An international journal of experimental plant biology
Guide for Authors
Plant Science publishes, in the minimum time, papers recommended by its referees in all areas of experimental
plant biology.
Papers describing experimental work with multicellular plants and plant-like microorganisms (protists) including algae
and fungi, and blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) are appropriate.
Submission of manuscripts in the broad areas of biochemistry (including
enzymology), bioenergetics, cell biology, development, genetics, molecular biology, physiology and structure in relation to function,
as well as fundamental work in these areas related to agriculture and phytopathology are invited.
Types of Contribution
1.Original research papers
2. Review articles
3. Book reviews
1. Original research papers should report the results
of original research. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form.
2. Review
Articles will ordinarily be solicited and commissioned by the Review Editor but synopses for review articles may also be submitted
to the Review Editor: jonathan.gressel@weizmann.ac.il for consideration for a commission. All review articles are peer-reviewed.
3. Book reviews.
Submission of manuscripts
Submission to this journal proceeds totally on-line. Papers for
consideration should be submitted to the Elsevier Editorial System which can be accessed at http://www.elsevier.com/journals).
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as
part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is
approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted,
it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/authors).
This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming
receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are
included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has
preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: contact ELSEVIER, Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford, OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44)
1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier homepage
(http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).
Manuscripts, in English, should normally be subdivided into sections:
summary, introduction, methods, results, discussion. Author's full names, academic or professional affiliations and addresses should
be included on the first page. The postal address, phone and fax numbers and, if possible, the E-mail address of the corresponding authors
should also be indicated on the first page. Indication of name and address for proofs should be given. Authors should consult papers
in a recent issue for details of style that are not printed below. Authors are responsible for submitting well-written manuscripts in
proper style that have been carefully read and corrected to eliminate errors. Authors who are not fluent in English should have their
manuscripts read by English-speaking colleagues to ensure that the submitted paper is free from grammatical errors. Failure to meet these
standards may cause serious delay in the handling of manuscripts; manuscripts with serious deficiencies will be returned to the authors
for rewriting before they are considered further.
Short Communications: Short Communications will only be considered if material
is of unusual interest. These articles will be short, complete and essentially final reports. The Editors will rapidly evaluate the submission
on a yes/no basis and, if appropriate, immediately pass on to the Publisher. The overriding criterion for inclusion in this section is
that a paper must be of sufficient immediate importance to the work of other investigators to justify urgent publication. Short Communications
should not be manuscripts describing preliminary, incomplete studies.
Language Editing: International Science Editing and
Asia Science Editing can provide English language and copyediting services to authors who want to publish in scientific, technical and
medical journals and need assistance before they submit their article or before it is accepted for publication. Authors
can contact these services directly: International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) and Asia
Science Editing (http://www.asiascienceediting.com) or, for more information about language editing services, please contact
authorsupport@elsevier.com who will be happy to deal with any questions.
English language help service: Upon request, Elsevier
will direct Authors to an agent who can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact www.elsevier.com/locate/elsevierpublishing
for further information.
Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered
by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our terms and conditions (http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions)
General presentation: Print the entire manuscript on one side of the paper only, using double spacing and wide (3cm) margins. (Avoid
full justification, i.e., do not use a constant right-hand margin.) Ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present tables
and figure captions on separate pages at the end of the manuscript. If possible, consult a recent issue of the journal to become familiar
with layout and conventions. Number all pages consecutively.
Plant Science accepts books for review which should be sent
to:
G. Spangenberg
Department of Natural Resources and Environment
Plant Sciences & Biotechnology
La Trobe University
Bundoora VIC 3083, Australia
Tel: +61 3 9479 2995 Fax: +61 3 9479 3618 E-mail:german.spangenberg@nre.vic.gov.au
Enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage
at http://www.elsevier.com/journals. From here you can also track accepted articles (http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle)
and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article s status has changed, as well as detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information,
frequently asked questions and more.
Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating
to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.
Preparation of manuscripts
Summary:
The article should start with a summary of approx. 100-200 words.
