Style Guide

Plant Perspectives and its publisher, The White Horse Press, aim to maintain high standards of writing and presentation. In particular, we aim to ensure that detailed styling is consistent within each article and across each issue.

We therefore ask all authors to make their best effort to adhere to the following detailed style guidance when preparing their article for submission.  

General

• Spelling, punctuation and grammar should conform to British usage (-is not –iz; labour not labor).
• Do not use the serial comma in lists: ‘red, white and blue’, not ‘red, white, and blue’.
• Avoid use of Word styles.
• Use double paragraph marks only to identify new sections or block quotations, not between normal paragraphs or references.
• Make sure footnotes, if any, are 'live' with numbering 1, 2, 3... Footnote numbers should follow punctuation marks. Note that footnotes are required, not endnotes.

Headings

For identification purposes before layout:

First level: CAPS

Second level: italics (sentence case)

Third level: bold (sentence case)

Abbreviations/spellings

• Omit points after lower-case contractions containing last letter of singular and after plurals, e.g. Dr, St, Mt, Ltd; ed./eds; c. (circa); encl./encls (enclosure/s).
• No points for capitalised abbreviations (e.g. UK, USA). In references, use two letter abbreviations for US states – NY, etc.
• Small caps for BC, AD and BP
• et al., Ibid. (Roman)
• World War One
• the nineteenth century, mid-nineteenth century
• the south-east, South-east Asia
• Italicise foreign words on first appearance

Numbers

• Use words for small numbers up to twenty, except for exact measurements, cross-references and series of quantities. Where numbers in the same paragraph fall below and above twenty, use figures for both, e.g. ‘between the ages of 15 and 21’, not ‘fifteen and 21’. Round numbers above ten may be expressed in words when they are not part of a series. Try to avoid starting a sentence a number; if it is necessary, always spell the first word out. Figures must be used before abbreviations: 5 kg, 6%. 

• In series of numbers, use abbreviations such as % and km. Otherwise, except in notes, do not use abbreviations.
• 0.301 cubic metres, 38 hectares, 28 degrees

44 per cent (44% in notes), fourteen degrees

£246, £1 10s, 5s 3d, A$256,300, US$10 million

1 December 1946 (in text), 1 Dec. 1946 (in notes)

1950s, the fifties

Number and date ranges should be given with an en dash (–) rather than a hyphen: 1900–1945; pp. 14–24.

Use commas, not points, to break up large whole numbers – 91,000 ; 1,500,237 – and points, not commas to indicate decimals – 4.37 ; 25.4

Quotations

• Use single quotation marks; double for quotes within quotes.
• Punctuation should be placed outside the closing quotation mark except where the quotation marks contain a complete sentence or more, or, as with a question mark or exclamation mark, where they are integral to the quotation.
• Inset longer quotations do not need quotation marks.
• Put spaces either side of ellipses …  but do not enclose in brackets. No ellipses at beginning or end of quotations.

Cross-references

• In text: Map 1, Figure 25, Chapter 2, Appendix 1, Volume 1, Note 1
• In notes: fig. 1, vol. 1, n. 1, etc.

Illustrations and Tables

• Submit as individual files via the online submission system. Files should be high resolution TIFFs or JPEGs (at least 300 dpi at the scale of printing).
• Authors are responsible for ensuring that, where relevant, permission has been granted to use illustrative material and that appropriate credits are given in figure captions. More details. Authors should request the White Horse Press Image Licence form from Sarah (sarah@whpress.co.uk) if using any non-public domain images. Any costs associated with use of copyright material are to be paid by the author.
• Indicate the positions of all illustrative material in the article: [insert … here]
• Supply a caption for each figure, formatted as follows:
  
  Figure 1. [title, originator]. Source: […] [full stop at end]

• Tables and maps should be numbered separately; captions and sources should be given as for figures.

• For every figure, graph, table or other illustration in your submission, please provide a short ‘alt text’ description (normally no more than one line). This will improve accessibility for those who use screen reader technology. You can read more about 'alt text' here. You should provide the alt text wording for each illustration in the body of your submission, at the location where the illustration will sit, in the same format as this example:

  [Alt text: ‘Map fragment showing a flat area labelled Rieslei with a single building beside a track.’]

References

• Provide bibliographic citations in footnotes, giving the full reference at first mention, short-title thereafter (e.g. Davis, Environmental History, p. 77). Make sure footnotes are linked in Word and numbered throughout the text. Note indicators follow punctuation marks.
• Alternatively, you may provide a separate bibliography, using short-title references throughout the footnotes.
• Sources may be styled either by the short title system or by the author-date system, as follows:

Short Title System

J. Martinez-Alier, G. Munda and J. O’Neill, ‘Weak comparability of values as a foundation for ecological economics’, Ecological Economics 26 (3) (1998): 277–286.

