Authors Guidelines

Submission

We will consider your manuscript as long as

  • it is your own original work and does not duplicate any previously published work, including your own;
  • it is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any journal other than Indian Journal of Biological Research;
  • it has not been published in any other journal; and
  • it contains nothing abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

Authors should observe high ethical standards and obey publication best practices. The following are all unacceptable:

  • data falsification or fabrication, including image manipulation
  • plagiarism, including duplicate publication of your own work without proper citation
  • misappropriation of work

How to Submit

You must submit your paper via our web-based submission system, which may be found on the submission page.  Questions about submitting can be sent to the editorial office at surabhi@injbr.com

Article Type

This journal publishes several different article types.

Research Articles

Full-length Research Articles present original findings with new and fundamental insights into the biological field and/or set out novel approaches, tools, or resources that will enable scientific progress. As a guide, Research Articles typically include up to 6-10 total figures and tables, the main text (typically no more than 7,000 words including the abstract; figure legends, tables, and citations are NOT included in the word count), and 30-50 citations. Research Articles may also include supplemental material.

Research Reports

Research Reports are a forum for new and original findings and/or methods that are highly focused and challenge current approaches or thinking in the plant sciences. Like full-length Research Articles, a Research Report must address hypotheses about the origins, development, and/or functions or add substantially to approaches, tools, and resources that enable scientific progress. A Research Report should not exceed 6 pages (less than 3,000 words), including no more than 5 tables and figures and fewer than 30 citations.

Letters

Letters are unsolicited and provide a forum for scientific correspondence on new research findings and ideas that are highly focused. They do not incur publication charges. The Letter format is limited to a maximum of 3 journal pages (less than 1,000 words). Letter submissions are typically based on analysis of existing literature and/or limited experimentation. Letters should include no more than 2 figures and tables. Any supplemental experimental material must be directly related to these figures and tables. Letters will be considered subject to the extent to which thinking is challenged on topics of interest to the Journal. Letters should include a short title and salutation to the Editor (“Dear Sir” or “Dear Editor”). Letters do not include an abstract. Instead, the main conclusion and its significance should be summarized in the first paragraph along with sufficient background for the reader to understand the context of the problem. Letters must not include separate sections for methods, results, or discussion, although these components of a Letter may be interwoven within the text and figure legends where necessary. Author names and affiliations should appear at the end of the text before the citations. As appropriate, a summary of author contributions should be included as supplemental material. Citations are limited to a maximum of 20.

Breakthrough Technologies, Tools, and Resources

Breakthrough Technologies, Tools, and Resources addresses the development and application of new experimental or theoretical methods, tools, and resources that are frequently the key for new insights into physiological processes. This area provides a platform for developments in theoretical, analytical, and experimental methodologies, and for enabling tools and resources that will find wide use within the plant research community. Such technologies, tools, and resources are expected to go beyond incremental improvements to what currently exists and should enable major advances in addressing fundamental questions in Indian Journal of Biological Research. Breakthrough Technologies, Tools, and Resources conform to one or the other of the Research Article and Research Report formats.

Updates

Updates are typically invited reviews of recent progress and meant to be resources for research and advanced teaching tools. Authors of invited Updates receive an honorarium on publication. Updates should not exceed 5,000 words in the main body of the text, and may include figures and tables. In addition, Updates may include boxes with figures, tables, and/or text that highlights particular topics and/or concepts. Boxes are included that summarize the newest advances and the outstanding questions and/or challenges in the field. Updates are primarily associated with Focus Issues. Authors wishing to contribute an Update to a regular issue must first correspond with the Editor-in-Chief or one of the Associate Editors for Reviews.

Items for Inclusion in Updates (this text is not counted toward the main body):

Advances Box (900 characters, including spaces, required)

  • The Advances box is a short collection of bullet point statements (3-5) that concisely convey to the reader the recent advances in the area, including emerging concepts and/or distinctions, that constitute a main motivation for the discussion developed in the article.
  • As the box aims to focus on recent developments, conclusions and future directions should be discussed in the Concluding Remarks section and/or the Outstanding Questions box.
  • The text in the Advances box is not called out in the text and should not include references.
  • The Advances box does not count toward the total number of allowed display elements in the manuscript.

