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INSTRUCTION FOR AUTHORS

AIMS AND SCOPE
Comprehensive Plant Biology is an open access journal that publishes original and high quality research papers on all aspects of plant biology, including the disciplines of bryology, flora, vegetation, diversity, biogeography, systematics, taxonomy, plant biotechnology, plant cell biology, plant ecology, plant chemistry, environmental plant biology, forestry, plant genomics, horticulture, limnology, plant orientated microbiology, pharmacognosy, mycology including lichenology, metabolomics and other omics studies, molecular biology, plant conservation and protection, and plant wildlife and ecosystem management. The studies on flora and vegetation will be exclusively considered if they focus on Europe and adjacent areas.
Papers previously published and/or under consideration for publication elsewhere cannot be considered for publication. Single report of the species per area will not be considered as separate articlae if this would be the only result of the manuscript. These can be included with in the joint coloumns. If you have any doubts, please refer to the Article types or contact us for more details.
The manuscripts submitted are continuously checked for plagiarism and autoplagiarism and such manuscript will be reject from the procedure as Comprehensive Plant Biology is plagiarism sensitive journal. Please, avoid journal autocitation of not necessary.

ARTICLE TYPES
Comprehensive Plant Biology journal will publish:

● Original scientific papers – Original, previously unpublished research of interest to a journals' readers. It should written clearly and concise and not exceed 15 pages (Times New Roman, 12).
● Original scientific reports – A brief report on significant preliminary findings. It should not exceed 7 pages (including Abstract and References), and should be structured as Original scientific papers.
● Review articles – The journal will invite and publish review articles on important issues in plant sciences. Prior to submit please contact the editorial board by email to discuss the subject and size of the article.
● New records of plants, algae and fungi – New national and regional records, significant reports of data deficient species, red-listed species, new data on invasive species, or other significant reports with rational and reasoning will be published in a joint columns New records of plants and fungi with the focus on Europe and adjecent regions. New records of plants and fungi will be publish irregulary upon recieving enough material for an article and in series. Each contribution should contain an obligatory part (see the previous issue, please pay attention to georeferencing style) and a descriptive part of up to aproximatelly 300 words. The number of contributors per report is limited to maximum of two authors per contribution. No more than 3 contribution by the same authors will be included in each issue. The references should follow the regular journal style. Please refer to the latest issue for the contribution style. Column editors will be responsible for the preparation of the manuscript. In case authors have doubts about the quality of the research or are uncertain whether it falls within the scope of the journal, they should contact the Editor via email cpb@bio.bg.ac.rs prior to submission.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Language
Papers must be written in British English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts checked by an English-speaking colleague or to use an English language editing service prior to submission. Manuscripts that are deficient in this respect may be returned to the author for revision before scientific review.
An abstract in the Serbian (in Latin) should be provided at the end of the manuscript. The Serbian abstract will be added by the Editorial Board for the non-Serbian speaking authors.
General information
The manuscript should be prepared using Microsoft Word with the following options selected:

    ● Times New Roman, font size 12, single spaced.
    ● Number manuscript pages consecutively and activate continuous line numbering.
    ● A new paragraph must be clearly indicated by indentation (0.63 cm/0.5 inch).
    ● Align text left.
    ● Turn off automatic hyphenation.
    ● Use carriage returns only to end headings and paragraphs. Artificial word breaks at the end of lines must be avoided.
    ● Do not insert spaces before punctuation.
    ● Use italics for emphasis.
    ● Use the equation editor for equations.
    ● Use the SI units throughout the manuscript.
    ● Subheadings within sections can be used to clarify content (except in the Introduction). Please use only up to three levels of subheadings.
    ● Enable spell-check and grammar-check functions to avoid errors.
    ● Save your file in docx or doc format (Word 97-2003 or higher).
    ● If you use reference editor, prior to send the manuscript check up the reference style and turn off the editor program to avoid dely in production.
    ● Please, provide ORCID ID for all the authors. This is obligatory!
Authors are urged to consult recent issues of Comprehensive Plant Biology for guidance on format and style.

