General Instructions To Authors (2024)

See below for our instructions to authors andalso: Submitting your manuscript online
Japanese version of the instructions can be found here: Japanese translated instructions

• Scope and Criteria for Consideration
  • Article Types
• Journal Policies
  • Data Availability and Materials Distribution
• Pre-Submission Advice and Preparation
  • Language
  • Preparation of large data sets for submission and peer-review
• Formatting Requirements
  • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover Page
  • Figures
    • Combination images(figures with both line work or text and photographic elements)
  • Videos
  • Supplementary Data
• Manuscript Submission
  • Rapid Paper Justification
  • Database Submission Form
• Manuscript Acceptance
  • Licence to Publish
  • Embargo and Press Release
  • Advance Access
  • Proofs
  • Cover Images
  • Publication Charges
    • Open Access Publishing
    • Standard Publication Charges(for manuscripts submitted from 1 November 2023 onwards)
    • Standard Publication Charges(for manuscripts submitted up to and including 31 October 2023)
    • Author self-archiving/public access policy
• Journal contacts

Scope and Criteria for Consideration

Plant & Cell Physiology (PCP) is an international journal that publishes high quality, original articles reporting significant findings in broad aspects of plant biology, including but not restricted to: physiology, biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, molecular genetics, epigenetics, and biotechnology, as well as plant interactions with other organisms and the biology of photosynthetic microorganisms. PCP is the official journal of the Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists (JSPP), and as such welcomes submissions from society members as well as non-members.

Manuscripts that contain new and significant findings in any plant science-related field are welcome with the understanding that the contents have not been published elsewhere. Should any related papers be in press or submitted to another journal, authors are requested to give details in their cover letter upon submission. The criteria for manuscript acceptance are originality, significance to plant sciences, validity of experimental design and reliability of results. The journal will not accept manuscripts that contain purely confirmatory data or descriptive findings reporting the purification of proteins, the cloning of genes, the isolation of new mutants without the inclusion of supporting data providing an insight into the structural, functional or evolutionary biology. Manuscripts that do not meet the appropriate criteria will be rejected without external review.

Authors are advised to browse recent published issuesto see whether their manuscript falls within the scope of the journal, or direct any pre-submission enquiries to the editorial office (pcp.editorialoffice@oup.com).

Article Types

Regular Paper – a full-length research article containing new and significant findings that represent an incremental advance in the related field of plant sciences.

Rapid Paper – similar to a regular paper but should contain new findings of exceptional interest and novelty, which require rapid review (under 14 days to first decision) and publication (Rapid Papers are usually published in an issue within 40 days of acceptance). Authors are expected to prepare manuscripts according to the instructions given below to eliminate any errors and delays during peer-review. Rapid Paper authors must state their reasons for submitting a ‘rapid paper’, including an explanation about the broad significance of the work and why it necessitates quick publication, either in their cover letter or in a separate justification letter.

Mini Review and Review – usually commissioned on an invitation basis, but we occasionally accept non-solicited reviews. Authors interested in submitting a review paper should contact the Editorial Office in the first instance with a short summary of the proposed review and a list of 10 of the most relevant primary research papers published within the last 5 years to discuss.

Mini Reviews are intended to discuss recent trends and findings (ideally within the last 3 years) in a specific research field and should not exceed 5 typeset pages (or ~5800 words) with a maximum of 2 figures/tables and 70 references.

Reviews are slightly longer (<10,500 words with 4 figures/tables and ~110 references) and should comprehensively discuss recent studies covering various aspects of a related field.

All review authors should bear in mind that they are addressing a mixed audience of specialists and non-specialists. Accordingly, authors should present balanced arguments and provide sufficient background to help readers understand the review topic, as well as provide their own insight into current/future challenges and research directions.

Database Paper– describes a new plant-oriented database or online tool, or significant updates to an existing one. Authors interested in submitting a Database Paper should refer to our online instructions for database authors, and submit their article via the regular online submission site along with an accompanyingDB form.

Special IssueArticle – submission is by invitation or through specific calls for papers. SIs feature a selection of reviews and primary research papers on trending topics. More details of past and upcoming issues.

Letter to the Editor – an opinion piece that discusses or debates findings related to a published article in Plant and Cell Physiologyor other journals. Manuscripts should contain up to approx. 1000 words including a simple title, around 10 references and one consolidated (multi-panelled) figure, and no Abstract, while Materials and Methods should be limited, and included as Supplementary Data. Authors whose work is debated are offered the chance to respond with a rebuttal letter. The format for ‘Author Responses’ is similar to that for ‘Letters’.

Under this ‘Letters’ category, we now also provide scope for discussion of alternative interpretation(s) or incremental advances in publicly available data, descriptions of community standards and resources, and variations in established protocols.

Authors interested in submitting a ‘Letter’ should contact the editorial office (pcp.editorialoffice@oup.com) in the first instance. ‘Letters’ will be initially evaluated by the EIC and specialist Editor, and may subsequently be sent out for external review.

