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# Journal of Experimental Botany

# Information for Authors

### Last updated: 1 March, 2006

### PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Contents

General Information
Submission of Manuscripts
Guidelines for Presentation
Abbreviations
Scientific Names
Chemical and Molecular Biology Nomenclature
Units of Measurement
Sequence Data
Equations
Tables
Figures
Supplementary Material for Online-only Publication
Literature Citation
Review Procedure
Revised Manuscripts
Permission to Reproduce Figures
Open Access Articles
Proofs
Offprints and Unique URL
Licence to Publish
Author Self-Archiving/Public Access policy
Distribution of Materials

## GENERAL INFORMATION

The Journal of Experimental Botany publishes high-quality primary research papers together with Review articles and Special issues in the plant sciences.

Full-length primary papers should contribute to our understanding of how plants develop and function, and should provide new insights into biological processes. The journal will not publish purely descriptive papers or papers that report a well-known process in a species in which the process has not been identified previously. Articles should be concise and generally limited to 10 printed pages.

Review Articles are published regularly as Perspectives in Experimental Botany. Opinion papers that express a particular point of view on a controversial topic relevant to any aspect of plant science are also considered. Outlines of proposed reviews and opinions should be submitted to j.exp.bot@lancaster.ac.uk for consideration before preparation of a full manuscript.

Special Issues containing reviews and occasionally one or two primary papers in a specified subject area are published at intervals. Reviews should not be encyclopaedic, will ideally contain the author's views and be pitched at a level that will appeal to the non-specialist as well as those who work in the field. If primary papers are submitted for a Special Issue, then the Introduction should be longer than usual to help orientate the reader within the field, and the Discussion should also help to explain the context of the work.

Gene Notes. Please note that Gene Notes are no longer considered for publication.
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## SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

All manuscripts should now be submitted via Bench>Press, our new online manuscript submission and review system. If you are unable to submit in this way please contact the editorial office. To submit online please go to http://submit-jxb.oxfordjournals.org/ and follow the instructions for creating an account (or sign in) and submitting your manuscript. Before submitting your manuscript please read and follow the Journal guidelines for presentation.
If this is the first time you use the ‘Bench>Press system’ please click on ‘Create an account’ and register following the website’s instructions. If you are already registered with JXB Bench>Press, please Sign in by using your e-mail as your username, and your password. If you have forgotten your password, you can obtain a new one by clicking on lost password. Here you will be prompted to enter your e-mail address. The next page will ask you your security question. After entering your security question, a new password will be e-mailed to you (you can always change a password on your Personal Information page).

After you have logged in, please enter the ‘Author Area’ and select ‘Submit a new manuscript’. Fill in all the required fields:
1. Manuscript metadata: Number of authors, article type, title, running title, keywords, abstract, covering letter, submission agreement and suggested editors. You are required to suggest three potential reviewers. You can also exclude reviewers, if so please state your reasons on the covering letter. In both cases please provide as much information as possible.
2. Author(s) information: Please enter the name, institution, and e-mail for each author in the order they appear on the manuscript.
3. File upload metadata: number of images and supplementary files that you will upload, which are not included in the manuscript file. Please fill in all the required fields: number of pages and figures, number of colour and black and white figures, number of tables.
4. Upload your file(s): a single Word or PDF file with tables and figures included is the preferable format. Please note that before creating your .PDF file, fonts (Asian, Cyrillic, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern) should be embedded in the document. Embedding ensures that all readers can view the document in any system. Please embed all fonts even if you think you have not used any special fonts. They are often left in the original Word document or may occur in graphics and may not even be visible (see Acrobat Help: 'Embedding Fonts').

Alternatively, if tables are uploaded separately, these should be Word or PDF. If figures are not included in the text, they should be submitted as .JPG, TIFF or .GIF, and should be clearly labelled. After all the files are uploaded, they will be converted to a single PDF, which will be used during the review process.
5. Approval: Once the file(s) have been successfully converted to PDF, you will receive an e-mail notification and will be asked to return to your ‘Author Area’ to approve the conversion. Your references (regardless of the file format uploaded) will be copied and converted into a linked HTML file which you will also be able to proof.
If reference is made to a paper "in press", a proof of this should also be submitted.
If any material from other publications is included, it should be clearly referenced and copyright permission sought before submission. Please see section ‘Permission to reproduce figures’.

