Submissions

Login or Register to make a submission.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • Prepared manuscript following the Author Guidelines. I understand that if the manuscript is not prepared based on the PST journal guidelines, it will be rejected.
  • This manuscript has not been published/submitted for publication elsewhere including in local languages or conferences
  • Agree to pay the Article Processing Charges (APC).
  • I understand that authors can request for APC waiver after manuscript submission.
  • To consider a submission for fast processing, clickhere to submit details.

Author Guidelines

 

Article Processing Charges (APC) - See details here.

 

Formatting

Manuscripts require formatting in journal's style at the time of submission. 

 Plant Science Today - Article template | Author details template (download both templates for submitting a manuscript)

Provide names of all authors, their affiliations, email ids, ORCID ID, etc at the time of submission (as indicated in the PST template files).

Use Line Numbering as given in the above article template.

Manuscripts of all categories are to be submitted online.

International System of Units
Authors are requested to use the information given at https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si/si-units
Details of SI units for Volume are given at https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/si-units-volume

You must read and agree to all Editorial Policies before you submit your manuscript. 

Categories of Manuscripts - See here.

The manuscript should be prepared in English using "MS Word" or similar word processing software. “Times New Roman” or similar font (size 12) should be used; single line spacing may be used.

Authors whose native language is not English are encouraged to ask colleagues familiar with the field of research and fluent in English (preferably a native speaker) to correct the language in the manuscript before submission. An article may be returned to the author without review if the language is not of an acceptable standard.

Metric measures should be used. Special symbols can be used but need to be carefully checked by the author at proof stage, because they may be altered due to incompatibility of files.

Hyphens ‘-’ are used to link words such as personal names, topographical names, some prefixes and compound adjectives.

En-dash ‘–’ (a dash the length of the letter ‘n’) should be used for ranges or spans. In the context of PST, it is mainly used for ranges of numbers, most frequently size ranges, elevation ranges, dates and page numbers.

Exclamation mark ‘!’ is used to indicate after the herbarium acronym to indicate that this voucher specimen has been seen by the author.

Multiplication ‘×’. The multiplication sign × is not to be confused with the letter x.

Title: Centered, Bold font, in sentence case. 

+Names of Author(s): Centered.

+Author affiliation needs to be given below author names in order of appearance. The relation between author listing and affiliation needs to be indicated as superscripted numbers to the right of name in author listing and to the left in affiliation.

+Corresponding author should be highlighted using '*' along with contact email .  Short biographies of each authors along with their email ids and ORCIDs should be given at the very end of the manuscript.

IMPORTANT: + These details will be placed only in the author details file.

Abstract: Justified, not less than 200 and maximum 250 words.

Keywords: 4–6 keywords, separated by semicolon (;) should be written after the abstract, which can identify the most important subject of the manuscript. 

TEXT: All text should be justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented). The manuscript text may be divided into:

Introduction: A brief and clear description of the purpose of the investigation relating the previous research and essential arguments should be mentioned.

Materials and Methods: This section should be written well defined to understand the steps of investigation done which allows other researchers to reproduce the result.

Results: The findings of the manuscripts should be presented with appropriate evidence in a single heading or may be presented in separate headings depending on the requirement and need of author(s).

Discussion: The findings of the manuscripts should be discussed in a single heading or may be presented in separate headings depending on the requirement and need of author(s).

Conclusion: Mention conclusion of the study in few sentences.

Subsection titles: See MS template file for details.

Reference: The journal uses the Vancouver reference style which is a citation style that uses numbers within the text that refer to numbered entries in the reference list. Your reference list should appear at the end of the manuscript with the entries listed in roman numbers and in the same order that they were cited in the text. 

Number of references: Limited to maximum of 100 for review articles and 50 for other types of articles. Authors should cite the references of articles indexed in Scopus – How to find a journal index in Scopus? Go to Scopus content at https://www.scopus.com/standard/marketing.uri].

