Guidelines for authors

Acta Palaeobotanica is an international journal publishing original palaeobotanical, palynological, palaeoecological, palaeophytogeographical and archaeobotanical papers, comprehensive reviews, discussion articles and book reviews.
All new contributions are initially assessed by the Section Editor to determine suitability of the manuscript for the journal. After a positive preliminary assessment all manuscripts (except book reviews) are reviewed by two independent referees and are processed further after positive reports from the referees.

Submission of manuscript
Submission of a manuscript implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere, all authors agree with the content of the manuscript and should be free of any potential conflict of interests. Research work presented in the article must be carried out according to the rules of good scientific practice.

• During manuscript submission, the submitting author should select a contributor role for each co-author, using a list of predefined roles in the system;
• To submit a manuscript please follow the site https://www.editorialsystem.com/acpa and upload all of your manuscript files following the instructions. The system automatically converts source files into a single PDF file of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Main text, tables, and figures should be uploaded as separate files.
• All the manuscripts submitted to the journal are screened for plagiarism using the iThenticate software.
• Authors are welcome to suggest 3 reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author(s) should provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.
• If the authors include figures that have already been published elsewhere, they should obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) for both the printed and online formats and attach evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be considered originating from the authors.

Manuscript preparation
The manuscript should include:

• the title of the paper;
• full names and affiliation(s) of all the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state), country, e-mail addresses, and ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID). For authors who are (temporarily) unaffiliated we only capture their city and country of residence, without their e-mail address unless especially requested. The corresponding author (one or two) should be clearly designated;
• an abstract of no longer than 500 words (the abstract should contain no undefined abbreviations or references);
• 3–7 keywords; not containing terms/phrases used in the title;
• 3 highlights, summarizing the most important and interesting points of your manuscript;
• main text;
• additional information:
  - Information on potential conflict of interests;
  - Ethical Statement;
  - Funding (provides statement about research funding, all sources should be mentioned, including grants, statutory and private funds, etc.);
  - Acknowledgements.
• list of References;
• list of Figure captions.

Text layout
Manuscripts must be written in 12 point font, double-spaced, and with left justification of the text. It is important to save the text in the native format of the Word processor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced during processing of the article. In particular, do not use the word processor's options to infra-justify text or to hyphenate words. No underlining or distinguishing types should be used, except for Latin names of genera and taxa of lower rank, which should be italicized. Footnotes should be avoided. Please do not number the lines. Do not import the figures into the text file; instead, indicate their approximate locations in the text. Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings. Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
Nomenclature in the text should follow the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Shenzen Code, Turland et al. ed., 2018). System International (SI) should be used for all units of measurement.
We recommend registering new taxonomic names using the Plant Fossil Names Registry (https://www.plantfossilnames.org/) and including a unique identifier for each new taxon under the main heading for the taxon.
Authors of all taxa should be provided at least once (can be given in a table), followed by description year, and may be listed in the references but not necessarily. If not listed in the references, please write them without a comma (e.g. Brongniart 1928).
Larger datasets – including taxonomic annotations – should be added separately as an appendix (will be published at the end of the paper).
Very large datasets cannot be printed but can be available electronically as supplementary information on the journal's website.

Tables
Do not embed graphically designed equations or tables, but prepare them using the word processor's facility or spreadsheets. Tables, consecutively numbered (Arabic numerals), should be cited in the text as follows: (Tab. 1, Tabs 1, 2). For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.

Figures
Do not supply embedded graphics in your word processor document.
Make sure that figures are in acceptable formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones and line/halftone combinations given below):

• JPG, TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
• JPG, TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
• JPG, TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 600 dpi is required.
• XLS: Graphs

When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width (one column: 8.0 cm, or two columns: 16.5 cm wide, maximum height 24 cm). Intermediate-width dimensions should be avoided and height exceeding 24 cm is not acceptable.
Large diagrams should be divided and adjusted to the size of the printing area (max. 16.5 x 24.0 cm). It is acceptable to publish figures in a vertical arrangement.
All graphic elements in the figure (lines, letters, numbers, etc.) should be clearly legible after reduction. All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
Please do not provide 3D diagrams unless they are absolutely necessary for data presentation.
Colour illustrations should be submitted as RGB.
Figure captions should be listed at the end of the main text of the manuscript. They should be numbered consecutively and consist of “Figure” followed by the corresponding Arabic numeral, title and legend. Figure parts should be denoted by uppercase letters (A, B, C, etc.). Figures should be cited in the text as follows: (Fig. 1; Figs 1, 2; Fig. 1A, B, C; Figs 1A, 2B,
etc.). Figures should always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.

Figures with photographs
Photographs should have good contrast and be of good quality. Individual photographs in a figure should be labelled consecutively from left to right and top to bottom, using capital letters (A, B, C, etc.). Use a clear, sans-serif typeface (Arial) with a font size of 9 to 12 points, preferably on a contrasting white or black background in the lower left corner; do not use a bold typeface. Individual photos should be separated by horizontal and/or vertical lines of equal thickness, not less than 2 mm and not more than 4 mm. Do not cut out polygon-shaped photos, except in rare, justified cases. Each photo should have a scale bar not thicker than 1.5 mm, if possible, in the lower right corner. The same scale style should be used in all figures and drawings.
The file names of tables or figures should contain the author’s name and the number of the figure or table.

