Author Guidelines

• Introduction
• Scope
• Publishing Agreements and Charges
• Types of articles
• Summary of Submission Process
• Publication Ethics and AI
• Preparing the Manuscript
• Supplemental Data
• Acknowledgements and Related Sections
• Preparing Tables and Figures
• Preprint Policy
• Reproducing Material from other Published Work
• The Review Process
• Formatting and Submitting a Revised Paper
• Acceptance, Proofs, Production and Publication
• Formal Statement
• Author Self-Archiving/Public Access Policy
• Author Free Access Link and Discounts
• Manuscript Transfer

Introduction

The following author guidelines provide information that will guide prospective authors on the types of paper we publish in Annals of Botany, and provide essential information to understand the submission and publishing processes, and to properly prepare a paper for submission. For questions, please contact the editorial office at [email protected]. Submission may be made via the ScholarOne portal.

Scope of the Journal

Annals of Botany welcomes experimental, theoretical and applied papers on all aspects of the botanical sciences, to include research on terrestrial, aquatic and marine plants, any algae including seaweeds, all fungi, and any paleobotanical research. We welcome papers of any disciplinary perspective, from the molecular sciences to landscape and global ecology.

Contributions should be substantial, written in clear English and combine originality of content with clear discussion and interpretation that our broad audience will appreciate. The manuscript or its essential content must not have been published or be under consideration for publication in other journals but may be published in a thesis or as an abstract, and may be deposited on preprint servers such as BioRxiv.

In general, a paper is unlikely to be accepted unless the referees and editors involved in its evaluation are enthusiastic about the science. The following types of submissions are unlikely to gain priority for publication, unless the implications of the findings are noteworthy to a broad audience and well-explained:

• Manuscripts that report incremental advances
• Research that is only of geographically local interest
• Agronomic papers that do not advance a fundamental understanding of plant biology but instead measure dosage responses or demonstrate performance variation in crop varieties.

Publishing agreement and charges

To publish in Annals of Botany, authors will need to sign a publication agreement and select a mechanism for covering any financial charges. Please read each section on the publishing agreement and charges carefully. If you have any questions relating to your publishing agreement or charges, please contact OUP Support ([email protected]).

Publishing agreement

After your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to sign a licence to publish through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris. Annals of Botany offers the option of publishing under either a non-open access (standard) licence or an open access (Creative Commons) licence. There is a charge to publish under an open access licence, which allows your paper to be freely accessible to all readers immediately upon online publication. Editorial decisions occur prior to this step and are not influenced by payment or ability to pay. The standard licence makes your paper available only to Journal subscribers and there is no licence charge. This licence grants OUP an exclusive licence to publish and distribute the content. There is no transfer of ownership of the copyright. You, the author, retain copyright for the content.

Papers can be published under the following:

• Standard licence to publish (Oxford University Press (OUP) Journals, Standard Publication Model)
• Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY)
• United States Government Licence
• Crown Copyright Licence

Please see the OUP guidance on Licences, copyright, and re-use rights for more information regarding these publishing agreement options.

Complying with funder mandates

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 clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution before selecting your licence.

Further information on funder mandates and direct links to a range of funder policies.

Charges

Open access charges

Please see the details of open access licences and charges. If you select an open access licence, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris.

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

To be eligible for one of OUP’s Read and Publish agreements, the corresponding author must list their qualifying institution as their primary affiliation when they submit their manuscript. After submission, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible.

Colour charges

The journal does not charge for colour.

Page charges

The journal does not have page charges.

Types of articles

Annals of Botany accepts primary research papers (Original Articles and Technical Advances), review articles (Review, Research in Context, Perspectives, Educational Review, and Botanical Briefing), and editorial material (Letters). We also publish invited Commentaries on published papers as well as Book Reviews. The Commentary category refers to invited overviews of our leading papers in each issue of Annals of Botany; hence, authors wishing to write an editorial that comments on recent papers or developments should consider using the Letter category (if brief) or the Perspective category (if >1000 words). Book Reviews are generally invited when publishers submit a recently published book to Annals of Botany for review, and tend to be brief, less than 1500 words.

Primary Research Papers (Original Articles)

Primary Research Articles should report on original research relevant to the scope of the journal, demonstrating an important advance in the subject area. The results should be clearly presented, novel, and supported by appropriate experimental approaches. The Introduction should clearly set the context and rationale for the work and the Discussion should demonstrate the importance of the results within the context of current understanding. Concise speculation, models and hypothesis are encouraged but must be informed by the results and by the authors’ expert knowledge of the subject. Excessive speculation is discouraged. Primary research papers (Original Articles and Technical Advances) should not normally exceed ten printed pages.

Review Papers

Annals of Botany welcomes the submission of manuscripts of a review nature which focus on reviewing existing literature, arguing for a novel perspective, synthesizing complex concepts and updating readers on recent developments. Reviews should place the subject in context, synthesise current understanding, include the most up-to-date references as well as the most important papers in the field, and build upon previous reviews of the topic. Reviews may also address major uncertainties and future direction, making concrete suggestions on what gaps in knowledge need to be filled and how.

