Author guidelines

Focus and Scope

The Journal publishes, with no charges, original scientific papers, reviews, opinion and scientific notes in various areas of plant biology (taxonomy, systematics, and evolution, physiology, phytochemistry, ultrastructure, cytology, anatomy, morphology, palynology, development, genetics, reproductive biology, ecology, ethnobotany, and phylogeography), and the History of Botany and topics related to Botanical Gardens.
It is recommended that papers submitted to Rodriguésia exceed the simple descriptive approach, revealing interpretation related to morphology, ecology, evolution, or conservation. 
Opinion or review papers may be accepted through voluntary demand or at the request of the editorial board.

The Rodriguésia accepts manuscripts provided that:

• all authors have approved the manuscript submitted;
• the results or ideas presented in the manuscript are original;
• the manuscript has not been submitted to another journal unless that other Journal has refused the manuscript or the author asks that other Journal to withdraw the manuscript from the submission process;
•  the manuscript has been prepared in agreement with the latest version of the Guidelines for Publication in Rodriguésia. 

If accepted and published, the paper (or its parts) cannot be published elsewhere,

• except with the consent of the Editor-in-chief;
• the reproduction and proper use can not receive any profit, presenting educational purposes only.

The Editor-in-chief must examine any other cases.

The scientific content, grammar, and spelling within an paper are the sole responsibility of its author.
The corresponding author can request the withdrawal of his manuscript from the evaluation process at any time, provided he contact by email with the Editor-in-Chief.

Since November 2018, Rodriguésia accepts only manuscripts submitted in English. The authors will be required to send the English language verification certificate by a specialized scientific translator when submitting the manuscript.

Since January 2019, Rodriguésia adopted a yearly continuous publication modality, which is available online on the SciELO database.

Preprints: 

Rodriguésia agrees with the international initiative for a more transparent editorial process, known as Ciência Aberta (Open Access). Thus, manuscripts deposited on a preprint server (SciELO Preprints or bioRxiv) will be considered for publication in Rodriguésia. The peer-review process for papers deposited on preprint servers will follow the rules described in the Peer Review Process.

https://preprints.scielo.org/index.php/scielo

Peer Review Process

The Editor-in-chief and assistant editors will evaluate original papers submitted to Rodriguésia in order to define its specific area; then, the manuscript will be sent to the Area-editor, who will send it to two ad hoc reviewers. Comments and suggestions of reviewers and the Area-editor decision will be sent back to the authors for any eventual modification of format and/or content. The authors will have the opportunity to express their considerations or challenge the reviewers' criticisms and the Area Editor. After the manuscript is approved, the complete text with comments from the reviewers and the area-editor will be evaluated by the Editor-in-chief. Only the Editor-in-chief may, exceptionally, change the recommendations made by the Area-editor and reviewers, always informing the authors. If the manuscript is approved, the full text with the comments of the ad hoc reviewers will be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief for final adjustments (analysis of the standards and quality of the images).

An electronic proof will be sent by email to the corresponding author for his approval. The proof will have to be returned in up to five working days from receivership to the Editorial-board of the Journal. Manuscripts that do not follow the norms below will be returned.
Manuscripts must comply with Rodriguésia's updated publication and formatting rules. Those who fail in these terms, at any time, will not have their merit evaluated in the system until the authors send a new version.
A digital file of the work will be available in PDF format on the magazine's website after publication.

Open Access Policy

Author Guidelines

2. Submission of manuscripts:

It is the author’s responsibility to guarantee that the English language is flawless. Therefore, all authors must have their accepted manuscripts proofread by a proficient/native English speaker before we proceed to the next stage of copy-editing.

So, if your manuscript is accepted, it will only be edited for future publication after we receive the certificate with proof of English language proficiency.

The English certificate of the final version accepted in the system must be sent within 15 DAYS following acceptance. Content modifications will not be accepted, only grammatical and linguistic ones.

2. Publication format:

Paper size is mostly limited to a maximum of 30 pages. Longer papers may be approved upon evaluation by the Editorial Board. Acceptance of the manuscripts depends on decisions from the Editorial Board.

Original Papers: only original papers will be accepted in the following areas: Plant Biology, History of Botany, and Botanic Gardens.

Review Papers: preference will be given to papers invited by the Editorial Board; however, voluntary contributions are welcome.

Point of View Papers: letters to the editor, comments on other relevant publications and ideas, evaluations, and others are welcome.

