Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail, in the form of attachments sent to the journal administrator Faye Kalloniatis (plantgeneticresources@googlemail.com). Manuscripts must be written in good English in double-spaced 12pt Times New Roman, using a current version of Microsoft Word (.doc) or OpenOffice.org Writer (.odt).

Peer review process

All manuscripts are peer reviewed by two referees, who may or may not choose to remain anonymous. The journal makes every effort to complete the peer review process as quickly as possible, and generally this is achieved within 6 weeks of receipt of the manuscript. Articles which the editor considers may be accepted subject to modification must be resubmitted to the journal within 1 month of their return date in order to be considered part of the original submission. If this deadline is passed, a resubmission will be considered as a new manuscript. If authors choose to resubmit, they must provide, in a covering letter, a detailed point-by-point response to all the criticisms raised by each of the reviewers, and where appropriate, those raised by the editor.

Copyright

The journal needs your agreement to publish your article and you will be sent a 'Transfer of copyright' form along with your first set of proofs. The form must be completed and returned to Cambridge University Press.

Types of article

The journal accepts two forms of research report – full articles and short communications. The format of these is detailed separately below. Authors should note that the journal will not review submissions using the RAPD marker system, except where very large numbers of assays place a cost limitation on the analysis, or where RAPD data is combined with, and is co-analysed with other forms of descriptive data, which allows an objective means of assessing the credibility of the RAPDs.

Full articles

The title page should carry the title of the article and the authors' names and addresses. Also indicate the name and include the e-mail address of the corresponding author. The e-mail address is particularly important as page proofs will be sent electronically as a .pdf file to the corresponding author for checking. (See 'page proofs' section below).

The text must be divided into sections, each beginning on a new page. The sections consist of Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Figure legends. In exceptional circumstances, the Results and Discussion sections can be combined, but where this has been done, the authors must provide a justification for doing so in their covering letter. Footnotes are not acceptable. Files should not be submitted as 'read only'.

The Abstract should not exceed 250 words. It should indicate the scope and main conclusions of the paper. Below the text, add a list of keywords for indexing purposes.

The Introduction should not exceed 500 words. It should explain why the work was done, and briefly introduce the scope and contents of the paper.

The Materials and Methods section should detail experimental design and statistical analysis and should be kept as brief as possible with the aid of appropriate citation to the literature (e.g. for standard methods etc.).

Results should be recorded in the past tense.

The Discussion should interpret the results, and present them in the broader context of other work on the subject. It should not simply be a restatement of the results.

Citations within the text should be listed in chronological order, by author and date, using 'and' between names of joint authors and, for those with more than two authors, citing only the first author et al. (e.g. White et al., 1993). The final list of references should be in the following format, and listed by alphabetical order of author, e.g.

Gregory RS (1985) Triticale breeding. In: Lupton FGH (ed.) Wheat Breeding: Its Scientific Basis. London: Chapman and Hall, pp. 20-30.

Kingston-Smith AH, Bollard AL, Humphreys MO and Theodorou MK (2002) An assessment of the ability of the stay-green phenotype in Lolium species to provide an improved protein supply for ruminants. Annals of Botany 89: 731-740.

Marshall DR and Brown AHD (1973) Stability of performance mixtures and multilines. Euphytica 22: 405-412.

Smith JE (1988) The effects of roguing on the frequency of atypical winter wheat plants. PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham.

Tables must be numbered consecutively (Table 1, Table 2 ..., NOT Table 1a, 1b, etc), each headed by its own caption. Tables to be included in the print copy of the journal are limited in size to one A4 page (portrait, not landscape) with the contents typed in 12pt Times New Roman. The number of tables in the print copy is limited to four. Each table must be presented as a text (.doc or .odt) file, not as spreadsheet files (.xls, .ods). Additional tables can be submitted for inclusion as supplementary online material. These must be labelled Table S1, Table S2, etc., each with its own caption, and will appear in the electronic version of the paper, but not in the print copy.

Figures must be numbered consecutively (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.), each headed by its own caption. The number of figures in the print copy is limited to four. Authors will be asked to make a financial contribution towards the cost of any colour illustrations. Figures must be presented as .jpg files, with dimensions approximately as intended to appear in the print copy. Additional figures can be submitted for inclusion as supplementary online material. These must be labelled consecutively (Figure S1, Figure S2, etc.), each with its own caption, and will appear in the electronic version of the paper, but not in the print copy. No financial contribution is required for the inclusion of colour images in the supplementary online material.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the total number of tables plus figures appearing in the print copy may not exceed six.

The manuscript must be submitted in one file. All figures must be submitted in a second, and separate, file. Similarly, all tables must be submitted in a third, and separate, file. Do not paste figures or tables into the manuscript file, but indicate their optimum placement in the margin of the text.

Short communications

These will be limited to a maximum of 1000 words (excluding Abstract, Acknowledgements, References and Table/Figure Legends), plus two figures or tables (or one of each). Section headings should be restricted to Abstract, Introduction, Experimental, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References. Additional tables and figures can be submitted for inclusion as supplementary online material, as for full articles. These must be labelled Table S1, Figure S1, etc. They will appear in the electronic version of the paper, but not in the print copy.

Supplementary online material

The total number of tables and/or figures is limited to ten, with a total file size normally less than 3MB. The size of any one individual file should normally be less than 2MB. Images (.jpg, .tif, .gif, .ppt) should be presented at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, 72 pixels per inch. The following file types are accepted: MS Word document (.doc) , Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Plain ASCII text (.txt), Rich Text Format (.rtf), WordPerfect document (.wpd), HTML document (.htm), MS Excel spreadsheet (.xls), GIF image (.gif), JPEG image (.jpg), TIFF image (.tif), MS PowerPoint (.ppt), QuickTime movie (.mov), Audio file (.wav), Audio file (.mp3), MPEG/MPG animation (.mpg). No copyediting is undertaken of supplementary material.

Page proofs

Once typeset, the corresponding author will receive page proofs by e-mail as a .pdf file. You will be asked to return the corrections via email (no later than 4 days after receipt). There is also a copyright transfer form in the file; this needs to be signed and returned along with the offprint order form.

Offprints

With the .pdf proof, the corresponding author will also be e-mailed an offprint order form. If offprints of the paper are required, the appropriate form should be completed, using the price scale provided, and returned with the corrected proof to the proofreader. You will be provided with a final .pdf file by e-mail at no expense. You will also be sent a 'Terms and Conditions' form which outlines how you may use your .pdf file.

Last updated April 2013

** Download the .pdf version of the Plant Genetic Resources instructions for contributors here: