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Organization of the paper

Most research articles published in Molecular Plant Breeding are organized into the following sections: Title page (Title and byline, Author(s) and affiliation(s), Abstract, Keywords, Introduction of the corresponding author), Background, Results, Discussion, Materials and Methods, Authors' contributions, Acknowledgments, References, Figure Legends, and Tables. Manuscripts should be easy to read and their contents presented clearly, with line number and page number. Figures and Tables should be put at the end of Text (or listed as Supplementary File), each page for one Figure/Table. Click HERE to download a standard manuscript preparation.

 

1. Title and byline

A title gives the reader a clear idea of what the article is about. It should be brief, novel and informative, which could invite readers' interest. The usual limit for title is less than 25 words. Abbreviations and acronyms, including those for gene and protein names, should be avoided in titles. Common names are allowed for major model systems (maize, rice, yeast). Latin names should be used for all organisms that have no widely accepted common name.

 

2. Author(s) and affiliation(s)

Authorship should be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work. Please note the corresponding authors and their e-mails. Authors' given names should be shortened to initials followed by a dot between characters. The authors' institution should be written below their names.

 

3. Abstract

The abstract should summarize for a broad audience the main information, including the question being addressed, the approach taken, and the major findings and their significance. It should also be concise (approximately 200~250 words) and independent. General background should be reserved for the introduction. Avoid using too professional words, special symbols, and formula. Literature references should not be included.

 

4. Keywords

List 4~6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

 

5. Background

This section should provide the necessary background information for the average reader, the current situation, and research intention. It should be both complete and concise, just like a mini-review. Previous publications that form a basis for the work presented must be cited.

 

6. Results

This section should be divided with subheadings. Footnotes should not be used.

 

7. Discussion

The Discussion focused on the interpretation of the results and place. It should not be redundant with the Results section. This section may contain subheadings. Insecure sentence like "which needs further research" is discouraged in this section.

 

8. Materials and methods

The section, at minimum, should include enough detail for readers to understand the general experimental design and to be able to assess the data presented. Cite previously published procedures in References. Modifications of previously published procedures should be pointed out. Truly new procedures should be described in detail. Animals, plants, pathogens, and insects or pests should present Latin names. A more detailed version of the procedures and details such as oligo sequences, strains, and specifics of how constructs were made can be included in Supplemental Information.

 

9. Authors' contributions

In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.

 

An "author" is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should 1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) have given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

 

We suggest the following kind of format (please use initials to refer to each author's contribution): AB carried out the molecular genetic studies, participated in the sequence alignment and drafted the manuscript. JY carried out the immunoassays. MT participated in the sequence alignment. ES participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis. FG conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

 

10. Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full. Please check this section carefully before publication, as amendments or corrections are not allowed after publication.

 

11. References

Only papers that are published or in press papers should be cited in the reference list. Personal communications should be cited within the text only. Submitted articles should be cited as unpublished data, data not shown, or personal communication. All authors should be named in the citation. Provide inclusive page ranges for journal articles and book chapters.

 

Formats

1. Heading

Number the first level headings as follows: Results: "1", Discussion: "2", Materials and methods: "3"; Mark the second level headings with 1.1, 1.2......, and the third level headings with 1.1.1, 1.1.2......; Lower level headings should be avoided. Acknowledgements and references are not numbered.

 

2. Terminology

Please use the standard mathematical notation for formulae, symbols etc. Genus and species names should be in italics. Use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units, [e.g. s (seconds), min (minute), h (hour), d (day), m (meter), m2 (square meter), Hm2 (hectare), L (liter), g (gram), kg (kilogram), mol (morgan), J (joule) for energy, work, and calories, ×g or r/min for centrifugal force, mol/L for solution concentration, pa for pressure, cM for inheritance distance, kd for molecular weight, kb or bp for DNA fragment length]. Dots are used to separate composite units, e.g., mol•dm-2•m-1.

 

3. Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.

 

4. Tables

All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals. Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order. For each table, the table title explaining the components of the table is necessary. Table legend, if there is one, are placed beneath the table. Identify any previously published material and/or data by giving the original source in the form of a reference in Table legend.

 

The *, **, and *** are always used in this order to show statistical significance at the 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001 probability levels, and cannot be used for other notes. Lack of significance is usually indicated by NS. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and be included in the Table legend.

 

5. Figures

Molecular Plant Breeding requires electronic figures that are as small and simple as is compatible with clarity. Number figures consecutively according to the order in which they are called out in the text. Figures should be unambiguous and as conceptual as possible and should provide enough information so that the reader can understand them without significant input from the text. Format sequence data preferably to one-column width for shorter sequences and two- column width for longer sequences. Make sure that the fonts in sequences are easily readable. Use the same fonts for all figures. For those figures that contain more than one panel, designate the panels with capital letters (no parentheses and no periods following letters) in the upper left-hand corner of each panel.

