Journal of Horticulture
Open Access

Instructions for Authors

Journal of Horticulture provide the rapid quarterly publication of articles in all areas related to Horticulture. Journal of Horticulture mainly includes with but limited to classifications like Organic gardening, Horticulture hydroponics, Horticulture nurseries, Land scape horticulture, Horticulture oil, European horticulture, Japanese horticulture, Horticulture marketing analysis, Applied horticulture, Horticulture vs Agriculture, Horticulture source. Journal of Horticulture welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. All manuscripts submitted for publication are cross-checked for plagiarism using PlagScan software. Papers will be published approximately one month after acceptance

As a member of Publisher International linking Association, PILA, Journal of Horticulture (of Longdom Publishing) follows the Creative Commons Attribution License and Scholars Open Access publishing policies.

Submit manuscript at Online Submission System or you can submit manuscript as an e-mail attachment to the Editorial Office at editor@longdom.org  

A manuscript number will be e-mailed to the corresponding author within 72 hours.

The “Journal of Horticulture” is using Editorial Tracking system for online manuscript submission, review and tracking. Editorial board members of the journal or outside experts review manuscripts; at least two independent reviewers approval followed by the editor is required for the acceptance and publication of any citable manuscript.

Issue release frequency of “Journal of Horticulture” is Quaterly with 4 issues per year. Article types include Original research papers, Reviews, Short communications, Commentary, Short Commentary, Rapid Communication, Special Issue Article, Mini Review, and Opinion Article.

Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Duties of Editors

The Executive Editor or/and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Horticulture, is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published in current volume of the journal. He may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

An editor at any time evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to the nature of the authors or the host institution including race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

The editor must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the author.

When genuine errors in published work are pointed out by readers, authors, or members of editorial board, which do not render the work invalid, a correction (or erratum) will be published as soon as possible. The online version of the paper may be corrected with a date of correction and a link to the printed erratum. If the error renders the work or substantial parts of it invalid, the process of retraction can be initiated. In such case, the retraction communication with explanations as to the reason for retraction will be published as soon as possible. Consequently, the message about retraction will be indicated on article page and in pdf version of retracted article.

If serious concerns are raised by readers, reviewers, or others, about the conduct, validity, or reporting of academic work, editor will initially contact the authors and allow them to respond to the concerns. If that response is unsatisfactory, Journal of Horticulture will take this to the institutional level.

Journal of Horticulture will respond to all allegations or suspicions of research or publication misconduct raised by readers, reviewers, or other editors. Cases of possible plagiarism or duplicate/redundant publication will be assessed by the journal. In other cases, Journal of Horticulture may request an investigation by the institution or other appropriate bodies (after seeking an explanation from the authors first and if that explanation is unsatisfactory).

Retracted papers will be retained online, and they will be prominently marked as a retraction in all online versions, including the PDF, for the benefit of future readers.

Duties of Reviewers

Peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. A reviewer should also call to the editor’s attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Editor will take reviewer misconduct seriously and pursue any allegation of breach of confidentiality, non-declaration of conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial), inappropriate use of confidential material, or delay of peer review for competitive advantage. Allegations of serious reviewer misconduct, such as plagiarism, will be taken to the institutional level.

Duties of Authors

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Authors should ensure that submitted work is original and has not been published elsewhere in any language, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Applicable copyright laws and conventions should be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement.

An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Longdom Publishing Policy Regarding the NIH Mandate

Longdom Publishing will support authors by posting the published version of articles by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central immediately after publication.

Editorial Policies and Process

Journal of Horticulture follows a progressive editorial policy that encourages researchers to submit the original research, reviews and editorial observations as  articles, well supported by tables and graphic representation. Note: Its Authors sole responsibility for any scientific misconduct including plagiarism in their research articles. Publisher is not responsible for any scientific misconduct in any published research article. However as a publisher Longdom Publishing will follow strict scientific guidelines and EIC’s advice to retract or erratum of any article at any time if found scientific misconduct or errors in any articles.

Article Processing Charges (APC):

Journal of Horticulture is organized by Longdom Publishing, a self supporting organization and does not receive funding from any institution/government. Hence, the operation of the Journal is solely financed by the handling fees received from authors and some academic/corporate sponsors. The handling fees are required to meet maintenance of the journal. Being an Open Access Journal, Journal of Horticulture does not receive payment for subscription, as the articles are freely accessible over the internet. Authors of articles are required to pay a fair handling fee for processing their articles. However, there are no submission charges. Authors are required to make payment only after their manuscript has been accepted for publication.

Average Article prorcessing time (APT) is 50 days

The basic article processing fee or manuscript handling cost is as per the price mentioned above on the other hand it may vary based on the extensive editing, colored effects, complex equations, extra elongation of no. of pages of the article, etc

Fast Editorial Review Process

Journal of Horticulture is participating in the Fast Editorial Execution and Review Process (FEE-Review Process) with an additional prepayment of $99 apart from the regular article processing fee. Fast Editorial Execution and Review Process is a special service for the article that enables it to get a faster response in the pre-review stage from the handling editor as well as a review from the reviewer. An author can get a faster response of pre-review maximum in 3 days since submission, and a review process by the reviewer maximum in 5 days, followed by revision/publication in 2 days. If the article gets notified for revision by the handling editor, then it will take another 5 days for external review by the previous reviewer or alternative reviewer.

