Instructions to the Authors

About Phcog.Net

Natural products are the most consistent and successful source of drugs. In India, Ayurveda remains one of the most ancient and living traditions, which is practiced for the treatment of various diseases and disorders. India has many number of plant species and medicinal properties have been assigned to several thousands. Many major institutes and research centres are currently involved in exploring this opportunity to investigate newer drugs from ancient principles of ayurveda. Further researchers believe in combining the strengths of ayurveda with modern scientific techniques such as NMR, MS and chromatographic techniques to provide new functional leads with high therapeutic value in a short span of time. But Natural products research often comes across many hurdles, which dims the drug development goals. We believe that natural products research information can potentially benefit many researchers involved in this area. Also we believe that the research on natural products is often staggered due to lack of required information available for medicinal plants. In order to combat these problems, Pharmacognosy Network Worldwide (Phcog.net)- A Platform for Natural Product Researchers was started, which makes innovative use of best tools for information dissemination and solve the hurdles in Natural Product Research. Pharmacognosy Network Worldwide is a non-profit network dedicated to Natural Products Research in order to develop promising drugs.

About Journal

Pharmacognosy Reviews [ISSN: Print -0973-7847, Online - 0976-2787] [http://www.phcogrev.com], a publication of Phcog.Net, Bangalore, INDIA. It is published semi annually, serves the need of different scientists and others involved in medicinal plant research and development. Each issue covers different reviews on related topics of natural product drug discovery, Biotechnology, Marine Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Plants. Review articles that are of broad readership interest to users in industry, academia, and government. Phcog Rev. is an important and most cited review journal for medicinal Plant researchers —and it's an Open Access Publication.

Scope of the journal

The journal will cover research studies/reviews related to Natural products including some of the allied subjects. Articles with timely interest and newer research concepts will be given more preference.

The Editorial Process

A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to Phcog Rev. alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to the Phcog Rev. readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in Phcog Rev. are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a double-blind review process, wherein the reviewers and authors are unaware of each other’s identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a member of the editorial team, who based on the comments from the reviewers takes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point by point response to reviewers’ comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated till reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript. Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as ‘Ahead of Print’ immediately on acceptance.

Article Processing Charges

Pharmacognosy Reviews is an Open Access Journal from Phcog.Net. Learn more about the Article processing Charges

Download Factsheet

For queries

Contact Editorial Office:

Phcog.Net
# 9, First Floor, Vinnse Towers
Wheeler Road Extension, St. Thomas Town, Bangalore 560 084, INDIA
T : +91-9686980760

Contact Editor : [email protected]

Editorial Office : [email protected]

Why do we charge?

This journal is an Open Access, where in the content is free to read. The journal is non-commercial and currently, it is self financing and not supported by any major organizations. Cost is being absorbed only with subscriptions. Hence, a nominal cost will be levied to cover the cost of the following

  • Journal hosting systems

  • Manuscript submission systems

  • In-house copyediting and linguistic support

  • Pagination & typesetting

  • Inclusion in Crossref, giving a permanent DOI and enabling easy citation in other journals.

  • Archiving in databases where appropriate, in an internationally recognized, open access repositories.

Editorial Policy

Authors should prepare their manuscripts submitted to the journal exactly according to the instructions given here. Manuscripts which do not follow the format and style of the journal may be returned to the authors for revision or rejected. The journal reserves the right to make any further formal changes and language corrections necessary in a manuscript accepted for publication so that it conforms to the formatting requirements of the journal. Manuscripts and figures are not returned to the authors, not even upon rejection of the paper.

Protection of Patients' Right to Privacy

Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, sonograms, CT scans, etc., and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian, wherever applicable) gives informed consent for publication. Authors should remove patients' names from figures unless they have obtained informed consent from the patients. The journal abides by ICMJE guidelines:

1)     Authors, not the journals nor the publisher, need to obtain the patient consent form before the publication and have the form properly archived. The consent forms are not to be uploaded with the cover letter or sent through email to editorial or publisher offices.

2)     If the manuscript contains patient images that preclude anonymity, or a description that has obvious indication to the identity of the patient, a statement about obtaining informed patient consent should be indicated in the manuscript

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must conform to the “Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals” http://www.icmje.org/. Contributions and Manuscripts must be written in English and submitted exclusively to PHREV. Manuscripts must be typewritten (double-spaced) with liberal margins and space at the top and bottom of the page.
 

Manuscripts in the prescribed format to be submitted via email to [email protected] 

or Submission Link

Covering Letter

Disclose all possible conflicts of interest (e.g., funding sources for consultancies or studies of products). A brief indication of the importance of the paper to the field of Pharmacy is helpful in gaining appropriate peer review.

