Thank you for your interest in Journal of Integrative Plant Biology (JIPB), formerly Acta Botanica Sinica. For the quickest and most efficient manuscript processing, we ask you to carefully read the guidelines before submitting your paper.
We are very pleased to announce that beginning February 1, 2012, JIPB will waive ALL standard page charges. This means that all publications will be completely free of charge. Submit now to take advantage of this limited-time opportunity!
(Please note: optional color print page charges still apply).
The aim of the journal is to report novel scientific discoveries related to all biological processes in plants using integrative genetic, chemical, cell and molecular biological approaches to understand plants at micro- and macro-scale. Articles submitted to JIPB should fit in one of the following 6 themes: 1) Cell & Developmental Biology; 2) Metabolic Biology & Biochemistry; 3) Signal Transduction & Stress Response; 4) Systems Biology & Molecular Physiology; 5) Sexual Reproduction; and 6) Molecular Evolution & Ecology. Our primary focus is on providing the answers to significant plant biological questions and on the technologies essential for such studies. Preliminary observations, purely descriptive studies, tissue culture and transformation, and reporting on single plant-derived chemicals fall beyond the scope of the journal.
The journal publishes peer-reviewed papers in 4 categories:
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• Commentaries • Invited Expert Reviews • New Technologies
• Research Articles
• Commentaries
The commentary section gives our authors an opportunity to exchange viewpoints, praise and criticism with each other and the wider plant community. Authors may submit comments in regards to previous journal contents or bring up other issues that may be of interest and relevant to the journal. Commentary will appear in the beginning of the journal and will be published in a three column style with no abstract or keywords. Authors and references are always presented at the end of the commentary, after the text.
• Invited Expert Reviews
Articles published in this section intend to bring our readers the latest scientific news and advances in plant biology. These papers should be written by one or more experts in the field and be focused on exciting or important new ideas. They can be provocative, and should be focused on providing insights or introducing new concepts or points of view. Authors may cite their own work if it relates to the topic but the article should not be viewed as a place to promote one＊s own research. The use of figures is encouraged if they clearly add to the reader＊s ability to understand the subject and to draw attention. Although invited, review articles must pass through the regular reviewing and revision process before being accepted for publication.
To highlight the "Invited Expert Review", a portrait photo of the corresponding author will be used in the first page of the paper. Although JIPB does not accept review articles by general submission, authors may consult the Editor of a particular research area if he or she considers submitting a review article to JIPB.
• New Technologies
The new technologies category describes new and improved methods and research tools. Articles should provide a concise and comprehensive explanation of how novel technologies may be applied in plant research and should evaluate and compare older techniques and explain why the new method is more efficient, cheaper, simpler, etc. Manuscripts in this category should contain an abstract, keywords and references as a standard article.
• Research Articles
Full-length research articles should explore basic biological questions through reproducible experimental design, using genetic, biochemical, cell and molecular biological methods and statistical analyses. All valid manuscripts submitted to JIPB are handled by our editors and co-editors. All research articles published in JIPB should fall under one of the journal's 6 research themes (see section 3 for details on the 6 themes).
3. RESEARCH THEMES, ASSOCIATE EDITORS & CO-EDITORS
Research articles are published under 6 themes:
﹛
• Cell & Developmental Biology
• Metabolic Biology & Biochemistry
• Signal Transduction & Stress Response
• Systems Biology & Molecular Physiology
• Sexual Reproduction
• Molecular Evolution & Ecology
♦ Cell & Developmental Biology Associate Editor: Chris Hawes (Oxford Brookes University, UK) Research topics in this theme include cell division, cell differentiation, organogenesis and pattern formation.
Co-Editors:
♦ Metabolic Biology & Biochemistry
Associate Editor: Mark Stitt (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Germany)
Research topics in this theme include primary and secondary metabolisms, metabolic pathways, molecular interaction, and protein structure.
Co-Editors:
♦ Signal Transduction & Stress Response
Associate Editor: William J. Lucas(University of California, Davis, USA)
Research topics in this theme include inter- and intra-cellular communication, biotic and abiotic stresses, and environmental response in plants.
Co-Editors:
♦ Systems Biology & Molecular Physiology
Associate Editor: Leon V. Kochian (Cornell University, USA)
Research topics in this theme includes complex interactions in plant systems using a systematic approach, and studies of physiological process in plant growth and development using an integrative approach.
