Submissions

1. General

Annals of Forest Research publishes both fundamental and applied research articles in the field of forestry and environmental science. The articles are published free of charge, all publishing fees are covered by "Marin Drăcea" National Research-Development Institute in Forestry, Bucharest - Romania.

1.1 Types of papers

Ann. For. Res. (this is the official abbreviation of the journal) publish research articles and notes and reviews. All the submitted papers must respect the bellow requirements.

The research papers must be original and refer to topics of fundamental or applied research. They must be also concise, focused on new results and data. It is recommended that the number of figures and tables to be not higher than 10. Longer manuscripts may be accepted for publishing at the discretion of the editorial office.

The research notes should concern a specific aspect or preliminary results of ongoing research. They represent a concise description of one research aim. The exigencies regarding the description of the methods and the references are similarly to a scientific paper.

The review articles present the achievements on a certain research topic in a critical and exhaustive analysis based on updated and complete references. There is no page limit for review articles. 

1.2. Plagiarism

Authors must respect the ethical rules in research, please read our special section. Papers must be original and not proposed for publishing in other journals or previously published (case of self-plagiarism 1.1). We pay high attention to plagiarism; if needed more details, please document yourself here and how to avoid plagiarism. One basic rule of quoting any more than five words of an author is default and the papers are strongly verified. The journal policy totally disagrees with any form of plagiarism. In the case it was detected, the journal reserve its own right to proceed according to the common publishing procedures. 

1.3. Copyright

All the papers published in Annals of Forest Research are available under an open access policy (Gratis Gold Open Access License), which guaranty the free (of taxes) and unlimited access, for anyone, to entire content of the all published articles. The users are free to “read, copy, distribute, print, search or refers to the full text of these articles”, as long they mention the source. The other materials (texts, images, graphical elements presented on the Website) are protected by copyright. In the case of previously published articles/parts of articles it is necessary to provide full bibliographical source and, for reproduced materials, a written acceptance from the author(s) or the publishing house. 

1.4. Submission of articles

In addition to the document (text, tables, figures, etc.) the authors should attach a cover letter where to present the article and explicitly state that the manuscript was approved by all the authors. The letter describe the general framework of the paper and any potential conflict of interest. Also, the authors should declare that the plagiarism is missing in the submitted paper. The Editorial Office reserves the right to not consider further for evaluation articles not accompanied by a cover letter. Typewritten manuscripts are not accepted. 

1.5. Review process

When the editorial board receive a manuscript and consider that the topic and format is suitable for this journal, the manuscript is sent to reviewers qualified in the field to review the scientific content. The peer review process lasts less than one month but it may be longer for review articles depending on the manuscript length and required changes. The authors are not informed about the identities of the reviewers and the reviewers don’t the authors names. In order to guarantee an impartial peer review process, author’s name, surname and institution along with a contact address (phone no., e-mail) should be submitted on a separate page. The reviewers recommend either to publish or reject a manuscript. Under review, the author will receive a list of modifications required prior to publishing. Three situations might occur: (i) the article is accepted with minor modifications; (ii) the article is accepted with major modifications; (iii) the article should be rewritten and re-submitted. Authors are asked to do the recommended modifications and to express any complaint in writing. A letter in which the author has considered each modification suggested by the peer reviewers should be attached to each stage of the review. The papers considered unacceptable by peer reviewers will not be published. The final decision of publishing belongs to the main Editors. Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors. 

Online publishing. The papers accepted papers are published online, in the Online First section. The aim of this section is to speed up the publication of received papers – each paper receive a DOI and can be further cited.

2. Article structure

All the articles must be elaborated and structured according to the following rules. The Editorial Office reserves the right to reject the discordant articles. Manuscripts should contain title, an abstract, key words, followed by the body of the article (Introduction, Material and methods, Results, Discussion). Optional, Conclusions, Aknowledgements (if the case) or the description of the Supporting Information may follow. The References, figures and tables will be included at the end of the manuscript. In the case of review articles, the body of the article includes Introduction, while the rest could be structured according to the topic of the paper. 

2.1. The title

Should be clear, concise and suggestive. Ambiguous, too long, too general or one-word titles should be avoided. Abbreviations are not accepted.

2.2. The abstract

Should be analytical and provide sufficient information even to a reader who is neither an expert nor familiar with the field. It should be approximately 200-300 words comprising the objectives, methods, and main conclusion of the article. Abstracts are frequently indexed and play a key-role in introducing the potential readers to an “in extenso” reading. The key words should express the characteristic elements of the article. 

2.3. The content

Will be written in English and structured in accordance with the following criteria. 

Introduction. It includes the general framework of the approached topic and its stage of development. A distinct paragraph, usually the last of this chapter, should contain the aim of the research presented in the article and the questions to be answered.

Materials and methods. This chapter should present detailed information concerning the place of research, materials and methods used in order to allow the exact replication of the experimental work. This will facilitate correct interpretation of the results. If the article contains different aspects of research, which have distinct methods and materials, these should be treated separately

Results. It is advisable to present the results of the experiments in charts, tables, photos or graphics. The text should facilitate correct interpretation of charts and figures, but it will not contain a comparative assessment with similar papers (these should be contained in the next chapter, i.e. ‘Discussion’.) The ‘Results’ chapter has to be configured in accordance with the aims of the research.

Discussion. The role of this chapter is to reach an accurate conclusion through a comparative analysis of results already published, emphasizing similarities and differences. This chapter is important in the general framework of the study because it shows the author’s mastery of the topic, the value of the results and the quality of data interpretation. This chapter also contains references to the data and information presented in the charts, tables, graphics and photos in the previous chapter. Data used in the comparative analysis must indicate the source of the references. The configuration of ‘Discussion’ chapter is similar to that of the ‘Results’ chapter.

