PhytoTalks

Authorship and Contributorship Guidelines

Authorship Criteria:

PhytoTalks adheres to the authorship standards defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). To qualify as an author, each contributor must have:

1. Made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or to the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data.
2. Participated in drafting or critically revising the article for intellectual content.
3. Final approval has been given for the version to be published.
4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring accuracy and integrity.

Acknowledgements and Non-Author Contributions:

Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet authorship criteria (e.g., data collection, administrative support, technical editing) should be recognized in the Acknowledgements section.

Contributor Roles (CRediT):

PhytoTalks supports the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) system to promote transparency in authorship. During submission, authors must specify roles such as conceptualization, methodology, writing, data curation, supervision, etc.

Authorship Changes:

Requests to add, remove, or reorder authors must be submitted to the editorial office before article acceptance, with a written explanation and signed approval from all listed authors.

Complaints and Appeals Procedure

PhytoTalks upholds fair, transparent, and timely handling of all complaints and appeals.

Submitting a Complaint:

Complaints may relate to:

• Editorial or peer review process concerns.
• Publication ethics issues (e.g., plagiarism, authorship disputes).
• Procedural or policy breaches.

To submit a complaint, email the editor-in-chief at:

[email protected]; [email protected]

Process:

1. The complaint will be acknowledged within 7 working days.
2. It will be reviewed by the editor-in-chief and, if required, referred to an independent editorial board member.
3. A formal response will be issued within 30 days, or an update if additional time is necessary.

Appeals of Editorial Decisions:

Authors may appeal rejection decisions by emailing a reasoned explanation to the editorial office. The appeal will be reviewed by an editor who was not involved in the original decision. The outcome of this review is final.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure Policy

Transparency in potential conflicts of interest is essential to maintaining trust in the scientific record.

Authors:

• Authors must disclose all financial and non-financial relationships that may appear to influence their work.
• Examples include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, or personal relationships.
• If no conflicts exist, include the statement: “The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.”

Editors and Reviewers:

• Must disclose any potential conflicts prior to handling or reviewing a manuscript.
• Editors will reassign submissions where conflicts exist.

Conflict of interest disclosures are published with each article for full transparency.

Archiving and Long-Term Preservation Policy

PhytoTalks makes sure that all published content is kept safe and accessible for a long time by using the Open Journal Systems (OJS) and reliable outside

Digital Preservation Methods:

• Articles are stored on the journal’s OJS server with secure, redundant backups.
• Metadata and full-text articles are archived through the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), ensuring long-term access even if the journal ceases publication.
• DOIs are registered with Crossref, and metadata is indexed in Dimensions, OpenAlex, Google Scholar, J-Gate, and other databases for discoverability.

In the Event of Journal Closure:

All content will remain accessible through the PKP PN or other partner repositories.

Licensing and Copyright Policy

PhytoTalks is an open-access journal committed to the free dissemination of scholarly knowledge.

Licensing Options:

All articles published in PhytoTalks are licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

This permits use, sharing, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and source.

Copyright:

Authors retain the copyright of their published work.

By submitting and publishing in PhytoTalks, authors grant the journal a non-exclusive right to publish, distribute, and archive the work under the applicable Creative Commons license.

Peer Review Process

All submissions to PhytoTalks undergo a rigorous, independent double-blind peer review process to ensure scientific quality, relevance, and originality. Under this system, both the reviewer and the author identities remain completely anonymous throughout the process.

Review Workflow:

1. Initial Screening: The Editor-in-Chief evaluates all incoming manuscripts for basic scope fit, technical guidelines adherence, and plagiarism checks (Turnitin).
2. External Review: Papers passing the initial screen are assigned to a minimum of two independent external expert reviewers specializing in the respective sub-field.
3. Editorial Decision: Based on the detailed evaluations and recommendations of the reviewers, the handling editor will make one of four decisions: Accept, Minor Revisions Required, Major Revisions Required, or Reject.
4. Final Approval: Revised manuscripts are verified by the original reviewers or editorial board before final approval and formatting.