Outstanding Questions Box (900 characters, including spaces, required)

  • Important questions for future research should be summarized in a box (not included in box count or element limit). This is an excellent opportunity to offer input and guidance on new directions for the field.
  • Please write succinct questions in list format, with bullet points to indicate the start of a new concept.
  • The Outstanding Questions box should not include references.
  • The box should be called out in an appropriate section in the text, generally the Concluding Remarks section, as “see Outstanding Questions.” This element will be placed as the last box in the paper, although it should not be numbered with the other boxes.

Text Boxes

  • Ideal for providing explanations of basic concepts or theories, giving detailed mechanisms, or discussing case studies.
  • Please cite text boxes in the main text beginning with Box 1.
  • Boxes should have a single-sentence title (no more than 8 words).
  • Text boxes can occasionally contain a small figure or table. Please cite the element in the box text.
  • 400 words maximum per box.
  • References for citations in the box should be included in the main reference list and must also be cited in the main text.
  • No more than 3 text boxes per article.

Topical Reviews

Topical Reviews are usually invited and are intended to provide experts and non-experts alike with the conceptual and technical background behind the most important areas of research at the forefront of biology. Authors of invited Topical Reviews receive an honorarium on publication. Topical Reviews may appear in a regular issue or as part of a Focus Issue of Indian Journal of Biological Research. Topical Reviews are normally limited to 8,000 words in the main body of the text and may include figures and tables. In addition, Topical Reviews may include boxes with figures, tables, and/or text that highlights particular topics and/or concepts or introduces outstanding questions and/or challenges in the field. Authors wishing to contribute a Topical Review to a regular issue must first correspond with the Editor-in-Chief or one of the Associate Editors for Reviews.

Items for Inclusion in Topical Reviews (this text is not counted toward the main body):

Advances Box (900 characters, including spaces, required)

  • The Advances box is a short collection of bullet point statements (3-5) that concisely convey to the reader the recent advances in the area, including emerging concepts and/or distinctions, that constitute a main motivation for the discussion developed in the article.
  • As the box aims to focus on recent developments, conclusions and future directions should be discussed in the Concluding Remarks section and/or the Outstanding Questions box.
  • The text in the Advances box is not called out in the text and should not include references.
  • The Advances box does not count toward the total number of allowed display elements in the manuscript.

Outstanding Questions Box (900 characters, including spaces, required)

  • Important questions for future research should be summarized in a box (not included in box count or element limit). This is an excellent opportunity to offer input and guidance on new directions for the field.
  • Please write succinct questions in list format, with bullet points to indicate the start of a new concept.
  • The Outstanding Questions box should not include references.
  • The box should be called out in an appropriate section in the text, generally the Concluding Remarks section, as “see Outstanding Questions.” This element will be placed as the last box in the paper, although it should not be numbered with the other boxes.

Text Boxes

  • Ideal for providing explanations of basic concepts or theories, giving detailed mechanisms, or discussing case studies.
  • Please cite text boxes in the main text beginning with Box 1.
  • Boxes should have a single-sentence title (no more than 8 words).
  • Text boxes can occasionally contain a small figure or table. Please cite the element in the box text.
  • 400 words maximum per box.
  • References for citations in the box should be included in the main reference list and must also be cited in the main text.
  • No more than 3 text boxes per article.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are usually solicited. Uninvited Letters to the Editor on topics of interest or controversy may also be considered for publication. Authors must contact the Editor-in-Chief before submission.

News and Views

Indian Journal of Biological Researchregularly includes short insights to accompany articles of special interest to readers, providing additional background for the non-specialist. News and Views may be solicited by the Editor-in-Chief, an Associate Editor for Reviews, or the Features Editor, and the Journal will consider unsolicited submissions. Authors of unsolicited submissions must contact the Editor-in-Chief before submission.

Corrections

There are two types of corrections to previously published articles and corrected proofs with errors:

  • Corrigendum – indicates an error made by the authors that was not identified before publication of the corrected proof.
  • Erratum – indicates an error was made by the editorial office or production team

Authors who would like to request a corrigendum or erratum to a published paper should contact clowe@aspb.org with an explanation for the error to be approved by the editors.

Third-Party Permissions

If you wish to reproduce any material for which you do not own the copyright—including quotations, tables, or images—you must obtain permission from the copyright holder. The permissions agreement must include the following documents:

  • nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your article in Plant Physiology
  • both print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium
  • lifetime rights to use the material
  • worldwide English-language rights

Further information on obtaining permissions is available.

Manuscript Preparation: Format, Structure, and Style

Presubmission Language Editing

If you are not confident in the quality of your English, you may wish to use a language-editing service to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your paper. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will still undergo peer review by the journal.

