PHYTON - Information and Instructions for Contributors

General information. Original papers from all fields of plant sciences will be considered for publication in PHYTON. All articles are published in English, both instant online and in one printed volume per year.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Starting with PHYTON 62-63, printed volumes are published in spring. Manuscripts for PHYTON 64/2024 should be submitted before 31 December 2023.

Date of publication. Upon instant online publication, every article can be purchased in PDF format via the Online Shop of the publisher (Verlag Berger). The DOI and the date of instant online publication are given in the top line on the first page of every article.

Special issues. Voluminous single contributions exceeding 120 printed pages and equally comprehensive collections of papers concentrating on a particular subject (e.g., proceedings of symposia) can still be printed as special issues of PHYTON. But please note that the publisher will usually require pre-financing by the author(s) or editor(s) of such a contribution. In return, you will get excellent printing and paper quality.

Manuscript submission. All manuscripts should be submitted to the Managing Editor (christian.scheuer(at)uni-graz.at), preferably as e-mail attachments. If the files are too large, the manuscript can also be transferred via a filesharing or file transmission service, or on a USB flash drive directed to: Managing Editor PHYTON, c/o University of Graz, Institute of Biology (Plant Sciences), Holteigasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria, Europe. The Managing Editor will confirm receipt by return.

General requirements:

Manuscripts submitted to PHYTON must present new and important research findings that have not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
The authors alone bear full responsibility for the form and contents of their contributions. The text must be accurate and the language correct.
The authors must ensure that the manuscript does not infringe copyrights or property rights. The editors of Phyton will not bear any responsibility in issues of copyright infringement.
If applicable, the manuscript must contain an ‘Author contributions’ statement where the contributions of every author are pointed out in accordance with the CRediT system <https://credit.niso.org/>. This statement is inserted at the end of the manuscript, before the ‘Acknowledgements’.
Please note that ‘Funding’ and possible ‘Conflicts of interest’ must also be disclosed at the end of the manuscript.

Transfer of copyright. As soon as a manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to transfer all rights of reproduction of any kind, translations, and distribution to the publishing house, Verlag Berger.

Manuscripts will usually include the following items:

1. Cover letter: This letter must be provided as a separate document, stating on behalf of all authors that the work has not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.
Please feel free to suggest potential reviewers (full names and e-mail addresses) who have not seen the manuscript before submission.
2. Manuscript in MS-Word format (extension DOC/DOCX or RTF): This file must contain the text plus figure captions (legends) inserted at the end of the text, after the ‘References’ (but no illustrations). Please feel free to suggest suitable positions for all tables and illustrations in the text.
Although this is not mandatory, you may want to submit an identical copy of your manuscript in PDF format.
As a rule, the contributions should not exceed 24 printed pages. If a paper exceeds this limit, the authors are requested to obtain the editors’ consent in advance. Provided that it does not go too far beyond the capacity of the forthcoming volume (about 300 printed pages) we will do our best to enable publication (see also the ‘Special issues’ option above).
3. Tables fitting the printing area can be inserted after the figure captions at the end of the manuscript file. If your results require larger tables, please point this out to the managing editor when submitting your manuscript.
4. Illustrations (figures, graphics) as separate files in JPG or TIF/TIFF format. Authors are also encouraged to arrange photo plates themselves (printing area: 17.0 x 23.2 cm).

MS-Word template. Please download the template named <phyton-ms-template-for-word-2022-2023.docx> which should facilitate the preparation of your manuscript in suitable form. Please note especially the following point:

Under the title, the family names (surnames) of the authors must be given in small capitals to prevent confusion and awkward mistakes. Their preferred given names must be spelled in full, while additional given names (e.g., a middle name) can be abbreviated. The authors’ affiliations and address(es) are placed in a footnote on the first page of the manuscript.

Reviewing process, handling of accepted manuscripts, proofreading. The Managing Editor will forward every submitted manuscript to a handling editor in the PHYTON team, under consideration of his/her area of expertise. Authors of unsuitable manuscripts (i.e., outside the scope of the journal) will be informed by the Managing Editor within two weeks. For a full reviewing process, including an assessment of the manuscript by expert reviewers, please allow one to four months. The handling editor will usually consult one or two expert reviewers and will provide the Managing Editor with the results of the assessment, along with suggestions for acceptance/revision/rejection, as well as for corrections and other alterations in the manuscript thought to be advisable. The Managing Editor will decide and inform the corresponding author accordingly. During the reviewing process, the handling editors may be supported by our Editorial Assistant.
Please note that the Managing Editor will read all accepted manuscripts and may get back to the corresponding author if any mistakes or confusing wording have been overlooked. After eventual clarifications by return, the Managing Editor will forward the manuscript to the typesetter at the publishing house who will prepare the proof in PDF format. The corresponding author will receive the proof from the Managing Editor.
Authors are requested to correct the proof carefully and to return it to the managing editor within two weeks. As a rule, only misprints and typographic errors should be corrected. The cost of alterations in the text exceeding 10 % of the setting may be charged to the authors. It is assumed that the imprimatur is given with the return of the proofs.

Order form. Together with the proof, an order form covering the following four items will be sent to the corresponding author:

Personal PDF files. The authors will receive a free personal PDF file of the published article immediately after instant online publication. This file will be sent to the corresponding author by e-mail. One year after publication, the authors have permission to publish this personal PDF file on their home pages.
Open access option. If you want your article to be available open access, the publisher will charge a fee of 30.- EUR per page.
Color prints. For the time being, color prints can only be reproduced at the authors’ expense. One printed color page will cost 50.- EUR.
Reprints. We regret that PHYTON cannot offer free reprints any longer. However, as you will see on the order form, the publisher can still supply original, high-quality reprints at a moderate price.