Short Communication: this publication format is composed of succinct and conclusive information (preliminary data are not accepted) that are not appropriately included in an original paper. New techniques or their modification can be presented.

2.1. Original and Review papers

Submitted manuscripts must be formatted in A4 with 2.5 cm margins and justified text, font Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced. All pages (except the first one – title) must be numbered on the right-hand corner. Capital letters to be used only if the words are correctly spelled with capital. Manuscripts written in capital letters will not be accepted. Words in Latin must appear in italic type-face (incl. genus and species names). Do not use italics in names of software, companies, journal titles, or books (except Flora brasiliensis). Do not highlight any part of the bold text. Complete scientific names (genus, species, and author) are to be used the first time they appear in the text, abbreviating the generic name subsequently (unless this could be a source of confusion) and not citing the author. Author's names should be cited according to the IPNI website (www.ipni.org).  The acronyms of the herbariums must follow the Index Herbariorum (http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/).

First page – must include the title, authors, full membership (institutions and addresses), address of the corresponding author and abbreviated title, and ORCID number. The title has to be concise and objective, expressing the general idea of the contents. The resume title must come just below the authors' name and have a maximum of 40 characters.

Second page – must have Abstract (including the title in English), Resumo (including the title in Portuguese or Spanish) and keywords (up to five, in English, Portuguese or Spanish, in alphabetic order). 

Example:

Key words: coastal vegetation, Atlantic Forest domain, flora, similarity.

Palavras-chave: vegetação costeira, Domínio Mata Atlântica, flora, similaridade.

Abstracts and Resumos must contain up to 200 words each. If there are species names, do not include their authorship. In the Abstract and Resumo, the mentioned species do not have the names of their authors.

2.1.1. Text –To be started on a new page, organized under the following sections: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, and References. When appropriate, the Results may be amalgamated with the Discussion.
Titles and subtitles must be in bold.
Figures and tables to be numbered in Arabic according to their appearance in the text. See the item Illustrations for more details.
Supplementary material submissions such as documents, figures, videos as an attachment are encouraged through Figshare (https://figshare.com).
In taxonomic treatments, protologue should be mentioned according to the model below:

Example:
Phyllanthus glaziovii Müll. Arg., Fl. bras. 11(2): 41, pl.8. 1873. Typus: BRAZIL. RIO DE JANEIRO: A.F.M. Glaziou 2892(holotypus BR n.s., holotypus photography in BR!; isotypus P n.s., isotypus photography in P!).

The name of species authors must be indicated only the first time that it appears in the text. For cases where the manuscript contains a description, diagnosis, or list of species, the taxa mentioned in these items must be accompanied by the respective authors, making it unnecessary to quote them later in the text (ex: Swartzia pilulifera Benth.).

Taxon authors
Names of authors of families and genus must be suppressed in all manuscripts.
This is treated as a normal citation, and therefore, the full paper in which the species was published must be included in the references following the Journal's rules (see the item References). For papers with high number of taxa, such as floristic listings, the authorship must be abbreviated according to the IPNI rules.
In case of doubt, contact the Editorial Board of Rodriguésia. Abbreviations of the authors' names will also be used for synonyms when the authors of the basionyms have already been cited. Also, in case of a description of new taxa the authors must be abbreviated.

Example:
Jardinia botanica Mart. ex Bentham (1937: 128).
- Martius is abbreviated because the species was published by Bentham, who is the author of the papers that will be cited.
Arboretum botanicum (Mart. ex Benth.) Hepaminondes (1967: 56).
- Bentham is abbreviated because the authorship has already been  mentioned in the basionym.
Plantoria bonita (Lobravonitz 1904: 120) Calic (1970: 98).
- The authors' full surname, both the basionym and the new combination, should be cited when the basionym is not previously mentioned.

Citation of gene sequences
All gene sequences mentioned in the manuscripts must be registered with GENBANK (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/).

Citation from authors of papers
Articles by the same author or sequence of citations must be in chronological order. When the same author published several works in the same year, the different citations must be indicated by letters (ex: Smtih 2009a, b, c) respecting the alphabetical order in which they are cited in the text. The citation of Theses and Dissertations should be used only when strictly necessary. Do not cite papers presented at Congresses, Meetings and Symposia.
Personal communication should be cited in the text following the example: "... studies are still scarce in the group (M.F. Silva 2015, personal communication)."

