Information for Contributors to PEDOSPHERE

PEDOSPHERE is a peer-reviewed international journal of soil science.It welcomes submissions from scientists around the world under a broad scope of topics relevant to timely, high quality original research findings, especially up-to-date achievements and advances in the entire field of soil science studies dealing with environmental science,ecology,agriculture,bioscience, geoscience, forestry,etc. Its areas of particular interest include soil physics; soil chemistry; soil biology and biochemistry;soil fertility and plant nutrition;soil resources and use;soil mineralogy;soil environment and ecology;soil and water conservation;forest,range,and wetland soils;soil salinity and management;soil and plant analysis and technology;and soil gases and global change.

To expedite publication before preparing the manuscript,contributions should conform to the guidelines set out below in addition to consulting carefully the style and layout of the latest issues of PEDOSPHERE.

I. General

PEDOSPHERE accepts full-length research papers,review or mini review papers,perspectives,letters to the Editor,and special issues.Authors should indicate the type of manuscript when they submit it.The Editorial Committee may,however,request the authors to change the type of the contribution after review.The manuscript must be written in English and should have been neither published nor submitted for publication elsewhere.All articles will undergo double-blind peer review prior to acceptance.The Editorial Committee reserves the right to make the final decision on the acceptance or rejection of the contribution.

The Editors generally encourage brevity for all papers.A full-length research paper is generally limited to 10 printed pages,a review paper should not exceed 16 printed pages,and a short communication and a letter to the Editor must not exceed 4 printed pages,including text,illustrations,tables and references.The total number of illustrations and/or tables should not exceed ten.Editors may allow longer papers if of extraordinary significance and originality.

Manuscripts should be prepared using a word-processing package,ideally MicrosoftWord.Please do not submit text as a PDF file.All pages should be numbered consecutively,beginning with the title page,and line numbers must be added to the text of the manuscript.

When articles are provisionally accepted,the corresponding author will be asked to return a signed Copyright Transfer Agreement(including signature(s)of the corresponding author or all co-authors)stating that all contributors have seen and approved the article and that the work has not been,and will not be,published elsewhere;and copyright to the article is hereby transferred to the Editorial Committee of PEDOSPHERE,if and when the article is accepted for publication.

To help reduce the negative comments from referees or editors about the English-language usage in the manuscripts and thus to ensure that the manuscript has a favourable reception and to increase its chances of being accepted,we strongly encourage the authors with problems in English scientific paper writing, especially those who are not native speakers of English, to have your manuscript reviewed for clarity by a colleague whose native language is English or seek help at a professional English writing and editing service that can improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and identify problems that require your review.The use of such a service is at the author’s own expense and risk and does not guarantee that the article will be accepted,and the Editorial Committee or Editorial Office accepts no responsibility for the interaction between the author and the service provider or for the quality of the work performed.

The authors are requested to pay particular attention to the use of appropriate statistics throughout the text.A detailed description of all statistical methods should be included in the MATERIALS AND METHODS section.The Journal strongly encourages the authors to seek expert statistical advice prior to submitting any manuscript that has a statistical content.

II. Online Manuscript Submission and Status Check

All manuscripts should be submitted electronically via PEDOSPHERE Online Editorial System(POES)—the web-based online manuscript submission,tracking,peer-review,and editorial management system of PEDOSPHERE—which can be accessed at http://pedosphere.issas.ac.cn,https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/pedosphere,or https://cn.manuscriptcentral.com/pedosphere.Please refrain from submitting your manuscript by an e-mail attachment.

The first thing you need to do,if you have not done so already,is to register for an account.After this,please consult the instructions below to enable you to submit your article through PEDOSPHERE Online Editorial System(POES).

The manuscript submission process starts by pressing the“Submit Manuscript”link on your“Home”page.Please make sure you have gathered all the required four aspects of information about your manuscript listed below BEFORE commencing online submission.

Manuscript Information:Manuscript Type,Title(A brief and informative title less than 12 words is required.It must accurately identify and describe the manuscript contents),Chinese title(Required in case the 1st or corresponding author is Chinese),Running title(It is a shortened title used as a running head and should be less than 50 letters including space between words),Abstract(An informative,self-explanatory abstract,less than 250 words,must be supplied.It should be specific,telling why and how the study was made,what the major results were,and why they were important.Use quantitative terms where possible.Should not contain full references),Key words(5—8 words or phrases that typify the content of the manuscript and are arranged in alphabetical order.To optimize searching,avoid key words already used in the title),Fund(s)or grant(s)as well as the fund or contract number(s)to support this research project,Number of pages,Number of figures,Number of color figures,Number of black and white figures,Number of tables.