NOTE:- References within the text should start from 1. They should be cited under the References section in the order you have cited them in the text (ie. no need to sort the reference list alphabetically).

Tables and Figures: Tables need to have a title above the table and figures need to have title below the figure.

Tables are numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and submitted separately from the text. They have a title and a footnote explaining any abbreviation used in that table. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters. Double documentation of the same points in figures and tables is not acceptable.

Important: Obtain permission and include the acknowledgment required by the copyright holder if a figure is being reproduced from another source.

Save colour illustrations as RGB at max. 300 dpi (JPG or PNG preferred) which should be inserted in the manuscript file during submission and may be submitted separately after the manuscript is accepted for publication. All figures (photographs, illustrations or graphs) should be cited in the text, and numbered consecutively throughout (Fig. 1, etc.) and must be referred to in the text. Figure parts should be identified by upper-case roman letters (A, B, etc.), "I" or "O" are not used. Scale bars are included on illustrations with measurement. Figure legends must be brief, self-sufficient explanations of the illustrations. The legends (if any) should be placed at the end of the text.

All taxa newly described in the manuscript should be accompanied by a good quality line drawing. All lines and symbols should be of uniform thickness, and professional quality and proper dimensions (approx. 2 mm high after reproduction). All line drawings are scanned and submitted as 1200 dpi TIFF files.

Place Tables and Figures after References in the manuscript file itself (all text, tables and figures in one file).

Equations need to be left aligned; equation numbers should be right aligned; equations quoted in the manuscript need to conform to this form.  (Eqn. 1)

Taxonomy manuscripts
Make sure that the names of the author(s) of the plant names are abbreviated as per the "Authors of the Plant Names" by 'Brummit & Powell (1992)' and its subsequent online version of 2010.

NOTE:- Manuscripts reporting new species or other types of taxonomy articles need not use the above journal style. Instead, refer a recently published article in Plant Science Today and follow the style.

Image Raw Files
You may keep original raw files of the images with you and must submit if requested. A raw file is the image as seen by the camera's sensor. You may think of it like unprocessed film. Depending on the camera setting, it may be saved as JPEG, TIFF or other formats. You may submit it as supplementary material or keep it with you for verification by the PST editors/reviewers.

**Competing Interests
Plant Science Today requires authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must accompany ‘competing interests’ statement listing all competing interests. Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests.

**Declarations to be made regarding ethical issues
Manuscripts that deal with clinical findings should be enclosed with a statement on informed consent of the patients under study.

If humans and animals are the subjects of a clinical study, it is essential for the study to have been carried out in accordance with the ethical standards of the country/countries where the research described in the article has been conducted. A declaration to that effect must accompany the manuscript.

**Authors' contributions
Please include an Authors' contributions section before the Acknowledgements.

For the Authors' contributions' we suggest the following kind of format (please use initials to refer to each author's contribution): AB carried out the molecular genetic studies, participated in the sequence alignment and drafted the manuscript. JY carried out the immunoassays. MT participated in the sequence alignment. ES participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis. FG conceived of the study and participated in its design and coordination. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

An "author" is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should 1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) have given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.

**Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an ‘acknowledgements’ section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.

IMPORTANT: ** Add these details only in the MS article details file.

 

Reference Style Guide

In the Vancouver Style, citations are numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text, and each citation corresponds to a numbered reference, containing publication information about the source cited, in the reference list at the end of the publication, essay or assignment. Once a source has been cited, the same number is used in all subsequent references. No distinction is made between print and electronic references when citing within the text.


Source: https://libguides.murdoch.edu.au/Vancouver

 Multiple citations may be refered as: (1, 3) or (1, 3, 5) or (3–7) as the case may be.

The list should be arranged in the order of citation in the text of the publication, assignment or essay, not in alphabetical order. List only one reference per reference number.


Source: https://libguides.murdoch.edu.au/Vancouver

The references in the bibliography must follow a set format: there are examples of this below.