Commentary – pre-agreed by the editorial office and usually on an invitation-only basis. Commentaries should be prepared in a Word file, with approximately 1,500 words including appropriate title, and names and affiliation of the authors (total approx. 2,000 words including references). They may also include simple figures or models to explain the main conclusions of the work discussed.

Journal Policies

Authorship

All persons designated authors should qualify for authorship. Each author should have contributed substantially to the conception and design, execution, analysis and/or data interpretation of the manuscript and as such takes public responsibility for its content.

The journal encourages the inclusion of an author contribution statement in submitted articles, which describes the contribution of each author.

All authors should be involved in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content and must have read and approved the final version of the manuscript before submission.

The order of authorship should be a joint decision by the co-authors and agreed prior to submission. Any changes to the authorship list should be confirmed and approved by all authors before the article acceptance stage.

Disclosures/Conflicts of Interest

Authors are required to disclose competing interests. A competing interest exists when a primary interest (such as the validity of research) might be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry). At the point of submission, PCP’s policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated – including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. Also see ‘Disclosures’, under section Manuscript Preparation.

Publication Ethics

Authors should observe best scholarly practice. Further information about OUP’s ethical policies is available here. All cases of unethical research or publication malpractice brought to the journal are treated very seriously and will be managed in accordance with the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Cases of research or publication misconduct may also be referred to COPE in an anonymised format.

Examples of unethical practice include dual-submission, plagiarism (including self-plagiarism), figure manipulation, duplicate publication and falsification or fabrication of data. Selected submitted and accepted manuscripts are routinely scanned using the iThenticate tool to detect plagiarism and confirm originality.

Individuals reporting cases of suspected misconduct should contact the editorial office in the first instance with details of their concerns; anonymity will be preserved. All allegations of misconduct will be investigated thoroughly and if they cannot be resolved by discussion with the authors, then the appropriate authorities may be contacted to carry out their own independent investigations. If a conclusion cannot be reached then an expression of concern may be published by the journal. If misconduct is confirmed in a published manuscript, the likely course of action will be a retraction and an accompanying retraction notice will be published in the journal to alert readers about any correction(s) to the scientific record.

Data Availability and Materials Distribution

Authors are expected to make integral materials available such as seed stocks, constructs and related sequence, structural or phenotypic information, in public repositories. For more information, see Pre-Submission Advice and Preparation. Authors that publish their work in PCP do so on the premise that they also agree to distribute all published materials (with or without material transfer agreements) described in order to promote science and future research. PCP together with Plant Physiology, The Plant Cell, The Plant Journal, Plant Molecular Biology, and Journal of Experimental Botany issued a joint declaration on material transfer (Plant Cell Physiol(2000) 41 (12): i), which authors may refer to for more details.

In addition, authors are expected to retain all relevant laboratory and data records supporting manuscript submission, and are encouraged to deposit relevant raw data, gel images, unedited micrographs etc. to public repositories, such as Zenodo or Dryad, for long-term data access and storage.

Further, in accordance with OUP’s research data policy, the journal now requires authors to include a Data Availability statement in manuscripts. For more information, see section Formatting Requirements>Manuscript Preparation.

Pre-Prints and Self-Archiving

Authors are encouraged to deposit pre-prints in community pre-print servers such as bioRxiv.org prior to submission or during peer-review. Normally, preprints are automatically linked by their DOIs to their peer-reviewed and accepted versions within 2 weeks of journal publication; however, when the title and/or authorship changes, manuscripts can be missedand therefore authors should ensure that entries are updated by the preprint servers to acknowledge publication of the accepted article in PCP.

Please note that authors may only deposit their accepted manuscript if they publish their paper under an OA license agreement, or once the 12-month embargo period has elapsed.See our self-archiving policy for moredetails. Authors should contact the editorial office if they are in any doubt prior to submission.

Pre-Submission Advice and Preparation

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should ensure that they understand the journal scope and publication criteria. Papers may be rejected if the work falls outside this remit.

Language

Writing should be clear and simple, avoiding excessive use of the passive, and written in grammatically correct 'international' scientific English. If the contents of a manuscript are potentially interesting but the paper is too difficult to understand due to poor language, it may be rejected without review and authors will be advised to revise the text with a professional scientific language service (at their cost) or a native/proficient scientific English speaker before it can be considered again. Authors who are not confident in the quality of their English may wish to use a language-editing service to ensure that editors and reviewers understand their paper. Oxford University Press partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Prospective authors are entitled to a discount of 30% for editing services at Enago.

Enago is an independent service provider, who will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. Authors are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that a manuscript will be accepted for review or publication; edited manuscripts, if deemed suitable, will still undergo peer review by the journal.

Scientific Terminology and Nomenclature

Authors should refer to organisms by their common name (if applicable, and written in roman font/non italics) at first mention, with the Latin name given in parentheses. Subsequent references can be either Latin or common names but should be consistent throughout the manuscript. To avoid confusion, always use standard gene names and symbols.