Authors’Information: First name, Middle name, Last name, Corresponding author identified, Gender, Date of birth,Education,Title and position,Department,Institution,Full postal address,Country,Postcode/Zipcode,Office phone,Home phone, Mobile phone, Fax, E-mail, Other E-mails, Research fields and specialities (best as key words), Representative publications(3—5,journal papers in English are preferred).

Recommended Reviewers’Information:First name,Middle name,Last name,Date of birth,Education,Title and position,Institution,Full postal address,Country,Telephone,E-mail,Research fields and specialities(best as key words),Representative publications(3—5,journal papers in English are preferred).To expedite the review process,authors are requested to provide 3 experts proficient in English and with solid expertise in the field whom they consider especially suited to review their article.The suggested reviewers should not involve the Editors or the Editorial Board members,the members of their institution(s)and people recently associated with their laboratory(ies),and at least two must be from other countries.The editor is,of course,not constrained to select a reviewer from that list.

Excluded Reviewers’Information(if needed):First name,Middle name,Last name,Institution and address,E-mail.

After you approve your manuscript,the submission process is complete.You can check the status of your manuscript at any time in the review process by accessing to the PEDOSPHERE Online Editorial System(POES)with your password or link sent to you in the acknowledgement e-mail.

III. Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscript as a full-length research paper should be arranged in the order:Complete title of the manuscript,Name of author(s)(The corresponding author must be identified with an asterisk and footnote),Affiliation(s)(department,institution,city with postcode,country),Date of reception(blank),Abstract,Key Words,Citation,Introduction,Materials and Methods,Results,Discussion,Conclusion(s),Acknowledgement(s)(Funds or grants to support this research project must be identified by providing full name(s)of the fund(s)or grant(s)as well as the fund or contract number(s)in the Acknowledgement(s)),Appendix,and References.

Manuscript as a short communication may follow or not follow the same layout for the full-length paper,but the Abstract will be omitted in the version for publication.

The symbols*,**and***are used to indicate statistical significance at 0.05,0.01 and 0.001 levels,respectively,and should not be used for other footnotes.

Characters such as‘×’should be printed differently to indicate multiplication and ordinary letter.The same applies to‘0’to indicate zero,and to‘-’to indicate minus,dash and hyphen,and a small letter from subscript.Spaces,not commas,should be used to separate groups of three digits.

Abbreviations should be used sparingly and must be defined at first mention in the text,abstract,and each table and figure and used consistently thereafter.

Units of measurements:Use SI units.If other units are necessary,include the conversion factor and add the non-standard unit in parenthesis.Units should be in the form,e.g.,g cm-1rather than g/cm.The abandoned units,such as Å,bar,mmHg,mmH2O,and Cal,in China are not acceptable,and the following units are not permitted:

%for plant nutrient or chemical element concentration—use mmol kg-1or g kg-1

%for water content—use g kg-1

ppm for mass or volume—use mg kg-1or mg L-1

meq for exchange capacity—use moles of charge per unit mass(cmolckg-1)

NorMfor substance concentration—use mol L-1

Nomenclature:The Latin binomial or trinomial(in italics)and authority must be included with the common name for all plants,insects,animals and microorganisms at first mention in the abstract,the text,or a table.For pesticides,the full chemical name(s)must be given in either the abstract or text.

For soil nomenclature,an international classification system(e.g.,FAO-UNESCO system or USDA Soil Taxonomy)may be included as reference,when a local classification is presented.

For chemical nomenclature,recommendations by the convention of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry should be followed.

Formulae:Simple fractions should be written asTi+1/Tiinstead of.For chemical formulae,valence of ion should be indicated as Ca2+orand not as Ca++or. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols,e.g.,14C or(15NH4)2SO4.Tables:Tables should not duplicate the results of the text and figures.Authors should ensure that the data in the tables are consistent with those cited in the relevant places in the text,and data have been calculated correctly.All tables should be numbered with Roman numerals according to their sequence in the text and,in general,should be placed in the text.Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and must be referred to by superscript lowercase lettersa),b),c),etc.Vertical lines between columns should be avoided.Table captions should not include the units of measurements.

