For Authors

Journal of Plant Ecology is the official publication of Botanical Society of China. Founded in 1955, it became a bimonthly journal in 1994. It publishes reviews, original papers, short communications and on all aspects of plant ecology sciences.

Submission of manuscripts

Papers both in Chinese and in English are welcomed. Manuscripts should be typewritten on one side only of A4 size, and double-spaced on bond paper (2129 cm or 8.5 11 inch) with ample margins (3-5 cm), and print it on a laser quality printer. Submit one original and one copy of each paper to Journal of Plant Ecology editorial office, Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, Beijing 100093, China. The pages should be numbered consecutively. Meanwhile, signature of authors is attached in the end of paper.

Preparation of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be clear and concise, with nomenclature and standard international units used properly.

Page 1 of the manuscript should begin with the title of the paper and full name(s) of the author(s) with the address of the institution where the work was carried out, e-mail address and any footnotes referring to the title, including source of financial support (number of financial supported item should be given), the present address and status of the author, the corresponding author and acknowledgements.

Each paper must begin with an abstract of no more than 450 words, including three parts: Aims, Methods and Important Findings (reviews and forums should omit Methods). Aims should briefly state the context and primary objectives of the study. Methods should concisely state the location (for field studies) and major techniques and procedures used in the study. Important Findings should take up no more than half of the abstract and summarize only the most important results and their significance. Three to five Key Words should be supplied after the abstract for indexing purposes.
The body of the text should be subdivided into the following main headings:
(a) Introduction should be concise and define the scope of the work in relation to other work done in the same field.
(b) Material and methods should be brief but informative enough for reproduction of the work; when methods published in standard journals are followed without any modification, a reference to the work should be listed.
(c) Results and discussions should be combined and presented with clarity and precision.

Literature cited
Literature citations in the text should be by authors(s) and year. Where there are two authors, they should be named with "and", and more than two authors, only the first should be named, followed by "et al."
The list of references should include only publications cited in the text. They should be cited in alphabetical order under the first author's name, listing all authors (surnames followed by initials throughout) and the complete title. References both in Chinese and English should be listed in English according to the following examples:

a) Articles from journals and other serial publications (e.g., Annual Reviews): author(s), year, title, journal (Journal titles should not be abbreviated but be given in full), volume, first and last pages
Fang JY, Liu GH, Wang XK, Kang DW (1995). Measurement of respiration rates of Quercus liaotunensis in the mountain of Beijing. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 15, 235-244.
b) Articles from non-serial collective publications (symposia volumes, thesis collection etc.): author(s), year, title followed by "In:", name(s) of editor(s) followed by "ed(s).", title of the volume, location, publisher, inclusive pages of article.
McGregor DC (1996). Palynomorphs in patroleum and formation water: a review. In: Jansonius J, McGregor DC eds. Palynology: Principles and Application. Publishers Press, Salt Lake City, 1115-1121.
c) Books: author(s), year, title, location, publisher, inclusive pages of article as under:

Wang BS, Li MG, Peng SL (1995). Phytopopulology. Higher Education Press, Guangzhou, 10-15.

Unpublished data and personal communications should not be cited as literature citations, but given in the text in footnotes.

Tables and Figures

Number tables consecutively as they are mentioned in the text, and refer to them actively, rather than parenthetically, when the first time they are discussed. Provide a concise title for each table, and label each column with an unambiguous heading. If footnotes are needed for clarity, designate them with lowercase letters in the order in which they are referenced in the table.
Submit figures that are professionally prepared. Figures should be unambiguous, as conceptual as possible, and provide enough information so that the reader can understand them without significant input from the text. Provide a short title for each figure. In line drawing, all lines should be of uniform thickness, letters and numbers should be of professional quality and proper dimensions. Computer drawings are acceptable provided they are of comparable quality to line drawings suitable for reproduction. Lines (or curves) and symbols must be drawn boldly enough to stand reduction to the desired size. Figure legends should be concise and descriptive, and should not repeat information presented in the text.
Photographs should exhibit high contrast. Group several photographs into one or more plates. Irregular and asymmetrically distributed group of photographs will not be accepted: it is always possible by adjusting to produce a pleasing layout. Requests for color photographs can be approved only if authors agree to bear the comparably higher costs than the black-and-white ones for reproduction and printing (charge RMB 2000 Yuan for each page)

The figures and tables in the text should be insert in the desired position. Form and content should be checked carefully to minimize the need for corrections in the proofs. The dimensions of tables, figures and plates should not exceed 170 mm in height including the caption, so does width for full page.

Units
Concentration may be expressed in molL-1, mgL-1, time in s, min, h, d. Otherwise, the International System of Units (SI) should be used wherever possible.

Proofs
Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. With the exception of typographical or minor clerical errors, will be sent to the corresponding author for checking and correction of typographical errors and should be returned before the specified date.

Instructions for manuscripts submitted on diskette
Authors who have written their manuscript using a PC word processor are asked to provide the file on diskette in addition to the printout after the manuscript has been accepted for publication. Text files are required only for the accepted manuscripts, please do not send diskette until the review process has been completed. Please send only the corresponding final updated version on the diskette together with the hard copy. Please save the text documents as ASCII files (Word or MS-DOS files). The submission of computer-generated photographic illustration files in the .tif format is to be encouraged. Please always identify the file names. Send files by e-mail to the following address if possible: .

Offprints
Thirty offprints of each article will be supplied free to the corresponding author.

Costs
Each manuscript should be submitted accompanied with a manuscript-handling fee of RMB 100 Yuan for English paper. A charge of RMB 200 Yuan per printed page including figures and tables is needed (If exceeding the fixed length-5 printed pages for original papers and reviews including figures, tables, abstract and references, and 3 for short communications, the charge for the exceeding part will be RMB 250 Yuan per printed page). RMB 500 Yuan per black-and-white plate and RMB 2000 Yuan per color plate will be levied on all manuscripts accepted.

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