Instruction

• Instruction for Author

  Aims and scopes

  Acta Agronomica Sinica (AAS) is a monthly academic journal co-sponsored by the Crop Science Society of China and the Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The major aims of AAS are to report the recent progresses in the disciplines of crop breeding, crop genetics, crop cultivation, crop physiology, ecology, biochemistry, germplasm resources, grain chemistry, grain storage and processing, biotechnology and biomathematics etc. mainly in China and abroad. AAS provides regular columns for Original papers, Reviews, and Research notes. Submissions on horticultural crops are generally outside the scope of the journal.

  Editorial review and acceptance

  The acceptance criteria for all articles are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to readership. All manuscripts are peer reviewed by at least two anonymous reviewers (i.e. single anonymized peer review), and the final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editorial Board, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication. Authors are encouraged to suggest three to five qualified reviewers. Decisions on acceptance, revision, or rejection are made within two to four months of submission commonly. Papers are usually published in chronological order of acceptance. The editors reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.

  Ethical issues

  Authorship

  The manuscript must have been read and approved by all authors and that all authors agree to the submission of the manuscript to AAS. All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: 1) conception and design of the study, acquisition of the data, or analysis and interpretation of the data; 2) drafting of the article or critical revision of the article for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be submitted. When authorship is attributed to a group, all authors must meet the listed criteria and must be responsible for the quality, accuracy, and ethics of the work. All authors must participate in determining the order of authorship.

  Conflict of interest and source of funding

  AAS requires that all sources of institutional, private, and corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript must be fully acknowledged, and any potential conflicts of interest noted. Grant or contribution numbers may be acknowledged, and principal grant holders should be listed.

  Duplicate and "salami" publication

  Submissions will be considered for publication in AAS only if they are submitted solely to AAS and do not overlap substantially with a published article. Any manuscript that has similar or near similar hypothesis, sample characteristics, methodology, results, and conclusions to a published article is a duplicate article and is prohibited. AAS also prohibits so-called “salami” publishing that involves slicing of data collected from a single research process or during a single study period, into different pieces, that form the basis of individual manuscripts published in different journals or the same journal. If any material related to the submission (other than a brief abstract or meeting abstract) has been published in any medium, is in preparation, or has been submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere, authors must provide copies of all such manuscripts and other materials, as well as outline the relationship of all materials to one another to avoid any possibility of duplicate publication.

  Copyright

  Once manuscript is accepted by AAS, the authors will be asked to sign the Copyright Assignment. By signing of this document, the copyright of the paper is transferred legally to AAS, and the Editorial Board therefore has the authority to distribute its printed and electronic versions to related databases worldwide.

  Publishing permission of illustrations

  If all or parts of previously published illustrations are used, permission must be obtained from the source publications.

  Submission of manuscript

  The manuscript can be submitted online (http://zwxb.chinacrops.org/).

  Preparation of manuscript

  Manuscripts must be written in Chinese with English abstract or in English with Chinese abstract. The manuscripts should be formatted in DOC file with A4 paper size, 1.5-line spacing, single column, and wide margin. All pages should be numbered consecutively in the bottom right-hand corner, beginning with the first page.

  Manuscripts in general should be organized in the following order:

  · Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)

  · Name(s) of author(s)

  · The institutions at which the work was carried out and their postal addresses

  · Abstract followed by keywords, normally 3-6 items

  · Introduction (not include as a heading)

  · Materials and methods

  · Results

  · Discussion

  · Conclusion

  · Acknowledgments and any additional information concerning research grants, etc.

  · References

  On the footnote of the first page, the following information should be provided: 1)Foundation item(s), including the name of the foundation item and its granted number; 2)Contact information for the first author and/or the corresponding author, including their E-mail addresses and full telephone numbers.

  If the paper has been written in Chinese, the English abstract should state the background, purpose, basic procedures, main findings, and principal conclusions of the study with more than 300 words, in which the data of tables and figures mainly contributed to the conclusions should be cited. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references.

  All measurements must be given in SI or SI-derived units.

  Abbreviations should be used sparingly — only where they ease the reader's task by reducing repetition of long, technical terms. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only. Upon its first use in the title, abstract, text and materials and methods, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species and authority) in parentheses. However, for well-known species, the scientific name may be omitted from the article title.

  Reference

  The references should only include works that have been published or accepted for publication. Unpublished data and “personal communications” should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text. References cited in the text should be numbered in sequence as they appear. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of authors' names and dates are exactly the same in the text as in the reference list. All authors' names should be mentioned in the list. If the works is not published in English, the actual language should be indicated in parentheses. Examples:

  For periodicals
  [1] David J L, Zivy M, Cardin M L, Brababt P. Protein evolution in dynamically managed populations of wheat: adaptive responses to macro-environmental conditions. Theor Appl Genet, 1997, 95: 932–941
  [2] Yang J C, Wang Z Q, Liu L J, Lang Y Z, Zhu Q S. Growth and development characteristics and yield formation of dry-cultivated rice. Acta Agron Sin, 2002, 28(1): 11–17 (in Chinese with English abstract)
  For books
  [3] Evans L T. Crop Evolution, Adaptation and Yield. New York: Cambridge, 1993
  [4] Mo H D. Agricultural Experimentation, 2nd ed. Shanghai: Shanghai Sci & Tech Press, 1992. 467–602 (in Chinese)
  For edited symposia
  [5] Lupton F G H. Physiological bases of heterosis in wheat. In: Janossy A, Lupton F G H, eds. Heterosis in Plant Breeding. New York: Academic Press, 1974. pp 71–80
  [6] He Z H, Xiao S H, Zhuang Q S. Wheat breeding progress from 1996 to 2000. In: Zhuang Q S, Du Z H, eds. Advance of Wheat Breeding in China. Beijing: China Science and Technology Press, 2002. pp 3－7 (in Chinese)

  Tables and figures

  All tables and figures should be cited in the text, and numbered according to their sequence in the text.

  · Each table and figure should have a brief and self-explanatory title.

  · Large tables should be avoided. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two or more tables.

  · Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added in parentheses.

  · Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.

  · Any explanation essential to the understanding of the table should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table.

  All illustrations (graphs, diagrams and photographs) in the text should be referred to as figures.

  It is preferred that photographs, especially color ones, be grouped together into one or more plates. The maximum length is 240 mm (not including the caption) and the width 170 mm for a full page. Legends should be concise but comprehensive, i.e. the plate and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text, including definitions/explanations of any symbols, abbreviations and units of measurement mentioned in the plate. Graphs and diagrams should be drawn with computer.

  Publication fee

  To provide open access, Acta Agronomica Sinica has an open access fee (also known as an article publishing charge, APC) which needs to be paid by the authors or by their research funder or institution. For accepted manuscripts should pay RMB 360 yuan for each printed page, additional 1000 yuan for more than one color pages or 500 yuan for only one color page, and 200 yuan as the reviewing fee for each paper. Authors who require more information (e.g., about waivers or discounts as provided by the journal), please contact the editorial office (e-mail: zwxb301@caas.cn).

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