Publishing Procedures

The publishing process

The Publication procedure consists of four main steps:

1. Manuscript preparation
2. Manuscript submission
3. Editorial Process
4. Paper Publication

Manuscript preparation

The manuscript should be prepared following the instruction for authors that are explained in details at this page.

Manuscript submission

Each manuscript should be submitted along with a cover letter and a signed “Authors Statement and Responsibility” form. Detailed instructions about how to prepare the cover letter and where to download the “Authors Statement and Responsibility” form can be found at this page.

Editorial process

All the manuscripts submitted to Italus Hortus will go through a rigorous Editorial process, which can be summarized in the following simplified steps:

1. Preliminary Manuscript evaluation. Submitted manuscript will go through a preliminary evaluation aiming to assess the potential suitability of your manuscript for the journal and its conformity to the journal style. This initial evaluation will be operated by the Editor-in-Chief with the help the Associate Editors within 2-3 working days.
2. Manuscript Editor Assignment. Once the Board of Editors decides that the submitted manuscript falls within the scopes of Italus Hortus, the manuscript is assigned to an Associate Editor (or in some cases to the Editor-in-Chief) that will manage the reviewing process as a Manuscript Editor.
3. Reviewing Process. Italus Hortus operates a single-blind peer review process. The selected manuscripts are sent to a minimum of two reviewers for assessing their scientific quality. Reviewers are asked to return their comments and suggestions within 3 weeks. Based on these reviews and on this personal opinion on the manuscript, the Manuscript Editor may suggest (i) acceptance of the manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief, (ii) require minor or major revisions to manuscript before publication, or (iii) suggest rejection of unsuitable manuscripts. First decision about the manuscript is generally provided to the corresponding author in four weeks after submission.
4. Final decision. The Editor-in-Chief examines deeply the reviewers’ comments and the Manuscript Editor recommendation, and finalize a decision on the suitability of the manuscript for publication on Italus Hortus. It is discretionary at the Editor-in-Chief to accept the suggestions provided by the Manuscript Editor and reviewers about the acceptance of the manuscript, or to require further amendments to current version, or even to reject manuscripts considered unfit to publication after the peer-review process. Authors will be notified of the final decision on the acceptance/rejection of their manuscripts by e-mail.

Paper Publication

As far as accepted, the articles will be immediately formatted in the final pdf format and included in the next upcoming journal issue. The journal is published four-monthly (April, August and December).