Copyright Form

The contributors' / copyright transfer form (template provided below) has to be submitted in original with the signatures of all the contributors within two weeks of submission via courier, fax or email ([email protected]) as a scanned image. 

The hard copies of the Contributors’ form / copyright transfer form may be sent to the following addresses or submitted online from the authors’ area on submission site.

Authorship Criteria

Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to each of the three components mentioned below: 
 

  1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
  2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  3. Final approval of the version to be published. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not justify authorship. General supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the contributors. The journal prescribes a maximum number of authors for manuscripts depending upon the type of manuscript, its scope and number of institutions involved (vide infra). The authors should provide a justification, if the number of authors exceeds these limits. 

Contribution Details

Contributors should provide a description of contributions made by each of them towards the manuscript. Description should be divided in following categories, as applicable: concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, clinical studies, experimental studies, data acquisition, data analysis, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing and manuscript review. One or more author should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole from inception to published article and should be designated as 'guarantor'. 

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests

This field gives you the chance to suggest individuals who specialize in the topic(s) your paper covers to be used as reviewers for your paper. It is not necessary to suggest reviewers when you submit a paper, as the Journal maintains a large pool of reviewers drawn from all specialties in the arena of medicinal plants. However, the editors welcome your suggestions if you have some people in mind. You may submit up to 2 suggested reviewers, but all must be submitted with a valid email address. The Journal does not guarantee that the editors will choose to utilize all or even part of any suggested reviewer/s.

Copyright Form

All manuscripts are considered to be the property of Phcog.Net from the time of submission. If Phcog.Net is not publishing the paper, Phcog.net releases its rights therein at the time the manuscript is rejected following editorial/peer review or retracted by the authors. Manuscripts published in Phcog Rev. become the sole property of, with all rights in copyright reserved to PHCOG.NET; The corresponding author, on behalf of all authors, signs a copyright transfer form. Download Copyright Form – Visit www.phcog.net/downloads

Download COPYRIGHT FORM

Preparation of Manuscript​

Your Manuscript should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized – paper (8.5" x 11") with 1" margins on all sides. You should use 12 pt Times New Roman font. Authors should take care over the fonts which are used in the document, including fonts within graphics. Fonts should be restricted to Times New Roman, Symbol and Zapf Dingbats.

Title : Should be in Title Case ; The first character in each word in the title have to be capitalized.

A research paper typically should include in the following order

  • Abstract
  • Keywords
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements (If any)
  • References
  • Tables and/or Figures
  • Appendixes (if necessary)
  • Abbreviations (if necessary)

Abstract – Limit of 250 Words

A brief summary of the research. The abstract should include a brief introduction, a description of the hypothesis tested, the approach used to test the hypothesis, the results seen and the conclusions of the work.

Key words

Please, write no more than six keywords. Write specific keywords. They should be written left aligned, arranged alphabetically in 12pt Times Roman, and the line must begin with the words Keywords boldfaced. A 12pt space should separate the keywords from the affiliations.

Introduction

Description of the research area, pertinent background information, and the hypotheses tested in the study should be included under this section. The introduction should provide sufficient background information such that a scientifically literate reader can understand and appreciate the experiments to be described. The introduction MUST include in-text citations including references to pertinent reviews and primary scientific literature. The specific aims of the project should be identified along with a rationale for the specific experiments and other work performed.

Literature Review

Should cover in depth in the proposed topic. The piece of article should be free from plagiarism.

Conclusion

This section should relate the results section to current understanding of the scientific problems being investigated in the field. Description of relevant references to other work/s in the field should be included here. This section also allows you to discuss the significance of your results - i.e. does the data support the hypotheses you set out to test? This section should end with new answers/questions that arise as a result of your work.

Tables and Figures
Tables

Each table must start on a separate sheet. They should be numbered with Roman numerals according to their sequence in the text, and have a short self-explanatory heading. Use SI units. Tables should include vertical rules, but horizontal rules should separate column headings from the content. Authors should keep in mind the page layout of the journal when designing tables. Tables that fit onto one printed page are preferred. Detailed explanations of symbols, units, and abbreviations should follow below the table.