Co-Editors:
♦ Sexual Reproduction
Associate Editor: Wei-Cai Yang (Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, CAS, China)
Research topics in this theme include integrative approaches to study gamete development, pollination and fertilization, self-incapability, embryo and endosperm development.
Co-Editors:
♦ Molecular Evolution & Ecology
Associate Editor: Ian Thomas Baldwin (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
Research topics in this theme include integrative approaches to study plant ecology and evolution at the chemical, molecular or genomic level. carried out using integrative approaches to study plant ecology and evolution at the chemical, molecular or genomic level.
Co-Editors:
JIPB strives to publish papers of the highest quality and originality with the quickest possible turnaround time. All manuscripts received are subjected to a preliminary scope/quality examination by our Manuscript Manager and Associate Editors. Papers beyond the journal's scope or which do not follow the format of the Journal will be returned to the authors without being reviewed. Experts will review manuscripts that meet the journals initial requirements and a preliminary decision is made in two to three weeks. The final decision of acceptance or rejection rests with the Editorial Board. Papers are usually published in chronological order of acceptance.
Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, direct style so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in the particular field. Manuscripts with poor English will not be considered for peer-review.
Non-native English speaking authors who think their manuscript would benefit from professional editing are encouraged to use a language-editing service. JIPB
collaborates with two editing services:
Go Write Ahead is a highly personalized, strictly confidential, and
efficient scientific editing service offered at competitive rates. With
over twenty years research experience in leading research institutes in Asia
and Australia, the editor has personally published in fields of plant
developmental genetics, cell biology, and plant signal transduction.
Editorial
services for manuscripts (including two revisions) are as follows:
Bioedit Ltd
is an online English editing service that offers high-quality language
editing of papers in bioscience research. JIPB papers submitted to Bioedit
for language editing benefit from a fixed low price: 3000 RMB/330 EUR/450
USD per paper for the comprehensive editing service
(7-day turnaround). Revised manuscripts are edited free-of-charge. Please
see conditions on the Bioedit website.
When contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of scientific content, the Editor and the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to avoid ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between authors and readers. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.
All editors and reviewers are required to follow the general policy regarding "conflicts of interest". Authors may request reviewers, but should not request people who have a conflict of interest as defined by the policy (see clause 5). Editors are permitted to use any reviewer reasonably believed to be an appropriate scientific expert, except reviewers who would be excluded by the conflict of interest policy. If authors wish to request the exclusion of certain reviewers for other reasons, specific justification must be provided in the cover letter; such requests may be considered at the discretion of the Editor.
If revision is required, authors should carefully read the comments from the reviewers and revise the manuscript accordingly and give clear explanation of what has been changed and what has not and why. Failure to do so may lead to direct rejection. The Co-Editor will evaluate revised manuscripts and determine whether external review is required. The board will normally consider only one round of revision, and the revised manuscript must be submitted within one month unless an extension is granted. In the case that extensive revision including additional experimentation is required; the general policy is to decline the manuscript, in which case editors may choose to encourage resubmission. The author may include the original manuscript ID in the cover letter, which may allow the board to choose the same Editor to deal the manuscript. Resubmissions are subject to the full review process. (Back to top)
5. CONFLICTS OF INTERESTS
Journal of Integrative Plant Biology (JIPB) requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or indirectly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include but are not limited to patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication in this journal.
If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission.
It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and to collectively list in the cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief, in the manuscript (in the footnotes, Conflict of Interest or Acknowledgments section), and in the online submission system ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.
Do you or any of your co-authors have a conflict of interest to declare? (required)
Yes
No
If yes, confirm that you have stated this conflict of interest in the footnotes, Conflict of Interest or Acknowledgments section of your manuscript as required by the Journal (see the Instructions to Authors). (required)
Yes
No
Provide details and include this information in your cover letter to the Editor.
Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee of the institution within which the work was undertaken and that, where appropriate, it conforms to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki in 1995 (as revised in Seoul 2008), available at: http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html.
For more specific information on JIPB's ethics in publishing, please visit our website, www.jipb.net
In taxonomic papers, type specimens and type depositories must be clearly designated and indicated. Authors are required to deposit the name-bearing type material in internationally recognized institutions (not private collections).
For articles in which humans formed part of the experiment, the authors should provide the published statement of informed consent.