Citations of references in the text should follow the following examples:
- For one or two authors: According to Miller (1993) ...
                                     According to Miller & Maier (1994) ...

- For three or more authors: Proposed by Baker et al. (1996) ...

- It is important to remember that the semicolon is used to separate more than one quote in parentheses:
(Miller 1993; Miller & Maier 1994).

- Citations of citations must be indicated by apud as in the example: (Souza apud Siqueira 2004).

2.1.2. Descriptions
In flora works, there should be no description of genera with only one species in the study area. Only the species should be described.
For decimal numbers, use a dot, obeying the English language standard (eg, 10.5 m). Separate the units from the values with a space (except in percentages, degrees, minutes, and seconds). Do not use the number "zero" after the comma or period (e.g.: 1.2 mm; 1 mm; 4.7 cm).
Use abbreviations for Système International d'Unités (SI) metric units and widely accepted chemical symbols. Other abbreviations must be avoided, but they can be used and must be preceded by their meaning in full in the first mention. Note the use of upper and lower case letters (eg, km, m, cm, MB, ºC).
At each beginning of the paragraph, the species name must come without abbreviation.

2.1.3. Material examined

The material examined must be cited in the following order: location, coordinates (separated by commas), date of collection (day, month, and year separated by dots (.), and the month in Roman numerals - uppercase), fl., fr., fl. & fr. (for the phenological phases), name of the collector (without space between the initials of the first names followed by the last name in italics and using et al. when there are more than two collectors (ex .: RL Borges)) and the number of the collector and acronyms of herbariums in parentheses, according to Index Herbariorum (Thiers, continuously updated - http://sweetgum.nybg.org/ih/).
When there is no collector number, do not use s.n.; in this case, the registration number of the specimen must be mentioned after the abbreviation of the herbarium (eg: A. Pereira (RB 9754)).
The names of countries and states/provinces must be cited in full, in uppercase letters and alphabetical order, followed by the respective materials studied. Within each state/province, municipalities (with all collection data) should be cited in alphabetical order separated by a dots (.). A semicolon will separate several collections within the same municipality (;), without repeating the name of the municipality or using the words "idem" and "ibidem". If there is a repetition of the collection locations within the municipalities, also delete the names of these locations. Do not use "s.loc.", "S.d." nor "s.n."

In the example below the name of the municipalities and the repeated location were crossed out:

BRASIL. PARANÁ: Guaratuba, Rio Itararé, 17.VIII.1994, fl. e fr., J.M. Silva 1372 (RB, MBM). Morretes, Ninho do Gavião, Porto de Cima, 3.X.1948, fl., G. Hatschbach et al. 1011 (MBM); Morretes, Ninho do Gavião, Serra Marumbi, 9.V.1996, fr., J.M. Silva 1372 (MBM). Paranaguá, trilha para Torre da Prata, 1.VII.2003, bot., J.M. Silva 3753 (RB, MBM). Piraquara, Rio Taquari, 29.IX.1951, fl., G. Hatschbach 2519 (MBM). Quatro Barras, Morro Sete, 23.XI.1988, fr., J.M. Silva 600 (ESA, HUEFS, MBM, SPF, UB); Quatro Barras, 10.IX.1982, fl., G. Hatschbach 45288 (MBM). SANTA CATARINA: Garuva, Monte Cristo, 6.X.1960, fr., R. Reitz & S. Pereira 10037 (RB, FLOR, HBR). Joinville, Castelo dos Bugres, 25.XI.2004, fr., F.C.S. Silveira 637 (FURB). SÃO PAULO: Cajati, Estação Repetidora da Serra do Aleixo, torre da Embratel, 30.IX.2002, fl., J.M. Silva 3649 (CESJ, HUEFS, MBM).

When the material examined is very extensive, the citation of Selected Material should be prioritized, seeking to cover the morphological diversity treated and the geographic distribution.
For manuscripts of flora, in the material examined, the name of the locality in which the flora study was developed should not be repeated. In the case of state floras, municipalities must be mentioned, and for local floras the collection points are inserted in the study area.
In works on the description of new taxa, the additional specimens examined (paratypes) must be cited in examined material. It is recommended that the authors present the conservation status following the criteria and categories of the IUCN Red List (2001).

Species Comments
Comments regarding the distribution, habitat, ecology, conservation status, phenology, and etymology of a species should be written in a specific paragraph after the "Examined material".

