Instructions for authors

1. General Provisions

The journal publishes results of original studies on different aspects of systematics, taxonomy, taxonomic diversity, morphology, ecology, and geography of algae, fungi, lichens, and bryophytes, as well as communications for joint articles as «Cryptogamic nomenclatural notes» and «New cryptogamic records», which appear under serial numbers and combine the results of studies by several authors. The articles should contain new, previously unpublished data. An e-publication of new records (for example, in iNaturalist, GBIF, Plantarium, etc.) prior to submitting the manuscript to this journal will invalidate the new records. The contribution of each author of a joint article should be evident from the text.

Manuscripts are submitted via e-mail only. In submitting the manuscript, the author confirms that his/her relationships with co-authors and third parties are settled.

Manuscripts are accompanied by the Copyright Transfer Agreement. When a manuscript is prepared by several authors, the Copyright agreement must be signed by each author.

Manuscripts and Copyright transfer agreements must be sent to nsnr@mail.ru.

The decision on publication of submitted manuscripts is made by the Editorial Board based on their scientific value, novelty, relevance of the work and the results of double-blind review. The Editorial Board retains the right to edit submitted manuscripts. When corrections of the manuscript are required, the corrected version of the manuscript must be returned as specified by the Editorial Board; otherwise, the manuscript will be considered as newly submitted.

Submitted manuscripts are published free of charge. Extensive author changes of text and figures at the proof stage should be paid by the author to the publishing house.

2. Submission of manuscripts and review process

2.1. The manuscript should be submitted in one file, with tables and figures in the text. In addition, figures should be sent as separate files prepared accordingly to paragraphs 6 and 7 of these instructions. At the same time, it is necessary to provide a manuscript file prepared for blind review, without the text identifying the author (authorship, affiliation in Russian and English, names in acknowledgments, etc.) and replacing it with multiple stars, i. e., ***. Furthermore, the file of the manuscript and separate files of all illustrations are required. The name of the manuscript file must correspond to the Romanized spelling of the author's surname; illustration file names should also start with the author's surname (for example, Ivanov.docx, Ivanov_Fig_1.jpg).

2.2. Manuscripts should be fully prepared for publication, checked for language and for compliance with the rules. Numerous technical and orthographic errors preclude sending a manuscript to reviewers. Authors of such manuscripts will be requested to improve and resubmit their papers. English editing is the responsibility of the author(s).

2.3. The text of the manuscript should be stylistically and grammatically verified. Manuscripts that do not follow the Instructions for Authors and are not ready to be sent to reviewers are not registered and will be returned to the authors for further work.

2.4. The size of the tables and illustrations together with the legends should fit the print range of the journal, i.e., 13.5 × 19.5 cm.

2.5. The manuscript should not exceed 50000 characters with spaces; publication of larger manuscripts should be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief. The manuscripts for «Cryptogamic nomenclatural notes» and «New cryptogamic records» should not exceed 2500 characters with spaces per one taxon. See the following links for «New cryptogamic records» and «Cryptogamic nomenclatural notes».

2.6. The manuscript should be checked against the items specified in the Reminder for Authors to facilitate the review process.

2.7. The authors should consider the reviewers' and editorial comments and reply to all questions. It is necessary to work only with the latest files sent by the Editor.

2.8. After completing the review process the authors should send the header of the article up to 75 characters with spaces to the Editor. Use the following header style:

Mikhaylova. Arctic endemic alga Laminaria solidungula in the White Sea

Assyov, Slavova. Hygrocybe calciphila — a rare boreal-alpine species

Ignatova et al. Anacamptodon latidens, a new species for Europe

3. Text Requirements and Manuscript Formatting

3.1. The order of the parts of the manuscripts should correspond to the most recently published articles.

3.2. The title of the manuscript should be concise, accurate, informative, and correspond to its content (see examples and recommendations for writing an effective title here and here).

3.3. The abstract should reflect the novelty, material, methods and results of the work performed and be concise and informative (see examples and recommendations for writing an effective abstract here and here).

3.4. Keywords (including word combinations) should be arranged in separate sequences (Latin names, terms, geographical names), each in alphabetical order. Keywords should reflect the main aspects of the work. Up to two of the most important words of the title may be repeated in the keywords. To optimize the Internet search of an article, use of the most common keywords is recommended (see examples and recommendations for writing effective keywords here and here).

