The Rule of 17: New Ground Rules for Plant Science and Bio-medical Manuscripts

In science publishing, whether plant science or bio-medical science in general, submission of a manuscript to a journal constitutes the final and one of the most important phases of an entire research project. Care with scientific writing, language and style all increase the chances of publication in a target journal, even one of repute. Naturally, in all cases, the style of a journal is followed, but there are some uncovered and unabridged errors that many scientific editors encounter during the review process which are almost never corrected by the authors, or are passed over or ignored by the editorial board. In this short paper we wish to highlight the most important of these errors to provide a new set of simple but useful guidelines that would allow scientists, particularly from developing countries and from countries whose first language is not English, particularly in Asia, to sharpen their presentation skills, thus improving, even if slightly, the chances of acceptance. These issues are almost never covered by journals or their publishers, and are never clearly indicated in the Instructions for Authors. This new “Rule of 17” could serve as a solid complement to any journal’s current Instructions for Authors.