Author Guidelines

Annals of Phytomedicine (AP) is committed to the timely publication of peer-reviewed quality articles in AP. AP requires all authors to comply fully with current ethical standards for publication in their disciplines. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent reports of original research, and the original data must be available for review by the Editor-in-Chief, if necessary. All authors of a manuscript must have agreed to its submission and are responsible for its content, including appropriate citations and acknowledgments, and must also have agreed that the corresponding author has the authority to act on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript. By submission of a manuscript to the Journal, the authors guarantee that they have the authority to publish the work and that the manuscript, or one with substantially the same content, was not published previously, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. When submitting papers for publication, it is expected that the authors will provide written assurance and describe the novelty of their work or in the approach taken in their research in a covering letter.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in AP, are sent to two or more reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. The Journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers, takes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/rejection/amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding authors. If required, the author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript.

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style and format then galley proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three-days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. Papers not sufficiently substantiated by experimental detail will not be published. Any technical queries will be referred back to the author, although the Editors reserve the right to make alterations in the text without altering the technical content. This Journal will provide of forum for the publication of the following type of contributions:

• Invited commentary
• Invited review article
• Review article
• Special category article
• Original article
• Short communication

We invite you to submit your manuscripts to AP which aim at rapid publication of high quality research articles while maintaining rigorous peer-review process. The manuscripts intended for publication shall be rigorously refereed and selected on the basis of quality and originality of the work. We accept articles which are having more than 80% originality. Five types of manuscripts may be submitted for publication in this Journal.

Invited commentary

This article is written by a well known scientist of medicinal and aromatic plants. These articles should not be more than 10-12 manuscript pages.

Invited review article

This article is written by a person who is working on “Herbs that heal or Fruits that heal or Vegetables that heal”. These articles should not be more than 15-20 manuscript pages.

Review article

Authors are advised to concentrate more on their work and to review the same keeping into consideration the significant recent contributions by other authors. These reviews will also be subjected to peer-review. Reviews should be concise and conform to the limit of 20-25 manuscript pages including tables and figures.

Original article

These articles should describe new findings and experimental procedures in sufficient detail for the editorial board and the other reviewers to verify the work. These articles should not be more than 15-20 manuscript pages.

Short communication

A short communication is suitable for recording the results in brief or giving details of new models or hypotheses, besides inventing new formula, compound, molecule, innovative methods or new techniques, etc. It should not be more than 8-10 manuscript pages in length.

Note:
Research papers and short communications should follow the structure of structured Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Conflict of Interest, Authors’ Contributions, Consent (where applicable), Plant authentication, Ethical approval (where applicable), and References plus figures and/or tables. Case studies or reports should follow the structure of Abstract, Introduction, Presentation of Case, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Competing Interests, Authors’ Contributions, Consent (where applicable), Ethical Approval (where applicable), and References plus figures and/or tables.

Brief guidelines

Manuscript should be written in Times new Roman, 10 font size with one and half spacing. Manuscripts must be supplied in a single WORD FILE (.docx format – compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 ® TM or later) and should include all information related to the submission like the complete manuscript text, all figures, all tables, and information for reviewers. Each figure including all the panels and its corresponding legend must be presented together on its own page within the manuscript. Each table and its heading must be presented completely on its own page within the manuscript. All the figures and tables should be included in text file at the end of references.

Units and symbols

The use of the International System of Units (SI) is recommended. For meter (m), gram (g), kilogram (kg), second (s), minute (min), hour (h), mole (mol), liter (l), milliliter (ml), microliter (μl). No pluralization of symbols is followed. There shall be one character spacing between number and symbol.

Only standard abbreviations should be used throughout the text. Any non-standard abbreviation must be defined in the text following first use. In vitro, in vivo, in situ, ex vivo, ad libitum, et al. and so on are two words each and should be written in italics. None of the above is a hyphenated word. All foreign language (other than English) names and words shall be in italics

as a general rule. Words such as carrageenan-induced inflammation, paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity, isoproterenol-induced myocardial necrosis, dose-dependent manner are all hyphenated.

