Plant Cell Reports - Tips to authors of Review articles

Tips to authors: getting review papers published in Plant Cell Reports and increasing attractiveness of your papers

Things to do in writing an effective review paper

• Do make sure that the review is novel and pushes the field ahead.
• Do cite other review papers as well as primary research papers. Make sure to mention the most recent publications.
• Write in standard English. Poorly-written papers are typically rejected. 
• Do follow all the formatting guidelines and check the format of your references.
• Do proofread your paper several times, including the reference list (Endnote and other referencing software generate capitalization and italics errors, among other problems).
• Do make sure the paper is a synthesis that is greater than the sum of the existing knowledge. The review paper should offer new insights into the field, and not simply a list of what others have learned.
• Speculate about the future of the field. 
• Tables and figures that illustrate the main points of the review are often helpful to readers.
• Do make a catchy title and write an informative abstract.  Papers with these features will be read and cited more than those with boring titles and generic abstracts.

A list of 'don'ts'

• Don't plagiarize (or self-plagiarize) -- all manuscripts are analyzed using plagiarism checking software and are rejected in cases of excessive text similarity.
• Don't use the 'copy-and-paste' method of writing.  The plagiarism checking software highlights the source of copying and even if authors change the wording in attempting to avoid plagiarism, the analysis shows when authors use the copy-and paste method. These submissions are nearly always rejected--they are also poor reviews. 
• Don't write the paper like a series of lists--see above about the need of a synthesis with new insights.
• Don't over-cite your own papers.
• Don't tell us what everyone knows.
• Don't write the article as if it was to be published in a textbook or book chapter.