Guidelines for authors

Preslia publishes original research papers on plant systematics, phytogeography, ecology and vegetation science of vascular and non-vascular plants. The geographical focus is on central Europe, with exception of papers invited to special issues. Also of interest are critical reviews evaluating progress in particular fields. Papers are published in English.

Manuscripts

Manuscripts intended for publication should be sent to Editor-in-Chief (Petr Pyšek, Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Průhonice, e‑mail: pysek@ibot.cas.cz).

In the cover letter acompanying submission, please specify what are the main findings of your paper, how it relates to central Europe and why it is suitable for Preslia.

The paper should consist of title, names and addresses of all authors and email address of the corresponding author, abstract (max. 400 words), keywords and main text (usually consisting of Introduction, Material and methods, Results, and Discussion), followed by References, tables, figure captions (on a separate page), figures and summary in Czech (max. 400 words). Manuscripts are submitted electronically as one MS-Word file with text, tables and figure captions and one PDF file with a complete paper including figures at the end of the manuscript. Page layout: double-spaced, lines numbered continuously. For other details on format, authors should consult a recent issue of Preslia. Scientific names of plants (all taxa) and phytosociological units should be written in italics.

Tables and figures

TABLES and FIGURES should be numbered according to their sequence in the text and placed at the end of the manuscript. Make the titles for Tables and captions for Figures as self-explanatory as possible.

  • Arial is the preferred font for figures. Other fonts should only be used if necessary.
  • If the figure consists of multiple panels, mark them with upper case letters (i.e. A, B …).
  • Sentence case should be used for axes labels.
  • Avoid using colours when they do not convey any meaning, especially for gradients.
  • Consider using facets for figures with multiple parts.
  • Avoid using semi-transparency when working with vectors as it is not supported by PDF/A format.
  • If the figure is created directly from R, consider sharing the underlying table and script to save time on petty amendments.
  • Always consider sending the figure as a vector.

References

For reference format consult the current issue of Preslia. Arrange references cited together in the text chronologically.

Nomenclature

Cite flora or check list, which may be consulted for authorities instead of listing them in the text. Give authorities for species names only if it is not possible to adopt the only source of nomenclature.

Phytosociological records

Preslia has a partnership with the Czech National Phytosociological Database (CNPD) concerning archivation of vegetation-plot data related to the papers published in the journal. To ensure that valuable field data are not lost, authors are encouraged to archive their original records from vegetation plots analysed in the paper in CNPD.