Instruction to Authors

Original papers of Botanical interest are published in the Pakistan Journal of Botany. Although the journal is primarily meant for publishing papers of members of the Pakistan Botanical Society but papers from non-members may also be accepted. Provided space is available, a paper would normally require about six months from the date of receipt for its appearance in the journal. The Pakistan Journal of Botany which has been a biannual publication became a quarterly publication from the year 2001. Now it has became a bimonthly publication form the year 2005. In a year, 6 issues of the journal in February, April, June, August, October and December are published from one volume.

Contributors are requested to be brief and concise. The following style in the preparation of the manuscript may be followed: 

Coverage: Pakistan Journal of Botany Publishes only the Original Research Papers and good quality Reviews. Opinion Papers and  Short Communications etc are NOT published in PJB. 

Language:  Manuscript should be in English, typed and double spaced throughout. Ample margin should be left on each side. Authors institutional address should follow authors name and will not appear as a footnote. Papers other than short communications may be organized conveniently under: Full Title, Short Running Title (Not more than 4 or 5 words) , Authors, Affiliation, Abstract, Introduction, Reference, Tables, Figures. Further subdivision of the Results section may be made as necessary. Keyword must NOT be given below the Abstract. Authors are strongly recommended to consult the sample copy of the latest issue of PJB freely available at the website.

Arrangement: The different sections of the paper must be arranged as follows.

Title: All capitals, 12 point, Bold, Times New Roman, Single Line Spacing, Centered

Authors: All capitals, 10 point, Bold, Times New Roman, Single Line Spacing, Centered. In case of more than one authors with different Institutions, use numbering in superscripts (¹, ², ³ etc)  to separate the author's affiliation. Do not use any other symbol such as *, † or ‡. Author's Affiliation: Sentence Case, 10 point, Non-Bold, Italicize, Times New Roman, Single Line Spacing, Centered. Mark the affiliation with the respective numbering in superscripts (¹, ², ³ etc) used in the Authors field.

Example:

Use double line spacing, 0.5 inches indention, 10 point Times New Roman font through out the body text.

Abstract: Please provide a short and comprehensive abstract (Not more than 250 words). Give brief methodology, important findings and conclusion of your study.

Introduction: Must contain the comprehensive literature on the problem to be addressed and a valid hypotheses to be tested in the study.

Materials and Methods: Must contain all details of the experimental procedure for the successful repetition of the experiment.

Result and Discussion: in a single section as "Results and Discussion" or if necessary, can be split into separate "Results" and "Discussion" sections. Please avoid to make subsection however, if necessary, subheadings can be used in this section. Discussion should be logical and results must be discussed in the light of previous literature justifying your findings.

Conclusions: can be given in a separate heading or a short paragraph containing important conclusions of the study.

References: Must be sorted alphabetically and formatted in line with the guideline given in the instructions.

Tables: Tables should be numbered consecutively and must have descriptive headings which should be understandable without reference to the text. Instead of giving a number of small tables, the contributors are requested to consolidate small tables into a comprehensive one as far as possible. However, please take care that they must fit the available space (7.5 x 5 inches) of the paper.

Figures: Photographic prints must be of high quality and made on glossy paper with strong contrast. Figures will appear black & white in the printed version however, they will appear coloured in the FULL TEXT PDF version available on the website.

References: The authors must stick to the Journal style while formatting their paper. Those papers which will not follow the recommended style will be immediately returned to the authors.

• In the text, the literature should be cited in case of one author (e.g. Stephens, 1961).

• In case of two authors in parenthesis, both authors must be separated with "&" and not with full "and" (e.g. Brown & Endrizzi, 1964). However, while using in running text, a complete "and" should be used rather than "&" e.g. "Brown and Endrizzi (1964) reported that".

• In case of publications of more than two authors, the name of first author should be followed by et al. (e.g. Ashraf et al., 2008).