To accommodate review-type contributions, we publish the following categories of papers: Review, Research in Context, Perspectives, Educational Review, and Botanical Briefing. Regardless of category, review-type articles should be novel, rigorous, and compelling. All manuscripts will be reviewed through our peer-review system. Reviews are often invited, but any authors, invited or otherwise, are welcome to prepare a review on a topic within their expertise.

Review-type papers are defined as follows:

Perspectives are synthetic articles that present a specific argument or perspective in the plant sciences that will be viewed as highly novel and revealing. These could be considered opinion pieces, novel perspectives, theoretical insights or exciting proposals that the botanical community should consider. We are particularly interested in contributions that illuminate recent work and ideas, develop new hypotheses, expand and support models, propose solutions to long-standing questions of importance, and/or explain significant developments and their implications. While all Perspective articles must be scientifically sound, we recognize that particularly novel perspectives may be ahead of their time and thus may have a limited literature to support the argument. Arguments must always be logically developed, clearly and concisely presented, and use scientific information and theory to substantiate the point. Perspectives can be of variable length but should generally be less than 12,000 words.

Research in Context papers combine an overview of a topic with original research that moves the topic forward; it is a hybrid of review and original research. Meta-analyses, theoretical studies with new models, and reanalysis of data or integration of findings from prior publications would often fall into the Research in Context category. Typically, a Research in Context article contains an extended Introduction that provides a general overview of the topic before incorporating new research results with a discussion of the wider impact of the results. Research in Context papers should be less than 15,000 words with illustrations.

Educational Reviews are thoughtfully crafted articles aimed at enhancing readers' understanding by providing foundational knowledge within a subject. These reviews serve as a stepping stone, helping readers build the necessary background to engage with more complex texts, such as original research articles and advanced reviews. Clear, accessible, and visually engaging, they are designed to support educators, undergraduate and graduate students as well as professionals seeking to expand their expertise. By fostering interdisciplinary connections, these reviews aim to facilitate deeper, more comprehensive research and learning. There are no special requirements in terms of flow or layout – although an author may wish to include a separate box beside the main article (a textbox) to help explain jargon, cover specific background or provide a case-study. Educational Reviews would normally include a minimum of three figures/illustrations and be 4000-10,000 words.

Botanical Briefings are concise, focused reviews that address highly topical issues, maybe involving some controversy. They are shorter in length (<3,000 words) and normally have less than 50 references.

All reviews, regardless of category, must provide an Abstract with subheadings (normally Background, Scope and Conclusions) and should be accompanied by figures and illustrations that are both informative and visually appealing. Conceptual and summary figures are encouraged to synthesize key themes of the paper. Figures and tables must be effectively explained in the text. Material that has been published or is in press elsewhere can be used with appropriate permission from the copyright holder.

While we often invite review articles, uninvited submissions are also encouraged. In the absence of an invitation, we recommend (but do not require) that the author(s) prepare a brief summary of the proposed review and enquire whether the journal would be interested in the work. Unsolicited reviews will be considered as any other submission, invited or not, and entered into the review process upon receipt.

Summary of submission process

Language

Manuscripts must be written in English and submitted online. If English is not your first language, you may wish to have your manuscript edited for language before submission. This is not mandatory but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. There are many specialist language editing services available and you can find these online. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services. If large language model software (AI software) is used for English improvement, it is imperative the authors review the content to ensure the meaning has not been altered nor contains previously published text (but see comment on reuse of Methods text below). AI assistance in manuscript preparation must be declared within the manuscript in an AI Acknowledgements section prior to the References.

File Preparation

For the first submission, we do allow authors to submit a single PDF file containing all text, references, Tables, Figure legends and Figures. Supplemental files may be provided at the end of a single PDF or as a separate PDF. Authors may also elect to submit separate files for the main text, each figure and the supplementals, which the ScholarOne software will then assemble into a single PDF for review.

All resubmissions should follow the guidelines below, noting in particular the need for Figures to be uploaded individually and separately from the main text. Text and tables should be provided in the original Word format. Resubmissions and revised text must always be accompanied by their assigned manuscript number, which should be mentioned in the covering letter.

Full details on Preparing the Manuscript.

Prepare a Covering Letter

Each submission must be accompanied by a Covering Letter that includes:

• a brief summary of the scientific strengths of the paper
• manuscript title, contact details of the corresponding author, and a list of all other author names
• state whether the paper is a first submission, revision or a resubmission. Revisions and resubmissions must include the manuscript’s previous reference number(s) and should explain in detail what changes have been made, or not made, in response to any prior reviewers’ and editor’s comments.
• any other information to which authors wish to draw the Chief Editor’s attention should also be included in this letter, including any use of AI to prepare the manuscript.