Keywords: A maximum of six keywords (or short phrases) should
be included with the submitted manuscript. These will be used in the compilation of the subject index and for any subsequent retrieval.
Tables should bear a short descriptive title and should also be typed on separate sheets.
Illustrations should
be numbered according to their sequence in the text. References should be made in the text to each illustration.
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless
of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats
(Note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.):
EPS: Vector drawings.
Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum
of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please
supply "as is".
Please do not: • Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low; • Supply files
that are too low in resolution; • Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Colour Reproduction
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If,
together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these
figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced
in colour in the printed version. Please indicate your preference for colour on the web (free of charge) or in print and on the web
(charged) when submitting your article. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier
after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
References should be numbered in the order that they first appear in text and listed in numerical sequence on a separate
sheet. References should be cited in full in the reference list, including the title and the first and last page numbers. In the reference
list, periodicals [1], books [2], and multi-author books [3] should accord with the following examples:
1. J.F. Briat, M. Dron, R.
Mache, Is transcription of higher plant chloroplast ribosomal operons regulated by premature termination? FEBS Lett. 163 (1083) 1-5.
2. T. Bengochea, J.H. Dodds, Plant Protoplasts, Chapman & Hall, London, New York, 1986, pp. 1-90.
3. H.J. Bohnert, E.J. Crouse,
J.M. Schmitt, Organization and expression of plastid genomes, in: B. Parthier, D. Boulter, (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology,
New Series, Vol. 14B, Springer Verlag, 1982, pp. 475-530.
Abbreviations for the titles of journals should follow the system used
by the International Serials Catalogue, 1978 edition and supplements.
Articles in Special Issues: Please ensure that
the words 'this issue' are added (in the list and text) to any references to other articles in this Special Issue.
Supplementary
data
Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files
offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background
datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article
in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted
material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material
in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions
please visit our Author Gateway at http://www.elsevier.com/authors.
GenBank/DNA sequence linking
Many Elsevier
journals cite "gene accession numbers" in their running text and footnotes. Gene accession numbers refer to genes or DNA sequences about
which further information can be found in the databases at the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI) at the National Library
of Medicine. Elsevier authors wishing to enable other scientists to use the accession numbers cited in their papers via links to these
sources, should type this information in the following manner:
For each and every accession number cited in an article,
authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text. Letters in the accession number should always be capitalised.
(See Example 1 below). This combination of letters and format will enable Elsevier's typesetters to recognize the relevant texts
as accession numbers and add the required link to GenBank's sequences.
Example 1: "GenBank accession nos. AI631510,
AI631511, AI632198, and BF223228), a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic leukemia (GenBank
accession no. BE675048), and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117)".
Authors are encouraged
to check accession numbers used very carefully. An error in a letter or number can result in a dead link.
In the
final version of the printed article, the accession number text will not appear bold or underlined (see Example 2 below).
Example 2: "GenBank accession nos. AI631510, AI631511, AI632198, and BF223228), a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic
leukemia (GenBank accession no. BE675048), and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117)".
In the final version of the electronic
copy, the accession number text will be hyperlinked to the appropriate source in the NCBI databases enabling readers to go
directly to that source from the article (see Example 3 below).
Example 3: "GenBank accession nos. AI631510, AI631511, AI632198, and BF223228), a B-cell tumor from a chronic lymphatic leukemia (GenBank accession no. BE675048),
and a T-cell lymphoma (GenBank accession no. AA361117)".
Proofs
When your manuscript is received at the Publisher
it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'.
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be
sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and
subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.
A form with queries from
the copy editor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required.
The Publisher
reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Return corrections within two working days of receipt
of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.
Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected
and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your
article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections
will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your
corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted.
Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost,
will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free offprints for regular papers, 50 free offprints
for book reviews. 100 free offprints will be given to authors of a Review article. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published
article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.
Plant
Science carries no page charges.
Information about Plant Science is available on the World Wide Web at the following
addresses:
