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To facilitate an editorial decision on the acceptability, or otherwise, of their manuscript, and to speedup subsequent publication, authors are strongly advised to consult the format of papers in a recent issue of The Journal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology, and to read the detailed “Checklist for Preparation of Scripts” accessible by clicking “INSTRUCTIONS” on the homepage of the Journal website (www.jhortscib.com).
Manuscripts (double-spaced in 12-point size Times New Roman font with 2.5 cm-wide margins) must be submitted electronically as e-mail attachments to jhsb@scri.ac.uk. Manuscripts should not be longer than 4,500 words (in total) including Title, author(s)’ name(s) and address(es), Summary, Main Text, References and Figure legends. Manuscripts should have no more than five Figures and/or Tables (in total) designed to occupy no more than 2.5 A4 pages to fit within an overall final limit of five published pages. As a guide, the total word count should be reduced by approx. 500 words for every Table and/or Figure included. Please indicate the total word count and numbers of Tables and Figures on the title page. Text files should be in Word (Version 98 or newer). Figures should be supplied as separate Tiff or EPS file types without compression, as follows: half-tones (300 dpi at finished/printed size); line-work (1,200 dpi at finished/printed size).
Submission of a paper will be taken to imply that it describes original research not submitted for publication or already published, elsewhere. Submission will also be taken to imply that all the co-authors have have agreed to the work being peer-reviewed and possibly published, and that they have no undeclared competing financial interests.
Increasing pressure for Journal space requires that only substantial contributions to new knowledge in horticultural science and biotechnology can be accepted. Common causes for a paper to be rejected are: (i) the studies are too preliminary, for example, they report only one season’s data from field trials; (ii) they report a single small or incomplete experiment that makes a minor or uncertain contribution to new knowledge or understanding; (iii) the data are statistically insignificant and/or do not support the claims being made; or (iv) they are written so poorly, without reference to the detailed instructions for authors, that they are linguistically or scientifically incomprehensible. In some research areas, such as micropropagation, only papers of wide general interest that describe novel methods or report unexpected discoveries are likely to be accepted for publication. Papers that simply compare known chemicals, rootstocks, cultivars, accessions, or landraces using routine methods, including PCR-based DNA-marker techniques for genetic diversity studies, are most unlikely to be accepted – unless they are judged to make a significant contribution to new knowledge, be of wide general interest, or contain additional valuable and novel information.
Rejected manuscripts, Figures, etc. are not usually returned to authors, but are destroyed.
The same data should not be presented in both Tables and Figures. A short phrase (Running Head) of four-to- six words is required (in italics) for use as a page header. Each paper must start with a brief but informative and broadly understandable Summary. All previous work cited should be quoted in full in the References section. Colour photographs may be included free of charge, but only where the Editor, Associate Editor and referee(s) agree that this is necessary to present the experimental evidence clearly. Unclear, poor quality Figures and Tables will be returned to the author for re-working, assuming the paper is otherwise considered acceptable for ultimate publication.
Only the “*Author for correspondence” of each accepted paper will receive two sets of page proofs. These that must be checked carefully to correct any remaining errors and to address any additional questions from the Editor that are marked on the copy to be returned by first-class mail, airmail or courier service within three working days of receipt. Extensive corrections and/or further changes to the text at the proof stage are extremely expensive and, if excessive, will be billed to the author prior to publication. The proof stage is NOT an opportunity for the addition of new (non-peer reviewed) text or data by the author.
The copyright of all articles and illustrations published in The Journal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology becomes the property of the Journal. Editorial permission is required to reproduce more than a brief summary of the text, or to reproduce Figures etc in further publication(s), or for commercial purposes.
After publication, a pdf file of the paper will be sent, free-of-charge, to the corresponding author only. Publication of a paper in The Journal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology does not imply responsibility for, or agreement with, any opinions, hypotheses or statements expressed by the author(s). Nor is it an endorsement by the Trustees, Editors or Publishers of the Journal for any materials, cultivars, equipment, or protocols described in the paper. Publication merely signals that the paper has been judged, by independent peer-review, to be of sufficient scientific quality, merit, and interest to justify inclusion in the Journal.
T.M.A. Wilson, Editor
January 2010
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