Research carried out in areas for which research permits are required (e.g. nature reserves), or when it deals with organisms for which collection or import/export permits are required (e.g. protected species), the authors must clearly detail obtaining these permits in the Acknowledgements section. (Back to top)
7. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
All authors should submit their manuscripts online at http://www.submit-jipb.net. The Bench>Press submission system will guide authors through the process. Additional help is available from http://submit-jipb.net/submission/submissionhelp or from the Manuscript Manager in JIPB's Editorial Office (+86 10 6283 6133, jipb@ibcas.ac.cn). Our online submission system will ensure a rapid handling of your paper. For peer-review, word processing files are preferred and will be converted to PDF format by the publisher. Although there are no file size limitations, note that large files will take longer to upload and convert to PDF depending on the Internet connection. Please try to keep the maximum combined file size under 5 MB. If you are not satisfied with the final conversion results when the submission is proofed, the complete manuscript may be reloaded. Note that Chinese, Japanese, and Korean fonts must be embedded in a PDF document file when submitted; otherwise the editorial office will not be able to view the submitted manuscript. (Back to top)
8. COPYRIGHT
Papers accepted for publication in JIPB become copyright of the Publisher, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Authors will be asked to sign an Exclusive License Form (transfer of copyright form). In signing the Exclusive License Form (available from: http://submit-jipb.net/journals/jipb/forms/Copyright.pdf), it is assumed that authors have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material. All authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the Exclusive License Form, and must sign the form or agree that the corresponding author can sign on their behalf. Articles cannot be published until a signed Exclusive License Form has been received. (Back to top)
9. MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Manuscripts should follow JIPB style, be written in concise and grammatically correct English, and be presented in a manner and at a level that will be accessible to the broad readership of the Journal, not specialists. Papers that do not meet these standards will be returned to the authors without further review. Please consult a recent issue of JIPB for guidance on format, organization, and preparation of figures, legends, tables, and references. Authors who think their manuscript would benefit from professional editing are encouraged to use a language-editing service. JIPB collaborates with Bioedit Ltd, an online English editing service that offers special prices for JIPB papers.
In general, there are no limits to the length of manuscripts published in JIPB; however, papers of more than 10 journal pages will be published only if the Co-Editor judges that the content is sufficiently novel to warrant a longer paper. Ten published pages in JIPB correspond to approximately 30 manuscript pages, including tables and figure legends and an average of six one-column figures. The text should not contain any footnotes and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.
Original manuscripts must be prepared using a standard word processing program (such as Microsoft Word) and should be prepared with 1.5 line spacing and in 12 point type using one of the following fonts: Times New Roman, Courier, Helvetica or Arial.
For bio-medical manuscripts, the authors should abide by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (http://www.icmje.org/#obligation).
Please organize your manuscripts in the following order:
All figures should be uploaded as separate .tif files or similar (see figures below for more details).
Title page
The title page should contain (i) the title of the paper, (ii) a running title of no more than 60 characters including spaces, (iii) the full names of the authors and (iv) the addresses of the institutions at which the work was carried out, together with (v) the full postal and email address, plus fax and telephone numbers of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript should be sent. The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote. JIPB does not allow multiple corresponding authors.
The title should be short, informative and contain the major key words. Do not use abbreviations in the title.
Abstract
All articles should have a brief abstract (no more than 200 words) that summarizes the questions being addressed, the approaches taken, the major findings, and the significance of the results. It should be concise, complete, and clearly communicate the importance of the work for a broad audience. The abstract should not contain references and the use of abbreviations, which should be defined at first use, should be kept to a minimum. (Back to top)
Text
Authors should divide their manuscripts into the following sections: Introduction, Results, Discussion, and Materials and Methods. The Introduction should provide the necessary background information for the average reader; it should be both complete and concise. Previous publications that form a basis for the work presented must be cited. Citation of reviews is not a substitute for citing primary research articles. Citation of recent research articles is not a substitute for citing original discoveries. An author's own work should not be cited preferentially over equally relevant work of others. Authors' previously published data that are presented along with new data must be identified clearly and cited appropriately; duplicate publication of data (including data previously published as supplemental material) is not allowed without citation. The Results and Discussion can be subdivided if subheadings give the manuscript more clarity. The Discussion should not repeat the Results; instead, the Discussion should explore the implications of the Results, citing relevant published research, and should also be as concise as possible. A Conclusions section is generally not permitted. Statements of "first finding" are generally not permitted in JIPB.
Acknowledgements
The contribution of colleagues or institutions should also be acknowledged. Authors should not thank anonymous reviewers or acknowledge secretarial services. Other acknowledgements should be kept as brief as courtesy and obligations allow. The authors may also acknowledge the source of financial support, including a declaration of the authors' industrial links and affiliations.
