Author Guidelines
Plant Health publishes original research, critical reviews, short communications, book reviews, new records and plant health reports, product news, information on disease diagnostics, management and related interface to provide a rapid turn-around time possible for reviewing and publishing, and to disseminate the articles for research, teaching and reference purposes. All manuscripts should be submitted electronically in order to be considered for publication in Plant Health. A manuscript number will be assigned to each submission and authors can check the status of their article online using manuscript number.
Copyright
Submission of a manuscript infers that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis). It is also not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
All works published by Plant Health is available to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited.
Article Submission
In order to reduce delays, authors should assure that the level, length and format of a manuscript submission conform to Plant Health requirements at the submission and each revision stage. Submitted articles should have a summary/abstract, separate from the main text. This summary does not include references, numbers, abbreviations or measurements unless essential. The summary should provide an introduction to the field; a brief account of the background and principle of the work; a statement of the main conclusions; and 2-3 sentences that place the main findings into a general context. The text may contain a few short subheadings of no more than 40 characters each.
Cover Letter
All submissions should be accompanied by cover letter of up to 350 words briefly stating the significance of the research, author’s agreement for publication, number of tables and figures, supporting manuscripts, and supplementary information.
Contact Information
Author must include current telephone and fax numbers, as well as corresponding postal and E-mail address to maintain communication.
Article Formatting Guidelines
Manuscript title: title should be limited to 25 words or less. The title shouldn’t contain abbreviations and it should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the manuscript.
Author Information
Full names and affiliation of all authors, including contact details of corresponding author (Telephone, Fax and E-mail address).
Abstract
Informative, complete and self-explanatory abstract should briefly present the topic and state the scope of the experiments, indicating significant data. It should point out major findings and conclusions. The abstract should summarize the manuscript content. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided in abstracts. The preferable format should accommodate a description of the study background, methods, results and conclusion.
Keywords
Following the abstract, a list of 3-10 keywords and abbreviations should be included.
Introduction
The introduction should set the nature of the paper by providing a vibrant study statement. It should include the relevant literature on the study subject and the proposed approach or solution. The introduction should be general enough to attract a reader’s attention from a broad range of scientific disciplines.
Materials and Methods
This section should provide a complete overview of the study design. Comprehensive descriptions of materials or participants, comparisons, interventions and types of analysis should be mentioned. Previously published procedures should be cited and the new procedures should be described in detail. Important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Capitalize trade names and include the manufacturer's name and address also if available.
Apparatus and materials
Names of unusual proprietary materials and special apparatus should be followed by the manufacturer's name and address in parentheses (city and state and/or country). It is only necessary to cite these materials by specific name if the work cannot be otherwise replicated. Trade names may be used and should be capitalized; trademark symbols should not be used.
Results and Discussion
This section should provide complete details of the experiment that are required to support the conclusion of the study. Results and Discussion may be combined or in a separate section. Speculation and detailed explanation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section.
Acknowledgement
This section includes salutation of people, grant and fund details etc.
References
The author should go to the primary source of information. The secondary source of information may be used in case of unavoidable circumstances or when the original article is in a language other than English. Only published work or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list. Abstracts, conference proceedings, or papers that have been submitted but not yet accepted should not be cited. Authors should provide online link for each reference.
The references should be written to the Plant Health citation format:
Published Papers
Author, A.B., and B.A. Author. 2012. Title of the article. Journal Abbreviation. 24: 01-05.
Article in Serial Publication
Author, A.B., and B.A. Author. 1997. Title of publication. Serial Abbreviation. 61: 167-231.
Magazine Article
Author, A.B. and A. Author. 1984. Title of article. Magazine name. 36: 18-19.
Books
Author, J. 1996. Book title. Place of publication: publisher. Page numbers for that chapter.
Workshop / Symposium or Conference Proceedings
If a conference paper is subsequently published, either in the proceedings of the conference or in a journal, cite as a chapter in a book or as an article in a journal.