Illustrations

Figures for final production should be submitted as electronic files and hard copy so that the editorial office can ensure that the output of electronic files matches the hardcopy. Please pay particular attention to the guidelines below. The editorial office cannot undertake preparation of manuscripts and illustrations not conforming to journal style. Manuscripts of insufficient quality will be returned immediately without refereeing. A high standard of illustration (both line and photo) is an editorial priority. All illustrations should be prepared for printing to fit 80 x 240 mm (column width) or 169 mm by up to 240 mm (full page) size. It is preferred that the full-page length is not used and that authors keep in mind that the caption will be placed underneath the figure. In the event that full-page length is necessary for plates, captions will have to appear on adjacent pages. Figure(s) must be numbered consecutively in the text. Compound figures with more than one micrograph or photo should be referred by a single figure reference (e.g. Figure 1), and individual parts should be labeled with capitalized letters in the lower left-hand corner. Lettering should be of a sans-serif type (i.e. fonts without serifs such as Arial) with a minimum published size of 4.2 mm (12 pt). Descriptive labeling in the figures should be clearly readable, and all lettering should have a minimum published size of 6 pt (2.1 mm) for labeling items on photographs or in line art is recommended and a maximum size of 10 pt is suggested. Use a scale bar to indicate magnifications and place in the lower right corner if possible. Computer prepared photographic images must be at a minimum of 350 dpi at the final publication size. Lower resolution will result in pixilation and poor quality images. These should be submitted as JPEG, TIFF or PPT files, but encapsulated postscript (EPS) format is also acceptable.

Computer drawn figures are accepted provided they are of high quality. Please note that graphs produced by many statistic packages are rarely adequate. In particular, letter quality on axes and captions are often poor. Such figures should be exported into an accepted graphics package and lettering rendered using a text function. Authors should note that .dot, .bmp, and .pat fills should be avoided. Do not use postscript fill patterns as these are often based on bit map patterns that result in screening patterns during final reproduction. When filling illustrations, use fills such as lines, tints or solids. Line width minimum is 0.25 pt (0.09 mm). Also avoid the use of bitmap scans to render text and detail. Text should be saved as text at a minimum text size of 6 pt (2.1 mm). Please submit line art as Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, or EPS files. These must be at a minimum resolution of 800 DPI at publication size. High resolution may be necessary where fine line detail is present.

For graphs Excel graphs are also acceptable. Note that vertical axes must all be at the same scale especially where the paper compares between them. Otherwise they should be produced as separate figures. Avoid 3D plots when presenting 2D data. Where electronic figures are submitted, please submit a hard copy also at final acceptance stage so that it can be checked against the electronic files during proof preparation.

Table and Figure captions

Figure and table captions should be included at the end of the manuscript. Figure captions/legends should include a statement at the end of each caption/legends about reproduction size (e.g. at full page width, at column width). They should be double spaced and typed in the journal format. Explanations should be brief and authors should keep in mind that captions/legends will be placed below figures.

Acknowledgements – Limit of 100 Words

This is a brief section crediting the people who have helped make your manuscript possible and who aided you in your work but are not part of the authorship. Please mention all applicable grants and other funding that supported your work.

Page size 

Letter Portrait 8 ½  X 11

Margins

All Margins, 1cm

Page number

Numbered at bottom right

Footer / Headers

None

Title 

14 pt Times New Roman, bold, centered.

Author and co-authors

12 pt Times New Roman centered, bold - author and all co-authors names in one line. The corresponding author should include an asterisk*.

Authors address

12 pt Times New roman centered - giving each authors' affiliation (i.e. Department/Organization/Address/Place/Country/email). Followed by single line spacing.
Author for Correspondence: 10pt Times New roman centered - giving a valid e-mail of the corresponding (main) author is a must. It should be indicated as*  followed by two line spacing.

Abstract 

12 pt Times New roman, full justification Normal - maximum 250 words

Text 

12 pt Times New roman, full justification – 1.5 line spacing between paragraphs. No indentation

Headings and numbering

Major headings (ABSTRACT, KEYWORDS, INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS NAD DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, REFERENCES) in upper case left-justified, 12 pt bold, Intermediate headings should be in italics, sentence case, left justified, 12 pt

Tables

To be incorporated at the end of Manuscript 

Correct

“Table 1 : Serum enzyme levels………”

Incorrect “Table No. 1 : Serum enzyme levels………”

Figures /Graphs

Figures may be embedded in your word document but they should be created with a program that allows you to save them as gif, jpg or tiff format. For any figures or other materials directly extracted from previously published materials, you must have written permission from the publisher of that material for reprint use. A copy of that permission release must be submitted with your article.

It is the individual author's responsibility to attain this permission.

To be incorporated at the end of the manuscript with proper labeling

Correct

“Figure 1 : Serum enzyme levels………”

Incorrect

“Figure No. 1 : Serum enzyme levels………”

Graphs To be included from excel, it should be editable.
Non – editable graphs will not be accepted.

All text should be fully justified. Please put all primary section titles in UPPER CASE letters and subheading in both Upper and Lower Case letters. Do not number your titles (for example, 1.0 Introduction; 2.0 Background). Do not use the tab key to indent blocks of text such as paragraphs of quotes or lists because the page layout program overrides your left margin with its own, and the tabs end up in mid-sentence.