Cover Letter

A decision on whether, and how, to handle a manuscript is based initially on this letter.

  • Do not simply repeat the manuscript abstract.
  • Clearly state the significance of the work to understanding in plant biology in the broadest terms.
  • Explain how the work will advance knowledge of plant biology and/or enable research in the future.
  • Justify any disqualification of potential reviewers (the editors will consider disqualifications only if the reasoning is explained in the cover letter).
  • Indicate if the journal is to include more than one senior author in the publication and why — sound, material justification for multiple senior authorship is needed or the journal will not consider requests.

Title Page

Please include the following:

  • the title of your paper (no more than 120 characters including spaces)
  • all author names and affiliations
  • mailing address and email address of one author for contact
  • a short running head of 50 characters or less

Abstract

Abstracts have a maximum length of 250 words and must not contain reference citations or abbreviations.

Style

The Journal follows CSE style. Please refer to Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (8th ed.) when preparing your manuscript. US spelling should be used throughout, except in quotations and in references.

Abbreviations

Please define nonstandard abbreviations at the first occurrence.

Tables

You must number all tables (e.g., table 1, table 2, table 3) and reference them in the text. You must place all tables at the end of the main text. Tables should be in an editable format and not embedded as an image file.

References

Please format references in Harvard style at submission. You are responsible for the accuracy of reference information. Information on the style file for EndNote is available.

Acknowledgments and Funding

Acknowledgments and funding information should be included at the end of your manuscript. Please fully cite any relevant funding information, including specific grant numbers.

Author Contributions

Contribution to a manuscript must be substantive to justify authorship. An author is responsible for major aspects of the research presented. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have made bona fide, substantive contributions to the research and have seen and approved the manuscript in final form prior to submission. We recommend the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for authorship and contributorship, which stipulate that all those designated as authors should meet all four of the following criteria:

  1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Each article must include an Author Contributions section (after Acknowledgments) to detail how each author contributed to the research or writing of the manuscript. Note which of the following tasks each author performed: designed the research; performed research; contributed new analytic/computational/etc. tools; analyzed data; or wrote the paper. All other contributors should instead be acknowledged appropriately in the Acknowledgments section, and authors should seek written permission to include any individuals mentioned in Acknowledgments. A valid, unique email address must be provided for each author. An email acknowledging submission of the manuscript will be sent automatically to every author, and all authors must respond and declare their approval of the submission. After submission, any requested change in authorship will require the written agreement of all coauthors.

The author order and Author Contributions section should be agreed upon in advance of submission by all authors. The ICMJE guidelines also stipulate that it “is the collective responsibility of the authors, not the journal to which the work is submitted, to determine that all people named as authors meet all four criteria; it is not the role of journal editors to determine who qualifies or does not qualify for authorship or to arbitrate authorship conflicts. If agreement cannot be reached about who qualifies for authorship, the institution(s) where the work was performed, not the journal editor, should be asked to investigate.”

Figures

For guidance on acceptable practice in image preparation, please see the ASPB Policies & Procedures page and “Manipulation and Misconduct in the Handling of Image Data.”

During peer review, you must include the figure titles and legends within the manuscript text file AND the image files.  When preparing files for accepted papers, you must include the figure titles and legends within the manuscript text file, but they should NOT be included in the image file.

You must submit each figure as an individual image file. Submit all panels of a multipanel figure on a single page as one file. For example, if the figure has 3 panels, the figure should be submitted as one file. Each panel should be labeled as a letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) in the upper-left corner of each panel.

Images can be provided as raster images. Common examples of raster images are .tif/.tiff, .raw, .gif, and .bmp file types. The resolution of raster files is measured by the number of dots or pixels in a given area, referred to as “dpi” or “ppi.”

  • minimum resolution required for printed images or pictures: 350dpi
  • minimum resolution for printed line art: 600dpi (complex or finely drawn line art should be 1200dpi)
  • minimum resolution for electronic images (i.e., for on-screen viewing): 72dpi

Images of maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams are best rendered digitally as geometric forms called vector graphics. Common file types are .eps, .ai, and .pdf. Vector images use mathematical relationships between points and the lines connecting them to describe an image. These file types do not use pixels; therefore, resolution does not apply to vector images.

While initial submissions may include figures prepared as .doc/.docx or .jpeg/.jpg files, these file types will not be accepted for final publication.