Manuscript structure
Prior to submission please double-check that the prepared manuscript contains all of the following elements:
    ● Title page
    ● Abstract (containing main achievements and results)
    ● Keywords (different from those in the title)
    ● Introduction
    ● Materials and Methods
    ● Results (eventually results and discussion part can be combined)
    ● Discussion
    ● Conclusion
    ● Acknowledgements
    ● Conflict of interest statement (if any, otherwise it will be considered no conflict of interest)
    ● References (please consider the style)
    ● List of tables and figures (do not incorporate figures and tables within the manuscript)
    ● Supplementary data (list of supplement(s) with links freely available online)

Title page
The title page must include the following elements:
    ● Concise and informative title. Please avoid abbreviations, unless established and commonly used. In title, please, avoid the use of species authorities after species names in non-taxonomical articles.
    ● Short title of maximum 50 characters.
    ● Author(s) name(s) written in full. First name, followed by the the last name (for the last name use the small caps option). Double-check that all authors' names are accurately spelled.
      Example: Branka Jovanovnić1,*

    ● List of authors affiliations. Indicate affiliations using a superscript number immediately after the author's last name linked with the number in front of the corresponding address.
      Example: 1 Institute for Botany and Botanical Garden, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Takovska 43, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia
    ● The up-to-date e-mail address, full postal address, telephone number, and fax number of the corresponding author are given in a footnote. Indicate the corresponding author using a superscript asterisk immediately after the author's name.

Abstract
One paragraph abstract of no more than 300 words must be provided. The abstract should state the underlying idea, the aim of the research, the obtained results, and the principal conclusions. Avoid the use of abbreviations, species authorities and references in the abstract. If necessary, abbreviations must be defined at the first mention.

Keywords
A list of up to six keywords must be provided for indexing purposes. For better indexing, do not use the exact keywords that appear in the title of the manuscript.

Introduction
The introduction should define the problem and provide sufficient information to explain the background. The objectives should be stated at the end of the section without summarising the research results.

Materials and Methods
Sufficient detail must be provided to allow the work to be repeated. This section should contain the experimental protocols and the origin of materials, tissue, cell lines, or organisms. Already established methods should be adequately referenced without describing the protocol in great detail. For equipment and chemicals used, the manufacturer and the country of origin should be given in parentheses.

Results
The Results section should be clear, concise, and in a logical order, presenting the experimental results.

Discussion
The authors should interpret results clearly and discuss meaning in a wider context. Please do not repeat the information provided in the Results section. The Results and Discussion sections can be combined if appropriate. Extensive citations and discussion of previously published literature should be avoided.

Conclusion
Please provide a short conclusion with an outline of the most important results and their significance in the broader context of the research.

Acknowledgments
Material and financial support, as well as assistance received from individuals, should be mentioned in this section. The names of the funding organisations and grant IDs should be written in full.

References
Citations of references within the body of the manuscript should be in the following format:
    ● Perić et al.(2018) or (Perić et al. 2018) for more than two authors;
    ● Perić and Jurić (2018) or (Perić and Jurić 2018) for two authors;
    ● Perić (2018) or (Perić 2018) for one author.

More than one citation should be organised chronologically as follows: (Perić 2007, 2008; Marković 2008). Up to three citations per statement are recommended; however, if more need to be cited, the authors are encouraged to use reference followed by “and the reference therein.” Published or “in press” articles can be included in the reference list, along with doi identifier. Thesis, conference communications and other widerly unavailable and non-peer-reviewed refernces should be omitted. Unpublished sources should be referred to as such or as a personal communication in the text. All references cited in the text must be listed in the Reference section at the end of the manuscript. Avoid citations of rather old references if there are more recent ones. Up to 5 i.e. 10% self-citations per manuscript are allowed. Please check the references carefully for accuracy, missing information, and punctuation. If you are using reference editors, please check the style and remove the link to the reference editor.