New genes should be registered with the appropriate community databases (if available, e.g. TAIR for Arabidopsis). In general, symbols for genes, RNAs, cDNAs, should be italicized (e.g., FLC1), whereas symbols for proteins are not italicized (e.g., FLC1). Designations of mutant alleles should also be italicized, while double and triple mutants should be written using the names of the individual mutated genes separated by a space only. Gene fusions may be written with either a single colon or a hyphen e.g. FLC1:GFP or FLC1-GFP. Authors should provide the full gene or protein name followed by its symbol in parentheses upon first usage, and written in full in the manuscript title. Authors are responsible for checking that all nomenclature used in their manuscripts conform to accepted community standards, which may vary according to species. For reference, please check the following resources for Arabidopsis, Maize, Rice, Wheat, Tomato, Medicago, Brassica, and Chlamydomonas.

Nucleic Acids, Proteins, Mutants and Database Registration

Authors should provide sequence information of any novel sequences and X-ray crystallographic coordinates described in a manuscript that have not yet been published or reference them against a public repository. If you are using a standard commercial or previously published plasmid there is no need to provide detailed information, however it should be referenced so that readers know the origin. For any newly constructed plasmids, authors should provide the novel sequence information and a detailed illustration of the construct and insertion elements, demarcating sequence positions. We also recommend that authors register their plasmids and related information with addgenefor future distribution. Please see the instructions to register.

In addition, all new sequence information and X-ray crystallographic coordinates described in a manuscript must be submitted in electronic form to online repositories, such as GenBank, or to the appropriate database for release no later than the date of publication of the corresponding article in the journal. Include accession numbers and/or database depositionin the manuscript and refer to this in the manuscript footnote. If microarray data is included in the manuscripts authors are requested to deposit the data in public repository such as GEO, ArrayExpress and GEA. Authors should also make integral materials available in public repositories (see section onMaterials Distribution, above).

Preparation of large-scale data sets

Authors should make large data sets associated with the submitted work accessible for peer-review. (N.B. PCP has a size allowance of 120Mb per manuscript submission and cannot accommodate large datasets). For studies that include next-generation sequence data (e.g., whole-genome sequencing and genotyping, whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq etc.), complete data sets from next-generation sequencing must be deposited in a permanent public repository (e.g. NCBI's Short Read Archive sequence database, DDBJ Sequence Read Archive, or EBI’s European Nucleotide Archive) prior to submission, and must be made publically available immediately upon acceptance for publication.　　

Other large-scale data that are integral to the manuscript should be accessible for peer review. Authors may deposit such data for which no specialized permanent repository into a public general-purpose repository such as the Dryad Digital Repository,FigShare, Harvard Dataverseand Zenodo. Note that these databases offer private dataset functions for peer-review.Upon submission, authors must provide information in their cover letters of links to access such large-scale data, and upon acceptance for publication, must make the data publiclyavailable immediately.

Data availability, original software code, and training conditions are all considered important elements to include in informatics-type papers. To this end, another recommended repository is GitHub (github.com), providing hosting capability for software development and version control using Git. It offers the distributed version control and source code management functionality of Git, plus its own features. In addition, Code Ocean (http://codeocean-com-s-99.er.library.nenu.edu.cn/) can be used for data and code.

Standardization of experimental data

Authors should ensure that the appropriate experimental design and statistical analyses are performed to ensure independent verification and to support the correct interpretation of the data and conclusions drawn from the work. Suitable technical, true biological, and/or experimental replicates should be included and any statistical analysis performed should be clearly described. Figures and tables should also be clearly defined with error bars and degrees of significance, where appropriate. For studies involving various treatments/conditions, replicates should be randomised for each treatment type to avoid bias. For qRT-PCR experiments, adequate biological replication should be present as explained in the guidelines set out by Rieu and Powers, 2009, Plant Cell 21: 1031-1033.

Permission to include published material

If using or reproducing material (text, figures, tables) from other published sources, the relevant permission(s) to use (or reproduce) such material must be obtained by the authors in advance of manuscript submission, and the original source must be acknowledged in the manuscript, as appropriate. Authors should refer to the original publisher, who is usually responsible for managing copyright and permissions. Authors wishing to re-use or modify material from PCP publications should check whether permission is required via the Rightslink automated permissions system located on the journal article page. Please see our information for obtain permission through the Rightslink permissions system. Evidence of copyright approval should be uploaded as a supporting file during manuscript submission.

Formatting Requirements

New manuscripts can be submitted in any journal format, while all revisions and resubmissions must adhere to the journal’s formatting instructions as set out below.

Manuscript Preparation

The main manuscript files should be prepared in an editable file and saved as a .docx Please note: PDF (.pdf) is not an acceptable file type. Use 10pt font. Headings: main (section) headings [A] in bold sentence case; sub-headings [B] in italic sentence case; sub-sub-headings [C] in italic sentence case with the text continued on the same line.