For invited expert review, there is no limitation on the number of references cited, although we strongly suggest citing only publications in which original knowledge was generated. For other types of articles, the maximum number of cited references is 80.
The Harvard (author, date) system of referencing is used (examples are given below). In the text give the author's name followed by the year in parentheses: Smith (2000). If there are two authors use 'and': Smith and Jones (2001); if cited within parentheses also use 'and': (Smith and Jones 2001). When reference is made to a work by three or more authors, the first name followed by et al. should be used: MacDonald et al. (2002). If more than one work is cited within parentheses, separate citations using a semi-colon (Friedman 1994; Wang et al. 1997), except in the case where the author of the works is the same, in which case the author's name should not be repeated, but the years should be divided with a comma (Smith 2000, 2002).
References should be listed in alphabetical order. Always cite the names of all authors in the reference list . References to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list but should be cited in the text only (e.g. A Smith, pers. comm.; RW Wang, unpubl. data). All citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list.
Names of journals should be abbreviated according to the Serial Sources for the Biosis Data Base, available in most libraries or from http://www.biosis.org . Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.
Journals:
Briggs WR, Tseng TS, Cho HY, Swartz TE, Sullivan S, Bogomolni RA (2007) Phototropins and their LOV domains: Versatile plant blue-light receptors. J. Integr. Plant Biol.49, 4每10.
Kwon SY, Choi SM, Ahn YO, Lee HS, Lee HB, Park YM, Kwak SS (2003) Enhanced stress-tolerance of transgenic tobacco plants expressing a human dehydroascorbate reductase gene. J. Plant. Physiol.160, 347-353.
Sveshnikova IN (1963) Atlas and key for the identification of the living and fossil Sciadopityaceae and Taxodiaceae based on the structure of the leaf epidermis. Acta Sci. USSR Paleobot. 4, 207每237 (in Russian with an English abstract).
Jiang MY, Zhang JH (2004) Abscisic acid and antioxidant defense in plant cells. Acta Bot. Sin.46, 1每9.
Books:
Sneath PHA, Sokal RR (1973) Numerical Taxonomy. 2nd eds. Freeman, San Francisco, CA.
Nikitin VP (1969) Palaeocarpological Method. Publishing House of Tomsk University, Tomsk (in Russian).
Chapter in a book:
van Went JH, Willemse MTM (1984) Fertilization. In: Johri BM, ed. Embryology of Angiosperms.Springer-Verlag, Berlin. pp. 273每317.
Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP (1995) Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brener BM, eds. Hypertension: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Management. 2nd edn. Raven Press, New York. pp. 465每478. (Back to top)
Appendices
Appendices should be placed at the end of the paper, numbered in Roman numerals and referred to in the text. If written by a person other than the author of the main text, the author's name should be included below the title.
Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate information contained in the text. Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Type tables on a separate sheet with the legend above. Legends should be concise but comprehensive: the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: a, b, c ... should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.
﹛
Cover letter
A cover letter must be submitted along with the manuscript, stating that neither the manuscript nor any part of its content has been published or submitted for publication elsewhere, except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium. Any closely related papers that are in press or that have been submitted elsewhere should be noted in the cover letter and cited in the submitted manuscript if appropriate. If any new gene symbols are introduced, the authors should state that they have conducted a search of the literature and of community databases and whether each new symbol has been registered in the appropriate community database. If authors wish to request exclusion of any reviewers, specific reasons must be provided. We recommend that authors also explain briefly how their work meets the Journal's scope.
The cover letter must also contain a declaration that all authors have contributed significantly to the work and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.
If tables or figures have been reproduced from another source, a letter from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher), stating authorization to reproduce the material must be attached to the cover letter.
Availability of materials
Publication in JIPB implies that the authors agree to provide all materials that are integral to the results presented in the article, including constructs, antibodies, seeds, protocols and whatever would be necessary for a skilled investigator to verify or replicate the claims. Authors are generally expected to take advantage of public repositories or commercial vendors to the extent possible.
Author material archive policy
Authors who require the return of any submitted material that is accepted for publication should inform the Editorial Office at the time of submission. If no indication is given, all hardcopy and electronic material will be disposed of two months after publication. (Back to top)
10. MANUSCRIPT STYLE
Spelling
The Journal uses US spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
Units
All measurements must be given in SI or SI-derived units.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be used sparingly and only where they ease the reader's task by reducing repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.