Papers: The references of published papers must contain the authors' last names written using the small caps option and initials, year of publication, the title of the paper, and the title of the journal (in italics). These should be followed by the volume (in bold) and page numbers. If possible, please include doi for each reference.
    Example: Tluste C & Birkhofer K 2023. The Roman snail (Gastropoda: Helicidae) is not a generalist herbivore, but shows food preferences for Urtica dioica and plant litter. Journal of Natural History 57: 758–770. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2023.2203335

Books: The references of books must include the authors' last names written using the small caps option and initials, the year of publication, the title of the book (in italics), the publisher, and the place of publication.
    Example: Adams RP. 2017. Identification of essential oil components by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Allured Publishing Corporation Illinois, USA.

Book chapters: The references of book chapters must include the authors' last names written using small caps option and initials, year of publication, title of the chapter, editors last names written using small caps option and initials, title of the book (in italics), page numbers, the publisher and the place of publication.
    Example: Farjon A. 2001. Cupressaceae. In: Farjon A (ed.), World checklist and bibliography of conifers, pp. 31–103, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Web pages: Avoid citation of web pages due to inconsistency. If website references must be used, the URL and accessed date should be included next to the information in the text. References should be structured as follows:
    Example: MNPS. 2020. Medicinal plant names services (MNPS). Available at: https://mpns.science.kew.org/mpns-portal/ [Accessed 15 January 2024].

Small caps TIPS: type the text as ussual, than mark the words You want to be in small caps, go to Font and tick the options small caps and click OK.

TABLES AND FIGURES GUIDELINES
Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively throughout the body of the manuscript (e.g., Fig. 1; Fig. 2; Table 1, Table 2, etc.). They should not repeat the information presented in the text and should be understandable without reference to the text. Please follow internationally accepted rules and conventions for gene and protein names, units, symbols, and capitalisation in tables and figures.
The total number of tables and figures should not exceed 10.

Tables
Tables must be double-spaced, without vertical lines. Tables must be editable and not submitted as images. Explanatory footnotes should be related to the legend of the table using superscript lowercase letters. All abbreviations should be defined after the footnotes below the table or by reference to a previous table in the same paper. Tables should be added after the References section, with each new table on a separate page accompanied by a corresponding table legend.

Figures
Figures should be high-quality images (JPEG or TIFF file type) with a resolution of at least 300 dpi. Each image of a multiple-image figure should be marked with upper-case letters (use sans-serif font, font size 12) in the upper left corner of the image unless the information that the image shows is impaired by doing so, in which case the most appropriate and esthetic marking of the image should be used.
At the stage of submission, the figures should be inserted at the end of the manuscript, accompanied by the corresponding figure legend and with the approximate size of the one that will be used in the final version of the document. Furthermore, figures should also be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Figure files should be named with the figure number (e.g., Fig. 1).

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
Define abbreviations that are not standard in the field when first mentioned. Ensure consistency of abbreviations used throughout the manuscript. Abbreviations for the standard units of measurement should not be introduced.
Add the species authority in the manuscript where the species under the full name is firstly mentioned (from the introduction onwards)

SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

To improve their research, the authors are encouraged to submit supplementary files such as figures, tables, raw data etc. significant for the results and conclusions inferred. Submitted supplementary material must include a concise legend for each supplementary file. Supplementary material should not be included into the manuscript but rather submitted as separate files.

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Authors are required to submit their article to Comprehensive Plant Biology via the online submission system accessed through the journal website https://cpb.bio.bg.ac.rs/. Upload all of the manuscript files following the instructions stated on the screen:

    - Letter to the editor
    - Title page
    - Full manuscript
    - Full manuscript document including title without authors and affiliations (double blind needed)
    - All figures and pictures as indicated above
    - The list of potential reviewers with affiliations and contact emails

New records of plants, algae, and fungi for the joint columns under the title New records of plants and fungi should be sent directly to the Editorial as a word attachment via the email address: cpb@bio.bg.ac.rs..