3.5. The text of the manuscript should be well structured. Use of hyperlinks, macros, automatic numbering of lists and pages, underlines, color selections, copied from the Internet text fragments with saving style of the source, including taxa names as well as double, triple and multiple spaces, tabs and other «extra» formatting, use of spaces between letters instead of sparse spacing in terms and words that need to be emphasized are not allowed.

3.6. Use Times New Roman font, 12 pt, 1.5 line spacing, 2.5 cm margins all around, align text on the left, indent 1 cm in the text and 1 cm hanging indent in the references.

3.7. Bold font is used for the names of the species listed at the beginning of the paragraphs in the annotated lists and in the subtitles in taxonomic publications. The use of Microsoft Word styles to highlight headings and subheadings is not allowed.

3.8. Italics are used for names of taxa to the genus inclusive (except authors) in the text of the article, tables, references, in the abbreviation ibid. and in the abbreviation et al. in references to the works of several authors.

3.9. The names of the genera must be in full when first mentioned in the text and further when first mentioned in every paragraph, at the beginning of the sentences and after names of the other genera. The names of genera should be abbreviated to the first capital letter when repeated and in case of abbreviation of the species names in the annotated lists and tables.

3.10. In all cases (initials and abbreviations included) after full stop and other stops a space must occur.

3.11. Use «et» rather than «&» between the names of two authors of taxa in the text and tables. Keep original titles with «&» in the list of references. According to recommendation 46C.2 of International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants after a name published jointly by more than two authors, the citation should be restricted to the first author followed by «et al.», except in the original publication.

3.12. Dash and hyphen. An em dash «—» is always bounded by spaces and is used as a punctuation mark; an en dash «–» is typed without spaces and used to indicate a range of values, including the size of objects and page numbers in the lists of literature. Hyphen «-» is typed without spaces, used in complex words joined by hyphens, combinations of figures and letters or symbols, and does not apply to define the range of values.

Use the Insert symbol option in Microsoft Word to type en dash and em dash.

3.13. Decimal fractions must be written with a point (0.1), not a comma (~~0,1~~).

3.14. Dates should be given as follows: 2 VIII 1997.

3.15. Numerals up to 10 in the text of the article (except descriptions) are written in words.

3.16. Dimensions are abbreviated as follows: μm, mm, m a. s. l., km, km², 10%, 15 °C. The multiplication sign « × » is spaced. Measurements are present as in the following examples: (8)10–12(15) × (3)4–5(7) µm, (8.0)10.2–12.4(15.0) × (3.5)4.4–5.3(7.2) µm or (8)10–12(15) µm long, (3)4–5(7) μm high (thick).

3.17. Abbreviations. SI units abbreviations must be used.

Author abbreviations should follow IPNI and Index Fungorum, with spaces between the surnames and the initials of the authors.

Abbreviations of herbarium names should be given according to Index Herbariorum.

However, these common abbreviations may be used; ibid. is used instead repeated descriptions.

The other abbreviations must be explained when first mentioned.

3.18. Geographical coordinates are given without spaces before the designation of the directions as follows: 47°38′00.7″N, 43°16′18.3″E (rounded off to the first decimal place); 54°58.295′N, 73°22.991′E (rounded off to the third decimal place) or 47.54325°N, 43.89216°E (rounded off to the fifth decimal place).

Use the Insert symbol option for degrees, seconds and minutes signs. Use Degree Sign (°) for degrees (code the sign 00B0), Prime (′) for minutes (code of the sign 2032) and Double Prime (″) for seconds (code of the sign 2033).

It is necessary to specify which coordinate system (reference system, geodesic system, datum) is used. For example: WGS 84. In cases where the coordinates were not recorded at collection site but were determined cartographically and with less precision, the indication of seconds is superfluous; usually, in such cases the coordinates should be rounded to minutes and given in square brackets.

3.19. Square brackets are used for synonyms in annotated lists and as outer brackets when a text fragment within round brackets is inside. Example:

The species has ascospores measuring (8.0)10.2–12.4(15.0) × (3.5)4.4–5.3(7.2) μm [up to 16.2 μm long (Rollenger, 2011) and up to 9.0 μm wide (Fiskhatt, 1998)].