Dissertation or Thesis
Author, A.B. 1982. Dissertation/ Thesis title. Degree. University name. 18-19.
Formatting Contents
Common names
Use Common Names of Plant Diseases (1) for the accepted common name of a disease.
Chemical terms
List pesticides by their approved common or generic names. Brand names may be included parenthetically when a pesticide is first mentioned. The current Farm Chemicals Handbook (2) and the most recent edition of Acceptable Common Names and Chemical Names for the Ingredient Statement on Pesticide Labels (5) are good sources. Use the chemical name if a common name is not available.
The Merck Index (4) and Hawley's Chemical Dictionary (11) are good sources for checking spellings of chemical terms.
Software
Software used should be treated as a proprietary material or apparatus. Give the manufacturer or developer name in parentheses with location (city and state or country). Software such as that produced by SAS should not be cited in literature citations.
Statistical Analysis
Describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable the reader to verify the reported results. Always specify the experimental design and indicate the number of replications, blocks, or observations. Identify the computer program used to analyze data if appropriate. When a quantitative factor (e.g., temperature) is studied, it often is desirable to use regression instead of analysis of variance. For qualitative factors (e.g., cultivar), analysis of variance and mean separation tests can be used, but the specific procedure and significance level should always be indicated. Whenever possible, researchers should consult a statistician before designing an experiment and when analyzing results.
Units of measurement
Information may be published in either English or metric units of measure. In choosing a system of units, authors should consider the needs and preferences of the intended audience. For example, both metric and English units are provided for distance, size, and temperature in the K-12 and Introductory sections.
Units of time
Day is never abbreviated. Week (wk), month (mo), and year (yr) are abbreviated only in tables. Second (s), minute (min), and hour (h) are always abbreviated if preceded by a numeral.
Tables
Tables used in manuscripts should be designed properly. They should be typed single-spaced throughout, including headings and footnotes. Each table should be on a separate page, numbered consecutively and supplied with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-explanatory. Details of the methods used in the experiments should be described in the legend instead of in the text. The same data should not be presented in both table and graph form or repeated in the text. MS Excel files should not be embedded as objects. If the submission is in PDF format, the author is requested to retain a copy in .doc format also to aid in completion of process successfully.
Figures
The preferred file formats for photographic images are .doc and JPEG. If you have created images with separate components on different layers, please send us the Adobe Photoshop files. All images must be at optimal resolutions. Image files must be cropped as close to the actual image as possible.
Numerals
Arabic numerals must be used to label the figures and upper case letters for their parts (Figure 1). Each legend must contain title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.
Equations
If equations cannot be encoded in MathML, submit them in TIFF or EPS format as discrete files. Each file should contain data for only one equation.
Additional Information
Discrete items of the Supplementary Information should be submitted in a new file and must be explained properly.
e-Prints
Electronic prints (PDF) will be sent as an e-mail attachment to the corresponding author. They are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. With the exception of typographical or some clerical errors, no changes will be made in the manuscript afterwards. Authors will have free electronic access to the full text article. Authors can freely download the PDF file from which they can print unlimited copies of their articles.
Publication Fee
Plant Health is an Open Access, self-supporting journal and do not receive any funding from any institution/government. The operation of the journal is only financed by the handling fees received from authors and some academic/corporate sponsors and paid members. The handling fees are required to meet the maintenance of the journal. All articles published by the journal are freely accessible over the internet. There are no submission charges however; authors are required to pay a fair handling fee for publishing their articles. Authors are required to make payment only after their manuscript has been accepted for publication.
The cost for Open Access article(s) publication will be established for each country according to its economy.
Publication Fee for High Income Countries = $ 300
Publication Fee for Middle Income Countries = $ 200
Publication Fee for Low Income Countries = $ 150
If you do not have funds to pay such fees, you will have an opportunity to avail partial fee waiver.
Publication fee waiver requests should be made prior to or at the point of transfer/submission to the journal. Requests should be sent to journal accounts section at; accounts@esciencepress.net
