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International Journal of Plant Based Pharmaceuticals
e‑ISSN 2791-7509 Open Access · CC BY 4.0

Author Guidelines

International Journal of Plant Based Pharmaceuticals (IJPBP), which accepts original research articles, review articles, and short communications in English, is a double-anonymized peer-review journal.

Authors could use either British (-ise) or American spelling for their manuscript; however, one style should be used consistently throughout the manuscript. Authors must proofread their manuscripts for language before submission. Authors are responsible for ensuring their manuscripts meet language and formatting standards before submission.

Please register all the author(s) while submitting your manuscript to the Open Journal Systems (OJS). This is the corresponding author's responsibility. Please be informed that we do not add any authors in progress or after the decision.

Preparation

The manuscript submitted to the journal should be original, reflect the integrity expected from scientific communication, and show consistency and integrity that guarantees that the article is both understandable and interesting. Please review the suggestions below before submitting the article to the journal.

Correctly prepared original articles help speed up the editorial review process; inappropriate articles are returned to the author(s). Spelling, punctuation, usage consistency in format and explanations, sentence structure, spacing, number of words in the text, and number of tables, figures, and graphics should be carefully examined before submitting the article to the journal.

Authors are required to download the templates using the links below before submitting articles to the journal and make the necessary preparations using these templates when submitting their articles to the journal. Cover letter submission is optional and at authors' discretion.

Please Note: The authors are responsible for the content of the articles published in IJPBP. IJPBP does not accept any responsibility for the content of the article.

Types of Paper and Word Limits

1. Original research papers: Original full-length research papers that have not been published previously, except in a preliminary form, and should not exceed 7,500 words from introduction to conclusion (excluding references). Additional tables and figures can be submitted as supplementary material.

2. Review articles: Review articles in fields related to the journal's Aims & Scope will normally focus on literature published over the previous years and should not exceed 10,000 words from introduction to conclusion (excluding references). If it is felt absolutely necessary to exceed these limits, please contact the editorial office (info@ijpbp.com) for advice before submission.

3. Short communications: Short communications of up to 3,000 words from introduction to conclusion (excluding references), describing work that may be of a preliminary nature but merits publication.

4. Letters to the Editor/Commentary: Letters are published from time to time on matters within the scope of the journal.

Structure

Your manuscript should be compiled in the following order: title page (including author details, affiliations, and ORCID IDs); cover letter (optional); abstract (maximum 250 words, beginning with a rationale); keywords (3-6); main text — introduction, material and methods, results and discussion, conclusion*; acknowledgments; conflict of interest statement; CRediT authorship contribution statement; ORCID numbers of the authors; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s); figures; figure captions (as a list); supplementary file(s) (if any).

*Authors have the freedom to present the manuscript in a different order where the nature of the study requires it (e.g., separating Results and Discussion into distinct sections).

All headings should be numbered. Citations should not be numbered. The corresponding author should be identified with an asterisk and footnote. All other footnotes (except for table footnotes) should be identified with superscript numbers. The title of the paper should unambiguously reflect its contents.

For studies involving plant material, the name of the senior taxonomist who identified the plant material and the herbarium/voucher specimen number should be provided (if applicable), and the plant material should be deposited in a public bio-bank or other public repository that allows access for reproducibility. The plant extraction procedure, where applicable, should be sufficiently clearly defined.

Style Guidelines

Please refer to these quick style guidelines when preparing your manuscript, rather than any published articles or a sample copy.

  • Please use American or British(-ise) spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.
  • Please use single quotation marks, except where 'a quotation is "within" a quotation'.
  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
  • Do not use the word processor's options to justify text or hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, and superscripts as appropriate.

Formatting and Templates

Manuscripts should be submitted in Word (.doc/.docx) format. The text should be in single-column format, and the layout should be kept as simple as possible. Tables and figures should be embedded in the main text; source files for figures, tables, and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text.

Word templates are available for this journal. Please save the manuscript template to your hard drive, ready for use.

When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. You are strongly advised to use the spell-check and grammar-check functions of your word processor before submission.

Artwork

Use uniform lettering and sizing in your original artwork, and embed the fonts used if the application provides that option (Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, and Symbol, or similar fonts, are recommended). Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text and submit each illustration as a separate file where possible.