## GUIDELINES FOR PRESENTATION

Manuscripts should be typewritten on one side only of an A4 sheet, double-spaced throughout and with at least a 4 cm margin on the left. Manuscripts should be written in the third person. Number all pages of the manuscript consecutively on the right bottom side and number lines of the text in the left-hand margin. Page and line number helps reviewers and editors to refer easily to specific sections of the manuscript. Please note that manuscripts without page and line numbering will be returned to authors for correction before being considered further. For primary research articles, the manuscript should be arranged in the following order: Title Page Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion (it might be combined with Results) Supplementary Material (if applicable) Acknowledgements References Tables Figure Legends Figures

The Title Page should contain the title, the name(s) of the author(s), the name(s) and address(es) of the institution(s) where the work was carried out, followed by the contact details of the author to whom correspondence should be sent (address, telephone, fax, and e-mail). The date of submission and the number of tables and figures should also be given on the first page. The Title should be specific and concise but informative to those scanning contents listings and abstract journal. Authors should also suggest a short running title. Please do not add the running title as a header. The Abstract should not exceed 250 words; it should contain no discursive matter or references. Authors should suggest no more than ten Key words for their article in alphabetical order. Data should not be presented in both tabular and graphical form. Large bodies of primary data should not be included in the manuscript but they could be presented as ‘Supplementary Material’, which will be published online at the time of publication.
EndNote users can find the style for the Journal of Experimental Botany here

## ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations and their explanation should be composed in a list. Standard chemical symbols may be used in the text where desirable in the interests of conciseness. For long chemical names and other cumbersome terms, widely accepted abbreviations may be used in the text (e.g. ATP, DNA); the list of standard abbreviations published by The Biochemical Journal (http://www.biochemj.org/bj/bji2a.htm#nomenclature) is an acceptable guide. Abbreviations for the names of less common compounds may be used, but the full term should be given on first mention. It is confusing and unnecessary to use abbreviations for common English words (e.g. L for light).

## SCIENTIFIC NAMES

The complete scientific name (genus, species, and authority, and cultivar where appropriate) must be cited for every organism at the first mention. The generic name may be abbreviated to the initial thereafter except where intervening references to other genera with the same initial could cause confusion. If vernacular names are employed, they must be accompanied by the correct scientific name on first use.
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## CHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY NOMENCLATURE

Follow Chemical Abstracts and its indexes for chemical names. The IUPAC and IUBMB recommendations on chemical, biochemical, and molecular biology nomenclature should be followed for amino acids, peptides, enzymes, nucleic acids, polynucleotides, carbohydrates, and lipids(see http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iupac and /iubmb). Back to Contents Nomenclature for genes and proteins must follow international standards. It is important to differentiate between genes and proteins. Italics is a standard for genes, so all gene symbols and loci should be in italics and capitalization as it applies for each organism's standard nomenclature format, in text, tables, and figures. Full gene names are generally not in italics. Proteins should appear in Roman type. Nomenclature conventions differ amongst species, please follow them accordingly. Arabidopsis: http://www.arabidopsis.org/portals/nomenclature/guidelines.jsp Maize: http://www.maizegdb.org/maize_nomenclature.phpRice: http://www.gramene.org/documentation/nomenclature/rice_gene_nomen.pdf Tomato: http://tgrc.ucdavis.edu/ Wheat: http://www.k-state.edu/wgrc/

Deposition of sequence data (proteins or nucleotide), array data, molecular interaction data, and any other data where there is a publicly held database is required before publication of the manuscript; and the database accession number must be given in the manuscript (Methods section). Appropriate databases for protein and nucleic acid sequences are: EMBL; GenBank or the Protein Data Bank. Genomic and proteomic data and other forms of high-throughput data should be deposited to the NCBI gene expression and hybridization array data repository (GEO), and the accession number must be provided. Microarray Gene Expression Data should be MIAME compliant.