H. Rolston III, Philosophy Gone Wild, Second edition (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1989), pp. 189–201.

A. Holland, ‘Substitutability: Why strong sustainability is weak and absurdly strong sustainability is not absurd’, in J. Foster (ed.), Valuing Nature? Economics, Ethics and Environment(London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 119–134.

C.P. James, A study of subsistence agriculture in the lower Nile Delta, 1875–1930. (PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006).

C. Toulmin, ‘How Africa can solve its food crisis by growing more crops sustainably’, The Guardian, 18 April 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/apr/18/africa-food-crisis-growing-crops-sustainably (accessed 22 April 2020)

EPA, Who Cares About the Environment? (Sydney: Environmental Protection Authority, 2000). http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/community/whocares (accessed 16 Oct. 2002).

M. De Jong, ‘Seasonality, itinerancy and domestic fluidity: The case of the nomadic sheep-shearers of the Karoo’,paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1992.

Mahaffy to Sec. of State, 21 Dec. 1908, Western Pacific High Commission BSIP Secretariat Series, National Archives of Solomon Islands (hereafter WHPC) 281/1.

Notes

• Article, thesis and online report titles should be given in sentence case; capitalise every important word for book and journal titles.
• Use pp. for page ranges in books only.
• Do not abbreviate journal titles or publisher names.
• Use unspaced initials separated by points (T.S. Eliot) for author first names.
• Use (ed.) for a single editor, (eds) for plural.
• Spell out acronyms (for example, see EPA 2000 above).
• Entries in languages other than English should be entered with English transcription and/or translation following in brackets.

Author–Date System

• Bibliographic citations (author–date style) can appear in text or notes. These should include the author’s last name and the title or year of publication, and may include a page reference: (Aldred 2006: 142).
• A separate list of references should be provided, in alphabetical order, listing ONLY titles cited in the text.

Aldred, J. 2006. ‘Incommensurability and monetary valuation’. Land Economics 82 (3): 141–161.

Martinez-Alier, J., G. Munda and J. O’Neill. 1998. ‘Weak comparability of values as a foundation for ecological economics’. Ecological Economics 26: 277–286.

Rolston III, H. 1989. Philosophy Gone Wild. Second edition. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books.

Holland, A. 1997. ‘Substitutability: Why strong sustainability is weak and absurdly strong sustainability is not absurd’. In J. Foster (ed.), Valuing Nature? Economics, Ethics and Environment, pp. 119–134. London: Routledge.

James, C.P. 2006. ‘A study of subsistence agriculture in the lower Nile Delta, 1875–1930’. PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge.

Toulmin, C. 2013. ‘How Africa can solve its food crisis by growing more crops sustainably’.The Guardian, 18 April. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/apr/18/africa-food-crisis-growing-crops-sustainably (accessed 22 April 2020)

EPA 2000. Who Cares About the Environment? Sydney: Environmental Protection Authority. http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/community/whocares (accessed 16 October 2002).

De Jong, M. 1992. ‘Seasonality, itinerancy and domestic fluidity: The case of the nomadic sheep-shearers of the Karoo’. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Anthropology in Southern Africa. University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Mahaffy, C. 1908. Letter to Sec. of State, 21 Dec. Western Pacific High Commission BSIP Secretariat Series, National Archives of Solomon Islands (hereafter WHPC) 281/1.

Notes

• Article titles should be given in sentence case; capitalise every important word for book and journal titles.
• Use pp. for page ranges in books only.
• Second and subsequent authors' names should appear in the order J. Smith, not Smith, J.
• Do not abbreviate journal titles or publisher names.
• Use unspaced initials separated by points (Eliot, T.S.)for author first names.
• Use (ed.) for a single editor, (eds) for plural.
• Spell out acronyms (for example, see EPA 2000 above).
• Entries in languages other than English should be entered with English transcription and/or translation following in brackets.

Abstract and Author Biography

A circa 100-150-word abstract should be given at the beginning, followed by around 5 keywords.

Following acceptance, short (100 words) author biographies should be included at the end of each article, together with the author’s email address.

Acknowledgements

Should be given as a separate paragraph at the end under the capitalised heading ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

Nomenclature

• Authors and editors are, by general agreement, required to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteriaand the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
• All biotica (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.) should be identified by their scientific names when the English term is first used, with the exception of common domestic animals.
• All biocides and other organic compounds must be identified by their Geneva names when first used in the text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be likewise identified.
• For chemical nomenclature, the conventions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the official recommendations of the IUPAC IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be followed.

For further guidance, see the Chicago Manual of Style.