Illustrations: Illustrations should be limited to the number necessary for clarity and must not duplicate data given in tables or in the text.All illustrations should be numbered consecutively in the order to which they are referred in the text and should be arranged at the end of the manuscript.The preferred position of each illustration should be indicated in the text.Photographs,charts and diagrams are all to be referred to as“Figure(abbreviated to‘Fig.’)”.Each figure should have a caption.Any illustration should be no larger than a width of 81 mm(half-width figure)or 171 mm(full-width figure)and should be prepared at publication quality resolution.Lines should be black,with an adequate thickness(around 1 pt)and curves should be smooth.Particularly,lines of spectra should be of sufficient thickness.Photographs should be of sufficiently high quality with respect to detail,contrast and fineness of grain to withstand the inevitable loss of contrast and detail inherent during the printing process.If necessary,a scale should be marked on the photograph.Please note that photocopies of photographs are not acceptable.A legend for identifying graph lines should not be included in the figure caption,and it should be in the drawing itself.Colour figures can be accepted if necessary,but the authors will be charged for the extra color printing costs at US$150.00/printed page with color figure(s).Apply to the Editorial Office for details of the cost after acceptance of your paper.Please note that the printed and online versions must be the same,and it is not possible to have colour figures online only.

Footnotes:Footnotes should be avoided,except to identify the corresponding author.

References:All publications referred to in the text should be presented in a list of references and arranged alphabetically by authors’names. The reference list must not contain unpublished observations, personal communications, personal correspondences,unarchived materials obtained from the World Wide Web,etc.“Anonymous”is not acceptable as an author.The author’s name(without initials)-year of publication system is used in the text.Please follow the chronological order.The spelling of authors’names and the years of publication must be checked carefully and should be exactly the same in the text as in the reference list.Two or more publications by the same author(s)are listed chronologically;two or more in the same year are indicated by the letter a,b,c,etc.For three or more authors use the first author followed by“et al.”in the text.Use international abbreviations such as ISI Journal Title Abbreviations for abbreviations of journal names,and when in doubt give full name of the periodical.The publications in non-Latin alphabets should be translated into English,and for the publications in languages other than English a notation such as“(in German)”,“(in Chinese)”,“(in Japanese)”and“(in Russian)”must be added behind the name of the periodical,proceedings or book.The name of journal should be given in italic type,and the volume number in bold type.

References should be arranged as follows:

For journal article:Sato E,Toyota K.2006.Application of PCR-DGGE into community structure analysis of soil nematodes.Jpn J Soil Sci Plant Nutr(in Japanese).77:157—163.

For book:Van Meurs A P H.1971.Petroleum Economics and Offshore Mining Legislation.Elsevier,Amsterdam.

For article or chapter in edited books or symposium proceedings:Chen J F,He Q.1985.Chemical distribution of oxide mineral in soil colloid.In Hseung Yet al.(eds.)Methods for Soil Colloid Research(in Chinese).Science Press,Beijing.pp.241—303.For dissertation:Cairn R B.1964.Infrared spectroscopic studies of solid oxygen.Ph.D.Dissertation,Beijing University.For web reference:Ohio Department of Development.1997.Ohio county profiles:Tuscarawas county.Available online at http://www.odod.ohio.gov/osr/profiles/pdf/tuscaraw.pdf(verified on June 12,2003).

IV. Revision and Proofs

Submissions not conforming to the above guidelines may be returned to the authors.The authors will be requested,before final acceptance,to revise and return their manuscripts according to the referees’suggestions,comments or criticisms for improvement of the quality.Failure to return the manuscript revised strictly following the editor’s requirements in time will significantly delay processing of the manuscript.Any queries should be answered in full.If not returned within 2 months,the manuscript will be released,and it must then be resubmitted as a new paper.

All authors will be asked to check the proofs thoroughly for any possible layout or typographical errors before publication.Because of the high cost of alterations,only typographical or data errors of fact can be corrected in proof and no major changes can be included at this stage.Authors will be billed for excessive changes(not due to the printer’s errors)on proofs.Please note that authors are urged to check their proofs carefully before return,since the inclusion of late corrections can not be guaranteed.All proofs should be returned to the Editorial Office of PEDOSPHERE within 48 hours of receipt.Failure to do so may result in a delay to publication.

V. Free Copy and Extra Copies

Two copies of the issue containing the article will be supplied free of charge to the authors for each article following publication.Additional copies of the issue may be ordered at extra cost when returning proofs.