Acceptance of manuscripts is driven entirely by handling editorial team considerations and independent peer-review, ensuring the highest standards are maintained no matter the route to regular peer-reviewed publication or a fast editorial review process. The handling editor and the article contributor are responsible for adhering to scientific standards. The article FEE-Review process of $99 will not be refunded even if the article is rejected or withdrawn for publication.

The corresponding author or institution/organization is responsible for making the manuscript FEE-Review Process payment. The additional FEE-Review Process payment covers the fast review processing and quick editorial decisions, and regular article publication covers the preparation in various formats for online publication, securing full-text inclusion in a number of permanent archives like HTML, XML, and PDF, and feeding to different indexing agencies.

Journal of Horticulture is an open access journal. Each article published by the journal follows a specific format.

Author Withdrawal Policy

From time to time an author may wish to withdraw a manuscript after submission. Changing one's mind is an author's prerogative and an author is free to withdraw an article at no charge as long as the article is withdrawn before acceptance. After an article is accepted, the processing in initiated. Hereby if an article is withdrawn after its acceptance, a mandatory amount of post-processing fee is levied on the article.

Article Categories

• Original Articles: Reports of data from original research.
• Reviews: Comprehensive, authoritative descriptions of any subject within the scope of the journal. These articles are usually written by experts in the field who have been invited by the Editorial Board.
• Case reports: Reports of clinical cases that can be educational, describe a diagnostic or therapeutic dilemma, suggest an association or present an important adverse reaction. Authors should clearly describe the clinical relevance or implications of the case. All case report articles should indicate that informed consent to publish the information has been granted from the patients or their guardians.
• Commentaries: Short, focused, opinion articles on any subject within the scope of the journal. These articles are usually related to contemporary issues, such as recent research findings, and are often written by opinion leaders.
• Methodology articles: Present a new experimental method, test or procedure. The method described may be new, or may offer a better version of an existing method.
• Letter to the Editor: These can take three forms: a substantial re-analysis of a previously published article; a substantial response to such a re-analysis from the authors of the original publication; or an article that may not cover ‘standard research’ but that may be relevant to readers.

For more information on each type of article, please contact the Editor at editor@longdom.org 

Manuscript Submission

One of the authors of the article, who takes responsibility for the article during submission and peer review, should follow the instructions for submission and submit the manuscript. Please note that to facilitate rapid publication and to minimize administrative costs, Longdom Publishing S.L. only accepts online submissions, and that there is an article-processing charge on all accepted manuscripts.

During submission, you will be asked to provide a cover letter, in which you should explain why your manuscript should be published in the journal and declare any potential competing interests. Please provide the contact details (name and email addresses) of two potential peer reviewers for your manuscript. These should be experts in their field who will be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. The suggested peer reviewers should not have published with any of the authors of the manuscript within the past five years, should not be current collaborators and should not be members of the same research institution. Suggested reviewers will be considered along with potential reviewers recommended by the Editorial Board members.

A list of acceptable file formats appears below. Additional files of any type, such as movies, animations or original data files can also be submitted as part of the manuscript.

Here are the files required for submission :

• Title page
  Formats: DOC
  Must be a separate file, not embedded in the main manuscript.

• Main manuscript
  Format: DOC
  Tables less than 2 pages each (about 90 rows) should be included at the end of the manuscript.

• Figures
  Formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, PPT, DOC, DOCX
  Figures must be sent separately, not embedded in the main manuscript.

• Cover letter
  Formats: DOC
  Must be a separate file, not embedded in the main manuscript.

The title page should:

• provide the title of the article
• list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors
• indicate the corresponding author

Acknowledgments, Sources of Funding, and Disclosures

• Acknowledgments: The acknowledgments section lists each individual’s substantive contributions. Authors should obtain written, signed permission from all individuals listed in the ‘Acknowledgments’ section of the manuscript, because readers may infer their endorsement of data and conclusions. These permissions must be provided to the Editorial Office.
• Sources of Funding: Authors must list all sources of research support relevant to the manuscript. All grant funding agency abbreviations or acronyms should be completely spelled out.
• Conflict of Interest: Authors must state any disclosures in the cover letter when submitting a manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, please state “Conflict of Interest: None to report.” Conflicts of interest pertain to relationships with pharmaceutical companies, biomedical device manufacturers or other corporations whose products or services are related to the subject matter of the article. Such relationships include, but are not limited to, employment by an industrial concern, ownership of stock, membership on a standing advisory council or committee, membership of a board of directors, or a public association with the company or its products. Other areas of real or perceived conflict of interest could include receiving honoraria or consulting fees or receiving grants or funds from such corporations or individuals representing such corporations. The corresponding author should collect Conflict of Interest information from all co-authors before submitting a manuscript.