 

Each figure should have its corresponding legend below the figure. Provide a short title for each figure. Figure legends should be concise and should not repeat information presented in the text. Figure panels that are designated with capital letters should have specific subtitles in the legend and should be described separately and completely. Symbols and abbreviations that are used in the figure should be defined in the legend.

 

6. Reference

The Harvard (author, date) system of referencing in the text is used (examples are given below). In the text give the author's name followed by the year in parentheses: (John, 2000). If there are two authors use 'and': (Smith and Jones, 2001). When reference is made to a work by three or more authors, the first name followed by et al. should be used: (MacDonald et al., 2002). If more than one work is cited within parentheses, separate citations using a semi-colon (Friedman, 1994; Wang et al., 1997), except in the case where the author of the works is the same. In this case the author's name should not be repeated, only the years should be divided with a semi-colon (Smith, 2000; 2002). In the reference list, references should be listed in alphabetical order.

 

We recommend authors using EndNote to manage the references, GenBreed Publisher provides an output style that supports the formatting of in-text citations and reference list:

 

1) Journal article

Format: Author’s name, Publication Year, Article title, Journal name, volume (issue): page range

 

a. Only one author

Jiang S.Y., 2003, Rice mutant population and its applications on functional genomics, Molecular Plant Breeding, 1(2): 137-150

Citation in the text: (Jiang, 2003)

 

b. Two authors

Fukui K., and Iijima K., 1991, Somatic chromosome map of rice by imaging methods, Theor. Appl. Genet., 81: 589-596

Citation in the text: (Fukui and Iijima, 1991)

 

c. More than two authors

Causse M.A., Fulton T.M., Cho Y.G., Ahn S.N., Chunwongse J., Wu K., Xiao J., Yu Z., Ronald P.C., Harrington S.E., Second G., McCouch S.R., and Tanksley S.D., 1994, Saturated molecular map of the rice genome based on an interspecific backcross population, Genetics, 138: 1251-1274

Citation in the text: (Causse et al., 1994)

 

2) Private communications, information and data on the internet: just cite in the text

Format for private communications: (Wu Weiren, 2003, private communications)

 

Format for information and data on the internet: (Lin Gang and He Mei, 2002, www.wenweipo_com. htm) or (http://info.Jstage.jst.go.jp/contents/info/list/eng.html)

 

3) Book

Format: authors' names, ed., year published, book name, edition number, publisher, publishing location (country and city), pp.page number

 

 

Altman A., and Waisel Y., eds., 1997, Biology of root formation and development, Plenum Press, New York and London, pp.376

 

Buchanan B.B., Gruissem W., and Jones R.L., eds., Qu L.J., Gu H.Y., Bai S.N., Zhao J.G., and Chen Z.L., trans., 2004, Biochemistry & molecular biology of plants, Science Press, Beijing, China, pp.250-288

 

4) Symposium or book chapter

Format: Authors' names, Publication year, Article title, In: Symposium editors name+(ed.), Symposium name, publisher, publishing location (country and city), pp.page number

 

Shoemaker R.C., Polzin K.M., Lorenzen L.L., and Specht J.E., 1996, Molecular genetic mapping of soybean, In: Verma D.P.S., and Shoe maker R.C. (eds.), Soybean: genetics, molecular biology and biotechnology, CIAB International, Wallingford, UK, pp.37-56

 

Zhang Q.F., 2007, Toward the development of green super rice using genomics-based strategies, In: Li Z.K., Fang X.J.(eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd international conference of plant molecular breeding, 23~27, March, Sanya, Hainan, China, pp.3

 

5) Dissertation

Format: Authors' names, Publication year, Dissertation title, Thesis for M.S./ Dissertation for Ph.D., Affiliation, Supervisor, pp.page number

 

Jiang L.R., 2004, Improvement of appearance traits of elite rice Zhenshan 97B by molecular introgression of targeted about 800 kb interval from indica rice Jia-fuzhan genome, Thesis for M.S., Life Science and Technology Institute, Guangxi University, Supervisor: Fang X.J., pp.453-454

 

Wan Y.S., 2002, Construction of soybean genetic map and QTL analysis of some agronomic traits, Dissertation for Ph.D., Biotechnology Research Institute CAAS, Supervisor: Jia S.R., and Fang X.J., pp.37-39

 

6) Patent document

Format: Patent Assignee Names, year authorized or open, patent title, patent country, patent / application number

 

Liu Q.L., Bai S.Y., and Ma Y., 2004, An plant expression vector pBinETR1 of ethylene unsusceptivity and application, China Patent, ZL02126837.1

 

Holton T.A., 1996, Transgenic plants exhibiting altered flower color and methods for producing same, United States Patent, US006080920A