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## UNITS OF MEASUREMENT

The metric system is adopted as standard. The system of units known as 'SI' should be used. If non-standard abbreviations must be used they should be defined in the text. Units of measurement should be spelled out except when preceded by a numeral, when they should be abbreviated in the standard form: g, mg, cm3, etc. and not followed by full stops. Use negative exponents to indicate units in the denominator (i.e. mmol m-2 s-1).
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## SEQUENCE DATA

Deposition of amino acid sequences of proteins or nucleotide sequences is required before publication, and the database accession number must be given in the text of the manuscript. Microarray Gene Expression Data should comply with the minimum information about microarray experiments standard (MIAME; see www.mged.org/miame for more information.)
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## EQUATIONS

If equations require more than one level of subscript or superscript, please use either 'Microsoft Equation Editor' or 'Math Type'. If anything else is used, the equation has to be re-typed which makes it vulnerable to errors.
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## TABLES

Tables should be on a separate page, and should be numbered in Arabic numerals with an appropriate legend at the head. They should be included in the text file (either in the .PDF file for first submissions or in the Word file for accepted manuscripts).
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## FIGURES

Figures should be self-explanatory and contain as much information as is consistent with clarity. Wherever possible, figures should be grouped to fill a page. All figures must carry the figure number in Arabic numerals. Citation in the text should take the form Fig. 1A etc. The minimum resolution for the figures is 300 dpi (dots per inch) for tone or colour, 1200 dpi for line art at approximately the correct size for publication. Colour figures should be CMYK (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black).

Line drawings should be clear: faint shading or stippling will be lost upon reproduction and should be avoided and heavy shading or stippling may appear black. Lines and symbols should be drawn boldly enough to stand reduction to the desired size. For graphs where reduction to one-half in linear dimensions is intended, a suitable thickness for the axis would be 0.3 mm and for the other lines 0.4 or 1.0 mm depending on the complexity of the graph. The preferred symbols are closed circle, open circle, closed square, open square, closed triangle, and open triangle and should be no smaller than 2 mm (height/diameter) for reduction to one-half. The symbols x and + should be avoided.

The typeface used for lettering should be of a type similar in style to the text of the journal, i.e. in a clear sans-serif font (e.g. Arial or Helvetica). The height of the lettering should be uniform throughout and should have a capital height of 4.0 mm on the originals for reduction to one-half.

Photographs not supplied electronically, must be of high quality, printed on glossy paper and mounted neatly on a thin white card base, leaving a narrow gap between each print. Irregular and asymmetrically distributed groups of photographs will not be accepted. Individual figures should be lettered, A, B, C, etc. on the photograph using a lettering set. Other lettering, arrows, etc. may be put on the photograph by the author; otherwise they should be indicated in the exact position required on a transparent or translucent self-locating overlay. On no account should any marks be made on the photograph itself.

Colour figures: If the manuscript is accepted for publication, authors will be asked to contribute towards the cost of publication of colour figures unless an appropriate argument to waive the charges is made. Colour plates should be combined to make a single composite figure whenever possible. A scale should be included; otherwise the scale of the original should be stated in the legends so that the final scale can be calculated.

Legends: A separate typewritten, double-spaced list of legends of all figures must be supplied and included in the text file. Each legend should contain sufficient explanation to be meaningful without cross-referencing. A scale of the original should be included in the legend unless already indicated in the picture. A description of the symbols used in the figures should be written out in full. (Please do not include the character symbol in the legend.) Please be aware that figure legends may be used by search engines for figure searches.

