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Organize the paper: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Specimens Investigated, and References.

Papers should be consistently written in British English following the conventions of the Oxford English Dictionary. All text should be formatted as it is to appear in the journal (i.e. italicised text to be italicised and bold to be in bold). Note that in italicised headings words that would normally be in italics should be in non italic font.

Spell out: all numbers from one to ten inclusively, any number that begins a sentence, generic names that begin sentences, and compass points (i.e. north-east not NE).

Abbreviations and symbols should conform to those in Biological Abstracts. SI units (Système International d'Unités) should be used throughout (see http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html). Authorities for species should either be given the first time the name is mentioned in the text or alternatively ‘Specimens Examined' lists can be used to cite the authorities of species. Scientific names of genera and taxa of lower rank must be in italics. Contributors to Grana are recommended to use the palynological terms adopted by the International Federation of Palynological Societies (IFPS), ‘Glossary of Pollen and Spore Terminology' (Punt et al. 1994, www.bio.uu.nl/~palaeo/glossary).

Note the difference between contractions and abbreviations. Abbreviations are words that are shortened by deletion of letters including the last letter and should end in a full stop. Contractions are words shortened by the deletion of letters excluding the last letter of the word and should not terminate in a full stop. For example, ‘figures' is contracted to ‘figs' but ‘figure' is abbreviated to ‘fig'. Note also that the first paragraph after any main heading is not indented but all subsequent paragraphs in the section are indented.

Headings
Three orders of heading are available. Pay particular attention to the formatting given. Examples:

1. Results
2. Description of pollen grains
3. Exine structure. This heading is followed by text on the same line (as shown here).

Title
The title should be: 1) concise and informative (short subtitles are encouraged), 2) be in bold with no caps except after the colon in a compound title, 3) include a short running headline of no more than 40 characters.

Abstract

A short abstract not exceeding 250 words should appear directly below the affiliations. The abstract must be clear and concise and should distil in brief the important findings of the study. It should not be a summary of the paper.

Where the paper describes new taxa these should also be included.

Keywords: Three to ten Keywords are required for each submission. These should not include words mentioned in the title.

Introduction

Begin the Introduction on a new page. This section should be concise but provide the reader with enough up to date background information to understand the problems raised and discussed in the paper. Do not include any results in this section.

Material and methods

This section should outline in enough detail the nature of the material and the methods used so another researcher could repeat them. Do not include any results in this section..

Results

Primary data and observations that form the basis for the Discussion that follows should be included in this section. Avoid the use of statements such as “Table I shows …” or “…. as shown in Figure 1” or “In Table I …”. Acceptable usage is a statement or sentence followed by the relevant reference in parentheses (Figure 1, Table I). Note that Figure, Table and Appendix are spelt out in full and not abbreviated (i.e. fig. tab., app.) nor contracted (i.e. figs, tabs, apps).

Examples

Journal article. Erdtman, G., & Praglowski, J. (1959). Six notes on pollen morphology and pollen morphological techniques. Botaniska Notiser, 112, 175-184.

Pflug, H. D. (1953). Zur Entstehung und Entwicklung des angiospermiden Pollens in der Erdgesichte. Palaeontographica, B 95, 60-171.

Chapter. Heslop-Harrison, J. (1964). Cell walls, cell membranes and protoplasmic connections during meiosis and pollen development. In H. F. Linskens (Ed.), Pollen physiology and fertilization (pp. 40-47). Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co.

Book. Faegri, K., & Iversen, J. (1989). Textbook of pollen analysis (4^th ed). by K. Faegri, P. E. Kaland, & K. Krzywinski. Chichester, New York, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore: J. Wiley & Sons,

Tables

Each table must uploaded as a separate file. They should be numbered with Roman numerals according to their sequence in the text, and have a short self-explanatory heading. Use SI units. Tables should not include vertical rules, but horizontal rules should separate column headings from the content. Authors should keep in mind the page layout of the journal when designing tables. Tables that fit onto one printed page are preferred. Detailed explanations of symbols, units, and abbreviations should follow below the table.

Illustrations

Please pay particular attention to the guidelines below. The editorial office cannot undertake preparation of manuscripts and illustrations not conforming to journal style. Manuscripts of insufficient quality will be returned immediately without refereeing. A high standard of illustration (both line and photo) is an editorial priority.

