Manuscript Preparation

Types of papers

Italus Hortus publishes the most recent research results dealing with all aspects of horticulture. These include a broad range of topics, such as breeding of horticultural plant species, physiology and biochemistry of horticultural crops, propagation and nursery technologies, orchard and vineyard management, multi-functionality of horticultural systems, production techniques, quality of horticultural products, post-harvest management of fruit and vegetables. Papers in related topics (plant pathology, crop protection, engineering, crop processing, etc.) are considered only if they contain information of direct significance to horticulture. The manuscripts can be freely submitted or invited and they will undergo a single-blind peer review process. Manuscripts that do not comply with the instructions for authors cannot begin the review process.

Italus Hortus publishes the following types of papers:

  • Original research papers
  • Reviews
  • Brief research reports

Original research papers should include the results of original research. These data should not be previously published or submitted successively elsewhere.

Review articles should critically analyze the literature about subjects of active current relevance to the horticultural sciences.

Brief research reports should present original research and/or preliminary findings formatted in a concise way. As the full paper, it should include references to the literature and the experimental methodologies employed, and should be composed by not more than 4000 words.

Manuscript preparation

The manuscript must be prepared using this template already formatted for the full original paper type (note that each section has a corresponding style, that can be found in the ‘Styles’ menu of Word). For the preparation of review papers or of other article types, please contact our Editorial Office at info@italushortus.it.

In addition, before starting preparing the manuscript, please consider this information:

Language
All contributions should be written in English. Authors who are non-native English speakers are encouraged to have the language of their manuscripts professionally edited before submission.

Manuscript size
Article size should be around 2,000-4,000 for brief research report, around 6,000-8,000 words for original research papers, and around 8,000 words for the review papers (excluded the “References” section) and should be divided into sections (see template for details).

Units
Authors are recommended to use the International System of Units (SI).

Scientific names
Common names of organisms should always be accompanied, when first cited, by their complete scientific name in italics (genus, species, attribution and, if appropriate, cultivar).

Mathematical formulae
Mathematical formulae must be carefully typed; when a paper contains more than one equation they should be identified with a number in parentheses (e.g. Eq. 1).

Genes
The genes cited in the text should be in italics and if available the GenBank accession number. All transcriptome or genomic data should report the NCBI repository number.

Manuscript submission

Instructions on manuscript submission can be found here.