Submissions

Author Guidelines

Instruction for the authors

General Instructions
Comprehensive plant biology (formerly Botanica Serbica) publishes papers in plant sciences in English (with Serbian abstract).
Comprehensive plant biology will publish original scientific papers, original scientific reports, review articles, and letters to the editor. Full papers should be concise without compromising clarity and completeness and should generally occupy no more than 12 published pages. In case of more, please contact the editorial board. Original scientific reports should not be more than 5 printed pages (including References and Abstract). Materials and Methods will remain as a separate section. The Results and Discussion section could be combined, followed by the Conclusion. On occasion, the journal will invite and publish reviews on important issues in any field of plant science. Letters to the Editor are limited to a maximum of 850 words.
An abstract in the Serbian language should be provided at the end of the manuscript. The Serbian abstract will be added by the Editorial Board only if the author(s) has no ability to write it.

Submission of Manuscripts
Authors are required to submit their article to Comprehensive Plant Biology by sending it as a word attachment to the Editorial Board at the following e-mail address: botanicaserbica@bio.bg.ac.rs. At the stage of submission, the figures should be incorporated into the manuscript file at the end. Papers previously published and/or under consideration for publication elsewhere cannot be accepted.

Preparation of Manuscripts
Language
Papers must be written in British English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts checked by an English- speaking colleague prior to submission. Manuscripts that are deficient in this respect may be returned to the author for revision before scientific review.
Presentation of Manuscripts
A recent issue of Comprehensive Plant Biology should be consulted for guidance on format and style. Up-to-date Instructions for Authors are also available on the journal’s website. The manuscript should be prepared using Microsoft Word with the following layout. 1.The manuscript should contain title, abstract(s), main body and references.
2. Please use standard fonts such as Times New Roman and font size 12. Use consistent notations and spelling. Use italics for emphasis.
3. Number manuscript pages consecutively and activate line numbering.
4. The manuscript should be double-spaced. The beginning of each new paragraph must be clearly indicated by indentation. Left-justify the text and turn off automatic hyphenation. Use carriage returns only to end headings and paragraphs. Artificial word breaks at the end of lines must be avoided. Do not insert spaces before punctuation.
Tables should be added after References, and each new table should be on a separate page.
5. Figures should follow the tables, with each figure put on a separate page, ensuring that the figure is at least the size it will be in the final printed document. Number each figure outside the boundary of the figure. The resolution of figures should be at least 150 pixels/cm (300 pixels/in).
6. Please follow internationally accepted rules and conventions for gene and protein names, units, symbols, and capitalisation in text, tables, and figures.
7. Save your file in docx or doc format (Word 97-2003 or higher).

Title Page
The title page should be a separate file and include a concise and informative title, author names in full (first name followed by LAST NAME, e.g., Branka STEVANOVIĆ; please use the small caps option for last names), and affiliations. The name of the author for correspondence as well as his/her mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address, should be provided in a footnote. Provide a short title as well.
Abstract
The abstract should be one paragraph, no longer than 350 words. No references should be cited in the abstract. Abbreviations should be avoided, but if they have to be used, they must be defined the first time they appear. A list of keywords (up to six) must be included after the abstract for indexing purposes.
General Arrangement of Text
The text should be divided into sections with the headings: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Subheadings within sections except Introduction can be used to clarify their contents. The Introduction and Discussion sections may contain present tense to convey generally accepted information. Materials and Methods, and Results are normally written in the past tense. Results and Discussion can be combined.
INTRODUCTION
The introduction should define the problem and provide sufficient information to explain the background. The objectives should be stated, but this section should not contain a summary of the results.
MATERIALS and METHODS
Sufficient detail must be provided to allow the work to be repeated. This section should contain the experimental protocols and the origin of materials, tissue, cell lines, or organisms.
RESULTS
The Results section should be in logical order presenting the experimental results.
DISCUSSION
The authors should interpret their results clearly and suggest what they might mean in a larger context. Please do not repeat the information provided in the Results section.
CONCLUSION
Please give a short conclusion with an outline of the results and their significance to science
Acknowledgments
Assistance received from funding agencies and colleagues should be acknowledged in this section.
REFERENCES
Published or “in press” articles may be included in the reference list. Unpublished studies should be referred to as such or as personal communication in the text.
Citations of references should be in the following format: Peric et al.(2008) or (Peric et al.2008) for more than two authors, Peric & Peric (2008) or (Peric & Peric 2008) for two and Peric (2008) or (Peric 2008) for one author. More than one citation should be organised chronologically as follows: (Peric 2007, 2008; Markovic 2008). The references should contain the last names and initials of the authors, the year of publication, the title of the paper, and the title of the journal. These should be followed by the volume and page numbers. References to books should include the title of the book, the year of publication, the publishing company, and the place of publication. Some examples are given below:

Book
Nathan R & Levin SA. 2001. Dispersal biogeography. Academic Press NY.
Book Chapter
Stevanovic V. 1992. Klasifikacija životnih formi flore Srbije. In: Saric M (ed.), Flora Srbije 1, pp. 39-46, Srpska Akademija Nauka i Umetnosti, Beograd.
Paper
Ainouche AK, Ainouche BK & Bayer RJ. 1999. Phylogenetic relationship in Lupinus (Fabaceae: Papilionidae) based on internal transcribed spacer sequences (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA. American Journal of Botany 86: 590–607.

Avoid citation of web pages due to inconsistency. If website references are used, the URL should be included next to the information in the text. Please check the references carefully for accuracy, missing information, and punctuation.
Tables and Figures
The lists of tables or figures should be numbered consecutively, starting from 1. Tabulation and illustration should not be used for points that can be adequately and concisely described in the text. Tables and figures should be understandable on their own without reference to the text. Explanatory footnotes should be related to the legend or table using superscript lowercase letters. All abbreviations should be defined after the footnotes below the table or by reference to a previous table in the same paper.
Acceptable image formats are TIFF and EPS. Electronic figure files should be named with the last name of the first author and the figure number; for example, Perić Fig1. The figure number must also be included in the file. Authors wishing to publish colour art must pay the associated publication costs, which will be estimated on acceptance of the paper. In cases where it is clear that the figure must be presented in colour and authors cannot cover colour art fees, such fees may be waived at the discretion of the Editor after reviewing a letter explaining the circumstances.