List of Examples

To see more information about the formats below, either click on the format headings in this list of examples.
Source: https://libguides.murdoch.edu.au/Vancouver

Book Chapters [see Video Guide]
Material Type In Text Citation Reference List Entry
Chapter or Article in Edited Book

(8)

 8. Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113
Article in an Encyclopaedia

(9)

 9. Ford-Martin P. Cognitive-behavioral therapy. In: Thackery E, Harris M, editors. Gale encyclopedia of mental disorders. Vol. 1. Detroit (MI): Gale; 2003. p. 226-28
Books [see Video Guide]
Material Type In Text Citation Reference List Entry
Book: Single Author (10) 10. Hoppert M. Microscopic techniques in biotechnology. Weinheim (Germany): Wiley-VCH; 2003
Book: Two or More Authors or Editors

(11)

 11. Gilstrap LC, Cunningham FG, Van Dorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002
Book: Organisation as Author (12) 12. American Veterinary Medical Association. National Board Examination Committee. North American Veterinary Licensing Examination: bulletin of information for candidates. Bismarck (ND): The Committee; 2001
Book: Government Agency as Author (13) 13. Australia. Commonwealth Department of Veterans' Affairs and Defence. Australian Gulf War veterans' health study 2003. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia; 2003
Book: No Author (14) 14. The Oxford concise medical dictionary. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2003. 880 p
Book: Editor (15) 15. Storey KB, editor. Functional metabolism: regulation and adaptation. Hoboken (NJ): J. Wiley & Sons; 2004
Book: Different Editions (16) 16. Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobyashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St Louis: Mosby; 2002
Scientific/Technical Report (17) 17. Lugg DJ. Physiological adaptation and health of an expedition in Antarctica: with comment on behavioural adaptation. Canberra: A.G.P.S.; 1977. Australian Government Department of Science, Antarctic Division. ANARE scientific reports. Series B(4), Medical science No. 0126
Conference Papers
Material Type In Text Citation Reference List Entry
Conference Paper in Print

(18)

 18. Khalifa ME, Elmessiry HM, ElBahnasy KM, Ramadan HMM. Medical image registration using mutual information similarity measure. In: Lim CT, Goh JCH, editors. Icbme2008: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering; 2008 Dec 3-6; Singapore. Dordrecht: Springer; 2009. p. 151-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92841-6_37
Conference Paper from the Internet (19) 19. Cloherty SL,  Dokos S,  Lovell NH. Qualitative support for the gradient model of cardiac pacemaker heterogeneity. In: Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology 27 Annual Conference; 2005 Sep 1-4; Shanghai, China. New York: IEEE; 2005 [cited 2010 Sep 2]. p. 133-36. Available from: http://www.ieee.org
Unpublished Conference Paper (20) 20. Waterkeyn J, Matimati R, Muringanzia A. ZOD for all: scaling up the community health club model to meet the MDGs for sanitation in rural and urban areas: case studies from Zimbabwe and Uganda. Paper presented at International Water Association Development Congress; Mexico; 2009 Nov 15-19
Conference Proceedings (21) 21. Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumours V: Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002
Internet documents [see Video Guide]
Material Type In Text Citation Reference List Entry
Electronic Document (32) 32. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Chronic diseases and associated risk factors [Internet]. Canberra: The Institute; 2004 [updated 2005 Jun 23; cited 2005 Jun 30]. Available from: http://www.aihw.gov.au/cdarf/index.cfm
Government Publication (33) 33. Australia. Department of Health and Aged Care.  National youth suicide prevention strategy [Internet]. Canberra: The Department; 2000 [cited 2005 Jul 1]. Available from: http://www.health.gov.au/hsdd/mentalhe/sp/nysps/about.htm
Legislation (34) 34. Gene Technology Act 2000 (Cth) [Internet]. Canberra: Office of Parliamentary Counsel [cited 2019 Apr 12]. Available from: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00792
Internet Site (35) 35. Lavelle P. Mental state of the nation. Health matters [Internet]. ABC online; 2005 May 19 [cited 2005 Jul 1]. Available from: http://abc.net.au/health/features/mentalstate/