Reference List: Author/Authors
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order). Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals in superscript with square bracket after the punctuation marks. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the formats used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Use complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid using abstracts as references. Information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as "unpublished observations" with written permission from the source. Avoid citing a "personal communication" unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. The commonly cited types of references are shown here, for other types of references such as newspaper items please refer to ICMJE Guidelines (http://www.icmje.org or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).

References
In-text citation

Correct / Acceptable Format
Natural products have proven to be a great source of new biologically active compounds. Thus, in an effort to discover new lead anti-malarial compounds, several research group screen plant extracts to detect secondary metabolites with relevant biological activities that could served as templates for the development of new drugs. Flavonoids have been isolated and characterized from many medicinal plants used in malaria endemic areas.[10] However, controversial data have been obtained regarding their antiplasmodial activity, probably because of their structural diversity.[11-13] More recently, several flavonoids have been isolated from Artemisia afra[14] and Artemisia indica,[15] two plants related to Artemisia annua, the famous traditional Chinese medicinal plant from which artemisinin is isolated.

Reference List: Author/Authors
JOURNAL REFERENCES

1. Single/Multiple Authors
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4): 284-7.

2.More than six authors
Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002; 935(1-2): 40-6.

3. Organization as Author
Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002; 40(5): 679-86.

4. Unknown Author
21st century heart solution may have a sting in the tail. BMJ. 2002; 325(7357): 184-5.

5. Journal article on the Internet
Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. 2002 Jun [cited 2002 Aug 12]; 102(6): [about 3 p.]. Available from:
http://www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm
Note: Plant/Micro organisms, in-vivo, in-vitro should be in italics.

6. Personal author(s)
Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.

7. Editor(s), compiler(s) as author
Gilstrap LC 3rd, Cunningham FG, VanDorsten JP, editors. Operative obstetrics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002.

8. Author(s) and editor(s)
Breedlove GK, Schorfheide AM. Adolescent pregnancy. 2nd ed. Wieczorek RR, editor. White Plains (NY): March of Dimes Education Services; 2001.

9. Organization(s) as author
Royal Adelaide Hospital; University of Adelaide, Department of Clinical Nursing. Compendium of nursing research and practice development, 1999-2000. Adelaide (Australia): Adelaide University; 2001.

10. Chapter in a book
Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.

11. Conference proceedings
Harnden P, Joffe JK, Jones WG, editors. Germ cell tumours V. Proceedings of the 5th Germ Cell Tumour Conference; 2001 Sep 13-15; Leeds, UK. New York: Springer; 2002.

12. Thesis
N. Khoshakhlagh. The compositions of volatile fractions of Peganum harmala seeds and its smoke. Pharm. D. Thesis, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. (2002).

13. WEBSITES
Website information
Cancer-Pain.org [homepage on the Internet]. New York: Association of Cancer Online Resources, Inc.; c2000-01 [updated 2002 May 16; cited 2002 Jul 9]. Available from: http://www.cancer-pain.org/.

Acknowledgements
All messages and reviews sent electronically will be acknowledged electronically upon receipt.

Submission of manuscript

Manuscripts are to be submitted by Web based Manuscript Submission Systems or via email to [email protected]

Note : Do not send hard copies/CDs, until you receive e-mail request from Editorial office.

A timely submission, however, is not a guarantee that your work will be accepted for forthcoming publication. All submissions are peer reviewed by the editorial board and a select group of reviewers. Please make sure that all guidelines are followed carefully. All the accepted articles will be queued for publication and will appear in the futures issues based on the priorities set by the editorial board.

Important e-mails
Phcog Rev.

Manuscript status : [email protected]
Queries : [email protected]
(Queries will be replied in two working days)
URL : www.phcogrev.com | www.phcog.net

HARD COPY SUBMISSION
Hard Copy of Manuscripts are not being accepted, Submissions should be made by Web Based Manuscript Submission Systems ONLY

Check List before Submitting Manuscript

  1. Covering letter
  2. Copyright Forms (Scanned)
  3. Manuscript
  4. Illustrations (if any)

AUTHOR CHECKLIST FOR SENDING PROOFS TO EDITORIAL OFFICE

In order to maintain quality and consistency in Phcog.Net Journals, we ask you to perform the following checklist prior to submitting your final proof for publication:

  1. Include the original, hard copy of Author’s Transfer of Copyright signed by each author

  2. Thoroughly check the reference style as mentioned above.

  3. Thoroughly check the article for correct grammar, in particular: spelling of names, affiliations, any symbols, equations, etc.

Send the Corrected Proof (scanned), Copyright Transfer Form, Subscriptions (If any) with covering letter in a single envelope to the following address

Note : e-mails with the forcibly/influential consideration, multiple queries on status, vicious language, offensive writings to Editor/Associate Editors will lead to rejection of the Manuscript.