Regular and Rapid Paper manuscripts should comprise the following elements: cover page, title page, abstract, key words, main text set out in the following order: Introduction - Results - Discussion (or combined 'Results and Discussion') - Materials and Methods – Data Availability - Funding - Acknowledgments (optional) – Author Contributions (optional)- Disclosures - References - Tables (if applicable) - Legends to Figures and/or Tables (excluding S-data; these should be embedded in the Supplementary data files.

For review papers, we recommended the following layout: cover page, title page, abstract, key words, main text to start with Introduction followed by informative subheadings to delineate the different elements of the discussion - Data Availability - Funding - Acknowledgments (optional) -Author Contributions (optional)– Disclosures - References - Tables (if applicable)- Legends to Figures and Tables (excluding S-data; these should be embedded in the Supplementary data files and may also contain supplementary Materials and Methods).

For Database manuscript preparation see more instructions.

Number all pages consecutively including tables and legends to figures;

Manuscript files should be uploaded to ScholarOne with the file designation: *2a. Manuscript file - clean* (required). Authors submitting Revisions should also upload a separate file with changes showing designated ‘2b. Manuscript file - marked revisions’.

Cover Page

• Title and running head (short title). Short title must not exceed 50 characters, counting letters and spaces. Give the full title of the manuscript and start each word with a capital letter. Titles should state the main findings or conclusion of the study and should not contain any abbreviations e.g.Plastid Differentiation Gene1is required for chloroplast biogenesis inNicotiana tabacumL.
• Corresponding author(s). Indicate the name of the corresponding author(s) in the following format: first name(s) written with initials only, and followed by the last name – e.g. J. E. Smith; add Department/Division/Unit name, if any/ Affiliation name/ Street address/ City/ Postal code / Country/ Telephone/ Fax/ Email address. Note that during the online submission process, only the name of one corresponding author can be entered into the system.
• Subject areas. Select one or two subject areas which are most relevant to the study from (1) growth and development, (2) environmental and stress responses, (3) regulation of gene expression, (4) proteins, enzymes and metabolism, (5) photosynthesis, respiration and bioenergetics, (6) structure and function of cells, (7) membrane and transport, (8) cell–cell interaction, (9) natural products, (10) genomics, systems biology and evolution, and (11) new methodology.
• Number of black and white figures, colour figures, tables and type and number of supplementary material.
• Insert a page break

Title Page (p.2)

• Title and running head (short title) again; null
• Authors byline. First name, middle initial (if any) and family name of all authors – no degrees, titles or positions of responsibility. This is important for labelling the article for online publication (e.g. 'Tanaka et al.').
• Authors' addresses. Multiple authors with different addresses must indicate these separately by superscript numbers. Include Department/ Division/ Unit name, if any; affiliation name/ City (without state)/ Postcode/ Country;
  Example: Taro Tanaka ¹ and Jiro Yamamoto ^{2
  1} Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, PCP University Shizuhama, 432-0001 Japan
  ² Environmental Engineering Laboratory, JSPP College Kanayama, 234-0001 Japan
• Corresponding author(s). Please indicate with an asterisk and include email address (and fax number, if available).

Page 3

• Abstract. Less than 250 words; provide the necessary background to the work for a non-specialist audience, and include the biological question the study aims to address/hypothesis, a summary of the main findings and conclusions. Authors should also aim to state the broader biological significance of the work. Avoid excessive jargon and abbreviations.
• Keywords. No more than six in alphabetical order. Include the common name or scientific name, or both, of plant materials.