Cover illustrations will be taken from, or be associated with, an article that appears in the journal. Authors wishing to submit a potential cover illustration should indicate it at the time of submission. The potential cover illustration figures must be supplied in electronic format and resolution must be above 300 dpi at publication size. Please note the final image on the cover will occupy a space of 91 x 285mm.Acceptable file types, in order of preference should be tiff, eps or high resolution jpeg .Add a short concise caption to appear on the front cover and a more detailed legend for inside the journal.
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## SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR ONLINE-ONLY PUBLICATION

Supplementary data may be submitted for online only publication if it adds value for potential readers. However, it must not contain material critical to the understanding of the manuscript. The hard copy of the manuscript should stand alone, but it should be indicated at an appropriate point in the text that supplementary material is available on-line. In addition, the availability of supplementary material should also be indicated in the manuscript by a section heading ‘Supplementary Data’ with a brief description of these data to appear before the Acknowledgements and References. Please name your supplementary material and cite it within the manuscript as Figure S1, Table S1, Video S1, etc, and provide a detailed legend.

Electronic files of supplementary material are preferable as one complete .PDF file. If images are supplied as .GIFs or .JPEGs, the minimum acceptable resolution for viewing on screen is 120 dpi.

Videos: The preferred formats for video clips are .MOV, .MPG, .AVI, and animated .GIF files. Authors are advised to use a readily available program to create movies so that they can be viewed easily with e.g., Windows Media Player or QuickTime.

Authors should carefully check the supplementary data as this information is not professionally copy edited or proofread.

## LITERATURE CITATION

Citations in the text should have the authors immediately followed by the date to facilitate the electronic linkages which are available on-line, for example: (Shen and Ma, 2001) or Shen and Ma (2001). If several papers by the same author in the same year are cited, they should be lettered in sequence (2000a, b), etc. When papers are by more than two authors they should be cited thus: (Shen et al., 2001). In the list, references must be placed in alphabetical order without serial numbering. The following standard form of citation should be used, including the title of each paper or book:

Jiang Q, Gresshoff PM. 1993. Lotus japonicus - a model plant for structure-function analysis in nodulation and nitrogen fixation. In: Gresshoff PM, ed. Current topics of plant molecular biology, Vol. II. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 97-110.

N'tchobo H. 1998. Sucrose unloading in tomato fruits. II. Subcellular distribution of acid invertase and possible roles in sucrose turnover and hexose storage in tomato fruit. PhD thesis, Laval University, Canada, 87-118.

Richard C, Granier D, Inzé D, De Veylder L. 2001. Analysis of cell division parameters and cell cycle gene expression during the cultivation of Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspensions. Journal of Experimental Botany 52, 1625-1633.

Only papers published or in press should be cited in the literature list. Unpublished results, including submitted manuscripts and those in preparation, should be cited as unpublished in the text. Journal titles should not be abbreviated but be given in full. Citation of articles from e-journals and journal articles published ahead of print should have the author names, year, title, journal title followed by the assigned digital object identifier (DOI) or the appropriate URL:

Parry MAJ, Andralojc PJ, Mitchell RAC, Madgwick PJ, Keys AJ. (March 14, 2003.) Manipulation of Rubisco: the amount, activity, function and regulation. Journal of Experimental Botany 10.1093/jxb/erg141.

Citation of the paper after print publication should be:

Parry MAJ, Andralojc PJ, Mitchell RAC, Madgwick PJ, Keys AJ. 2003. Manipulation of Rubisco: the amount, activity, function and regulation. Journal of Experimental Botany 54, 1321-1333. Advance access published on March 14, 2003; 10.1093/jxb/erg141.

Citation of other URL addresses (unless in reference to an e-journal) may be made in the text but should not be included in the reference list.

The list of literature must be typed double-spaced throughout and checked thoroughly before submission. If the list is not in the correct form it will be returned to the author for amendment and publication of the paper may be delayed.
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## REVISED MANUSCRIPTS

Revised manuscripts should be received within four weeks of the date from when the invitation was sent; revised manuscripts received after this time will be considered as new submissions. Revised manuscripts should be accompanied by a detailed response letter on how all the concerns of the editor and referees have been addressed. Please give the exact page number(s), paragraphs(s) and line number(s) where each revision was made. Please copy this letter in ‘Response to reviews’ during submission.
Format: Original source files are required to avoid delays if the manuscript is accepted. The main text must be provided as Microsoft Word. References, Figure Legends and Tables should be included in the Word file.
Figures should be provided as .TIFF files. The minimum resolution for the figures is 300 dpi for tone or colour, 1200 dpi for line art at approximately the correct size for publication. Colour figures should be CMYK (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black).