• In case of two or more citations in the text, the citation must be ordered in chronological order (Stephens, 1961; Brown & Endrizzi, 1964; Ashraf et al., 1991, Ashraf, 2004; Sajid & Aqeel; 2008)

References should be arranged in alphabetical order and the titles of journals should be abbreviated in the form given in the Biological Abstracts 1968 list of serial's, with title abbreviations. The references to unpublished work such as thesis, personnel report, new article etc. must be avoided. In case of publications by the same author in the same year, the refarnces must be separated by a, b, c etc ( e.g. Ashraf et al., 2004a, 2004b; Ashraf and Ali, 2008)

Journal article
Stephens, S.G. 1661. Species differentiation in relation to crop improvement. Crop Sci., 1: 1-5.
Zahir, Z.A., M. Naveed, M.I. Zafar, H.S. Rehman, M. Arshad and M. Khalid. 2007. Evaluation of composted organic waste enriched with nitrogen and L-tryptophan for improving growth and yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Pak. J. Bot., 39(5): 1739-1749.

Book
Davis, P.H. 1988. Flora of Turkey and East Aegean Islands. (3^rd Ed) Edinburgh University Press, London.

Book Chapter
Alam, S.M. 1994. Nutrient by plants under stress conditions. In: Pessrakli, M. (Ed.), Handbook of Plant and Crop Stress. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp. 227-246.
Ashraf, M.Y. and G. Sarwar. 2002. Salt tolerance potential in source members of Brassicaceae: Physiological studies on water relations and minerals contents. In: Ahmad, R. and K.A. Malik (Eds.) Prospects for Saline Agriculture.  Klawer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, pp. 237-245.

Edited Book
Rechinger, K.H. (Ed.) 1963-2005. Flora of Iran. Klawer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.

Review Process: Each submitted paper is subjected to technical and quality check by the Primary Review Committee. The papers which do not fulfill the primary quality criteria are immediately returned to the corresponding authors. Only papers of good quality are sent for a peer-review to two independent reviewers. The review process is completed normally within 4-6 weeks and review reports are returned to corresponding authors. The authors may revise and submit their revisions within a maximum of 4 months from the decision, failing this the submission is marked as rejected.

Off Prints: Contributors are given 25 off prints of their papers on the payment of Publication Charges. They will be charged for extra off prints.

Publication Ethics: The submission of manuscripts to Pakistan Journal of Botany implies to follow the publication ethics set by the Pakistan Botanical Society. Click here to download publication ethics set for PJB.

Submission checklist

Before final submission, All authors must ensure that the following items are present. Falling this, the manuscript will be immediately returned to authors.

* A short running title (not more than 50 characters) is provided One of the authors is designated as corresponding author
* E-mail, full postal address and telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author is provided Keywords are NOT included in the text of manuscript
* All tables and figure are placed at the end of manuscript properly captioned Necessary information pertaining to all tables is provided in respective footnotes Manuscript has been "spell-" and "grammar-checked" References in the text and References list are in the correct format for the journal
* All authors have read publication ethics and agree to follow them All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web) Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (no additional charges) and in print (additional Charges apply) or to be reproduced in color on the Web (no additional charges) and in black-and-white in print (no additional charges)

Page Charges

Please view the list of life member, regular members and student members before sending the publication charges.

Payment of Publication Charges: The printing charges may kindly be sent in the Name of Chief Editor, Pakistan Journal of Botany, University of Karachi, Pakistan by cheque, bank draft or Swift Telex Transfer.

Beneficiary's Bank A/C No.: 47-3

Beneficiary's Bank Name & Address: National Bank of Pakistan, Karachi University, Branch, Karachi, Pakistan

Beneficiary's Name & Address: Chief Editor, Pakistan Journal of Botany, Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.

IBAN: Nil

Swift code: NBPAPKKAXXX

8. Manuscript (in duplicate) should be sent to the the Chief Editor or relevant subject Editors, Pakistan Journal of Botany, c/o Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan. Alternatively, papers can be sent through email to pakjbot@yahoo.com.

Published by the Pakistan Botanical Society.
Printed at Karachi University Press, Karachi-75270, Pakistan. Phone: 9243186, 4969237.
Copies available from the Chief Editor, Pakistan Journal of Botany, Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan. Phone: 4387867.
Price: Each issue            : Rs. 100.00/US$20.00
Complete Volume            : Rs. 600.00/US$120.00 or in exchange.