Information for Authors

Molecular Horticulture publishes the following types of articles that unravel novel mechanisms or shedding new lights on how broadly defined horticultural plants or their parts function (please refer Aims & Scope for details): Research Article, Letter, Review, Comment, and Perspective.

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.

Research article should consecutively include, Cover Page, Core, Abstract, Key Words, Gene & Accession Numbers, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Methods, Funding, Author Contributions, Acknowledgements, Supplemental Information, and References.

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.

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

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 different from those of the title, and 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.

Introduction should help orient readers to the specific field of your research. It generally starts with information and knowledge background about the research, followed by current understanding and outstanding issues, objectives or hypothesis, approaches, and outcomes.

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 basic figures should be organized into a composite figure. The basic figures of the composite figure should be labeled using capital letters A, B, C, etc.

Discussion should be synthesized by telling readers what and how your research findings advance the scientific field, any critical theory/hypothesis is manifested (or hidden), and any new frontier is shaped.

Methods should tell readers what plant materials were used and how the data were generated and analyzed. The description, often in the past tense, should be concise yet detailed enough for readers to follow.

Funding should list funding sources and numbers that were used for the research presented.

Author Contributions should be clearly indicated, using initials, in terms of perception (of the research), experiment design, execution, data analysis, and paper writing.

Acknowledgements should be used only to thank those who helped in experiments, critical reading or editing of the manuscript, or the like.

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

References as well as in text “(Author, Year)” citations should be formatted according to the following reference style (that is similar to the Plant Cell style except for 1. no parenthesis for year, 2. Journal name in bold, 3. Volume number is not in bold; for initial submission, Plant Cell style is accepted). Endnote or a similar reference management software is recommended. Note on Web links and URLs: All web links and URLs, including links to the authors' own websites, should be given a reference name and included in the reference list rather than within the text of the manuscript. They should be provided in full, including both the title of the site and the URL, as well as the date the site was accessed.

Article within a journal
Smith JJ. 1999. The world of science. Am J Sci. 36:234-5.

Article within a journal (no page numbers)
Rohrmann S, Overvad K, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Jakobsen MU, Egeberg R, Tjønneland A, et al. 2013. Meat consumption and mortality - results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. BMC Medicine 11:63.

Article within a journal by DOI
Slifka MK, Whitton JL. 2000. Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. Dig J Mol Med. doi:10.1007/s801090000086.

Article within a journal supplement
Frumin AM, Nussbaum J, Esposito M. 1979. Functional asplenia: demonstration of splenic activity by bone marrow scan. Blood 59 Suppl 1:26-32.

Book chapter, or an article within a book
Wyllie AH, Kerr JFR, Currie AR. 1980. Cell death: the significance of apoptosis. In: Bourne GH, Danielli JF, Jeon KW, editors. International review of cytology. London: Academic;. p. 251-306.

OnlineFirst chapter in a series (without a volume designation but with a DOI)
Saito Y, Hyuga H. 2007. Rate equation approaches to amplification of enantiomeric excess and chiral symmetry breaking. Top Curr Chem. doi:10.1007/128_2006_108.

Complete book, authored
Blenkinsopp A, Paxton P. 1998. Symptoms in the pharmacy: a guide to the management of common illness. 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science.

Online document
Doe J. 1999. Title of subordinate document. In: The dictionary of substances and their effects. Royal Society of Chemistry. http://www.rsc.org/dose/title of subordinate document. Accessed 15 Jan 1999.

Online database
Healthwise Knowledgebase. 1998. US Pharmacopeia, Rockville. http://www.healthwise.org. Accessed 21 Sept 1998.

Supplementary material/private homepage
Doe J. 2000. Title of supplementary material. http://www.privatehomepage.com. Accessed 22 Feb 2000.

University site
Doe, J. 1999. Title of preprint. http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/mydata.html. Accessed 25 Dec 1999.

FTP site
Doe, J. 1999. Trivial HTTP, RFC2169. ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2169.txt. Accessed 12 Nov 1999.

Organization site
ISSN International Centre. 2006. The ISSN register. http://www.issn.org. Accessed 20 Feb 2007.

Dataset with persistent identifier
Zheng L-Y, Guo X-S, He B, Sun L-J, Peng Y, Dong S-S, et al. 2011. Genome data from sweet and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). GigaScience Database. http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100012.

Letter

A Letter is to present short report of original and significant finding that is of general interest to the field. The Letter has 1200 words or less with one display item only (figure or table) and up to 10 references. The Letter typically includes the following sections: Introduction, Results, and Discussion (abstract and subsections are not allowed). The in-text citation and references should be formatted as those described for Research Article above. The information on materials and methods is not required, but can be submitted as a supplement.

Review Article

A Review (currently invitation only) should not only summarize, highlight, and critique recent literature, but more importantly synthesize and illustrate conceptual frameworks and future directions on a topic of broad interest. A review article should consecutively include, Cover Page, Abstract, Key Words, Introduction, Main Body (that is usually divided into sections with headings), Funding, Author Contributions, Acknowledgements, and References. The use of figures, tables and drawings are strongly encouraged. The in-text citation and references should be formatted as those described for Research Article above. A typical Review article should not exceed 8,000 words in the main text (excluding the title page, references, figure legends, and tables) and have no more than 7 display items (figures and tables) in total. The length of a review is flexible.

Comment

A Comment paper presents discussion on an issue(s) of public interest that has broad impacts on horticulture research (e.g. policy, funding, ethics, etc.) or relevant scientific issues that have significant impacts on the wellbeing of our society. A Comment paper should have no more than 1,500 words in main text, with a maximum of 1 figure/table/diagram and 10 references. The in-text citation and references should be formatted as those described for Research Article above.

Perspective

A Perspective article features the discussions that illustrate historical research milestones, current frontiers, future research directions/prospects, and possible solutions on an important topic of broad interest in horticulture research. A Perspective paper can be prepared with the same format and word limit as a Review but is expected to provide the readers with more forward-thinking views. 

Cover Letter

In the cover letter, you should include the following information: the contact and affiliation information of the corresponding author, brief justification why the article belongs to Molecular Horticulture (no need for invited review articles), names and email addresses of three or more reviewers, and names and email addresses of researchers that you would like to exclude as reviewers of your article.

Submission

Prior to the setting up of the journal’s online submission system by Springer Nature, please submit, as attachments, your manuscripts in PDF, along with the cover letter, to mhort_editorial@sjtu.edu.cn.