Editorial

One year has passed now since the Editorial Board of Planta Medica has been enlarged with editors from Asia, South America, and additional members from Europe. In view of the growing number of submissions in 2007, and the ever increasing international diversity of the contributing authors, this has been a successful decision. Nevertheless, due to the limited number of pages available in Planta Medica, a high number of manuscripts has to be rejected. Many papers rejected at the Editorial Office level suffer from always the same shortcomings. Therefore the Editorial Board has decided to compile some of the basic requirements for a publication in Planta Medica, mentioned in the Guidelines, in ”10 Basic Rules for a Publication in Planta Medica.” Manuscripts will not be considered for publication in Planta Medica unless the following conditions, if applicable, are fulfilled:

1. Ethical considerations: Submission of a manuscript to Planta Medica implies that it represents original research not previously published and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Authors investigating the chemistry of a single species should aim to publish their results in a single manuscript rather than in a series of papers. Manuscripts should not report fragmentary parts of a larger study.

2. Language of publication is English. Manuscripts written by authors whose mother language is not English should be checked by a native speaker or a professional language editing service before submission.

3. Plant material (as well as other organisms) must be properly identified. The scientific name (in italic), the author of this name and the family must be given. It should be mentioned who identified the material. The manuscript must include references to voucher specimens of the plants (deposited in a major regional herbarium) or the material examined.

4. Isolation of compounds: Extraction and isolation should be described in detail. The kind and amount of material, solvents and extraction methods must be indicated. The description of chromatographic systems should contain the quantitative information that allows the reader to repeat the work. Column dimensions, elution volumes, fraction sizes, etc. should be reported.

5. Papers dealing with the biological screening of series of uncharacterised extracts of plants or other organisms will not be considered for publication in Planta Medica.

6. Pharmacological investigations of extracts require detailed extract characterisation. Chromatographic profiling (e. g. HPLC profile with at least the major peaks identified) should be carried out, or qualitative and quantitative information on active or typical constituents should be provided.

7. Pharmacological investigations: Planta Medica will only consider manuscripts in which conclusions are based on adequate statistics. In each case positive controls (reference compounds) should be used and the dose/activity dependence should be shown.

8. Pharmacological investigations: When working with experimental animals, reference must be made to principles of laboratory animal care or similar regulations, and to approval by the local ethical committee.

9. Clinical studies must be designed, implemented and analyzed in a manner to meet current standards of randomized controlled trials.

10. Analytical studies: Key data on method validation must be provided and should typically include information on specificity, linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, accuracy, precision, intermediate precision, and some robustness studies. Information on the purity of reference compounds, and on the methods used for the determination of purity must be given. Recoveries of extraction and sample pre-purification steps have to be indicated. Adequate statistical treatment of data is required.

These 10 basic rules will be added to and highlighted in the Guidelines for Authors, and will be available on the Planta Medica website. In addition, some minor changes have been introduced, and the Guidelines have been reformatted, in order to follow the way how a manuscript should be arranged more closely. We hope that in this way the quality of first submissions will improve, resulting in a lower rejection rate and a faster review process.

Starting from this issue, the lay-out of Planta Medica has been changed, as a sign of our continuing dedication to improve the journal even more. The Editorial Board is looking forward to receiving your submissions in the broad research field of medicinal plants and natural products.

Luc Pieters

Editor-in-Chief