Page 4 and subsequent pages

• Main body sections should be presented with headings in the following order: Introduction – Results – Discussion (or ‘Results and Discussion’ combined) – Materials and Methods – Data Availability – Funding – Acknowledgments – Author Contributions – Disclosures – References – Tables – Legends to Figures. (N.B. Figures must be uploaded separately)
• Materials andMethods must be comprehensively described such that others can replicate results and verify conclusions. Generally, standard procedures can be referenced, though significant variations should be described. Appropriate experimental design and statistical methods should be applied and described wherever necessary for proper interpretation of data and verification of claims. All novel materials and the procedures to prepare them should be described in sufficient detail to allow their reproduction. If necessary, additional details (e.g. large primer sets, plasmid constructs, or specific experimentalconditions) can be included as supplementary information.
• Data Availability Statement. The journal encourages all authors, where ethically possible, to publicly release all data underlying their published article, including details of all materials (e.g. nucleotide sequences, protein structures etc.) used in the study. Examples of data availability statements are shown below:
  1. The data underlying this article are available in [repository name, e.g. the GenBank Nucleotide Database] at [URL], and can be accessed with [unique identifier, e.g. accession number, deposition number].
  2. The data underlying this article are available in [repository name, e.g. Zenodo], at http://dx-doi-org-s-99.er.library.nenu.edu.cn/[doi]. The datasets were derived from sources in the public domain: [list sources, including URLs].
  3. Examples for inclusion in review papers:
     1. Source data for figure(s) [number(s)] are provided in the paper.
     2. No new datasets were generated or analysed in this study.
  4. Other example statements can be found here: http://academic-oup-com-s-99.er.library.nenu.edu.cn/journals/pages/authors/preparing_your_manuscript/research-data-policy
• Accordingly, authors must include a ‘Data Availability’ statement, as above, in their submitted article and should ensure that all newly generated sequences are made available for peer-review – and registered in public repositories – at the time of manuscript submission.
• Funding information. All sources of funding must be disclosed in the ‘Funding’ section of the paper. List departmental, governmental, industrial, charitable, philanthropic and/or personal sources of funding used for the studies described in the manuscript. Attribution of these funding sources is preferred. If in doubt – disclose. For research where no source of funding is declared, include the statement ‘This research was carried out without funding’. The following rules should be followed:
• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘National Institutes of Health’, not ‘NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies). Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding, no extra wording like ‘Funding for this work was provided by ...’ should be used and the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]',
• An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789]’.
• In order to meet funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit theCHORUS initiative.
• In addition, Oxford Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. SeeDepositing articles in repositories – information for authorsfor details. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above.
• Acknowledgements.Authors wishing to acknowledge the help or advice of individuals or organisations, schemes etc. may do so here.
• Author contributions.All authors must qualify for authorship and are responsible for the work presented in each submitted paper. Authors may include a description of the individual contributions of each author in a separate ‘Author Contributions’ section.
• Disclosures.As an integral part of the online submission process, corresponding authors are required to confirm whether they or their co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare, and to provide details of these. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy. If the corresponding author is unable to confirm this information on behalf of all co-authors, the authors in question will then be required to submit a completed Conflict of Interest form. Please consider the conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it? Note: For papers where there are no competing interests, include the statement ‘Conflicts of interest: No conflicts of interest declared’.
• References. A reference list in Harvard style (alphabetical, by authors family name, then chronological).Examples:
  • Text:Takahashi and Yamamoto (1986) reported... (Suzuki et al. 1996);
  • List: Birch, B.P. (1995a) Growth responses of Nicotiana tabacum L. to light and water stress.Plant Cell Physiol.36: 1-10.
  • Birch, B.P. (1995b) Organic acid metabolism in light-grown radish (Raphanus sativus L.).Plant Cell Physiol.36: 101-110.
  • Cherry, P.Y., Juniper, R. and Aoki, J. (1994) Kinetic studies of photosynthetic activity in Chlorella. InMechanism of Photosynthesis.Edited by Yanagi, M. and Liu, Y. pp. 123-234. Science Press, Tokyo.
  • Cherry, P.Y. and Oaks, B.B. (1997) Translocation of photosynthetic products.Annu. Rev. Plant Sci.130: 15-60.
  • Holly, M.C. (1987) Plant Biophysics. p. 102. Botany Press, Kyoto.
  • When there are more than six authors, please list only the first six, followed by a comma and "et al."
• Unpublished data and personal communications should not be cited as literature citations, but given in the text in parentheses. 'In press' articles that have been accepted for publication may be cited in References. Include in the citation the journal in which the 'in press' article will appear and the publication date, if a date is available. References to preprints should include the unique doi.
• If preparing your manuscript with EndNote, be sure to download thelatest Plant and Cell Physiology EndNote reference style file (Plant and Cell Phys.ens).
• Tables if appropriate, in tabulate text. Do not embed tables – tables submitted as image data cannot be edited. Number tables consecutively with Arabic numerals. Explanatory material should be given in the table legends and footnotes. Each table should be prepared on a separate page.
• Note: Tables that include colours/symbols will processed as figures, and will not be edited.
• Figure legends if appropriate, in a list following the references/tables. (Figures must be uploaded additionally as individual graphic files. Please do not embed figures.) Figures embedded in word cannot be used by the publisher. Figures should be submitted as single separate image files: either resolution independent EPS files, or high resolution TIFF files. Do not include legends to Supplementary data.

*Note that while there are no space restrictions, we advise authors to write succinctly as excess page charges apply to articles of more than 8 typeset pages (see Acceptance>Publication Charges, below), which approximately equates to a maximum of 8,000 words with no more than 8 figures/tables and 50 references for original research papers. Invited review authors are expected to follow the word count guidelines as given inArticle Types above.

Figures

Authors should adhere to the following guidelines for figure preparation:

• All main figures must be submitted as separate electronic files in their original formats (TIFF, jpg, EPS, PNG), without the legends.
• Each file size should not exceed 5-10Mb.
• File names should not contain special characters.
• For each figure, align all panels relative to each other, keep fonts consistent, and ensure the layout fits A4 portrait single column or full-page (double column) spread, minimizing blank spaces. Panels should be labeled with a bold capital letter without parenthesis (around 12-14 type font).
• All figures should be consistent in size and contain similar style and sized fonts (typically around 10pt for internal labels).

Detailed information is found below.

