The Horticulturist


Journal of The Institute of Horticulture
Guidance for Contributors

The main purpose of The Horticulturist is to provide a vehicle for communication by which members of the Institute of Horticulture can be kept abreast with all aspects of their field. The main categories of material published are :

  • Institute Affairs: IoH News
  • Points of View: Letters to the Editor
  • Feature Articles: Up to approximately 2,000 words in length reviewing an area of interest. They should be written in an easily readable, but informative style and contain information likely to be of interest to a horticulturist who is not necessarily in the same field as the author.
  • Summaries: Contributors are asked to prepare a brief abstract or summary of the article (about 1,000 words) which will be used as an introduction, included on the Institute's internet web page and be reproduced in the Journal of Horticultural Science.
  • Biographical details: Authors should include a brief five-line biography to conclude the article.
  • Short Notes : Concise articles, of a more newsworthy character of around 750 words. They may be reports from conferences, information on new techniques, new products, new courses, etc.
  • Book Reviews: Books sent to the Editor for reviewing will be sent to acknowledged authorities for comment. Reviews should be up to approximately 150 words in length.

Articles must be submitted exclusively to The Horticulturist, on the understanding that they have not been and will not be published elsewhere. Articles accepted for publication become the copyright of the Journal. The Editor retains the right to modify the style and length of a contribution (major changes being agreed with the corresponding author) and to decide the time of publication.

Manuscripts
Wherever possible articles should be submitted on 3.5in. computer discs, PC or Mac compatible, labelled with the name of the software and file names, as well as your own name and address. The disc should be accompanied by a hard copy of the text, prepared as for manuscript submissions. Alternatively, if it is not possible to supply articles on disc, manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, on one side of A4 size paper only. Pages should be numbered consecutively. Please retain a copy of your submission.

Units
The metric system of units is preferred.

Tables, figures and photographs
Each illustration or table should be reproduced on a separate sheet of plain paper, with diagrams drawn to about twice the final size. The figure numbers and positions in the text should be clearly indicated. Include as many photographs as possible. Good quality glossy prints or transparencies should be submitted.

References
These should be given in full in the text on first mention for works by up to three authors, eg (Smith, Jones & Brown, 1977), then subsequently abbreviated, as in (Smith et al., 1977). For four or more authors, the first name followed by 'et al.' should be used on all occasions. Different papers by the same author in the same year should be distinguished by adding lower case letters, e.g. Smith (1997a). References should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the article in the following standard form:
Smith, J. N. 1986. A review of compost composition for hardy ornamental stock establishment. Professional Horticulture, 2, 20-25.

The title of the publication should be spelt out in full - please do not use standard abbreviations.

Website
The Institute of Horticulture reserves the right to use book reviews and abstracts of articles on its website on the Internet.