As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
Editorial Policy
CAPITULUM publishes papers relevant to the plant family Compositae (sunflower, daisy, or aster family, a.k.a. Asteraceae). Only original material not published or in review elsewhere will be considered. Manuscripts or photos intended for publication in CAPITULUM are to be submitted at capitulumjournal.org. Suggestions for suitable, qualified reviewers without conflicts of interest are encouraged.
CAPITULUM accepts contributions matching the following sections.
HEAD TOPICS: Section that showcases current research on Compositae. Length of articles up to 3,000 words.
BREVIA: Same scope as HEAD TOPICS but shorter in length. Length of articles up to 1,500 words.
THE PIPET & THE PRESS: Articles about methods and techniques used in Compositae research. Length of articles up to 1,000 words.
THE HANDLENS: A close look at a given species, morphological structure, or aspect of Compositae. Length of article up to 1,500 words.
THE INVOLUCRE: A section on Compositae champions and the background stories of heroines and heroes of our field. Length of article flexible.
THE CABINET: A window to the stories behind ancient or recent herbarium samples and the botanists behind them. Length of article up to 1,500 words.
FROM THE FIELD: The place where the bold and the adventurous share their latest finds in their eternal pursuit of the more recalcitrant comps. Length of article up to 2,000 words.
STYLE: Where science and art converge, artistic photography, botanical illustration, or creative infographics. All is welcome if it comes with style!
TICA TIMES/TICA TALKS: News items for the community submitted by the community and reviewed and organized by the Editorial Board, e.g., readers may wish to submit a small description about an upcoming conference or research project.
General formatting and structure
Authors are requested to consult a recent issue of CAPITULUM to follow the style of papers. If you have any questions regarding format or submission, contact the journal at info[at]capitulumjournal.org.
Manuscripts should be written in 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font throughout (except for text within Tables or Figures). Language for submission is English. Manuscripts should have 1-inch (2.45cm) margins, double-spaced throughout, and numbered lines. A single space must follow a period, colon, semi-colon, or comma.
Title page: Provide a descriptive and concise title, and if needed, a subtitle. Include author(s) names, ORCID(s), professional affiliation(s), and emails address(es). Designate the corresponding author(s) at the bottom of the page. Include a list of 5–8 keywords in alphabetical order.
Abstract: The abstract should comprise no more than 250 words. It should be concise and descriptive of the information contained in the paper. There should be a statement detailing the point of the submitted paper. No literature should be cited in the abstract. Scientific (taxon) names appearing in the abstract should be italicized (for generic and subgeneric names) but given without authority.
Body of text: The body of manuscript(s) in sections HEAD TOPICS, BREVIA, PIPET & PRESS, THE HANDLENS should include the following sections: Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledgements; and Literature Cited. A Conclusion section is optional. In BREVIA, Results and Discussion sections may be combined. Additional headings or subheadings are acceptable if they are relevant to the text. THE INVOLUCRE, THE CABINET, FROM THE FIELD, STYLE, and TICA TIMES/TICA TALKS can have flexible section labels.
Scientific names: The first time the scientific name of an organism is given, the generic name should be used in full, and the authority should be given. All scientific names at the rank of tribe or inferior should include authorship the first time they appear in the text, following Brummitt & Powell, Authors of Plant Names (Kew, 1992; info included in the International Plant Names Index [IPNI]). Species names should appear in full the first time they appear in a paragraph or are at the beginning of a sentence. We encourage authors to consult the Global Compositae Database for checking names and authorities, if uncertain.
Tables and Figures: Tables and Figures should be cited sequentially in the text and numbered in the order in which they are cited. The first figure to be cited in the text should be “(Figure 1)”, and the first Table cited in the text should be “(Table 1)”. Table and Figure citations are always capitalized in the text.
Internal citations: References are to be cited parenthetically by Author(s) surname(s) and the year of publication separated by a comma. For references with two authors, include both names and spell out ‘and’, e.g., (Coyne and Orr, 2004). For references with more than two authors, include only the first Author’s surname followed by ‘et al.’, e.g., (Johnson et. al., 2016). When citing multiple papers, papers should be cited in chronological order of publication date and separated by a semicolon, e.g., (Coyne and Orr, 2004; Johnson et al., 2016). Please check that all your references are cited through the text.
References: All references in the Literature Cited section must be arranged alphabetically by the first Author’s surname. If two or more entries have the same first author’s surname but with different initials, arrange them alphabetically by the author’s initials. If two or more entries have the same first author, arrange them alphabetically by the second author’s surname. If two or more entries have the same surname, arrange them alphabetically by the author’s initials. If two or more entries have the same set of authors and were published in the same year, include a lower-case letter after the year (e.g., 2015a, 2015b) in the order that citations appear in the text. Include the year and letter designation in both the literature cited section and internal citation. For the style of references check a recent issue of CAPITULUM.
Vouchers: Specimens used in phylogenetic, taxonomic, or population genetic studies must be properly vouchered. The vouchers must be deposited in a public herbarium by the time of publication. If not, please provide an explanation when submitting the manuscript for the Editorial Board to review. Collector name, number, date and location of the collection, and herbarium should be reported for each voucher. Herbarium acronyms should follow those in Index Herbariorum (if indexed), available at: http://www.nybg.org/bsci/ih/ih.html. To the extent possible, GIS coordinates should be provided for all vouchered specimens and sample populations in degrees-minutes-seconds format.