3.20. Citation of the specimens is given with the italicization of the family name of the collector and the collection number, with the obligatory indication of the place of storage of the specimen. The initials are given only for collectors or for scientists who identified the specimen and are not the authors of the article or have similar surnames. For all records, an accurate indication of their location with geographical coordinates should be provided. Follow the examples:

9 VIII 2020, A. Vlasenko, det. V. Vlasenko, NSK 1014605

22 XII 2019, Smirnova, LE B0022517

10 VII 1926, G. Woronow, LE B0020840

15 VII 2015, Smith 103, det. Smith, D. Potter, LE

3.21. The nomenclatural citation should correspond to the following example (see: «Layout of nomenclature citations»).

3.22. Bibliographical references in the text of the article are given only in Latin in chronological order; articles published in the same year are given in alphabetical order, for example: Schaft, 1931a, b; Schaft et al., 1931; Smith, 1931; Camiel, 1961a, b; Romanov et al., 1996; Dierssen, 2001; Santesson et al., 2004; Afonina, Tubanova, 2009.

The authors' names of the cited publications should be presented in the text without initials. Initials should be provided only for the names, lacking in the references, and placed before their surnames.

3.23. Names of the administrative regions of the Russian Federation should follow the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

3.24. Latin names of plants and fungi should correspond to modern sources with references to them. The author is solely responsible for the scientific correctness of the Latin names and their correspondence to the selected sources.

3.25. Descriptions of new taxa should rely upon the latest edition of International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.

3.26. Taxonomic manuscripts and inventories without references to the specimens examined and/or their photographs, if the storage of the studied objects is not possible, will not be accepted. In the cases of large lists, only representative specimens can be provided, for example, one for each region.

3.27. Additional illustrations, graphs, tables and data sources may be presented as supplementary files of the article.

4. Titles in the References must be in Latin alphabetical order, but in case of identity of composition and sequence of authors, use chronological order. For titles in Cyrillic, their original spelling is given in the same paragraph in square brackets after the name in Latin.

It is recommended to cite the original sources and to avoid using electronic databases for the distribution of species. Please use instead the information received from collectors (authors of data) as a personal communication (pers. comm.). If necessary, contact persons of relevant websites should be requested to clarify the sources of the data received.

Follow the Guide to prepare the References.

5. Transliteration of the Cyrillic in Latin should correspond to the following scheme, except for the periodicals listed in the Bibliographic Database of Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, that is BPH Online (transliterated according to this source), and geographical names. The names of the administrative regions of the Russian Federation are provided according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Scheme of transliteration: а — a; б — b; в — v; г — g; д — d; е, ё — e; ж — zh; з — z; и — i; й — i; к — k; кс — ks; л — l; м — m; н — n; o — o; п — p; р — r; с — s; т — t; у — u; ф — f; х — kh; ц — ts; ч — ch; ш — sh; щ — shch; ъ — ’; ы — y; ь — ’; э — e; ю — yu; я — ya.

6. Tables should be made using Microsoft Word for creating and editing tables and should be numbered according to the order in which they are cited in text. Each table should have its own title. All tables must be cited in the text (e.g., Table 2). The contents of the tables should be clear. The content of the table should be understandable without additional reference to the text. All the abbreviations should be explained in the note below the table. The content of the table should be discussed in the article. For the arrangement of the large tables within the print range, use font 9 or 10 pt or prepare them as supplementary files.

7. Illustrations (drawings, diagrams, maps, graphics, photographs, photo plates) must be cited as Figs. and presented in .jpg or .tiff format. All illustrations must be of high quality and ready for publication without additional processing. The required resolution is 300 dpi for color photographs and 600 dpi for graphs in the GreyScale mode. The file name must begin with the author's surname and provide unique identification of the illustration number, for example, Ivanov_Fig1.jpg. The size of the illustrations should not exceed 13.5 × 19.5 cm including the legend.

Color illustrations of the objects of research and, if necessary, of their habitats, should be arranged in photo plates. Separate illustrations in the photo plates must be indicated in Latin Capital letters (e.g., Fig. 1A) and the details of the illustrations in lower case Latin letters (e.g., Fig. 5B: c). Illustrations should be inserted in the text after their first mention and be numbered respectively. Figure legends must include explanations of all illustrations, scale bars, references to the corresponding specimens, slides, samples, etc., and places of their storage.

8. Maps should have distinct contours and be devoid of unnecessary information. Large-scale maps should have a coordinate grid and/or scale bar, an indication of large settlements, and/or names of physiographic objects. The language of the map must be the same as the language of the article.

9. Upon request of the Editor, the manuscripts of articles with the description of new taxa or treating critical taxa should be supplied with corresponding specimens for the Herbarium of the BIN RAS (LE) that should be sent to:

The Editorial Board of
Novosti sistematiki nizshikh rastenii
Laboratory of Lichenology and Bryology Komarov Botanical Institute
Russian Academy of Sciences
2 Professor Popov Str., St. Petersburg, 197376
Russia