An official journal of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB) and the French Society of Plant Biology (Société Française de Biologie Végétale (SFBV))
In English



Plant Physiology and Biochemistry (PPB) embraces physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics, structure and genetics at different levels, from the molecular to the whole plant and environment.
The journal publishes several types of articles: papers, methods, short papers, trends, hypotheses and reviews. Articles for the series: trends, hypotheses and reviews are either invited by the Editors or proposed by authors for the editors' prior agreement.

The Guide for Authors is published in the first number of each volume of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry and is available on the internet at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/plaphy/authorinstructions. PPB publishes original theoretical, experimental and technical contributions in the various fields of plant physiology (biochemistry, physiology, structure, genetics, plant-microbe interactions, etc.) at diverse levels of integration (molecular, subcellular, cellular, organ, whole plant, environmental). Contributions must not have been simultaneously submitted elsewhere. The content should not have been previously published other than as a Preliminary Communication. Opinions expressed in the journal are the sole responsability of the authors and publication does not imply the editors' agreement.

Submission of manuscripts
Manuscripts should be be on line through http://ees.elsevier.com/plaphy/

Articles must be concise, clear, and fluent. English should be checked by a native English-speaker; spelling should conform consistently to either English or American form.

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.

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and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.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/authorrights). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. 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, Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford, OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com.

Types of articles
PPB publishes several types of articles: Trends, Reviews, Papers, Short Papers and Methods. Articles for the series Trends and Reviews are either invited by the editor or proposed by the authors for the editor's prior agreement. Reviews should not exceed 40 typewritten pages and Short Papers no more than approximately 8 typewritten pages. The fundamental character of PPB remains that of a journal for original results. Papers, Methods and Short Papers should be organized as follows: Introduction, Results (divided and possibly subdivided), Discussion (possibly divided), Methods (divided) and Acknowledgements. An alternative presentation places under one heading Results and Discussion (with possible divisions and subdivisions); in this case, a formal Conclusion (10-15 lines, without bibliographic references) should be added. Trends and Reviews should be organized as follows: between an Introduction and a Conclusion, the subject is treated under headings, with possible subdivisions.

Preparation of the manuscript
The manuscript should be organized as follows: title page, abstract, abbreviations, text, acknowledgements, references, tables, legends to figures, figures, successively.

Title and adresses: running title (60 characters maximum including spaces); full title; author's names, including a first name (in full); laboratory, institution, postal address; name, address, fax number and e-mail of the author for editorial correspondence; any footnote concerning the present address of an author or to whom reprint requests are to be sent. The title should be brief and informative. Minimise taxonomic names in a title. The title may include only the most common abbreviations (ATP, NADH, DNA, etc.).

Abstract Abstract as a single paragraph (maximum: 250 words). The abstract must indicate the object of the work, the material (with full taxonomic name) and the essential results. Any abbreviations must be defined therein. Enzymes are identified with official nomenclature (EC). No references are to be cited.

Keywords: Keywords (7 maximum) and definition of abbreviations appearing in any part of the manuscript, in alphabetic order. An abbreviation is in part justified by its frequent use; where a term seldom appears in the article, it is preferably written in full even if commonly abbreviated.

Text: Text. Begin each major section (Introduction, Results, etc.) on a new page. Methods should be written in such a way that a reader with experience could repeat the experiment. When the techniques are not original they should be simply indicated by the appropriate reference. The exact taxonomic name (genus, species, authority and cultivar where appropriate) of any material used must be shown (e.g. Vicia faba L.). Likewise, enzymes must be identified according to Enzyme Nomenclature, e.g. malate dehydrogenase (L-malate:NAD- oxidoreductase; EC 1.1.1.37). All experimental results must first appear in Results, concisely and without duplication of data between tables and figures. No new results should be presented in the Discussion. However, tables and figures derived from the results (e.g. comparisons, schemes, models) may be introduced in order to aid discussion or to generalize conclusions.