Trade names
Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not be used when it is not essential or ambiguous. If trade names are used, the name and location of the manufacturer must be given.
Scientific names
Upon its first use in the title, abstract, text, and materials and methods, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species and authority) in parentheses. However, for well-known species, the scientific name may be omitted from the article title. If no common name exists in English, the scientific name should be used only.
Botanical nomenclature
All papers must conform to the latest edition of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Upon its first use in the title, abstract and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species and authority) in parentheses.
Genetic nomenclature
Standard genetic nomenclature should be used. For further information, including relevant websites, authors should refer to the genetic nomenclature guide in Trends in Genetics (Elsevier Science, 1998).
Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL and GenBank on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession number information is: "These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345".
As a step towards becoming an online-only journal, JIPB has launched "all-in-color" for its online content. Authors are strongly encouraged to submit all their plates, figures and graphs in color. Color figures and color diagrams will appear in the online version of JIPB, FREE OF CHARGE . Please note that this only applies to the online version of the journal. The authors may still have their articles printed in color, however, the previous charge for color prints will apply and the authors will have to indicate which figures should be in color. Exact figure charges are listed in section 17.
All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures. Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text. Each figure should be labeled at the top of the page, indicating the name of the author(s), figure number and orientation.
We recommend that figures are created using Adobe Photoshop or similar software. All figures are required to be in either TIFF, JPEG or PowerPoint (PPT) format. Resolution of at least 300 dpi is required for most figures when saved as JPEG or TIFF. Color figures should be set up as CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) and not as RGB (red, green, blue) for hard-copy print purposes. If you use PPT, please send the original PPT files. Use only basic PPT fonts and do not draw lines that are less than .25 points thick. Use shaded or colored fills instead of pattern fills. Images imported into PPT should have at least 600 dpi resolution.
Line figures should be supplied as sharp, preferably color graphs or diagrams, either professionally drawn or created by computer graphics package. Bar charts should be colored according to journal style as follows, from left to right: purple (filled), white with blue diagonal lines (45-degree right sloping lines), lime-green (filled), white with yellow diagonal lines (45-degree left sloping lines). For more info on bar chart colors, please see the following PDF example. If the chart requires more than four colors, please contact the office for specific instructions. Note that colored charts will only appear in the journal's online version. The hard-copy version will still be printed black-and-white unless the authors instruct otherwise.
Photographs should be supplied as sharp, glossy, preferably color photographic prints and must be un-mounted. Individual photographs forming a composite figure should be of equal contrast to facilitate printing, and should be accurately squared. It is preferred that photos are grouped together into one or more plates.
Lettering must be included and should be sized to 8 point size (Arial + overstrike) for line figures and photographs; figure numbers should be sized to be 9 point size (Arial + overstrike). Magnifications should be indicated using a scale bar on the illustration. All figures must be supplied in camera-ready format.
Legends should be concise and comprehensive: the figure and its legend must be self-sufficient, understandable without reference to the text including definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.
11. FREE ACCESS POLICY
JIPB is devoted to reach as much audience as possible with the following FreeAccess (FA) policies:
All newly published articles are Free Access for the first month after publication;
All papers in our Special Issues are Free Access;
All Editorials, Commentary and Prospective articles are Free Access;
First issue of the year is Free Access;
In each issue, two papers selected by the Chief Editor are Free Access;
Free Access allows you to read and download the article for free, regardless of whether or not you have a subscription to JIPB. (Free Access allows you to read and download the article for free, regardless of whether or not you have a subscription to JIPB.)
12. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Supplementary material is not essential to the article but provides greater depth and background and may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc. This material can be submitted with your manuscript, and will appear online, without editing or typesetting. There is no page limit for supplementary materials. Guidelines on how to prepare this material and which formats and file sizes to use can be found at: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppmat.asp. (Back to top)
13. MANUSCRIPT PROCESSING
All manuscripts received will be subjected to an initial validity check, including the quality and the format, by the Manuscript Manager. Those that pass the first examination will be assigned to an Associate Editor. The Associate Editor will make an initial evaluation of the scientific content. He will also check the language and make sure that the manuscript is written in clear and concise English.
If the Associate Editor finds the manuscript acceptable he will assign a Co-Editor from his theme, who will evaluate the manuscript in detail. The Co-Editor assigns three or more peer reviewers for each manuscript. The reviewers evaluate the manuscript in terms of the importance of research questions, the rigor of the experimental evidence and protocols, and the significance of the conclusion. All manuscripts tentatively accepted will be forwarded to the Associate Editor for a final decision. It is important to note that the Editor-in-Chief of JIPB reserves the right of changing the final decision on any submission at any stage.