Tables and Figures

Each table should be numbered and cited in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e., Table 1, 2, 3, etc.). Titles for tables should appear above the table and be no longer than 15 words. They should be pasted at the end of the document text file, in A4 Portrait or Landscape format. These will be typeset and displayed as such in the final, published form of the article. Tables should be formatted using the ‘Table object’ in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data remain aligned when the file is sent electronically for review. Tables should not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files. Larger datasets or tables too wide for a Landscape page can be uploaded separately, as additional files. Additional files will not be displayed in the final, laid-out PDF of the article, but a link will be provided to the files as supplied by the author.

Figures should be provided in a separate single .DOC, .PDF or .PPT file, with a resolution of at least 300 dpi and not be embedded in the main manuscript file. If a figure consists of separate parts, please submit a single, composite illustration page that includes all parts of the figure. There is no charge for the use of color figures. The figure legends should be included in the main manuscript text file at the end of the document, rather than as part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure numbers in sequence, using Arabic numerals, a title of 15 words maximum and a detailed legend of up to 300 words. Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.

Supplementary Information

All Supplementary Information (figures, tables and Summary diagram/, etc.) is supplied as a single PDF file, where possible. File size within the permitted limits for Supplementary Information. Images should be a maximum size of 640 x 480 pixels (9 x 6.8 inches at 72 pixels per inch).

References

All references, including links, must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, and should be formatted in the National Library of Medicine style. Each reference must have an individual reference number. Please avoid excessive referencing. Only articles, datasets and abstracts that have been published or are in press, or are available through public e-print/preprint servers, may be cited. The author is responsible for obtaining permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from cited colleagues. Journal abbreviations should follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE.

Citations in the reference list should include all named authors, up to the first 6, before adding ‘et al.’. Any in press articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers’ assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office.

Style and Language

Longdom Publishing S.L. only accepts manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be either U.S. English or British English, but not a mixture.

Longdom Publishing S.L. will not edit submitted manuscripts language; thus, reviewers may advise rejection of a manuscript due to grammatical errors. Authors are advised to write clearly and simply, and to have their article checked by colleagues before submission. In-house copyediting will be minimal. Non-native speakers of English may choose to make use of our copyediting services. Please contact horticulture@longdom.org for more information. Abbreviations should be used as sparingly as possible and should be defined when first used.

In addition,

• Please use double-line spacing.
• Use justified margins, without hyphenating words at line breaks.
• Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines.
• Capitalize only the first word and proper nouns in the title.
• Number all pages.
• Use the correct reference format.
• Format the text in a single column.
• Greek and other special characters may be included. If you are unable to reproduce a particular character, please type out the name of the symbol in full. Please ensure that all special characters are embedded in the text; otherwise, they will be lost during PDF conversion.
• SI units should be used throughout (‘liter’ and ‘molar’ are permitted).

Word Count

For Original Articles, Methodology Articles and Reviews, there is no explicit limit on the length of papers submitted, but authors are encouraged to be concise. Commentaries and Case Reports should be between 800 and 1,500 words. Letters to the Editor should be between 1,000 and 3,000 words. There is also no restriction on the number of figures, tables, additional files or references that can be included. Figures and tables should be numbered in the order in which they are referenced in the text. Authors should include all relevant supporting data with each article.

The abstract of Original and Methodology Articles should not exceed 250 words and must be structured into Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions. For Reviews, please provide an unstructured, single paragraph summary of no more than 350 words, of the major points raised. For Commentaries and Case Reports, please provide a short, unstructured, single paragraph summary of no more than 150 words. For Letters to the Editor, please provide a short, unstructured, single paragraph summary of no more than 250 words.

Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. Please list your trial registration number after the abstract, if applicable.

Add a list of 3 to 10 keywords below the abstract.

The Accession Numbers of nucleic acid, protein sequences or atomic coordinates cited in the manuscript should be provided in square brackets and include the corresponding database name.

Initial Review Process

Submitted manuscripts will be evaluated initially by the editor-in-chief and an associate editor. A rapid, initial decision regarding whether to have a manuscript formally reviewed by two or more reviewers with appropriate expertise, or rejected without a formal review will be determined based on the quality, scientific rigor and data presentation/analysis of the manuscript. It is anticipated that approximately 70% of the submitted manuscripts will undergo formal review and 30% will be rejected without evaluation by external reviewers.

Instructions for Revised Submissions

• Please provide a copy of the revised text with changes marked in the text using either tracking changes or highlighting.
• In your written response to the reviewers’ comments, give the page number(s), paragraph(s), and/or line number(s) where each revision was made.
• Respond to each referee’s comments, indicating precisely the changes made in response to the critiques. Also, give reasons for suggested changes that were not implemented, and identify any additional changes that were made.

Revisions not received within 2 months will be administratively withdrawn. For further consideration, the manuscript must be resubmitted de novo. At the editors’ discretion, and in cases where substantial new data are required, extensions may be granted for revisions. In such cases, every effort will be made to retain the original reviewers.

Instruction for Withdrawal of Article

If any article is withdrawn after 10 days of submission then the author need to pay 30 percent of article publishing charges then only the article will be withdrawn/retracted from the journal.