Manuscript Preparation

Research Article

Research Articles are full-length papers that present original, cutting-edge and in-depth studies. A Research Article paper generally has up to 7,000 words in the main text (excluding the title page, references, figure legends, and tables) with 7 display items (figures and tables); additional display items will be published online as Supplemental Information. A Research article should include the following sections, in sequence: Cover Page, Core, Abstract, Key Words, Gene & Accession Numbers, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Methods, Funding, Author Contributions, Acknowledgements, Supplemental Information, and References.

The Cover Page should consist of title, authors (first, middle and last names), author affiliations, corresponding author (name followed by email address), notes (if any, e.g., These authors contribute equally), and an abridged running title.

The Core should be concise, generally 2-3 sentences and no more than 80 words to summarize major findings and significance.

The Abstract should, in one paragraph of up to 200 words, summarize the major aspects of the paper: why the research was performed, how the study was carried out, what was found, and what conclusion could be drawn.

Key Words, 6 or less, should be distinct from those of the title, and each should be separated with semicolon (;).

Gene & Accession Numbers should list datasets with accession numbers and genes (common and annotated names) that were studied in the paper.

The Introduction should help orient readers to the specific field of your research. It generally starts with background information and knowledge about the research, followed by a summary of current understanding and outstanding issues, and finish with a clear statement of objectives or hypotheses that are tested. Note: the Introduction should not present results or conclusions.

The Results should present the research findings logically. It should be written in the past tense. Figures and tables are major forms of the findings. Closely related data or figures should be organized into a composite figure where possible. Each figure of the composite figure should be labeled using capital letters A, B, C, etc.

The Discussion should explain how the research findings advance the scientific field, articulate any theories/hypotheses that are suggested or addressed by the research outcomes, and propose new directions or research strategies that are enabled by the study. The Discussion should be succinct and should not duplicate information that has been presented in the Introduction or Results.

The Methods should provide a concise summary of all plant materials, techniques, resources and analytical procedures used in the research, and give sufficient information that another scientist could duplicate the study. This information includes germplasm, plant growth conditions, databases, facilities or service and statistical approaches that were used.

The Funding section should list funding sources and associated grant numbers that enabled the research presented.

Author Contributions should be clearly indicated, using initials, in terms of conception of the research, experiment design, generating data, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

Acknowledgements should be used to thank those who are not authors but who supported the research, provided critical reading or editing of the manuscript, or provided materials.

Supplemental Information should list brief titles of the supplemental documents, figures and tables, which will be available online at Molecular Horticulture.