## REVIEW PROCEDURE

The Editor makes the initial evaluation of the manuscript. If the topic is important and relevant to the journal readership, he assigns the manuscript to an Associate Editor, who oversees the review process. Manuscripts are reviewed by two independent experts in the particular area. The reviewers will make a scientific assessment and recommendation to the Editors. In case of a disagreement, the Associate Editor may ask a third independent expert to assess the manuscript. The Associate Editors will reach a final decision either to accept, accept with revision or reject a manuscript.
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## PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE FIGURES

Please note that if your manuscript includes any data in tables or figure(s) modified or re-drawn from another publication, you will need permission from the original publisher to reproduce it before your manuscript can be published. This includes figures adapted in any way from other publications. Permission to reproduce figures or data from other publications must be sought by authors at the time of acceptance. Please note that obtaining copyright permission could take some time. A copy of the permission document should be sent to the Production Editor, Journal of Experimental Botany, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP. Email: JXB production office
To seek copyright permission please contact the copyright permission department of the relevant journal/publisher.
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## OPEN ACCESS ARTICLES

Open Access articles are freely available online to any person or library from the date of online publication. All primary papers published after 1 April 2007 whose corresponding author’s institution subscribes to the JXB will be published Open Access. All material associated with that article will also be accessible to all.
Authors from non subscribing institutes can choose to make their article Open Access, and this in turn incurs a charge of £1500/$2800/€2250. If authors choose not to pay the fee the article will remain under subscription access for one year, and during that time will only be accessible to those with a personal or institutional subscription or on a pay per view basis. After that time all online articles are freely accessible.
Authors will be offered the Open Access option when their paper is accepted (for more information click here, and the fee is handled by the publisher, Oxford University Press.
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## PROOFS

Proofs will be sent electronically to the corresponding author as a .PDF file and will include illustrations set in the appropriate place in the type. The author should make a print copy and add any necessary typographical corrections before returning the corrected proofs by fax to Oxford University Press (+44 (0) 1865 355817) within three days of receipt; otherwise the Editor reserves the right to correct the proofs and to send the material for publication. This is essential if all the material in a given issue is not to be delayed by the late receipt of one corrected proof.
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## OFFPRINTS AND UNIQUE URL

On publication of an article, corresponding authors will receive free of charge 25 reprints and a unique URL that gives access to both PDF and HTML versions of the paper. The URL links visitors to the JXB site and the complete version of the paper online with all functionality retained is accessible regardless of subscription status. Additional offprints may be purchased if required. Order formsare available here to download and are sent out with the proofs. Late orders submitted after the journal has gone to press are subject to a 100% surcharge (to cover the additional printing cost).
Orders from UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the EU, we will assume that the service is provided for business purposes, please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly.
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## LICENCE TO PUBLISH

It is a condition of publication in the journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to the Society for Experimental Biology. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning the licence, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press, on behalf of the SEB, is notified in writing and in advance.
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Creative Commons information

## AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING/PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY

For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

## DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIALS

All authors publishing work in the JXB are expected to make novel materials used and described in the paper available for non-commercial research purposes. A statement concerning the availability, or restrictions on availability, should be included in the Materials and Methods section of the paper. Whilst the JXB acknowledges that some materials require substantial effort to isolate, such as enzymes, natural products, and antibodies and supplies may be limited authors should be aware that it is up to the referees to decide if stated restrictions on availability are reasonable.

## The Journal

- About this journal
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### Published on behalf of

- Society for Experimental Biology

### Impact factor: 3.630

### Editor-in-Chief

#### Professor Jerry Roberts

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