Color or grayscale photographs (halftones) should be at least 300 dpi; bitmapped line drawings should be at least 1000 dpi; combined bitmapped line/halftone images should be at least 500 dpi. Vector drawings should be supplied as EPS or PDF with all fonts embedded. Please do not supply files optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP) or graphics disproportionately large for the content. Figure resolutions should be adequate for print reproduction, and color figures will appear in color online at no additional charge.

Ensure that each illustration has a caption comprising a brief title and a description; keep text within illustrations to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used. Tables should be submitted as editable text, not as images, numbered consecutively, with any notes placed below the table body; avoid vertical rules and shading in table cells.

Ethics in Publishing and Conflict of Interest

The total similarity rate of articles submitted to IJPBP should not exceed 25%, and the similarity rate to each individual source should not exceed 5%.

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work, including employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors should present the conflict of interest statement in the manuscript right after the Acknowledgments section. If there are no interests to declare, please state: "Conflict of interest: none." This statement will be published within the article if accepted.

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture, or an academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that it will not be published elsewhere in the same form without the written consent of the copyright holder. To verify originality, submissions may be checked by the Crossref Similarity Check service.

Policy on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage

Authors using AI tools must disclose their usage clearly in the Methods section, detailing the specific tools and their application. Full responsibility for the manuscript content remains with the authors, even when AI is involved, ensuring all generated content is plagiarism-free and properly cited. AI-generated content cannot serve as primary sources, and AI tools or entities cannot be credited as authors. Editors using AI in the review process must also clearly disclose its usage.

Author Contributions and Changes to Authorship

For transparency, authors are encouraged to submit a statement outlining their individual contributions using the relevant CRediT roles: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, and Writing – review & editing. Statements should be formatted with the initials of the authors (e.g., T.H. for Thomas Hunt) alongside the relevant CRediT role(s).

All authors should have made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study or acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; drafting or critically revising the article; and final approval of the version to be submitted. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authorship should be made only before acceptance and only with the editor's approval, accompanied by a reason for the change and written confirmation from all authors (including any author being added or removed).

Copyright and Open Access

The Contributor(s) or, if applicable, the Contributor's Employer retains all proprietary rights, including copyright. IJPBP publishes under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) License; the use, distribution, or reproduction of published content in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and copyright owner(s) are credited and the original publication in this journal is cited. To learn more about IJPBP's license terms, please see the Licensing page.

IJPBP uses LOCKSS for the archiving and preservation of its online content.

Role of Funding Source

The corresponding author is requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article, and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in the study design, data collection/analysis/interpretation, manuscript writing, and the decision to submit for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, this should be stated.

Peer-Review Process

IJPBP follows a comprehensive double-anonymized peer-review process. Manuscripts undergo initial editorial screening for plagiarism, formatting compliance, and scope relevance; manuscripts passing this stage are assigned to an editor and sent to at least two independent expert reviewers, chosen to avoid institutional or collaborative conflicts of interest. Reviewers evaluate novelty, methodological rigor, relevance, clarity, and the validity of data and conclusions, and recommend one of: Accept, Revise and Resubmit (Major Revision), or Reject. Authors submitting a revision must include a detailed response letter addressing each reviewer comment. Manuscripts requiring two consecutive rounds of major revisions are automatically rejected. Manuscripts authored by editors or their collaborators are handled by an independent guest editor to avoid bias.

Submission Pre-Check

Please pay attention to the following points so that your manuscript can pass the editorial pre-check process smoothly:

