Publication Guidelines - Format for Text

Specific points to watch are as follows;

Italics: these are always shown by underlining in the MS text. Even when a word-processor is available, use an italic font and underline. Italics are used ONLY for the author's address, scientific names of organisms (though not their nomenclatural authorities), for Latin words or abbreviations derived from the Latin (e.g., c, etc.), for the names of books or periodicals in the references, and for certain sub-headings.

Bold type is reserved for the standard abbreviations for the Herbaria (e.g. DBN, BEL) and also for volume numbers of works cited in the references.

Observe that the title, authors' names and addresses, and the sub-headings are left-justified in the text.

Give dates as, for example, '12 January 1991' in the text of papers and notes and as '12.1.1991' in lists and records. Never use formats such as '12th January 1991' or '12.1.91'.

Units of measurement must adhere to the SI system of units and are normally abbreviated, in Roman type. A full stop is omitted, since their nature is that of a symbol rather than abbreviation, and no space is left between the value and the unit symbol (e.g. 25km not 25 km, 5g not 5 g). In particular, it is important that all distances and areas are given in metric terms. Where there is good reason for using a non-metric unit (e.g. fathoms), the metric equivalent should be given in parentheses.

Integers (whole numbers) of more than four digits are split from right to left in groups of three digits with spaces (not commas); thus 1 234 500, not 1,234,500. Such grouping is recommended for clarity. No comma or other sign should be used in spacing; in particular the comma is used internationally as the decimal sign.

Decimal fractions should always have the zero leading the decimal point 0.456 322 not .456 322. Multiplication of numbers should be indicated by a cross (´).

Products of unit symbols are indicated by a space and quotients of unit symbols by the use of any product form in association with negative exponents. e.g. 100 plants.m-2; 20mg l-1, 2500 cells dm-3.

An abstract should be included at the start of the manuscript for each paper (not notes or records) but this should never exceed 100 words in length. Publication of the abstract will be at the discretion of the Editor.

Nomenclatural authorities should be given at the first mention of the Latin name of each species. Alternatively, in papers which deal with a large number of species it is permissible to cite, early in the text, the reference source(s) from which the names are derived.

Wherever possible in the case of a first record of a species or a record of a hybrid, a type specimen should be deposited in an appropriate museum collection or herbarium. The collection reference number should then be given in the record.