Author(s) should provide correct nomenclature conforming with current international usage, similar to those used by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, etc. Only chemical/generic names for drugs should be used throughout the text. After the first mention, any identification/abbreviation may be used. As far as possible, trade names and laboratory codes should be avoided. To establish identity and purity of new compounds, sufficient data including elemental analysis must be presented.

Illustrations must fit one-or two-column format of the Journal. Chemical structures should be accurately drawn in single or double column width and be submitted as high contrast material for direct reproduction. A pattern should be presented as simple cross-hatch design. A single column drawing will be preferred.

Spectral data

Routine spectral data for each compound need not be included in the text. For novel compounds’ structural elucidation, IR, NMR, MS, Elemental analysis data, etc., should be provided in the text. If required, spectra can be submitted as supplementary material.

Biological data

Biological data may be presented as numerical expressions or in graphical form. Novel biological experimental procedure must be described at length/already published procedures must be referred to in the text to enable others to repeat the same. Statistical significance of biological data is important. Doses and concentrations should be expressed as molar quantities. The routes of administration of test compounds and vehicles should be included.

Note: AP accepts manuscripts written in British English

Language and Grammar

• Uniformly British English.
• Write the full term for each abbreviation at its first use in the title, abstract, keywords and text separately unless it is a
  standard unit of measure.
• Numerals at the beginning of the sentence.
• Check the manuscript for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.
• If, a brand name is cited, supply the manufacturer’s name and address (city and state/country).
• Species names should be in italics.
  When you submit an article, the following items must be included. Manuscripts that do not adhere to the following instructions,
  will be returned to the corresponding author for revision before undergoing peer-review.
• Cover letter
• Article type: Review article/Research article/Short communication / Case studies
• Subject: Phytomedicine
• Corresponding author: Name
• Corresponding author: Address, City, Email, Mobile number
• Title: Times New Roman, 15 sizes.
• Abstract: 200-300 words
• Key words: 4-6

Preparation of Manuscript

The manuscripts must be type-written in clear, grammatically correct English with no typographical errors. Manuscripts that do not meet the minimal requirements for English grammar and composition will be rejected immediately. Manuscripts with text that is faint or illegible or with substandard illustrations will be returned to the authors. Neatly type every portion of the manuscript with 1.5 times of spacing (a minimum of 6 mm between lines) and 2.54 cm margins on all sides, including figure legends, table footnotes and references. The manuscript should be prepared and numbered consecutively as follows: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Conflict of Interest, References.

Manuscript structure

Title page

The title page should contain a title (Limit: 200 characters with spaces), full name (s) of author (s) and their affiliations. The title should be without any abbreviations and it should enlighten the contents of the paper. All affiliations should be provided with a lower-case superscript letter just after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address. The name of the corresponding author should be indicated along with mobile number (with country and area code) along with full postal address and e-mail address.

Abstract

The abstract should be concise and informative. It should not exceed 200-300 words in length. It should be structured in nature, i.e, it should be divided into following heads:

• Purpose of this paper
• Design/methodology/approach
• Findings
• Research limitations/implications (if applicable)
• Practical implications (if applicable)
• Social implications (if applicable)
• What is original/value of paper

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, about 4-6 keywords should be given. These keywords will be used for indexing.

Abbreviations

Non-standard abbreviations should be listed and full form of each abbreviation should be given in parentheses at first use in the text.

Introduction

Provide a factual background, clearly defined problem, proposed solution, a brief literature survey and the scope and justification of the work done.

Material and Methods

Give adequate information to allow the experiment to be reproduced. Already published methods should be mentioned with references. Significant modifications of published methods and new methods should be described in detail. This section will include sub-sections. Tables and figures should be placed inside the text. Tables and figures should be presented as per their appearance in the text.

Describe ethical guidelines followed (for human or animal studies); cite approval of institutional human research review committee or animal welfare committee; describe in detail hazardous procedures or chemicals involved, including precautions observed. Furthermore, please outline statistical methods used.

Selection and description of participants

Describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants as patients or laboratory animals, including eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. Because the relevance of such variables as age and sex to clear, authors should explain their use when they are included in a study report; for example, authors should explain why only subjects of certain were excluded. The guiding principle should be clarity about how and why a study was done in a particular way. When authors use variables such define how they measured the variables and justify their relevance.