  • Name and surname of all the authors should be available.
  • Affiliations of all the authors should be available.
  • ORCID numbers of all the authors should be available.
  • The postal addresses of the authors should be correct and up-to-date.
  • E-mail address of the corresponding author should be available.
  • The subject matter should be original.
  • Abstract should begin with a rationale and have a maximum of 250 words.
  • The number of keywords should be between 3 and 6.
  • Introduction should be of sufficient length, with appropriate citations and an aim sentence.
  • Experimental/Methods section should be of sufficient length and detail, with appropriate citations.
  • The name of the senior taxonomist and herbarium number of the plant should be available (if applicable).
  • The plant extraction procedure (if applicable) should be sufficiently clearly defined.
  • The results should be evaluated by appropriate statistical analysis methods.
  • The scientific methods applied should be quantitatively sufficient in depth.
  • The results should be clear.
  • The language quality should be adequate.
  • Figure resolutions should be adequate.
  • All the headings should be numbered.
  • Citations should not be numbered.
  • The discussion should be of sufficient length and adequately compared with literature data.
  • Conclusions should be clear and adequate.
  • Acknowledgment should be appropriate (if applicable).
  • Conflict of interest statement and document together with the manuscript should be available.
  • Statement of ethics should be available (if applicable).
  • Availability of data and materials section should be available.
  • Funding information with the grant number should be available (if applicable).
  • CRediT authorship contribution statement should be available.
  • iThenticate similarity score should be acceptable.
  • Supplementary file should be available (if applicable).
  • References should be in the correct format.

Supplementary Material, Proof Correction, and Publication

Supplementary material can be published alongside your article to enhance it, and is published exactly as received; please provide a concise, descriptive caption for each file and disable "Track Changes" before submission. Corresponding authors will be asked to provide proof corrections within a short turnaround to ensure a fast publication process. Upon publication, the corresponding author will receive a link to the article's DOI, which can be shared via email and social networks.

Publisher's Note: All claims expressed in the article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations or those of the publisher, the editors, and the reviewers. Any product evaluated in the article, or claim made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

References

In-text references and the bibliography should conform to the American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual, 7th Edition style.

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text. If included in the reference list, they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and substitute the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

In-Text Citations

Single author: the author's surname (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication.

Two authors: at all citations, list both authors' surnames with "&" separating them and the year of publication.

Three or more authors: at all citations, use the first author's surname followed by et al. and the year of publication.

Citations may be made directly or parenthetically. Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically. For example:

  • Single author (Karimi, 2019, p. 45)
  • Two authors (Zengin & Sarikurkcu, 2021)
  • Three or more authors (Aboshesheasha et al., 2022, p. 112)

List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

How to Create a Reference List

Journal Article

Zengin, G., & Sarikurkcu, C. (2020). Comparative phytochemical analysis and biological activities of plant extracts. International Journal of Plant Based Pharmaceuticals, 1(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.62313/ijpbp.2021.1

Tepe, B., & Ucan Turkmen, F. (2021). Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of essential oils from medicinal plants: A review. Phytochemistry Reviews, 20(3), 543–560. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11101-020-09701-1

Bahadori, M. B., & Kadri, A. (2019). Chromatographic and spectroscopic characterization of bioactive natural products. Journal of Chromatography B, 1124, 200–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchromb.2019.06.001

Book

Amarowicz, R., & Popović-Djordjević, J. (2018). Phenolic compounds in food: Characterization and analysis. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315120904

Book Chapter

Iriti, M. (2017). Ethnopharmacology of medicinal plants. In S. Malik (Ed.), Plant biotechnology and medicinal plants (pp. 55–78). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00000-0_3

Doctoral Dissertation

Husunet, M. T. (2021). Molecular characterization of bioactive compounds from medicinal plants (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Gaziantep Islam Science and Technology University, Gaziantep, Türkiye.

Website Source

World Health Organization. (2021). WHO traditional medicine strategy 2014–2023. Retrieved September 9, 2021, from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241506096

Dataset

[dataset] Snoussi, M., & Kadri, A. (2020). Antimicrobial screening data of plant extracts. Mendeley Data, v1. https://doi.org/10.17632/xxxxxxxx.1

Software

Istifli, E. S. (2020, March 25). Molecular docking analysis toolkit (Version 1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.0000000

For additional examples and detailed formatting guidelines, please refer to the APA website.

Reference Links and Data References

Increased discoverability of research and high-quality peer review are ensured by online links to the sources cited. Please ensure that data provided in the references are correct, as incorrect surnames, journal/book titles, publication year, and pagination may prevent link creation to abstracting and indexing services such as Scopus, CrossRef, and PubMed.

IJPBP encourages authors to cite underlying or relevant datasets in the manuscript and to include a corresponding data reference in the Reference List, comprising author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier.

Journal names should not be abbreviated. If you use reference management software, please ensure that you remove all field codes before submitting the electronic manuscript.