Example:

Distribution, ecology, and conservation status: It is known only in one site, in the municipality of Santa Teresa, in the Reserva Biológica Augusto Ruschi. The species grows in the Ombrophilous Montane Forest, at altitudes between 800–900 m. The new species is evaluated as data deficient (DD) of IUCN (2016) criteria, due to few collections.
Phenology: The material with flowers and young fruits was collected in April.
Etymology: The name of the new species refers to the trichomes in the apex of corolla lobes.

2.1.4. Tables

Each table must be sent separately in a Word format file (.doc, .docx). All must be presented in black and white, without lines or fills or shading.
*** All tables must be cited in the text. ***
In the text, tables should always be cited according to the examples below:
"There are studies about the species (Tabs. 2 - 3) ..."
or:
"These species are described at the Tables 2 and 3 ..."

2.1.5. Illustration 

Maps, drawings, graphs and photos are to be classified as figures.
Photos and drawings belonging to the same figure must be organized in plates (e.g.: Fig. 1a-d – Meaning that the figure 1 has four pictures or drawings). All figures must be cited in order of appearance and must never be included in the text file. When the number of figures exceeds the letters of the alphabet, use: a ', b', c '. In the text, figures should always be cited according to the examples below:

“The hilium is oblong-ovate (Figs. 1g; 3a’-c’)...”
“Some characteristics are presented at Figures 2 e 3...”
“These seeds (Fig. 1) and the fruits (Figs. 2; 3; 6) ...”
“Observe the inflorescences of Coryanthes dasilvae (Figs. 2a,b; 5e-g)...”

The planks must be 15 cm wide. × 19 cm length (maximum height allowed). Figures that fit in a column will also be accepted, that is, 7 cm wide. × 19 cm length

*** Important: All illustrations must be cited in the text and in the sequence in which they appear, inserted in independent files, never inserted in the text file. ***

Sending images to the Journal:

INICIAL STAGE - electronic submission

Authors must submit the manuscript on the website: <https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/rod-scielo>
The images must be submitted as PDF, TIFF, PNG or JPEG files with maximum of 10MB. Graphs must be sent in Excel. If the file has been made in Corel Draw or other programs, please save it as a PDF or JPEG image. Illustrations lacking any readable data will result in the return of the manuscript. 

SECOND STAGE – only if the paper is accepted for publication

At this step all images must be sent to our Journal through upload site WeTransfer (https://wetransfer.com/). The author must send an email to us announcing the availability of images on the site, also informing the number of the manuscript. 

Authors must send an email to the magazine informing us of the availability of the images on the website and providing the link to access the files.

ATTENTION: All figures in this phase must be sent without the couplets (i.e., elements external to the image: arrows, balls, asterisks, letters, etc.).

In the figures, the scale bars must always be placed vertically. Horizontal or diagonal bars will not be accepted in botanical illustrations.

The images requested in this second phase must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, in the measures mentioned above, in TIF or PDF format. In the case of graphics, the final format will be in Excel.

IMPORTANT: Remember that IMAGES (scanned boards, original photos, drawings, bitmaps in general) cannot be sent within any other program (Word, Power Point etc.), and must be of good quality. Note that if the original image is low resolution, it should not be scaled to a higher resolution in Photoshop or any other image processing program. If it has poor clarity, visibility, small fonts, etc., it must be scanned again. We will not accept disproportionately altered photographs.

*** Always use the last number published as an example when assembling your figures. ***

We suggest depositing the figures on Figshare as well: <https://figshare.com>

*** Use sempre o último número publicado como exemplo ao montar suas figuras. ***

2.1.6. Subtitles

They must come to the end of the manuscript text file.
Example:

Figure 2 – a. Cyperus aggregatus – spikelet. b-d. C. entrerianus – b. habit; c. glomerule; d. spikelet. e-g. C. hermaphroditus – e. habit; f. spike; g. spikelet. h. C. luzulae – spike. i-j. C. odoratus – i. spikelet; j. diaspore: glume above, rachilla segment involving achene below. (a. Ribeiro et al. 175; b-d. Ribeiro et al. 151; e-g. Araújo Junior (MOSS 5569); h. Ribeiro et al. 49; i-j. Ribeiro 82).

In taxonomy and flora manuscripts, the sample with which the illustration was prepared must be indicated in the legend, i.e., the legends of the illustrations must contain the collector and the collection number of the material that served as a model for it.
In the figure captions, do not insert the names of the species' authors.

