Journal Details
Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B - Soil & Plant Science
Instructions for Authors
Aim & Scope
To publish original research results in soil and plant sciences and their applications related to crop productivity, environmental issues and crop quality aspects.
We publish
Articles. Original research results.
Short communications. Original research of smaller extent than an article. Does not include an abstract.
Reviews. Provides an opportunity to synthesize existing fields within the fields of interest of the journal. Reviews should strive for conceptual unification and being a point of departure for future work rather than just summarizing existing bodies of data.
Perspectives. A comment on a current topic discussed and debated and of interest for the readers. A Perspective does not have to follow the rules of an original article.
General editorial practice
Authors submitting manuscripts do so on the understanding that the work has not been published before, is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has been read and approved by all authors. The submission of the manuscript by the authors means that the authors automatically agree to assign exclusive copyright to Taylor & Francis if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. The work shall not be published elsewhere in any language without the written consent of Taylor & Francis. The published material in Acta B is protected by copyright, which covers translation rights and the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute printed published material in the journal. No material published in Acta B may be stored on microfilm or video cassettes or in electronic databases and the like or reproduced photographically without the prior permission of Taylor & Francis.
Manuscripts are submitted to reviewers for evaluation of their significance and soundness. Authors will generally be notified of acceptance, rejection, or need for revision within three months. Decisions of the editor are final.
Manuscripts are edited to improve communication between author and reader. Authors will receive the first proofs via e-mail. Correct only printer's mistakes. You may be charged for excessive corrections beyond such mistakes. No offprints will be supplied automatically. All printed pages incur a charge of 80 USD per printed page, which will be charged to the author after publication.
Copyright. It is a condition of publication that authors vest copyright in their articles, including abstracts, in Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and the journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors may, of course, use the material elsewhere after publication providing that prior permission is obtained from Taylor & Francis Group Ltd. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.
Manuscripts
Language. Manuscripts should be in English. Linguistic usage should be correct. Avoid the use of passive voice. Avoid extensive reviews in the Introduction and Discussion. Cite only essential sources of a theory and opinion.
Layout. The first page should contain only the title and the author's name, address, fax and e-mail address. When using word processor, avoid margin justification and hyphenation.
Title. The title should be brief and contain useful words for indexing and information retrieval.
Text. The text of an article should normally be divided into: Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, and References. If needed Results and Discussion may be merged into one section. Page two of an article contains the Abstract, in which the main results of the work should be summarized. The abstract should not contain more than 300 words. For a Short Communication the abstract should not contain more than 100 words. End the abstract with Key words in alphabetical order, five to ten words which are not used in the title but are relevant to the content of the manuscript.
Reviews should be divided into: Abstract, Key words, and thereafter headings suitable for the contents of the text, ending with Acknowledgements and References.
A perspective does not need to follow the rules of an original article. However, the first page should contain only the title and the author's name, address, fax and e-mail address. Page two contains the abstract, in which the main results of the work should be summarized. The abstract should not contain more than 300 words. End the abstract with Key words in alphabetical order, five to ten words which are not used in the title but are relevant to the content of the manuscript.
Illustrations. All illustrations should bear the author's name and illustration number. Tables and legends of illustrations should be written double-spaced on separate pages. Do not incorporate the legend in the figure itself. Tables and illustrations should be comprehensible without reference to the text. The author pays for colour illustrations (USD 750 per page). Plan your illustrations for the smallest size possible (one column, 81 mm).
Tables. If results are already given in graphs or diagrams, tables should not be used. Double documentation is not acceptable. Each table should be typed on a separate page, numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, and have a self-explanatory title. Tables should be planned to fit to a final width of 81 or 120 mm.
Units. Use SI units as far as possible.
Nomenclature. Binomial Latin names are used in accordance with International Rules of Nomenclature.
References. In the list of references the following usage should be followed:
Journal article:
Sharpley, A.N., McDowell, R.W., & Kleinmann, P.J.A. (2001). Phosphorus loss from land to water: integrating agricultural and environmental management. Plant and Soil, 237, 287–307.
Book:
Hancock, J.F. (2004). Plant evolution and the origin of crop species. CABI Publishing.
Chapter:
Lal, R. Kimble, J., & Follett, R et al (1998). Land use and C pools in terrestrial ecosystems. In R. Lal, J.M. Kimble, R.F. Follett, & B.A. Stewart (Eds), Management of carbon sequestration in soil (pp. 1–10). Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press.
International Clinical Epidemiology Network. (2001). Adolescent health. available at: http://www.inclen.org/research/ah.html (Accessed 1 August 2003).
Hancock (2004) or, at the end of sentence (Hancock, 2004). If more than two authors, write as follows: Hancock et al., (2004) or at the end of a sentence (Hancock et al., 2004).
Authors are recommended to follow the guidelines set out in: O'Connor, M. (1991). Writing successfully in science, published by Harper Collins, and to examine the latest issues of Acta Agriculturæ Scandinavica Section B Soil and Plant Science. Manuscript not conforming to the requirements will be returned for revision.
Submission.
All submissions should be made online at Acta Agriculturæ Scandinavica, Section B Soil and Plant Science's Manuscript Central site. New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre.
Authors should prepare and upload two versions of their manuscript. One should be a complete text, while in the second all document information identifying the author should be removed from files to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees. When uploading files authors will then be able to define the non-anonymous version as “File not for review”.
Acta Agriculturæ Scandinavica Section B Soil and Plant Science
Copyright and authors' rights
It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Taylor & Francis rights policies, which can be found at www.informaworld.com/authors_journals_copyright_position. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.
Exceptions are made for authors of Crown or US Government employees whose policies require that copyright cannot be transferred to other parties. We ask that a signed statement to this effect is submitted when returning proofs for accepted papers.