Electronic file formats

All figures must be submitted electronically and are required as suitably labelled individual files (e.g. Smith_et_al. Fig1, Smith_et_al. Fig1) TIFF and EPS files are preferred. JPG can be used, however the format relies on ‘lossy’ compression: figures can lose quality each time they are opened, shared, or modified. For this reason we prefer not to receive JPG files. PPT and PDF formats are acceptable. Figures in EPS, PPT or PDF format should have a top and left white margin to avoid overlap of the figure with line numbers. The margin is in addition to the height and width measurements given above.

Colour figures

Colour images are encouraged and published without additional charge. Image files should be in CMYK (preferred) or RGB. Also note that use of red and green colour combinations in images is particularly problematic for approximately 5% of the male population that is colour blind and so should be avoided.

Naming convention

Figures should be prepared in an appropriate graphic package and files should be named according to DOS conventions, e.g. 'figure1.tif' and should not contain special characters.

Figure labelling

Lettering should be in proportion to the figure. Use consistently sized upper case type font without parenthesis for labelling figure panels. Other labels should be around 10pt at final publication size. Helvetica font is preferred for labels, but other font types, such as Times New Roman or Arial, are also acceptable.

Combination images (figures with both line work or text and photographic elements)

EPS is preferred. The requirements are the same as for line work below.

File size and resolution

Electronic figure files should be saved at a resolution of at least 300dpi at the final printed size (up to 230mm height; 86mm single and 178mm double column widths) for colour and half-tone figures; and 1200dpi for black and white line drawings.

Photographs

300dpi TIFF files at desired publication size. A single column image would need to be 300dpi and 120mm wide. A full-page image would need to be at 300dpi and 210mm wide.

Line work

EPS is preferred as this is vector-based software and allows smaller file sizes. Figure size requirements still apply – 86mm wide for a single column; 178mm wide for a whole page image.

Most graphic software can output to EPS via a 'print to' Postscript or PDF printer. If this is not possible, then we can accept high-resolution TIFF files – 600dpi at single column/whole page widths. Lower resolutions will cause the text/line element to break up.

Lines should not be thinner than 0.25pt and in-fill patterns and screens should have a density of at least 10%.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work. 

Alt-text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, photographs, and it isn’t required for tables and large datasets (unless the tables are provided as figures).

Alt-text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article.

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text.

Videos

Videos may also be submitted alongside figure files as part of your manuscript, e.g. to demonstrate in vivo dynamics of living systems, dynamic interactions between plants and other organisms, or specific techniques etc., and can be published online (html format) or as a still in the PDFversion. Videos can be submitted in any standard format e.g. wmv, avi, mpeg, mov, but mp4 is preferred. Videos must be of high quality with a minimum size of 640x480 (or preferably higher as all videos will be converted to mp4) and with an aspect ratio of 4:3 (standard) or 16:9 (widescreen). We recommend that videos are no more than 2 minutes in length. When submitting videos, please use the correct file designation and provide an accompanying legend. Please also provide a separate still image (with legend) to be used when representing the video in the PDF version. The still image should be provided at intended publication size, in the format and resolution described for figures, and labelled appropriately e.g. Smith_et_al_videostill1.

Supplementary Data

Supporting material that is too lengthy or deemed superfluous for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript, but would nevertheless benefit the reader, can be made available as online-only content, linked to the online manuscript. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Such information might include the study protocols, more detailed methods, videos, 3-D structures/images, sequence alignments extended data sets/data analysis, or additional figures and databases.

All supplementary materials for consideration should be uploaded as Supplementary Data with the submission. Please indicate clearly the type and number of materials intended as Supplementary Data in the first page of the manuscript upon submission. Also ensure that the Supplementary Data is referred to in the main manuscript (though note that legends must not be included in the main manuscript document). Supplementary Data should be submitted in a single or multiple separate file(s) separate to the main manuscript file, in its final form. Supplementary figures, tables and text should be prepared in PDF, data sets in PDF or Excel formats and legends to figures/tables should also be included in the same file. Please note that Supplementary Data will not be edited or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication, therefore authors should ensure that these data are clearly and succinctly presented, and that the style of terms conforms to that of the main article. Videos should be prepared as described above but without the accompanying video still. Each supplementary data/materials file should not exceed 5MB. Please label these supplementary files as S1, S2, S3, if in distinct file formats.

Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts and accompanying material to be considered for publication in PCP should be submitted via the journal's online submission system atScholarOne.

Please whitelist the domains of amazonses.com and manuscriptcentral.com to ensure uninterrupted service to the manuscript submission and peer-review process. Thank you.

