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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 (but the genus is only needed for the first species
in a list within the same genus, e.g. Lolium annuum, L. arenarium). The authority (e.g. L.,
Mill., Benth.) is not required unless it is controversial. Guidance for naming plants correctly is
given in The International Plant Names Index and in The Plant Book: a Portable Dictionary
of the Vascular Plants (1997) by D.J. Mabberley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0521-414210-0). After first mention, the generic name may be abbreviated to its initial
(e.g. A. thaliana) except where its use causes confusion.
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) edited by C.D.
Brickell, B. R. Baum, W. L. A. Hetterscheid, A. C. Leslie, J. McNeill, P. Trehane, F.
Vrugtman, J. H. Wiersema (ISBN 3-906166-16-3).
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). This is often more convenient.
Items of Specialized Equipment mentioned in MATERIALS AND METHODS should be
accompanied by details of the model, manufacturer, and city and country of origin.
Numbers up to and including ten should be written out unless they are measurements. All
numbers above ten should be in numerals except at the start of sentences. Dates should be in
the form of 10 Jan. 1999, and Clock Time in the form of 1600 h.
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
= 0.006M
f
1.461
, where M
d
is plant dry mass and M
f
is plant fresh
mass; and not as DM = 0.006FM
1.461
.
The meaning of terms used in equations should be explained when 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.
Summary statistics should be accompanied by the number of replicates and a measure of
variation such as standard error or least significance difference. Analysis of variance is often
appropriate where several treatments are involved. Presentation of an abridged ANOVA table
is permissible when its use illustrates critical features of the experiment.
Chemical, biochemical and molecular biological nomenclature 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). Chapter 16 of Scientific Style and Format.
The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers 6th edn., by Edward J. Huth
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47154-0) gives guidelines.
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