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Plant Cell Reports
Publishing model:
Hybrid

Plant Cell Reports - Tips to authors

Tips to authors: getting research papers published in Plant Cell Reports and increasing attractiveness (citations) of your papers

The title is the most important part of the paper. The abstract and key message are the other parts that can draw readers to download, read, and cite your paper. Keywords are important for indexing. 

Papers are typically rejected if they are out of scope, for lack of novelty, poor communication/writing, and poorly-designed and -performed experiments. 

Title

  • Shorter is always better. Please limit the title to 20 words.
  • Make it broadly understandable: avoid jargon and abbreviations.
  •  Make it memorable.

Key message (for original research papers)

  • Since it is only 30 words, each word counts. 
  • Don’t tell us anything that we already know.
  • Tell us what the paper teaches us in a sentence or two. 
  • Focus on novelty without using “novel” or “novelty.”
  • Again, avoid jargon and abbreviations.

Abstract

  • Shorter (~150 words) is better than longer (250 words is the limit).
  • First sentence (or two, maximum) is used as the set up.  This is the only place where you tell the readers what they probably already know.  Don’t tell us the obvious, such as “Rice is an important crop.”
  • The last sentence is a summary of why the research will change the world—its impacts. 
  • All of the middle part focuses on the research and interpretations of the findings.
  • Include the most striking data. A study/abstract that is mainly descriptive will not get published.
  • Avoid jargon and abbreviations as much as possible. Abbreviations are only used for repeatedly- used terms in the abstract.
  • Make the abstract conversational—as if you were explaining the paper to a knowledgeable friend.

Keywords

  • Avoid words that are in the title.
  • Include the trendiest, yet appropriate, words in science.
  • Use the maximum number (6) allowed to increase the scope of searches.

General information for authors

Useful Tutorials and e-Learning Tools for Authors (this opens in a new tab)

Social Media: 10 tips for tweeting research (this opens in a new tab)

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