Full submission instructions and support are available on the site and a user ID and password can be obtained on the first visit. If you have any queries please contact the Editorial Office:pcp.editorialoffice@oup.com

Detailed instructions can be found on page: Submitting your manuscript online

Cover Letter

All manuscripts must be submitted with a cover letter, which should state the originality, significance and advancement made by the work in the relevant plant science field. The cover letter should also include a statement declaring that the manuscript reports unpublished work that it is not under active consideration for publication elsewhere, nor been accepted for publication, nor been published in full or in part (except in abstract form). In addition, if authors are submitting their paper for consideration in a SpecialIssue (SI) they should declare which SI the manuscript is intended for. Authors may also suggest a handling editor and the names and contact details of up to five potential international reviewers, stating the reason for selecting these reviewers in their cover letter. Authors may also disqualify up to two reviewers – though valid justification is required.

Rapid Paper Justification

Authors of Rapid Papers must also justify why their work fulfils the criteria and warrants rapid review. Failure to provide a satisfactory reason will result in the submission category being changed to ‘Regular Paper’.

Database Submission Form

Authors of Database Papers must also upload a separate database form.

Once you are ready to submit, check that these elements are included in the following order:

• The cover letter;
• Title Page;
• The main text document (ensure it conforms to the above requirements);
• Figures, Tables and/or Videos(prepared as above and uploaded as separate files);
• Supporting documents (e.g. supplementary data files, author response to reviewer comments, justification for rapid paper) are uploaded and designated correctly; and
• The automatically generated PDF proof of your paper is viewable as intended for editors and reviewers.
• You have completed all submission steps.

Failure to do so will result in your files being returned to your author centre for correction before further processing. In such cases, you will receive an email indicating the corrections that are required.

Note that submitted files will automatically be converted to PDF proof on the system. In order to prevent faulty conversions caused by the wide variety of special fonts and symbols that are currently in use, embedding fonts before saving a MS Word file is recommended.

Tracking your submission

Authors may track the progress of their submission at any time during the review processvia their author centre. All other queries related to manuscripts under consideration can be directed at the editorial office quoting the relevant manuscript ID number(s) in all correspondences.

Peer review

All papers published are subject to peer review. Papers that are outside the scope of the journal, do not comply with the guidelines below, or are otherwise judged to be unsuitable by EIC or the editors will be rejected without review. Papers meeting the formatting guidelines and journal’s criteria for publication (set out above) will be assigned to a handling Editor. The Editors will select anonymous reviewers for their competence in specialized areas. On submission of a manuscript, authors may suggest a handling editor and the names and contact details of up to five potential reviewers who have not seen the manuscript before its submission. The EIC and Editors are not, however, bound by these suggestions. Authors may also request disqualification of up to two possible reviewers with justification.

Corresponding Authors should receive a decision letter from the Editor together with reports from the reviewers (if available) within two weeks after submission of Rapid Papers, or within one month for other categories. 
When revision of a manuscript is requested, the author must respond to the comments of the Editor and/or reviewers, indicate which comments have been incorporated in the revision, and give reasons why any comments have been disregarded. The revised manuscript must be returned within the period assigned by the Editor. A revised manuscript received after this time will be considered a new submission.

Editorial Decision

Corresponding authors are informed by email of editorial decisions and any revisions requested. Editor decisions are usually final and can be any of the following:

• Accept without revision
• Provisional Accept (minor changes to text are required)
• Revision requested
• Decline but encourage resubmission
• Decline (reject)

Papers that have received an ‘Accept without revision’ decision may be subject to further checks and modifications, as requested by the editorial office before sending papers to production. Under rare circ*mstances, editorial decisions may also be rescinded. In cases where the Editor has asked for revisions, authors are set a specific deadline depending on the level of revision requested, typically <21 days for a provisional accept, <60 days for ‘revision requested’ and <6 months for a ‘decline but encourage resubmission’ decision. If the deadline is not met without good reason, revised manuscripts may be automatically treated as new submissions. Editors may automatically reject papers if authors do not adequately revise their manuscripts and/or fail to meet the publication standards required. Therefore if authors are in doubt about the type of revisions requested, they should immediately contact the editor or the editorial office for clarification. Note also that manuscripts rarely go through multiple rounds of resubmission; authors whose papers have been rejected should not resubmit a revised form of their paper to the journal again for further consideration unless encouraged to do so by the handling editor. Any author rebuttals should be written in English, include the manuscript ID in the subject header, and addressed to the handling Editor/Editor-in-Chief courtesy of the Editorial Office (pcp.editorialoffice@oup.com).

Preparation of a Revised/Resubmitted Manuscript

All revised and resubmitted manuscripts should be prepared carefully according to the Formatting Requirements, and should be revised according to the Editor and/or reviewers’ comments stipulated in the decision letter. For revisions, any text changes should be highlighted in red and a response to the reviewer’s comments should be provided via the online submission form. Authors are also requested to submit ‘clean’ versions of their revised manuscript files i.e. without any changes showing. For resubmissions, it is not necessary to highlight text changes due to the extensive nature of the revisions requested, however authors should attach a separate ‘response to the reviewer’s comments’ document detailing their point-by-point response and where appropriate the reason(s) why certain points (if any) were not addressed.Further detailed instructions on how to submit a revised manuscript or resubmission are available. When submitting revised manuscript files, be sure to use the correct manuscript submission link in ScholarOne, which can be found under the ‘manuscripts with decisions’ tab in the Author Center – DO NOT ‘create a new submission’. This will ensure that the original handling editor is reassigned and will facilitate assignment of the original reviewers. If in doubt, please contact the Editorial Office in the first instance

Manuscript Acceptance

Authors are notified of article acceptance for publication by a decision e-letter from the Editor. On acceptance, the final manuscript files will be sent to the publisher for proofing. Accepted manuscripts are then usually published online in Advance Access within 1 week from when license to publish forms are signed and returned by the authors, and articles are thereafter assigned to the next available issue.