Tables and Figures
Tables and figures should be sequentially numbered using Arabic numerals. Table and figure headings should be fully descriptive of the information in the table or figure and not refer to the text. Table headings should appear above the table, while figure headings should appear below.
Font sizes of table(s) should reflect the body of text (e.g., 12-points), but can be smaller as long as the table remains legible (8-points or higher). Tables must be prepared and submitted using Microsoft Excel with all tables referenced in the text as different tabs/spreadsheets in the same file.
Figures should be provided in either TIFF format (for photos) or as vector graphics such as AI or EPS for diagrams, illustrations, or phylogenetic trees. Figure/image resolution should be at least 300 dpi for line drawings and black and white figures, and at least 600 dpi for grayscale and color figures. Maps should be provided as SHP files when possible or as vector graphics.
Authors may send the photos and other graphics ordered and arranged following their preference but please note that CAPITULUM Editorial Board may edit figures, tables, or images as needed to adjust them to CAPITULUM style. When necessary, the Editorial Board and the authors will have clear communication between them regarding figures, tables, or images. All figures must be uploaded as individual, original files.
Numbers and Units of Measure
Unless followed by a unit of measure (e.g. 5 cm), integers less than or equal to 10 should be spelled. S.I. units of measurement should be used throughout. When reporting a measurement, include a space between the number and the unit. Numbers greater than 999 should include commas (e.g. 2,394 rather than 2394). The number of decimal places in a reported measurement or analytical result is the author’s discretion; however, authors should try to maintain consistency throughout. When reporting p-values, “p” should be italicized, and followed by its value without spaces (e.g. p<0.05). Standard unit abbreviations can be found here: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/units.html
Data availability requirements
CAPITULUM requires all data sets to be archived in a permanent, publicly accessible location. To enable readers to locate archived data, include a “Data Availability” section before the Literature Cited section. This should list the database, digital object identifiers (DOIs), stable URLs, and the respective accession numbers for all data from the manuscript, as appropriate. Note that accession numbers provided in a supplementary table (voucher table) accompanying the article do not need to be duplicated here in the data availability statement.
Because publicly accessible databases are developing rapidly with new databasing options becoming available each year, the choice in database will be left to the authors discretion with the approval of the subject editor. However, we suggest the following databases for different types of data.
1. Many forms of ecological data or phylogenetic data can be deposited on the DRYAD database: http://datadryad.org
2. DNA sequence data should be deposited in the NCBI Genbank/SRA database or ENA, European Nucleotide Archive, hosted by EMBL-EBI. If another hosting site is desired, please contact the Editorial Board to discuss. The site of data deposition must be presented clearly in the manuscript.
Review Policy
Submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter describing the study and indicating that the manuscript in question represents the original work of the authors and is not under review by any other publication. Decision of acceptance or rejection of the manuscript is the responsibility of the Editorial Board. If deemed suitable for publication, the Editorial Board will send the manuscript out for anonymous independent peer review. We encourage authors to recommend 3-5 reviewers in their submission. It is also possible for the authors to highlight researchers whom the authors do not wish to review their paper (i.e., because of research competition), in which case a reason needs to be stated.
Revisions
Revised manuscripts should be returned promptly. A manuscript not returned within 90 days will be considered as a new submission. Corresponding Authors should contact the appropriate Editor for their manuscript if they expect revisions to require more than three months.
Author contributions and use of AI
Authors are required to include a brief Author Contributions statement. Contributions should be described specifying the role of each author under the following categories where applicable: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, designed research, performed research, contributed new reagents or analytic tools, analyzed data, wrote the paper, etc.
The use of AI or large language model (LLM) tools must be documented in the authors’ contributions section. Authors are required to declare AI use across all stages of research and preparation of the manuscript. In all cases, authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of all content, and confirm that the final text reflects their own work and judgement. Contact the Editorial Board with questions regarding this policy.
Copyrighted Material and Plagiarism
If copyrighted material is reproduced in the manuscript, full attribution must be provided in the text; proof of permission must be sent to the Editorial Board. It is the responsibility of authors to ensure that full attribution is given to data and/or text that is published elsewhere. If suspicions are raised about the originality of unattributed material, the Editorial Board will investigate. Self-plagiarism (use of identical sentences from previously published papers by the same author) is also not acceptable.
Figures, tables, or videos that have been published elsewhere must be identified, and permission from the copyright holder for both the online and print editions of the journal must be provided. And example letter from another journal can be found here: https://www.pnas.org/pb-assets/authors/permissions_letter-1633460855117.pdf
Conflict of Interest
Authors are responsible for recognizing and disclosing dualities of interest that may bias their work. All funding sources, including research funders and grant numbers, must be given in the acknowledgments section of submitted manuscripts. Potential conflicts of interest with any member of the Editorial Board (e.g., colleague, research collaborator, mentor/mentee relationship) should be declared at submission.
CAPITULUM is a fully open-access journal, meaning that all works published in the journal are freely available to read, download, copy, print, and share/transmit. CAPITULUM requires that all authors sign a publication agreement prior to online publication of an accepted manuscript. The author shall retain copyright to the article.
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
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