Submit a Potential Cover Photo

Please consider submitting an eye-catching image for the front cover of the issue in which your accepted article might appear. Candidate cover images must be accompanied by a 30 to 60 word caption explaining the topic and source/location of the image, including the name of the person who generated the image or took the photograph. Cover images must be original photographs or artwork and should not be generated using AI software. Submissions should be related to the content of the submitted paper but need not be duplicated in the paper itself. The Chief Editor and staff will select the final cover image from the suitable submissions.

We are particularly looking for sharp images with high definition and good contrast. Images where the subject matter does not go to the edge of the frame will work best because they allow for enlargement and/or cropping. Final dimensions for publication are W: 219.25mm x H: 198.26mm and so the image must minimally be of that size, or of high enough resolution to enlarge. Please do not crop cover images.

Publication Ethics and AI

Authors should observe high standards with respect to research integrity and publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data including inappropriate image manipulation, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author's own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices. Allegations of ethical misconduct, both directly and through social media, are treated seriously and will be investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE guidance.

If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in one or more of the following outcomes, among others:

• If a submitted manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If a paper has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either a correction notice will be published and linked to the paper, or retraction of the paper will occur, following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
• The relevant party’s institution(s) and/or other journals may be informed.

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal may be screened with plagiarism-detection software. Any manuscript may be screened, especially if there is reason to suppose that part or all the of the manuscript has been previously published.

COPE defines plagiarism as “when somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were their own and without proper acknowledgment.”

COPE defines redundant/overlapping publication as “when a published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgment of the source/cross-referencing/justification, or when the same (or substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one publication without adequate cross-referencing/justification, particularly when this is done in such a way that reviewers/readers are unlikely to realise that most or all the findings have been published before.”

COPE defines citation manipulation as “behaviours intended to inflate citation counts for personal gain, such as: excessive self-citation of an authors’ own work, excessive citation to the journal publishing the citing article, and excessive citation between journals in a coordinated manner.”

Data fabrication is defined as intentionally creating fake data or misrepresenting research results. An example includes making up data sets.

Data falsification is defined as manipulating research data with the purpose of intentionally giving a false representation. This can apply to images, research materials, equipment, or processes. Examples include cropping of gels/images to change context and omission of selected data.

If notified of a potential breach of research misconduct or publication ethics, the Journal editor and editorial office staff may inform OUP and/or the author’s institutional affiliation(s).

The corresponding author agrees by submission of a manuscript that:

1. the work is originally prepared by the authors and is free of plagiarism and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere;
2. all authors have agreed to publication in Annals of Botany;
3. all those contributing substantial ideas and work have been appropriately acknowledged or given co-authorship as appropriate;
4. all addresses and institutional affiliations are complete and correct;
5. all national laws relating to the research have been complied with;
6. funding sources and conflicts of interest have been appropriately acknowledged; and
7. authorization to publish all parts of the submission from employers, intellectual property or copyright holders, funders, and others is given.

A published paper subsequently found not to have fulfilled all of these criteria may be retracted or, at the journal's sole discretion, a correction may be published.

AI Assistance

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors, and the Journal will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (e.g. to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation of the author’s text) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. AI assistance in the research itself should be described in the Methods, while AI assistance in manuscript preparation should be acknowledged at the end of the manuscript in a distinct AI ASSISTANCE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Please see the COPE position statement on Authorship and AI for more details.

While we allow and even encourage authors to use AI tools to improve English usage, we strongly discourage AI for the writing of new, original text, which should solely be written by the authors. Use of AI software to generate photographic-like images is discouraged, but AI could be employed to improve conceptual diagrams used to inform readers. Using AI to generate new text synthesized from published sources is not allowed because the output may closely resemble previously published text and thus violate our policy on text reuse and plagiarism.

Text reuse and plagiarism

Re-use of text, data, figures, or images without appropriate acknowledgment or permission is considered plagiarism, as is the paraphrasing of text, concepts, and ideas. Annals of Botany evaluates submissions on the understanding that they are the original work of the author(s). We expect that references made in a manuscript or article to another person’s work or idea will be credited appropriately. Equally we expect authors to gain all appropriate permissions prior to publication. Guidelines on when permissions are required and how to seek permissions are available. OUP is a signatory of the STM Permissions Guidelines, which may lower any permissions fees.

Reuse of material from an author’s own published works is often considered self-plagiarism. The re-used text must be treated in the same way as any other source, including ensuring appropriate attribution and obtaining permissions to publish if necessary.

Reuse of Methods and Materials (or “text recycling”)

We recognise authors may wish to produce text for Materials and Methods that closely follows their previously published text. Normally, brief mention of the methods used, with citation of the method in a prior publication should suffice. If the authors feel the need to replicate the text of the method for clarity, then we recommend they either:

1. paraphrase it in their own words with citation (this is preferred by Annal of Botany);
2. repeat it in a supplemental appendix with full disclosure as to source (this is recommended for lengthy descriptions); or
3. repeat it in the body of the text with full disclosure (as indicated by references, with quotation or italics of the copied text).