Copyright

It is a condition of publication that authors grant an exclusive licence to Oxford University Press. 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. As part of the licence agreement, 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 is notified in writing and in advance.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.

Licence to Publish

Embargo and Press Release

Authors planning on issuing a press release of their accepted manuscript should inform the editorial office before or immediately after acceptance (mail to pcp.editorialoffice@oup.com) - and before signing the licence to publish, to arrange an embargo date for their accepted article. It is possible to place an embargo on either the first version or the corrected version of accepted papers. Please contact the Author Support team (mail to jnls.author.support@oup.com) for more information.

PCP Advance Access

The journal operates a system for the early online publication of accepted papers ahead of issue publication. Accepted manuscripts are usually published online within a few days after licence forms have been signed. In order to achieve this rapid publication time, the accepted manuscript is published online before copyediting and formatting has been carried out, this version is indicated by the text 'Accepted Manuscript'. A second copyedited, typeset, corrected version is then also published online ahead of pagination and issue assignment; this version is indicated by the text 'Corrected Proof'. Appearance on Advance Access constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique DOI (digital object identifier).Authors should ensure that these DOIs link to original preprint version DOIs, if applicable.

Proofs

A link to view and edit proofs electronically will be sent to the corresponding author by our external typesetters. Authors are responsible for reading page proofs and correcting typographical errors and should return proofswithin 48 hours as directed by the production office to avoid delays in publication.

Cover Images

PCP welcomes suitable photographs or illustrations for the issue cover. Authors are encouraged to upload high-quality, unlabelled original image files (300-1200 dpi original file formats to fit A4 portrait dimensions 297 x 210 mm or 11.69 x 8.27 inches) along with their submission or email the Editorial office with a low-resolution version of their proposed image once their manuscript has been accepted for publication. Note that files greater than 10Mb cannot be emailed to the PCP inbox but should be sent via a file transfer system (or contact the editorial office for assistance). Cover images should be clear, attractive and have some connection with the topic of the manuscript.

Publication charges

Important Note: PCP is reducing and simplifying its author charges. The new charges will apply to all papers submitted from 1st November 2023 onwards. Please see below for details.

Note that papers submitted prior to this date (up to and including 31 October 2023) will be subject to the previous charges.

For details about publication waivers for authors from developing countries, please see the participating countries list.

Open Access Publishing

PCPoffers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

JSPP members are entitled to a 20% discount on OA publication fees.

Non-member OA publication fee*: $2,995

JSPP member OA publication fee**: $2,396

* Standard publication charges do not apply for authors who select to pay for Open Access publication.

** The corresponding author must enter their JSPP membership number during the submission process in order to benefit from the discount. This discount applies to papers submitted from 1 November 2023 onwards.

More details of theopen access licences and open access chargesare available.

Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution.

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge.Find out if your institution is participating.

Standard publication charges(for manuscripts submitted from 1 November 2023 onwards)

JSPP members*:
Page charges - waived

Non-members:
Page charges - $50 per page

Special Issue and invited papers are exempt from page charges.

* The corresponding author must enter their JSPP membership number during the submission process in order to benefit from the waiver. Note that this waiver applies to papers submitted from 1 November 2023 onwards. Papers submitted prior to this date are subject to the charges listed below.

Upon publication of the final, typeset version of their paper, authors will receive an email inviting them to pay their page charges online. Note that page charges are waived for JSPP members. To become a JSPP member, please go tothe JSPP websitefor more details. Payment related Inquiries should be addressed tooupsupport@scipris.com.

Standard publication charges (for manuscripts submitted up to and including 31 October 2023)

JSPP members:
Article processing charge - £150
Excess page charge* -£100

Non-members:
Article processing charge - £300
Excess page charge* - £200

*Charges apply per page over eight typeset pages.

Authors will be invoiced after publication, as appropriate. Note that JSPP members are eligible for a discount to publish in PCP. To become a JSPP member, please go tothe JSPP websitefor more details. Invoicing inquiries should be addressed tojnls.author.support@oup.com.

Author self-archiving/public access policy

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

Journal Contacts

PCP Editorial Office
For pre- and post-submission enquiries, please contact the Editorial Office:
PCP Editorial Office
Email: pcp.editorialoffice@oup.com

OUP Journal Author Support Services
For post-acceptance, production and invoicing queries, please contact the production office:
Email: jnls.author.support@oup.com