Journal Articles* [see Video Guide]

* The titles of journals should be abbreviated according the style used in Medline. Abbreviated titles can be found in the PubMed Journals Database or ROAD directory.
Material Type In Text Citation Reference List Entry
Article from Print or online journals (36) 36. Drummond PD. Triggers of motion sickness in migraine sufferers. Headache. 2005;45(6):653-56
Article from Print or online journals: More Than Six Authors (37) 37. Gillespie NC, Lewis RJ, Pearn JH, Bourke ATC, Holmes MJ, Bourke JB, et al. Ciguatera in Australia: occurrence, clinical features, pathophysiology and management. Med J Aust. 1986;145:584-90. https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1986.tb139504.x
Journal Article: Forthcoming (38) 38. Staartjes VE, Siccoli A, de Wispelaere MP, Schröder, ML. Do we need 2 years of follow-up? Spine J. Forthcoming 2019
Theses
Material Type In Text Citation Reference List Entry
Unpublished Thesis (49) 49. Hincks CL. The detection and characterisation of novel papillomaviruses. Biomedical Science, Honours [thesis]. Murdoch (WA): Murdoch University; 2001
Published Thesis (50) 50. Gruszczynski L. Regulating health and environmental risks under WTO law: a critical analysis of the SPS agreement. New York: Oxford University Press; 2010
Thesis from the Internet (51) 51. Gethin A. Poor suburbs and poor health: exploring the potential of a locational approach to reducing health disadvantage in Australian cities. PhD [dissertation]. Sydney: University of Western Sydney; 2007. Available from: https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:89
 

The titles of journals should be abbreviated according the style used in Medline. Abbreviated titles can be found in the PubMed Journals Database or ROAD directory.

 

DOI FOR REFERENCES

Kindly put the DOI of each referred article at the end of each references. Author may take help from the following link to get DOI of the articles after sign up once to get free account. Thereafter, enter the registered email and retrieve the DOI of article according to instructions provided on the site. The link is as follows: http://www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery.

 

Revision of a manuscript

Microsoft Word's Track Changes Under Tools in the menu bar, the feature Track Changes enables the copy editor to make insertions (text appears in color) and deletions (text appears crossed out in color or in the margins as deleted). The copy editor can posit queries to both the author (Author Queries) and to the editor (Editor Queries) by inserting these queries in square brackets. The copyedited version is then uploaded, and the editor is notified. The editor then reviews the text and notifies the author. The editor and author should leave those changes with which they are satisfied. If further changes are necessary, the editor and author can make changes to the initial insertions or deletions, as well as make new insertions or deletions elsewhere in the text. Authors and editors should respond to each of the queries addressed to them, with responses placed inside the square brackets. After the text has been reviewed by editor and author, the copy editor will make a final pass over the text accepting the changes in preparation for the layout and galley stage.

Research Articles

Research articles report research results of major significance. They should include an abstract, an introductory paragraph, and brief subheads.

Research communications

Research communications contain important new findings that are novel and of fairly broad interest. They should include a brief abstract and an introductory paragraph. Text should may or may not be broken up under subheads.

Review Articles

Review articles are expected to survey and discuss current developments in a field. They should be well focused and organized, and avoid a general ‘textbook’ style. Authors submitting a review article must publish one or more research articles in the area in which the review work has been carried out.

Note:- Authors submitting review articles should publish one or more research articles in the area of the review work submitted and list of such research articles MUST be included in a cover letter or in the comments section during the submission.

SPECIAL ISSUE: Plant systematics

The potential topics of the Special Issue are:
• Original papers on taxonomic revision
• New taxa
• New records
• Critical notes on nomenclature and typification of plant names

Mini Reviews

Under Mini Reviews, short review articles of max. 5 printed pages including references can be published.

Copyright Notice

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.