We welcome figures sent electronically, but care and attention to these guidelines are essential as importing graphics packages can often be problematic.

• Figures must be saved individually and separate to text. Please do not embed figures in the paper file.
• Avoid the use of colour and tints for purely aesthetic reasons.
• Figures should be produced as near to the finished size as possible.
• All figures must be numbered in the order in which they appear in the paper (e.g. figure 1, figure 2). In multi-part figures, each part should be labelled (e.g. figure 1(a), figure 1(b)).
• Figure captions must be saved separately, as part of the file containing the complete text of the paper, and numbered correspondingly.
• The filename for the graphic should be descriptive of the graphic, e.g. Figure1, Figure2a.
• Files should be saved as one of the following formats: TIFF (tagged image file format), PostScript or EPS (encapsulated PostScript), and should contain all the necessary font information and the source file of the application (e.g. CorelDraw/Mac, CorelDraw/PC).

Please note that it is in the author's interest to provide the highest quality figure format possible. Please do not hesitate to contact our Production Department if you have any queries.

All illustrations should be prepared for printing to fit 80 x 240 mm (column width) or 169 mm by up to 240 mm (full page) size. It is preferred that the full-page length is not used and that authors keep in mind that the caption will be placed underneath the figure. In the event that full-page length is necessary for plates, captions will have to appear on adjacent pages. Figure(s) must be numbered consecutively in the text.

Compound figures with more than one micrograph or photo should be referred by a single figure reference (e.g. Figure 1), and individual parts should be labelled with capitalized letters in the lower left-hand corner. Lettering should be of a sans-serif type (i.e. fonts without serifs such as Arial) with a minimum published size of 4.2 mm (12 pt). Lettering should run from left to right and illustrations should be separated from each other by a uniform gutter of 2 mm. Avoid mixing SEM, TEM and light micrographs on the same compound figure, as the differences in contrast and tonal range between each type of micrograph make it impossible to adequately render the plate during printing. The principle of orientation of pollen grains/spores suggested by G. Erdtman (1952, p.17) should be applied with polar axes oriented vertically. Descriptive labelling in the figures should be clearly readable, and all lettering should have a minimum published size of 6 pt (2.1 mm) for labelling items on photographs or in line art is recommended and a maximum size of 10 pt is suggested. Use a scale bar to indicate magnifications and place in the lower right corner if possible. Note electronic scale bars and lettering produced by SEM graphics packages are inadequate and should be removed. Computer prepared photographic images must be at a minimum of 350 dpi at the final publication size. Lower resolution will result in pixellation and poor quality images. These should be submitted as TIFF files, but encapsulated postscript (EPS) format is also acceptable.

Computer drawn figures are accepted provided they are of high quality. Please note that graphs produced by many statistic packages are rarely adequate. In particular, letter quality on axes and captions are often poor. Such figures should be exported into an accepted graphics package and lettering rendered using a text function. Authors should note that .dot, .bmp, and .pat fills should be avoided. Do not use postscript fill patterns as these are often based on bit map patterns that result in screening patterns during final reproduction. When filling illustrations, use fills such as lines, tints or solids. A minimum of 4% tint can be reproduced. Line width minimum is 0.25 pt (0.09 mm). Also avoid the use of bitmap scans to render text and detail. Text should be saved as text at a minimum text size of 6 pt (2.1 mm). Please submit line art as CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, or EPS files. These must be at a minimum resolution of 800 DPI at publication size. High resolution may be necessary where fine line detail is present.

For graphs Excel graphs are also acceptable. Note that vertical axes must all be at the same scale especially where the paper compares between them. Otherwise they should be produced as separate figures. Avoid 3d plots when presenting 2d data.

Where electronic figures are submitted, please submit a hard copy also at final acceptance stage so that it can be checked against the electronic files during proof preparation.

Table and Figure captions

Figure captions should include a statement at the end of each caption about reproduction size (e.g. at full page width, at column width). They should be typed in the journal format. Explanations should be brief and authors should keep in mind that captions will be placed below figures.

Proofs

Authors will receive proofs directly from the printers. It is the author's responsibility to correct proofs according to the manuscript. After correction, the marked proofs should be returned to the editorial office, along with the offprint order and copyright declaration.

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