Supplementary material
Supplementary material can support and enhance the presentation of your results. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, and more. Please supply descriptions, captions, and references for all supplementary materials. If applicable combine Word, Excel, and Image documents into a pdf. The supplementary material will be made available electronically on the journal’s website.

References
The accuracy and completeness of references are the responsibility of the author(s). Make sure that all works cited in the text appear in the references, and that every item in the references is cited in the text. Make sure that references are given in proper order. Entries in the reference list should be in alphabetical order by author’s surnames. In cases where two or more of the authors have the same surname, arrange the works in alphabetical order based on their initials. Where two entries are by the same author, arrange the works chronologically from oldest to newest. Entries with the same first and second author and different third authors are arranged chronologically according to the year of publication.
The names of periodicals should be given in full. Book titles should be followed by the publisher and the place of publication. If the article/book has a DOI number it should be included.
References should be cited in the following forms: (Worobiec, 2014), (Stuchlik and Kvavadze, 1995), (Barbacka et al., 2015). Grouped citations should be separated by semicolons and given in chronological order (Stuchlik and Kvavadze, 1995; Worobiec, 2014; Barbacka et al., 2015).

Examples of reference listings:

a) Journal articles
Worobiec, G., 2014. Late Neogene leaf assemblage from Bełchatów Lignite Mine (central Poland). Acta Palaeobotanica 54(2), 249–277.
Stuchlik, L., Kvavadze, E., 1995. On the problem of actuopalynology in the Carpathians and Caucasus. Acta Palaeobotanica 35(1), 73–83.
Barbacka, M., Popa, M.E., Mitka, J., Bodor, E., Pacyna, G., 2015. Relationships between ecosystems and plant assemblages as responses to environmental conditions in the Lower Jurassic of Hungary and Romania. Acta Palaeobotanica 55(1), 3–17.

b) Books
Taylor, T.N., Taylor, E.L., Krings, M., 2009. Paleobotany. The biology and evolution of fossil plants. New York. Academic Press. 2nd ed.

c) Single contribution in a book
Banks, H.P., 1968. The early history of land plants. In: Drake, E.T. (ed.), Evolution and environment. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 73–107.

d) Papers in non-congress languages with summary in English, German or French.
Oszast, J., 1960. Analiza pyłkowa iłów tortońskich ze Starych Gliwic (summary: Pollen analysis of Tortonian clays from Stare Gliwice in Upper Silesia, Poland). Monographiae Botanicae 9(1), 1–48.

e) Papers in non-congress languages without summary but with title in English, German or French.
Panova, L.A., 1966. Spory i pyl’tsa iz neogenovykh otlozheny (Spores and pollen from Neogene deposits). Paleopalinologia 3, Trudy WSEGEI NS 141, 228–257 (in Russian).

f) Papers published in the Cyrillic alphabet without summary and title in congress languages should be written in English transliteration (see: Science 129(3356): 1111–1113, 1959).
Samylina, V.A., 1961. Novye dannye o nizhnemelovoy flore Yuzhnovo Primorya. Botanicheskii Zhurnal 46(5), 634–645.

g) Unpublished papers
Szynkiewicz, A., 1994 (unpubl.). Sytuacja geologiczna miejsc opróbowania flor liściowych w odkrywce KWB Bełchatów. Archives W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków.

h) Online sources
Johnson, F.L., Hoagland, B.W., 1999. Catalog of the woody plants of Oklahoma: descriptions and range maps. Oklahoma Biological Survey and the University of Oklahoma. Available from: http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/shrub/argit8. htm. Accessed September 2008.

Submission of final version of manuscript
After revision and correction, the resubmitted paper should contain the corrected version with all corrections indicated (for visibility of changes, please use the change-tracking option), and a letter with responses to all referee comments. Make sure that you uploaded the proper files.
After acceptance of manuscript, authors may be asked for providing editable versions of the figures containing vector drawing data (original .cdr, .eps, .ai, or PDF file versions of artwork).
If sending original, editable drawing files is not possible, as a last resort, please provide very clear, high-resolution, full-colour jpg or tiff files.

Competing Interests
Authors are required to disclose financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication.

Use of AI
Authors must be transparent about the use of Artificial Intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT and other large language models, in the manuscript preparation, and disclose details of how the AI tool was used within the "Materials and Methods" section.

Publication

• The corresponding author will receive a PDF of the proofs prior to publishing. Please return the annotated PDF proofs to the publisher as soon as possible.
• After final approval of the proofs, the article is immediately published on the journal's website with full bibliographic data (DOI, volume, and pages). As long as the entire issue of the volume is not closed, such articles are marked IN PRESS.
• After online publication, further minor changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article. However, if serious errors are detected, a retraction will be published (see details https://acpa.botany.pl/Publication-Ethic,4559.html)

Print
The journal is published in printed form with a very small circulation. It is not possible to order a printed version. Upon request, the author can receive a PDF file of "printable" quality.

Copyright
When submitting a manuscript to this journal, authors accept the following terms:

• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
• Authors are encouraged to deposit the final published PDF in their institutional repository or any suitable subject repository on publication. Authors should provide a link from the deposited version to the URL of the publisher's website; in all cases, the requirement to link to the publisher’s website is designed to protect the integrity and authenticity of the scientific record, with the online published version on the publisher’s website clearly identified as the definitive version of record.

Privacy Statement
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.