Instructions for Authors
Journal of Fruit Science (ISSN 1009-9980; CN-41-1308/S), formerly known as Fruit Science, was founded in 1984 as a quarterly publication and then changed to bimonthly in 2001 and monthly in 2016. It is a professional scientific journal governed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and sponsored by the Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS). The journal is a monthly publication and published on the 10th of each month, with 160 pages and price of CNY 30 per issue, CNY 360 per year. For domestic subscription, the journal's post issuing code is 36-93. The journal's oversea distribution code is M1107.
Readership and Columns
1. Readership: The journal's readers are scientific research personnels, colleges professors, students and technicians in the field of agriculture and fruit studies.
2. Columns: Germplasm Resources & Genetic Breeding & Biotechnology, Cultivation & Physiology & Ecology, Plant Protection & Fruit Quality and Safety, Storage & Processing, Special Focus & Reviews, Techniques & Methods, Breeding Reports, News Delivery, etc.
Manuscript Requirement
3. General Requirement: Manuscript should be with a clear theme, concise text, detailed information of materials, reliable results, reasonable arguments and novelty in certain field. Special focus & Reviews articles should cover the latest research progress in related fruit research at home and abroad, incorporate the authors' own results, display the authors' own viewpoints. The Breeding Reports should introduce new cultivars that have been certified by authorities at or above provincial level. The manuscript should be submitted together with a letter from the authors' institutions approving the publication of the manuscript and proving that the manuscript does not involve confidential breach and has not been published or submitted elsewhere. Provincial/ministerial or higher-level funding sources should be indicated with the title(s) and project number.
4. Layout: In order to facilitate manuscript processing, author(s) are suggested to refer to recent issues of the journal for format requirements.
5. Title: Title should be concise, informative, consistent with the content of the paper, and generally not more than 20 Chinese characters. Subtitles are not encouraged. The headings in the main text are numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals with no more than 3 levels.
6. Authorship: Authorship is limited to individuals who have contributed to the work reported in the manuscript and can respond to the questions and concerns related to the manuscript. The gender, professional title, academic degree, telephone and email of the first author and the contact details (address, postal code, telephone number, and email) of the corresponding author should be provided.
7. Chinese and English Abstract: A Chinese abstract of 200 to 300 characters briefly describing the objective of the study, materials and methods, key results and conclusions should be provided. An English abstract of 800-1000 words for research articles and 500-600 words for new cultivar reports is required. Chines and English Abstracts should be consistent in meaning but English abstract shall be more detailed.
8. Keywords: 3 ~ 8 keywords should be provided below the abstract for indexing purposes. The Chinese and English keywords must be consistent.
9. Introduction: The background of related research including progress and unresolved issues, and objectives of the study are addressed in Introduction. It is not appropriate to address issues that are not involved in this article.
10. Materials and Methods: The materials and methods should clearly describe details of time, location and materials for the experiment, experimental design, replicates and sample volume, instruments and chemicals used and statistics. The Latin scientific name(s) (in italics) of plant materials should be provided, and the variant or cultivar name(s) should also be specified. If an experimental method has been formerly reported, then details of the method can be omitted with the citation of the reporting literature. However, any modifications in the method from the reported study should be clearly stated. If the method is not previously reported, it should be described in details.
11. Results and Analysis: This section describes the main results of the study, providing the basic data and the secondary or tertiary data generated from statistical analysis and describing the information interpreted from the data analysis.
12. Figures and Tables: All texts in the figures and tables should be both in Chinese and English. The figures should be scanned images or graphs generated by Excel. For scanned images, the resolution should be no less than 300 dpi.
13. Units and Quantities: The use of units and quantities should comply with international standards or the official units in China.
14. Discussion: The discussion should be focused on key issues with clear viewpoints based on the results and cited literatures, and the significance of the results. Avoid repeating contents in results part or making ungrounded inference.
15. Conclusion: Conclusion should be in a separate paragraph, not mixed with the discussion part. The conclusions should be brief, concise and clear, providing the readers with summarized information obtained from the study. This section should be within 100 Chinese characters.
16: References: References that are cited in the text should all be listed. 50% of the reference should be literatures published in the latest 5 years. The list of references adopts the sequential coding system, consecutively numbered according to the order of citation in the text. If the reference is in Chinese, it should be listed in Chinese first, followed by its English translation. All authors of references are listed. English journals should be listed with full names. The reference types should be indicated after the reference title. [M] for monograph, [C] for conference proceedings, [N] for newspaper articles, [J] for journal articles, [D] for dissertation, [R] for report, [S] for standard, and [P] for patents.
Peer Review Policy
17. Manuscripts should be submitted online:
(https://gskk.cbpt.cnki.net/EditorAN/index.aspx) and the received date is the date when a manuscript passes the initial review and sent out for peer review. If the manuscript does not meet the requirements of the journal, the editorial office may return the manuscript to author(s), who are to revise it accordingly and resubmit it. The accepted date is the date when the revision of an accepted manuscript is returned.
18. Process and Timing: The journal adopts a double-blind peer review system. After the manuscript is received, the editorial office will carry out an initial review. Manuscripts that pass the initial review will be sent to at least 2 experts for double-blind peer review. On the basis of peer review comments, the editor-in-chief undertakes final review for acceptance of manuscripts. The review result (acceptance, revision and re-review, or rejection) will be notified within 3 months generally. Manuscripts that are not accepted at the end will be returned.
19. Appeal: Authors may make an appeal if they disagree with the comments from the experts. The authors need to write an appeal letter (with the manuscript serial number) and send it to guoshuxuebao@caas.cn. Detailed reasons for appealing must be stated, including a comprehensive and reasonable answer to the reviewers' comment. The editorial office will consider whether to change the decision case by case.
20. Correction and Retraction: After publishing, if there appears to be an unintended scientific mistake in the article, the editorial office will publish corrections in the journal as soon as possible. If severe scientific errors are found in published articles, or the article is suspected of academic misconduct, the editorial office will initiate an investigation and announce the final result, or even retract article with a retraction statement if necessary.
Fees
21. Fees: Regardless of whether the submission is accepted or not, a review fee of RMB 200 yuan is required at the time of submission. For accepted manuscripts, a publishing fee of RMB 500~1000 yuan per page will be charged.