.

  The acknowledgements should be as brief as possible.

   File Size and Format

File Sizes

  Do not scan pages of text.

  Do not scan printed Figures unless no original digital document exists.

  If a scanned figure is unavoidable, please use Adobe Photoshop or a similar program to edit the file and reduce the file size as much as possible before submission.

Black and white line drawings or grey-scale figures should not be saved as colour documents.

  Do not use Colour unless absolutely needed to convey information.

   Research paper file format

We request to submit an article in Microsoft Word format (.DOC, .DOCX). If you are using another word processor please save the final version of the Research paper (using 'Save As' option of the File menu) as a Word document. We cannot accept other text files.

   Readability

Papers must be understandable and communicate an unambiguous message. It is the responsibility of the authors to obtain help from a colleague who is fluent in English if that is needed. Poor English may ultimately be a reason to refuse a paper.

   Language Editing Services

Plantae Scientia is very much concerned about the clarity and professionalism of your Research paper. Editorial board has successfully negotiated with many Professional Script Writes/Improvers to provide language editing services to our authors at competitive rates. Non-English authors may contact Chief Editor for getting Professional Scientific Editing services before submission or after acceptance of their Research papers to eliminate (minimize) the chances of rejection due to poor English.

   Submission of Research Paper

The research paper should be submitted electronically to Plantae Scientia to facilitate rapid publication and minimize administrative costs. Email submission ensures the quickest possible review and allows authors to track the progress of their papers. It is recommended that text files are uploaded as Microsoft Word documents files and figures as JPEG files. Authors should read Guidelines to Authors carefully before submission of their Research papers.

  Note: In order to submit a NEW research paper to Plantae Scientia, you must be an Annual / Life / Honorary Member of International Association of Plant Science Researchers. The submitting author takes responsibility for the paper during submission and peer review.

   Preparing the Research paper

Plantae Scientia peer-reviewed print and open access scientific journal that provides a high visibility forum to the scientific community for the publication of top-tier original research according to the scope of the journal. Plantae Scientia publishes high-quality research work in the following forms:

   Research Articles

Research articles present original research and address a clearly stated specific hypothesis or question. Papers should provide novel approaches and new insights into the problem addressed. Research Article should arrange in the following order: Abstract, Brief Introduction, Materials and Methods, Discussion, Results & Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References, Figures, Tables.

   Reviews Articles

Review articles are an attempt by one or more authors to sum up the current state of the research on a particular topic. Ideally, the author searches for everything relevant to the topic. Only review articles from experts in the field will be considered for publication.

   Short Communications

Short communication is for a concise (not more than 2500 words) but independent report representing a significant contribution in the field. Short communication is not intended to publish preliminary results. It should have at least 8 references. Short communications will also send for peer review.

   Research / Technical Note

A research / technical note is an article giving a brief description of a technique or procedure. It may also refer to the modification of a technique, procedure or equipment of interest to the journal. It should be no more than 1500 words and could include two figures or tables. It should have at least 8 references. Technical notes will also send for peer review.

   Abbreviations and Units

Generally, units must be abbreviated according to the International System of Units (SI units). Below you find examples of abbreviations of the most commonly used SI units:

Base quantity               Name                                 Abbreviation

It is important to maintain the capital letters and lower case letters as they appear in the abbreviation to avoid confusion with other abbreviations.

   Tables, figures & illustrations

   Citing References

Whenever citing a reference in the text source, it is made with its author’s surname and the year of publication is to be inserted in the text. Choose from the listed below to see examples:
   Citing the Author in the Text

Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated (Sheldrake, 1999). If the author’s name occurs naturally in the sentence the year is given in brackets. Sheldrake (1999) asserted that dogs were the first animals to be domesticated.

   Using Direct Quotes

If you quote directly from a source, you must insert the author’s name, date of publication and the page number of the quotation. The domestication of dogs long predated the domestication of other animals (Sheldrake, 1999).

   Citing works by more than one Author

If your source has two authors, you should include both names in the text.
Anderson and Poole (1998) note that a “narrow line often separates plagiarism from the good scholarship.”

   Citing works by three or more Authors

   Chapter or Section

   Citing an Organization

   Citing Secondary Sources

   List of References

The list of references should appear at the end of your work with full details of everything that you have cited in the text in alphabetical order by the author’s surname. All sources must be referred in a consistent manner.

  Journal Article (Print)
Elements:
• Author’s surname, Initial
• Publication Year
• Article Title
• Name of Journal (in standard abbreviation)
• Volume
• Starting Pages
• Ending Pages
• Direct link (If published online)
Example
Sepaskhah, A.R. and M.M. Ghasemi, 2008. Every-other-furrow irrigation with different irrigation intervals for grain sorghum. Pak. J. Biol. Sci., 11: 1234-1239. 10.3923/pjbs.2008.1234.1239

  Journal Article (Electronic)
Elements:
• Author’s surname, Initial
• Publication Year
• Article Title
• Name of Journal (in standard abbreviation)
• Volume
• Page Numbers (if applicable)
• Available at
• Accessed on (enter date you viewed the article)
Example
Brittion, A., 2006. How much and how often should we drink? Br. Med. J., 332: 1224-1225.
Available from: http://bmj.bjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/332/7552/1224 [Accessed 2 June 2006].

  Book
• Author/Editor’s Surname and initials
• Year of publication
• Title of Book
• Edition (if applicable)
• Place of publication: (followed by a colon)
• Name of publisher
• ISBN Number (If Applicable)
Example
Anderson, J. and M. Poole, 1998. Assignment and thesis writing. 3re Edn., John While and Sons.

  Book Chapter
• Author/Editor’s Surname and initials
• Year of publication
• Title of Chapter
• In: (enter editor’s surname and initials)
• Book Title
• Edition (if applicable)
• Place of publication: (followed by a colon)
• Name of publisher
• Page number
• ISBN
Example
Mason, J., 1999. Recent Developments in the Prediction of Global Warming. In: Energy Demand and Planning, McVeigh, J.C. and J.G. Morgue, (Eds.). E&FN Spon., pp: 34-52.

  Conference Papers
Conference papers should be referenced using the following format and punctuation.
• Author’s surname, initials
• Date of publication
• Title of paper
• In: Editor’s surname, initials, (if applicable)
• Title of proceedings
• Place of conference
• Date of conference
• Publishers
• Page numbers of contribution
Example
Clifton, J.J., 1999. Hazard prediction. In: Disaster prevention, planning and limitation. The University of Bradford, 12-13 September 1989. Technical Communications Ltd., pp: 54-64.