A decision letter will be emailed to the corresponding author once the Associate Editor or Editor-in-Chief has made the final decision. The corresponding author can view the comments provided by the reviewers online at http://www.submit-jipb.net. If the manuscript is accepted without revision, the editorial office will contact the corresponding author if additional files/documents are needed.
If the manuscript needs revision, the corresponding author will have to read the comments carefully and make corresponding changes, and explain point-by-point what has been changed and why if the reviewer's recommendation has not been followed. Revised manuscript files should be uploaded using the manuscript handling system.
A manuscript that contains good scientific content but requires extensive revision will, as a matter of JIPB policy, be declined. If the manuscript is declined with encouragement from the Co-Editor to resubmit, the resubmission must be done online within the time-frame asked. A note should be included, indicating that it is a resubmission together with its previous tracking number clearly stated.
If at any time during the review process the corresponding author has a question regarding the status of a manuscript or the nature of the peer review process, please contact the Manuscript Manager at: jipb@ibcas.ac.cn. (Back to top)
14. PROOFS
The editorial office will notify the corresponding author via e-mail to electronically retrieve page proofs. The corresponding author will have access to one PDF file, which will contain: (a) PDF pages (includes figures and tables) and (b) a reprint order form. The corresponding author should return (a) the proofread and corrected original proof, (b) original figures if applicable, and (c) the completed reprint order form. Although the editorial staff may change the wording based on their understanding, the corresponding author is fully responsible for the final content of the manuscript. The proof is the last chance to correct mistakes. With the exception of typographical or minor clerical errors, no changes will be made in the manuscript at the proof stage. You may correct any of the mistakes made by editorial staff for free, however, correcting more than five of your own mistakes will be subject to additional charges (US$ 2 each), and even re-evaluation by the Co-Editor. (Back to top)
15. JIPB COVER PICTURE SELECTION
Each cover of JIPB will have an illustration related to one of the articles published. Authors who would like to have a color photograph considered should submit a high resolution image online via Bench>Press when submitting a manuscript, or email the photograph to the manuscript tracking office at jipb@ibcas.ac.cn. All cover pictures should be relevant to the content of the article published in the issue, and have artistic impression. The decision for the cover selection is made by the Editor-in-Chief. When a photograph has been selected, the author will be contacted by the editorial office for additional information concerning the cover
caption. If an author does not hold the copyright for a submitted image, he/she is responsible for obtaining the necessary permission to use the image in JIPB. In return, the color cover will also be used for the offprints of your paper without additional charge. (Back to top)
16. OFFPRINTS
Thirty offprints will be supplied to the corresponding author once required. A charge of 500 RMB (US$ 70) will be levied for each article. For offprints of more than 30, extra charge will be levied (150 RMB for every 10 additional copies).
17. PAGE CHARGES- ELIMINATED UNTIL JANUARY 31, 2014
Beginning February 1, 2012 and lasting until January 31, 2014, all standard page charges will be eliminated. This means that unless they opt to print in color, all authors may publish their manuscripts in JIPB completely free of charge. Please note that a 1800 RMB (230 USD) fee for each color figure (or figure plate) will be levied on accepted manuscripts whose authors choose to print in color. As always, online color figures continue to be free of charge.
Checks for color prints or offprint orders should be made payable to: West Haidian District Subbranch, Beijing Branch, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC); Account No: 0200004509088100989; Address: 65 West Road, Beisihuan, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083; Swift code: ICBKCNBJBJM. If authors have difficulty paying the publication costs, please contact the Editorial Office. The Editorial Board may waive charges under special circumstance. (Back to top)
18. CORRECTION AND RETRACTION
If necessary, corrections of significant errors in published articles will be published in a later issue of the Journal. A correction published in the print journal will also be published as a correction in the online journal and will be linked to the original article. Articles may be retracted by their authors, academic or institutional sponsor, editor, or publisher because of pervasive error or unsubstantiated or irreproducible data. A correction or retraction, so labeled, will appear in a prominent section of the Journal, and will be listed in the content page; it will also include the title of the original article. The text of a retraction will explain why the article is being retracted and will include a bibliographic reference. (Back to top)
19. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS
The Editorial Office
Journal of Integrative Plant Biology
Institute of Botany
Chinese Academy of Sciences
No. 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan
