This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to Poisonous Plant Research (PPR).

Formatting Requirements

• Begin the main document with the introduction. Include the abstract, keywords, acknowledgements, and any other ancillary information that will go on the title page as a separate file. A title page, including the abstract, will be added to your paper by the editors.
• Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
• Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word, RTF, or PDF files are accepted).
• Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
• All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures.
• Single space your text.
• Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
• Font:
  1. Main Body—12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
  2. Footnotes—10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
• If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript(eps).
• Copyedit your manuscript.
• When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.

Additional Recommendations

Insert an extra space between paragraphs of text. Long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. should also be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.

Don't "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).

All text should be fully justified (i.e., both left and right justified) where possible. "Where possible" refers to the quality of the justification. For example, LaTeX and TeX do an excellent job of justifying text. Word does a reasonable job. But some word processors do a lousy job (e.g., they achieve right justification by inserting too much white space within and between words). We prefer flush right margins. However, it is better to have jagged right margins than to have flush right margins with awkward intra- and inter-word spacing. Make your decision on whichever looks best.

Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English. Except for common foreign words and phrases, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided.

Authors should use proper, standard English grammar. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) is the "standard" guide, but other excellent guides (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press) exist as well.

Article Length

Because this journal publishes electronically, page limits are not as relevant as they are in the world of print publications. We are happy, therefore, to let authors take advantage of this greater "bandwidth" to include material that they might otherwise have to cut to get into a print journal. This said, authors should exercise some discretion with respect to length.

Colored text

Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup.)

Emphasized text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Font faces

Except, possibly, where special symbols are needed, use Times or the closest comparable font available. If you desire a second font, for instance for headings, use a sans serif font (e.g., Arial or Computer Modern Sans Serif).

Font size

The main body of text should be set in 12pt. Avoid the use of fonts smaller than 6pt.

Foreign terms

Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Headings

Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by their fonts or by using small caps. Use the same font face for all headings and indicate the hierarchy by reducing the font size. There should be space above and below headings.

Main text

The font for the main body of text must be black and, if at all possible, in Times or closest comparable font available.

Titles

Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Footnotes

Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper. Footnotes should be in 10 pt. Times or closest comparable font available, they should be single spaced, and there should be a footnote separator rule (line). Footnote numbers or symbols in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix. All footnotes should be left and right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin), unless this creates awkward spacing.

Tables and Figures

To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

Mathematics

Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.

Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math. Also expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as the fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.

Equations should be numbered sequentially. Whether equation numbers are on the right or left is the choice of the author(s). However, you are expected to be consistent in this.

Symbols and notation in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help insure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly on her printer. When proofing your document under PDF pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other than standard fonts.

References

It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information.

All citations in the text should refer to:

• Single author: the author's last name and the year of publication.
• Two authors: both authors' last names and the year of publication.
• Three or more authors: first author's last name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.

Citations can be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references can be listed either first alphabetically, then chronologically, or vice versa. Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 2020a, 2020b; Allan and Jones, 2019)" or "as demonstrated (Jones, 2019; Allan, 2020). Kramer et al. (2023) have recently shown".

References should have margins that are both left and right- justified. You may choose not to right-justify the margin of one or more references if the spacing looks too awkward. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically and then chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication.

All references must include the DOI, if available.

All citations in the reference section should be formatted as follows:

Reference to a Book Chapter:

Barneby, R.C., 1989. Lupinus. In Intermountain Flora, Vol. 3, Part B. Cronquist A., Holmgren A.H., Holgren N.H., Reveal J.L., Holmgren P.K. (Eds.) New York Botanical Garden, New York, pp. 176-185.

Reference to a Book:

Kingsbury, J.M., 1964, Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada, PrenticeHall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Reference to a Journal Article:

Lee, S.T., Stonecipher, C.A., Green, B.T., Welch, K.D., Gardner, D.R., Cook, D., 2024. Ruminant metabolism of zygacine, the major toxic alkaloid in foothill death camas (Zigadenus paniculatus). Toxicon 240, 107651. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2024.107651

Lee, S.T., Welch, K.D., Stonecipher, C.A., Cook, D., Gardner, D.R., Pfister, J.A., 2020. Analysis of rumen contents and ocular fluid for toxic alkaloids from goats and cows dosed larkspur (Delphinium barbeyi), lupine (Lupinus leucophyllus), and death camas (Zigadenus paniculatus). Toxicon 176, 21-29. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2020.01.003

Web references

When listing web references, as a minimum you should provide the full URL and the date when the reference was last accessed. Additional information (e.g. DOI, author names, dates or reference to a source publication) should also be provided, if known.