Replication of prior methods verbatim may require the author to obtain permission to republish.

Author Inclusion

Before submission, the individual authors and their position in the authorship order should be determined. Annals of Botany requires that all individuals listed as authors have made a significant contribution to the work through conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, and/or interpretation of data. All authors are expected to have contributed to the manuscript preparation by directly providing written input or through comments and feedback during the writing. All authors must approve of the final version of the manuscript and their inclusion as authors.

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made unless there is a substantive reason to do so. The editor and all co-authors must agree on the change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates authorship disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the Editorial office at [email protected]. The dispute must be resolved amongst the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

Changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible. For more information on Read and Publish funding, see the Open Access charges section.

Preparing the Manuscript

The best way to prepare your manuscript for submission is to consult a recent issue of Annals of Botany for current headings, layout and style. ScholarOne tutorials are also available to provide guidance on the submission process itself.

Layout

Please layout the manuscript accordingly, in English:

• Times New Roman or Courier font at 12-point size (recommended)
• Line spacing of 1.5 or double spaced
• 25 mm margins
• Number all pages sequentially
• Number all lines sequentially from the start of the abstract (i.e. Background and Aims)
• Tables should be included at the end of the article file, in a Word format and not embedded as an image/picture. For more details see below under Preparing Tables, Figure Files, Supplementary Information Files and Videos.
• Include a listing of all figure legends at the end of the document
• It is NOT journal style to have footnotes within articles. Any such notes must be incorporated into the main text.
• Cited references should be provided in the Journal’s format
• Supplemental Files should be listed before the Acknowledgements and submitted according to Journal instructions
• First page:
  • State the type of article
  • Provide a concise and informative full title followed by the names of all authors
  • Each name should be followed by an identifying superscript number (^{1, 2, 3} ) associated with the appropriate institutional address to be entered further down the page. For papers with more than one author, the corresponding author's name should be followed by a superscript asterisk*.
  • List the institutional address(es) of each author, with each address being preceded by the relevant superscript number, as appropriate
  • Provide a running title of not more than 75 characters, including spaces
  • Provide the e-mail address of the corresponding author
• Second page:
  • Provide a structured Abstract not exceeding 300 words made up of bulleted headings. For Original Articles these headings will normally be:
    • Background and Aims
    • Methods
    • Key Results
    • Conclusions
    For Review type articles, alternative bulleted headings, such as 'Background', 'Scope' and 'Conclusions', are recommended.
  • Provide between three and 12 key words that include the complete botanical name(s) of any relevant plant material. If many species are involved, names of higher order species groups should be listed instead. Note that essential words in the title should be repeated in the key words since these, rather than the title, are used in some electronic searches.
• Third and subsequent pages should comprise the remaining contents of the article text. Original Articles will usually have the structure ‘Introduction’, ‘Materials and Methods’, ‘Results’, ‘Discussion’, ‘Supplementary Information’ (if applicable), ‘Acknowledgements’ and ‘Literature Cited’ followed by tables and a list of captions to any figures. Reviews should begin with an ‘Introduction’ and conclude with a ‘Conclusion’ section, followed by ‘Supplementary Information’ (if applicable), ‘Acknowledgements’, ‘Literature Cited’, tables and a list of captions to any figures. We recommend using topical section headings within the body of the review to guide the reader’s attention.
  • Headings describing ‘Funding’, ‘Conflicts of Interest’, ‘Author Contributions’, and ‘AI Assistance’ may be added before the general ‘Acknowledgements’ section (i.e. in which people who assisted in the work are acknowledged), if relevant.
  • Important Notes on writing a Discussion: Before submitting, please ensure that your Results section does not include extensive discussion and data is not repeated in both graphical and tabular form. If you wish to supplement a graph with the same data in a table, please use an online supplement. The Discussion section should avoid extensive repetition of the Results and must finish with some conclusions. A standalone Conclusion section is encouraged to emphasise the paper’s key implications. Please note that we routinely reject papers with solid data but bland and repetitive discussions that fail to establish the importance of the study. The Discussion must cohesively and comprehensively place the importance of the results into the wider botanical context.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations may be undefined for commonly used and understood units of measurement, standard chemical symbols (e.g. S, Na), names of chemicals (e.g. ATP, Mes, Hepes, NaCl, O₂ ), procedures (e.g. PCR, PAGE, RFLP), molecular terminology (e.g. bp, SDS) or statistical terms (e.g. ANOVA, s.d., s.e., n , F , t -test and r² ).

Other abbreviations should be spelled out at first mention and all terms must be written out in full when used to start a sentence. Abbreviations of scientific terms should not be followed by a full stop. Use the minus index to indicate 'per' (e.g. m^–3, L^–1, h^–1) except in such cases as 'per plant' or 'per pot'. If you decide that a list of abbreviations would help the reader, this should be included in the main text as a Table or as a list in a Supplemental File.