Conclusions. The conclusions should naturally come from the research results and the discussion presented in the study. General assertions, as well as tables, graphics and photos are not allowed in this chapter. 

Acknowledgements. This chapter can follow 'Conclusion' chapter, mentioning those people or institutions that have facilitated the research accomplishment. This chapter receives no heading number.

References. It is important to note that all the publications quoted in the text should be included in the bibliography and vice versa. The bibliography should not contain publications that cannot be identified in the text and authors should ensure the text references and the bibliographical list correspond.

Supporting Information. When a thorough presentation of some research aspects (e.g. statistical methods, an important data set or an explanatory detailed table) is needed, one or more files can be submitted.

Review articles do not follow the above mentioned structure. However, should include: (i) an introductory part, (ii) a careful and critical presentation of the relevant aspects of the topic approached, and eventually (iii) emphasis of the aspects that are inadequately known and require further study to progress understanding in the phenomenon.

3. Formatting and style

Microsoft Word format or its equivalent is preferred. It is recommended to use Times New Roman, size 11 for the body of the text and size 9 for tables, figures, bibliography and abstract. The body of the text must be 1.5 spaced. Figures, tables and line numbers have to be inserted at the end of the document. For optimal publication of the article, figures should be submitted separately as attachments to the Microsoft Word document or as an image (e.g. .tif, .jpg) or Portable Document File (.pdf). Attachments should include the name of the corresponding author (e.g. Smith.doc). Each figure will be numbered in accordance with the body of the text. Photos will be sent in digital format at a resolution of 400 dpi. It is suggested to send black and white graphics and photos provided it does not affect the information. 

Structure of chapters. The paper will be structured as follows: 1. Introduction; 2. Materials and Methods; 3. Results; 4. Discussion; 5. Conclusion. Subchapters and paragraphs will be numbered with Arabic figures separated by dots, according to the level of heading (e.g. 1. Chapter; 1.1. Subchapter; 1.1.1. Paragraph). 

The titles of subchapters will be preceded and followed by a blank line paged as follows: 1.1., 1.1.1. The latter numbering is the last accepted. If the paper has an appendix it will be placed at the end of the article and should have a distinct title. 

The scientific names of species will be given in italics. The popular names of plants, animals or microorganisms will be followed by the scientific names when first used in the text along with the author of denomination (e.g. Abies alba Mill.). 

To ensure the quality of the article in terms of stylistics and fluency, repeated enumerations should be avoided. Enumerations marked by means of dashes or other graphic signs:

- enumeration 1

- enumeration 2

must be presented as follows: (i) enumeration 1; (ii) enumeration 2. 

Abbreviations and acronyms will be explained when first mentioned in the article. 

Proper names of any kind will be written with Latin characters and diacritical signs corresponding to the original language in which they were written. 

Equations will be written clearly, paying attention to coefficients, exponents and possible confusions: e.g. zero '0', figure and letter 'o', figure '1' and letter 'l'. A consecutive numbering will be used in parentheses on the right side of the text. It is suggested to use Microsoft Word editor for equations or the equivalent software. The units of measurement should be those of the International System. Symbols, Greek or other characters must be defined and clearly explained. Their definition cannot vary along the paper.

Very large tables should be avoided because it is difficult to insert them appropriately. If they are necessary and require more than one page they will be separated, mentioning 'Table X (continuation)' on each page. Any explanatory text will be given as a note below the table. Tables and figures (graphics, images) will be inserted inside the text only where they have been quoted. When the table/figure is explicitly mentioned in text, it will be cited as table 1/figure 1; otherwise, when tables/figures are indirectly mentioned, they should be cited in parentheses (e.g. table 1/figure 1). The title of the table or figure will be written either above or below it, respectively. 

The length of the article. It is recommended not to exceed the limits presented in Section 1.1. . A concise text is highly desirable. 

References will be cited in the text paranthetical as: (Smith 1998), (Smith 1998a, b), (Smith & Wiley 1998), (Smith 1998, Wiley 1998), (Smith 1996, 1997, 1998; Wiley 1998); the textual citations will follow the same links between names (“&”) and also the use of “,” and “;” as above. In the case of multiple references, they will be ordered alphabetically according to the names of the authors when they have the same year of publication, or chronologically, when they have distinct years of publication (Wiley 1975, Smith 1999). If there are more than three authors only the first one is mentioned and it is followed by 'et al.': e.g. (Smith et al. 1998). If the author of the study is unknown the term 'Anonymous' will be used for identifying the reference in text. 

Bibliographical references. Examples concerning bibliographical references are given below. The titles of the articles are cited in the language in which they were written. If the body of the text is in English and the title not, an English title will be given in brackets. 

Smith A., 2000. Title of journal article with one author. Publication name volume (issue): pages (e.g. 10(1): 100-110).

Smith A., Smith B., 2000. Title of journal article with two authors. Publication name volume (issue): pages (e.g. 10(1): 100-110).

Smith A., Smith B., 2000. Title of book. Publisher, City, number of pages (e.g. 150 p.).

Smith A., 2000. Title of chapter in an edited book. In Editor(s) name(s)(ed.), Book title. Publisher, City, pages (e.g. pp. 80-89).

Smith A., 1999. Title of thesis. Type of thesis, Academic Department, University, City, number of pages (e.g. 300 p.).

Smith A., 2000. Title of the paper published in the proceedings of one scientific conference. In Editor(s) name(s)(ed.), Conference name, period, conference location. Publisher, City, pages (e.g. pp. 70-79).