2.1.8. Acknowledgements

If the Paper is the result of a research project financed by entities that promote research (CAPES, CNPq, etc.), the funding agency and the process number must be mentioned

2.1.8. References

All references cited in the text must be listed under this item, in alphabetical order of the first author's surname, with only the first letter of the surname in capital letter (without dots), followed by all other authors separated by commas. Between the last two authors, "&" is used. Journal titles should not be abbreviated. Note that "Júnior", "Filho" and "Neto" are not surnames.

Correct usage example:

Fontes Júnior FL, Loureiro Neto DG & Mendonça Filho ABC

Journal articles:

BFG - The Brazil Flora Group (2015) Growing knowledge: an overview of seed plant diversity in Brazil. Rodriguésia 66: 1085-1113.

Tolbert RJ & Johnson MA (1966) A survey of the vegetative shoot apices in the family Malvaceae. American Journal of Botany 53: 961-970.

Books and thesis:

Costa CG (1989) Morfologia e anatomia dos órgãos vegetativos em desenvolvimento de Marcgravia polyantha Delp. (Marcgraviaceae). Tese de Doutorado. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo. 325p.

Kersten RA & Galvão F (2013) Suficiência amostral em inventários florísticos e fitossociológicos. In: Felfili JM, Eisenlohr PV, Melo MMRF & Meira Neto JAA (eds.) Fitossociologia no Brasil. Vol. 1. Ed. UFV, Viçosa. Pp. 156-173.

Websites citation:
Works published on the Internet do not require information such as publisher, city, and number of pages. If there is a DOI number, include it.

Sasamori MH & Droste A (2016) Baixas concentrações de macronutrientes beneficiam a propagação in vitro de Vriesea incurvata (Bromeliaceae). Available at <http://rodriguesia.jbrj.gov.br/FASCICULOS/rodrig67-4/17-0155.pdf>. Access on 10 January 2017. DOI: 10.1590/2175-7860201667417.

Thiers B [continuously updated] Index herbariorum: a global directory of public herbaria and associated staff. New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium. Available at <http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/>. Access on 9 June 2016.

All articles cited in this item must include the respective DOI number.

Specific cases:

Flora brasiliensis:
Note that “Flora brasiliensis” is always written in italics, both in the References and in the text, with the "b" in "brasiliensis" always minuscule. Also note the following order: publisher (if any), city (s), volume, pars. (if any), number of pages and tab. (if there is).

Caspary JXR (1878) Nymphaeaceae. In: Martius CFP & Urban I (eds.) Flora brasiliensis. Fleicher, Liepizig. Vol. 4, pars 2, pp. 129-184, t.37-38.

Phanerogamic flora of the state of São Paulo:
Note that the number of pages is immediately preceded by Flora's volume.

Baitello JB & Marcovino JR (2003) Ocotea (Aubl.). In: Wanderley MGL (ed.) Flora fanerogâmica do estado de São Paulo. Instituto de Botânica, São Paulo. Vol. 3, pp. 179-208.

2.2. Short communication

Must be organized in a similar way to the original papers, with the following modifications:

- Abstract / Resumo – as in the other articles.

- Text – not to be broken down into sections (Introduction, Material and Methods, Discussion), being presented as flowing text. Acknowledgements appear without title, as a last paragraph. References, tables and figures are treated as for original papers. 

2.3. Point of View
These must have an abstract/resumo, title, text, and references (when needed). The text has to be concise, objective, and figures will not be allowed unless necessary.

2.4. Supplements and Digital Appendices

The importance of sharing data that support a job is increasingly recognized. Thus, Rodriguésia requests that its authors provide databases, raw field data, electronic spreadsheets, data matrices used in analyzes, photographic collections, and maps in Shapefile, KML or Rasterfiles format as digital supplements in scientific repositories. Such scientific repositories provide a DOI address that must be informed by the author to the Journal so that readers can access digital supplements.
At the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief of Rodriguésia and depending on the size of the file provided by the authors, the complementary material may be published only in the online version of the magazine, in the form of a digital Appendix.

As a scientific and free repository, Rodriguésia recommends that authors deposit their data in the repository 
Figshare: <https://figshare.com>

Conflicts of Interests

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The names and addresses entered in this Journal will be used exclusively for this conference's purposes are not available for other purposes or to third parties.