Chemical, biochemical and molecular biological nomenclature and their abbreviations should be based on rules of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB).

Units of Measurement

The Systéme international d'unités (SI) should be used wherever possible. If non-SI units must be used, the SI equivalent should be added in parentheses at first mention. For units of volume, expressions based on the cubic metre (e.g. 5 × 10^–9 m ³, 5 × 10^–6 m ³ or 5 × 10^–3 m ³ ) or the litre (e.g. 5 μL, 5 mL, 5 L) are acceptable, but one or other system should be used consistently throughout the manuscript. Typical expressions of concentrations might be 5 mmol m^–3, 5 μM (for 5 μmol L^–1), or 25 mg L^–1. The Dalton (Da), or more conveniently the kDa, is a permitted non-SI unit of protein mass. Dates should be in the form of 10 Jan. 1999, and Clock Time in the form of 1600 h.

Species Names

Plant species, and if need be genotypes, used in the research should be identified and where known should describe whether the original source material collected was from the field, acquired from collaborators, or provided by seedbanks, germplasm repositories, or commercial vendors. Wild species should be vouchered in an herbarium or other suitable repository if the study represents their first use in a research publication. The voucher information and collection locale must be provided, if known.

Names of plants must be written out in full (Genus, species) in the abstract and again in the main text for every organism at first mention. In a list containing the same genus, but a number of species (e.g. Lolium annuum, L. arenarium, …), then the genus can be used for the first species only. The authority (e.g. L., Mill., Benth.) is not required in the Introduction unless it is controversial but should be added as part of the Materials and Methods section. Any cultivar or variety should be added to the full scientific name e.g. Solanum lycopersicum 'Moneymaker' following the appropriate international code of practice. For guidance, refer to the ISHS International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (2004). Authors should follow the most recent naming authority for a species but on first use should refer to prior taxonomic names if once widely recognized (in parentheses).

Once defined in full, plants may also be referred to using vernacular or quasi-scientific names without italics or uppercase letters (e.g. arabidopsis, dahlia, chrysanthemum, rumex, soybean, tomato).

Experimental Materials

Items of Specialized Equipment mentioned in Materials and Methods should be accompanied by details of the model, manufacturer, and current website of the manufacturer.

Experimental Methods

It is essential that authors summarize the experimental design and the procedures used for the data analysis. Descriptions of the experimental design should be accompanied by the number of replicates and a measure of variation such as standard error or least significant difference at a stated level of probability. Presentation of an abridged statistical table (e.g. an ANOVA table) is permissible when its use illustrates critical features of the experiment. Software used for statistical analysis should be listed, to include version number and the website of the software source. Usually, a section at the end of the Materials and Methods is a suitable location for describing the experimental design and statistical approach.

Mathematical Equations

Mathematical equations must be in proper symbolic form; word equations are not acceptable. Each quantity should be defined with a unique single character or symbol together with a descriptive subscript if necessary. Each subscript should also be a single character if possible, but a short word is permissible. For example, a relationship between plant dry mass and fresh mass should appear as M_d = 0.006 M_f ^1.461, where M_d is plant dry mass and M_f is plant fresh mass; and not as DM = 0.006 FM ^1.461.

The meaning of terms used in equations should be explained just before or after they first appear. Standard conventions for use of italics only for variables should be followed; normal (Roman) font should be used for letters that are identifiers. Thus, in the above example, M is the variable quantity of mass, the subscripts d and f are identifiers for dry and fresh respectively.

Special note regarding ‘Equation Editor’ and other software for presentation of mathematics

Symbols and equations that are imported into Word documents as embedded objects from other software packages are generally incompatible with typesetting software and have to be re-keyed as part of the proof-making process. It is therefore strongly advisable to type symbols and equations directly into MS Word wherever possible. Importing from other software should ideally be confined to situations where it is essential, such as two-line equations (i.e. where numerators and denominators cannot be set clearly on a single line using ‘/’) and to symbols that are not available in Word fonts. This will minimize the risk of errors associated with rekeying by copyeditors. An alternative would be to prepare your document in LaTeX, which is supported by ScholarOne.

Statistics and experimental design

This is often the last section of the Materials and Methods. In addition to providing a clear description of the statistical procedures and software utilized, authors must provide a clear summary of the experimental design(s) used in the study, to include replication number and sample size. Studies should be replicated where appropriate as unreplicated experiments are often considered preliminary and not ready for publication. Summary statistics should be accompanied by the number of replicates and a measure of variation such as standard error or least significant difference. Presentation of an abridged ANOVA table is permissible when its use illustrates critical features of the experiment. Key statistical parameters such as sample size and p-values should also be presented in the Figure and Table captions.

Sequence information

Before novel sequences for proteins or nucleotides can be published, authors are required to deposit their data with one of the principal databases comprising the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration: EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database, GenBank, or the DNA Data Bank of Japan and to include an accession number in the paper.

Gene nomenclature

Species-specific rules on plant gene nomenclature are available for:

• maize;
• rice;
• wheat and
• arabidopsis.