Style details
At its first mention in the main text, and also in the Abstract and Methods, a material or an enzyme must be identified by the official nomenclature. Subsequently a simplified form may be used, e.g. V. faba, malate dehydrogenase (or even MDH if defined under Abbreviations). The 'chapter headings' are numbered according to the international numbering system (1.; 1.1.; 1.1.1.; etc.).
'Tables' with titles and 'figures' with captions should be placed on separate sheets at the end of the manuscript. They should not appear in the text.
Punctuation rules of the English language should be used (semi-colons, colons, question marks and exclamation marks are never preceded by a space in English). Abbreviations are punctuated. There is no space between brackets and the enclosed words, whatever the language. Small capitals should not be used, and normal capitals are accented. Italics for common Latin expressions (in vivo, in vitro, et al., via, etc.) are not to be used.
Do not begin a sentence with a number, or if necessary, spell it out. Begin all paragraphs with an indent.
Write buffers: 0.3 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.2). Write ions: Ca²⁺ and not Ca⁺⁺.
Write mixtures: methanol/chloroform/water (12/5/4, v/v/v).
Structural formulae of organic chemicals generally have to be drawn and so constitute figures. Use throughout the form: μL.h^-1.mg^-1 rather than the ambiguous notations μL/h.mg or μL/h/mg.
Use absolute units, choosing dimensions that obviate power of 10; for instance 5 mM rather than 5 X 10^-3 M; 0.5 mg.g^-1(or 500 mg.kg^-1) rather than 50 mg/100 g. Do not confuse quantity [mole, micromole (mol, μmol)] with concentration [molar, micromolar (M, μM)] and weight [gram (g)] with force due to centrifugation [gravity (x g)]. Certain current abbreviations may be used without definition, e.g. ATP, NAD, DNA. In other cases (e.g. CAM, IAA, EDTA, GA) define the abbreviations (on the third page of the manuscript) in order to avoid ambiguity.
The SI units and their derivatives are to be applied over former terms [Pa and bar and not atm (100 kPa = 1 bar); Bq replaces Ci (1 Ci = 3.7 10¹⁰ Bq); J replaces cal (1 cal = 4185 J); kat (conversion of one mole of substrate per second) replaces IU (1 IU = 16.7 nkat]. Authors are free to choose whether to use relative molecular mass (a pure number), or molar mass (g.mol^-1), or molecular mass (Da), with the same unit in each case. Unit abbreviations neither take a full stop nor change in the plural.

Tables and figures
In the text, write: figure 1, table I, etc. in full, in italics and in brackets.
Tables. Tables are identified with Roman numerals. The title of the table should be informative and brief. Avoid abbreviations in the title. Following the title, concise technical comments should make the table comprehensible without reference to the text. All comments must be placed tin the title and not under the table. Long titles and long column headings should be avoided by the use of such notes. Include units in the column heading. A table must be consistent. A column or line headings applies to all values therein. Simplify non-significant numbers and decimals.


Figures. These are identified with Arabic numerals. The legends are typed sequentially on one page separate from the figures. Each legend consists of a brief title (without abbreviations) followed if necessary by a short technical comment so that the figure is comprehensible without reference to the text. Identify different parts of a composite figure by capital letters so that exact references may be made in the text: figure 1 A, etc. Line drawings, graphs and charts must be professionally rendered. Wherever possible, frame figures; hence co-ordinate axes should be completed to form a box. Centred captions, parallel to the axes, are used to indicate the measured attributes and their dimensions (in brackets). Evenly spaced numbering is placed external to the axes while reference marks are internal and on all four sides of the box. Authors should plan to set all figures to one column width (8 cm). Use letters large enough to be at least 1.5 mm high after reduction. Avoid the ' and + symbols. Half-tone photographs should be positive, on glossy paper and of high contrast. It is strongly recommended that photographs be provided at their final sizes. The authors may group several photographs into a single figure in its final size (e.g. figure 1 A-C). Colour illustrations (single figure or multipanel plate) are provided free of charge at the editor's discretion.

Preparation of Electronic Illustrations A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

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 document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use(like GIF,BMP,PIC,WPG) the resolution is too low
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Free colour reproduction
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. 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.

Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

References
The following models for the reference list cover all situations. The punctuation given must be exactly followed.

Article (all authors to be named)
[1] Vierstra R.D., Ubiquitin, a key component in the degradation of plant proteins, Physiol. Plant. 70 (1987) 103-106.
[2] Whalsgrove R.M., Keys A.J., Lea P.L., Miflin B.J., Photosynthesis, photorespiration and nitrogen metabolism, Plant Cell Environ. 6 (1990) 301-309.

Book
[3] Bergersen F.J., Root Nodules of Legumes: Structure and Functions, Research Studies Press, Chichester, 1982.

Chapter in book
[4] Walton T.J., Waxes, cutin and suberin, in: Harwood J.L., Bowyer J.R. (Eds.), Methods in Plant Biochemistry: Lipids, Membranes and Aspects of Photobiology, vol. 4, Academic Press Inc., San Diego, 1990, pp. 105-158.

In the reference list, works are presented in alphabetical order of the first author, and this reference list is numbered in ascending order.The numbering shall be used when citing references in the text. Papers with two or more authors are first alphabetized according to the first author and then arranged in alphabetic order according to the name of the second author, and eventually the following ones. In the text, write: Viestra [1] has shown...; Whalsgrove et al. [2] found...But cite: [1, 2]. In bracketed citations, numerical order applies for series of references [1, 5-7, 24]. A paper cannot be cited in the reference list unless it has been accepted for publication. All references cited in the text must correspond to references in the bibliography and vice versa. Papers should not contain no more than 40 references, and Reviews no more than 80.

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.

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)".

Offprints


1. Offprints can be ordered on an offprint order form, which is included with the proofs.

2. UNESCO coupons are acceptable in payment of offprints.

Plant Physiology and Biochemistry has no page charges.

Last updated January 2008