Technical information

Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses), and procedures in sufficient reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods; provide references and brief descriptions published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them, and evaluate their limitations. Chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s), and route(s) of administration. Reports of randomized clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol, assignment of interventions concealment of allocation to treatment groups, and the method of masking (blinding).

Ethics

When reporting studies on human, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible (institutional or regional) and when reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution(s) or a national research national law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. Animal be as humane as possible and the details of anaesthetics and analgesics used should be clearly stated. The ethical standards of experiments must guidelines provided by the CPCSEA (animal) and ICMR (human). The journal will not consider any paper which is ethically unacceptable. A statement permission and ethical practices must be included in all research articles under the; Materials and Methods; section.

Statistics

Whenever possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals), (such as dropouts from a clinical trial). When data are summarized in the Results section, specify the statistical methods used to analyze them. Terms in statistics, such as ‘random’ (which implies a randomizing device), ‘normal’, ‘significant’, ‘correlations’, and ‘sample’. Define statistical terms, specify the computer software used. Use upper italics (p 0.048). For all p values include the exact value and not less than 0.05 or 0.001.

Results

Results should be clearly described in a concise manner. Table or Figure numbers should be mentioned in parentheses for better understanding. Discussion purpose of the discussion is to interpret the results and relate them to the existing knowledge in the field in as clear and brief fashion as possible. Information given elsewhere in the manuscript should not be repeated in the discussion. Extensive reviews of the literature should be avoided.

Conclusion

A short, paragraph summarizing the most important finding(s) of the research is required.

Acknowledgments

The source of any financial support, gifts, technical assistance and advice received for the work being published, must be indicated in the Acknowledgments section.

References

Literature citations in the text must be indicated by Arabic numerals in bracket. Each reference separately in the order it appears in the text. The references should be cited at the end of the manuscript in the order of their appearance in the text.

Ahmad, N.; Sharma, S.; Singh, V.N.; Shamsi, S.F.; Fatima, A. and Mehta, B.R. (2011). Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles from Desmodium triflorum : A novel approach towards weed utilization, Biotechnol. Res. Int., 454090(1-8).

Arora, S.; Sharma, P.; Kumar, S.; Nayan, R.; Khanna, P. and Zaidi. M. (2012). Gold-nanoparticle induced enhancement in growth and seed yield of Brassica juncea. Plant Growth Regulation, 66(3):303-310.

Das, D.K. (2005). Molecular soil science research and nanotechnology in agriculture. 4th Prof. S. K. Mukherjee Commemoration Lecture. 92nd Indian Science Congress, Nirma University of Science and Technology, Ahmedabad, January 3-7.

Authorship

There is a maximum of 4-6 authors of a manuscript, although all work must have been approved by all co-authors. All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (e.g., data collection, analysis, writing or editing assistance) but who do not fulfill the authorship criteria must be named with their specific contributions in an Acknowledgment in the manuscript.

Authorship criteria

Credit should be based on the following criteria:

• Substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
• Drafting the article or revising it critically for intellectual content.
• Final approval of the version to be published.
• Writing assistance from medical writers or agencies must be included in the Acknowledgments section, or should be given appropriate credit as authorship.

Figures and Tables

• Table and Figures should not be kept at the end of the manuscript, should be embedded within the body text.
• Number consecutively.
• Provide a descriptive heading/legend.
• Place abbreviations and footnotes immediately below the table.
• Use superscript a, b, c as identifiers.
• Illustrations submitted (line drawings, halftones, photos, photomicrographs, etc.) should be originals or digital files. Digital files are recommended for highest quality reproduction.
• Submit multi-panel figures, i.e., with parts labeled a,b,c,d, as one file.
• Submission of manuscript.
• All manuscripts should be submitted via our journal Email: (ukaaz@yahoo.com).
• By doing so, you agree to the terms and conditions of submission.
• Keep backup soft copies and hard copies of the material submitted.

Note:
When creating a reference list, the sources should be listed alphabetically by authors surname, should be left justified, and the references should never be preceded by a bullet-point or number. Where the author is anonymous or unknown for any one source, insert that source in the alphabetical list using the title of the source instead of the authors name. All sources should be listed together; there should not be separate lists for books versus journal articles versus electronic sources. The reference list should be on a separate page from the rest of the assignment and should be simply titled References.