Otherwise, Annals of Botany adopts the following conventions for abbreviations: each gene abbreviation is preceded by letters identifying the species of origin. Lower-case italics should be used for mutant genes (e.g. Rp-etr1); upper-case italics (e.g. Le-ACO1) for wild-type genes; upright lower-case for proteins of mutated genes (e.g. Le-adh1); and upright upper-case for proteins of wild-type genes (e.g. At-MYB2).

Citations in the text

These should take the form of Felle (2005) or Jacobsen and Forbes (1999) or (Williamson and Watanabe, 1987; Rodrigues, 2002 a, b) and be ordered chronologically. Papers by three or more authors, even on first mention, should be abbreviated to the name of the first author followed by et al. (e.g. Zhang et al., 2005). If two different authors have the same last name, give their initials (e.g. NH Kawano, 2003) to avoid confusion. Only refer to papers as 'in press' if they have been accepted for publication in a named journal, otherwise use the terms 'unpubl. res.', giving the initials and location of the person concerned. (e.g. H Gautier, INRA, Lusignan, France, unpubl. res.) or 'pers. comm.' (e.g. WT Jones, University of Oxford, UK, ‘pers. comm.’)

Citation formats

The Literature Cited should be arranged alphabetically based on the surname of the first or sole author. Where the same sole author or same first author has two or more papers listed, these papers should be grouped in year order. Where such an author has more than one paper in the same year, these should be ordered with single authored papers first followed by two-author papers (ordered first alphabetically based on the second author's surname, then by year), and then any three-or-more-author papers (in year order only). Italicised letters ' a ', ' b ', ' c ', etc., should be added to the date of papers with the same first authorship and year.

For papers with six authors or fewer, please give the names of all the authors. For papers with seven authors or more, please give the names of the first three authors only, followed by et al. then the name of the last author in the author list.

Authors should provide DOI information at the end of each reference, when available.

We recommend the use of reference management software in preparing references and in text citations, using the Annals of Botany format option. However, the data and format given by the reference manager can be incorrect if the original inputs are incorrect. Therefore, it is essential for authors to carefully proof citations for accuracy and proper format.

Each entry must conform to one of the following styles according to the type of publication:

Books

Öpik H, Rolfe S. 2005. The physiology of flowering plants. Physicochemical and environmental plant physiology, 4th edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (also give the book DOI, if known)

Chapters in books

Scandalios JG. 2001. Molecular responses to oxidative stress. In: Hawkesford MJ, Buchner P, eds. Molecular analysis of plant adaptation to the environment. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 181-208.

Research papers

Popper ZA, Fry SC. 2003. Primary cell wall composition of bryophytes and charophytes. Annals of Botany 91: 1–12. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcg013

Papers published online ahead of print

Forster MA, Ladd B, Bonser SP. 2011. Optimal allocation of resources in response to shading and neighbours in the heteroblastic species, Acacia implexa. Annals of Botany, in press. DOI:10.1093/aob/mcq228.

Online-only journals

Levine N, Ben-Zvi G, Seifan M, Giladi I. 2019. Investment in reward by ant-dispersed plants consistently selects for better partners along a geographic gradient. AoB PLANTS 11: plz027. DOI: 10.1093/aobpla/plz027

Theses

Tholen D. 2005. Growth and photosynthesis in ethylene-insensitive plants. PhD Thesis, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Anonymous sources

Anonymous. Year. Title of booklet, leaflet, report, etc. City: Publisher or other source, Country.

Websites

References to websites should be structured as: Author(s) name, author(s) initial(s). year. Full title of article. Full URL. Date of last successful access (e.g. 12 Jan. 2003)

Supplemental Data

Modest to large amounts of additional information can be submitted for publication electronically as Supplementary Information provided that it is not essential for a basic understanding of the main paper. A short paragraph listing of the Supplementary Information or Video(s) should be inserted in the main text immediately before the Acknowledgements section.

**** Supplemental files are published as received, so it is important that they are carefully proofed and formatted by the author(s) before final submission to ensure they are correct when published online. Supplementary material will be refereed along with the core paper. ****

At appropriate positions in the main text authors should refer to what details are available in the supplements, followed by a citation of the supplemental file. On first use, the words Supplementary Table or Fig, Appendix S1, S2, etc should be used, but on subsequent use, simply refer to the Supplemental material as Table S1, Fig. S3, Appendix S3 etc. Similarly, if you are including a video you should enter (Supplementary Video S1) in bold and between parenthesis at the appropriate place(s) in the text.

The online submission system provides space for supplementary information to be uploaded. The supplemental files can be submitted as one common file (usually as a PDF) or logically grouped to improve clarity and accessibility (for example, as separate collections of supplemental text, tables, graphs or video files). Video files should be uploaded separately from any text, tables and graphics files and should be created in a widely available program such as Windows MediaPlayer. Supplementary files should be given succinct but descriptive file names so that readers can understand what they contain. Additionally, for any grouped supplemental files, please provide a Table of Contents that lists each item by name and its description.

Examples of Supplementary Appendices include additional methodological information, raw data files, abbreviation tables, species collection and voucher information, phylogenetic supplements, and minor analyses. We discourage use of supplements and appendices to publish data not immediately pertinent to the main publication, or excessive amounts of data of limited relevance. In short, Supplemental Information is not an outlet for publishing what would amount to a distinct paper.

Acknowledgements and Related Sections

After the conclusion of the text, authors should provide separate headings where i) ‘Funding’ sources are listed; ii) ‘Conflicts of Interest’ are declared; iii) ‘Author Contributions’ are noted; iv) ‘AI Assistance’ is declared, v) ‘Availability of Data and Materials’, and vi) general ‘Acknowledgements’ where persons who assisted in the work are acknowledged.

Should Artificial Intelligence be used in the preparation, translation or writing of the manuscript, you must acknowledge its use and briefly explain how it was used (e.g. “Artificial intelligence was used in the translation of this manuscript” or “Artificial intelligence was used as an aide in the writing of this manuscript.”). AI use as a scientific tool should be described as a Method in the Materials and Methods.

In the ‘Acknowledgements’, please be brief. 'We thank . . .' (not 'The present authors would like to express their thanks to . . .'). Individuals or agencies not associated with the research should not be acknowledged (for example, former mentors, schools or family members).

Funding information

The following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be spelled out, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' or 'NCI at NIH’. The country of the granting agency should be indicated if not obvious, for example, National Science Foundation of the USA.
• Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number ABX CDXXXXXX]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding 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 [P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.] and the Alcohol & Education Research Council of the United States [HFY GR667789] to S.H.C.

Crossref Funding Data Registry

In order to meet your 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 the CHORUS initiative.

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, Annals of Botany strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We recommend that data not presented in the main manuscript (to include raw data within statistical summaries) be provided as additional supporting files (Supplementary Information) or deposited in a public repository. For information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, please see Choosing where to archive your data.

Data Citation

Annals of Botany supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

• [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

Preparing Tables, Figure Files, Supplementary Information Files and Videos

For the first submission, manuscripts can be submitted in any common document format that can be easily opened and read by others. Following acceptance, you will be asked to supply editable files that match journal formatting requirements and high-resolution figures.

Tables

Tables should be placed at the end of the main text file after the Literature Cited and include a complete caption above the table and be numbered Table 1, Table 2 etc. according to the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. The best guide for laying out tables and diagrams are papers in a recent issue of Annals of Botany. When preparing tables, adopt the 'Tables' set-up in MS Word, using one cell for each datum cluster (e.g. 12.2 ± 1.65) and avoid the use of the 'return' key. If the tables have been prepared in MS Excel, please paste them into the Word document as text, not as an object, i.e. it should be possible in Word to select and edit the text within the table.

Figures

All images (line diagrams, drawings, graphs, photographs, plates) are considered ‘Figures’. Each figure should be presented in the order they are first mentioned in the text. We recommend authors group related graphics into a single figure and label A, B, C, etc. following the style in recent issues of the Journal. Images (micrographs, maps, plants) should have internal scale bars, with the scales defined in the Figure legend. Colour images are encouraged and reproduced without charge where they enhance the clarity of the scientific information. Line diagrams are normally black on white but may be in colour where this enhances clarity. Consider that some readers will use black-and-white printouts or have reduced colour vision. Height and width of figures should be chosen to not exceed 23 cm in height and for either single (8.4 cm wide) or double (up to 17.3 cm wide) column reproduction. Graphs and diagrams are often redrawn and should be inspected carefully in proofs.

At first submission, the image file should be at 300 dpi (= 120 pixels/cm) or greater and 8.4 or 17.3 cm wide. After provisional acceptance, please submit original figures in non-compressed formats at 600 dpi or 300 dpi at print size for photographic or other images. Please see OUP guidance on figure preparation.

Please be aware that photographs and other graphical images prepared in TIFF or other formats lose resolution in PowerPoint. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that any composite Figure generated in PowerPoint or other source is uploaded with no loss of resolution or clarity.

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, and photographs. 

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. 

Preprint policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Reproducing Material from other Published Work

If material from work already published elsewhere is included in the article or Supplemental Information (for example, a figure or table used to illustrate a review) then permission must be obtained in advance from the copyright holder. Reuse of text from prior publications could also require copyright permission. Even before you submit your article to the journal, please ensure that you explore the copyright situation for the material you wish to use, identify any relevant copyright holders, and establish whether you are likely to be able to obtain permissions from them. When seeking permission to reproduce any third-party material, please request the following:

1. non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal published by Oxford Journals, a division of Oxford University Press;
2. print and electronic rights, ideally for use in any form or medium. If not possible to secure such broad-ranging rights, we do need the right to make the content available online;
3. the right to use the material for the life of the work (no time-restrictions such as one year etc on the licence granted);
4. world-wide English-language rights; if rights for all languages can be secured, this is preferable; and
5. the right to use images with a resolution of 300 dpi in the PDF version of the journal, or 72 dpi in the HTML version.

Please contact the Annals of Botany Editorial Office if you have any queries regarding obtaining permission to reproduce material that may be under copyright.

Third-Party Content in Open Access papers

If you will be publishing your paper under an Open Access licence but it contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content

Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]

This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

The Review Process

The corresponding author and all co-authors receive an acknowledgment of receipt of the manuscript and a manuscript reference number by e-mail. Manuscripts considered suitable for peer review will normally be sent to at least two outside referees, although three may be solicited at the discretion of the Handling Editor. We ask referees to return their review within 21 days of receiving the manuscript. Currently less than 30% of submitted papers are accepted. Authors are asked to revise provisionally accepted articles within two weeks for papers with a “minor revision” decision, and four weeks for those requiring “major revisions”.

To help the Handling Editor review your paper, we require authors to supply the names and contact information of four external reviewers, who must be somewhat independent of any member of the author team. Do not suggest:

1. experts with whom you or your coauthors have collaborated within the past five years,
2. scientists who work at the same institution as you do,
3. Annals of Botany editors,
4. friends or colleagues who you feel would be biased in their review work either for or against.

This is to avoid direct conflicts of interest as well as the appearance of conflicts of interest. Instead, give a diverse list of potential reviewers from different institutions and countries and ensure that your recommendations are experts in your field. You are also strongly encouraged to suggest researchers from underrepresented groups, which includes women, minority scientists as defined by your region of the world, and scientists with disabilities.

Formatting and Submitting a Revised Paper

While authors may elect to combine all files into a single PDF for the first submission, all submissions of revised or final acceptance manuscripts must conform to the following:

1. Arrangement of the main text in the format described above, to include Abstract, Individual sections (Introduction to Discussion), Supplemental Information (if applicable), Acknowledgments and Related Headings, Literature Cited, Tables, and Figure legends;
2. the uploading of all figures as separate files as described above in the Figures section;
3. Uploading the Supplemental Files in their final format, in the authors’ preferred arrangement(s) which could involve one composite file or multiple separate files.

The abstract must be in the Annals of Botany format.

Acceptance, Proofs, Production and Publication

If your paper is accepted, then you will be asked to supply some additional information to help publicize your article via social media and/or on BotanyOne. This information includes social media handles for authors and/or institutions, if available, and may also include requests for graphical abstracts and author profiles. After acceptance you will receive an email from Oxford University Press directing you to complete the ‘Licence to Publish’ agreement through the Journals Licensing and Online Payments portal. This should be completed as soon as possible to avoid delay. Authors will be required to cover any open access (OA) fees should an OA licence be selected, so it is important that funds to cover OA fees, or eligibility to use Read and Publish agreements to publish OA, is arranged/determined before completing the license.

Publication and printing process

Once a paper is accepted and the publishing agreement is signed, the Journal will publish the Accepted Manuscript version of the paper (before copyediting and review of the final proof) within one week on the Advance Access page on the Annals of Botany website. This marks the publication date of the paper.

Corresponding authors will receive an email invitation to view and correct the proofs online approximately 4 weeks after acceptance. Page proofs should be carefully reviewed and returned within 48 h to avoid publishing delays and associated added costs. In particular, please carefully check the figures and tables to ensure image quality and layout/formatting are correct after typesetting.

The dates of submission, first return for revision, final acceptance and date of electronic publication of each article are printed on each paper.

Formal Statement

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.

Authors or their employers retain copyright on articles published in Annals of Botany. However, it is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors or their employers grant an exclusive licence to the Annals of Botany Company by completing and signing the Licence to Publish. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and allows the article to be disseminated as widely as possible. The Licence permits authors to use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication. More about rights and permissions.

Author Self-Archiving/Public Access policy

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

Author Free Access Link and Discounts

All corresponding authors will be provided with a free URL that gives access to the article online and to a downloadable PDF upon publication. The link will be sent via email to the article’s corresponding author who is free to share the link with any co-authors. Please see OUP’s Author Self-Archiving policy for more information regarding how this link may be publicly shared depending on the type of license under which the article has published.

All authors have the option to purchase up to 10 print copies of the issue in which they publish at a 50% discount. Orders should be placed through this order form. Orders must be made within 12 months of the online publication date.

Manuscript Transfer

Annals of Botany sends and receives transfers from other journals on related topics published by Oxford University Press. All transfers are sent according to the choice of the authors, who may accept or refuse a transfer suggestion. Unless a reviewer declines to have their feedback shared, reviewer reports and the original decision letter are included in the transfer but, for transfers other than those going directly to AoB Plants, the reviewer identities are not shared.

Transferred manuscripts may be sent out for additional peer review, and a decision will be made on the manuscript based on the feedback from all reviewers and the judgment of the editorial team.