Get your Journal of Experimental Botany paper right the first time: a ready-made structure with the right abstract and citations, so editors see your science, not formatting slips.
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Authored by Sumalatha Gangadhar | Published on 17 August, 2026
Submitting to Journal of Experimental Botany goes smoothly when your draft already matches the journal's own rules. Editors screen new manuscripts against the Journal of Experimental Botany guide for authors before peer review, so formatting, structure, and required statements should be right on the first draft rather than repaired during upload. This template sets that structure up for you.
It is a manuscript shell aligned to Journal of Experimental Botany. It covers front matter, the abstract the journal expects, a body organized to the journal's article types, and a reference list in the journal's required style. Confirm current scope and article types on the Journal of Experimental Botany journal page before you draft.
Prepare the title, authors, affiliations, and ORCID iDs. Write the abstract to the journal's rule and word limit, organize the body to the article type, and apply the required reference style from the first citation. Complete every declaration (ethics, competing interests, funding, data availability) the Journal of Experimental Botany guide for authors lists, and cite figures and tables in order.
The common failure modes are formatting or reference style that does not match the guide for authors, missing required statements, and an incomplete portal checklist. Clear all three against the Journal of Experimental Botany guide for authors before you submit.
The shell mirrors what editorial staff check first: article-type fit, the abstract rules, required declarations, and the journal's reference style. For more detail see the author resources. When your draft is ready, upload it through the journal's submission system.
| Element | J Exp Bot requirement |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words. For research papers: should detail why the research was undertaken, approach and methodology if appropriate, main findings, and key conclusions including wider implications. No references. Abbreviations only if used three times or more in the abstract itself. For reviews: should state the primary objective of the review and reasoning for focusing on this objective, principal findings of the review, and any conclusions including implications for further research or practices |
| Main text | Research Papers (including Brief Communications): approximately 5,500 words from start of introduction to start of acknowledgements, excluding materials and methods. Brief Communications: 3,000 words maximum excluding Materials & Methods, with strict limits of 3 figures or tables (plus 3 supplementary figures or tables). Reviews: approximately 6,500 words. Darwin Reviews: approximately 6,500 words. Flowering Newsletter Reviews: approximately 6,500 words. Expert Views: 3,000 words maximum. Technical Innovations and Community Resources: approximately 5,500 words. Word counts for Research Papers, Reviews, and Technical Innovations are guidelines only; Brief Communications and Expert Views must not exceed the stated limit |
| Declarations | Ethics approval/consent as applicable; competing interests; funding; data availability |
| Figures/tables | Publication-ready; cited in order |
| Supplemental | Upload separately when used |
| Keywords | 6–10 keywords in alphabetical order |
| References | Author-date citation style. In-text: (Zhu, 2014; Chen and Zhu, 2015) chronological order. Three or more authors use et al. Reference list: alphabetical order without numbering, full journal titles. For papers with up to ten authors list all; for more than ten list first three followed by et al. Example format: Chang L, Ramireddy E, Schmülling T. 2015. Cytokinin as a positional cue regulating lateral root spacing in Arabidopsis. Journal of Experimental Botany 62, 4759-4768 |
| Peer review | Single-anonymous (single-blind): the identity of the authors is known to editors and reviewers, but reviewers remain unknown to authors and to each other unless they choose to disclose their identity |
| Submission | submit.jxbot.org/submit |
Read the Journal of Experimental Botany guide for authors once before drafting and once before upload. Draft the abstract after results are stable. Set the reference style before adding citations. Keep a cover letter that states your contribution and fit to Journal of Experimental Botany in under a page.
Skim two or three recent J Exp Bot papers to calibrate depth and figure style. Make the novelty clear in the first two pages. Deposit data and code when the policy on the Journal of Experimental Botany journal page requires it. Disclose any preprint or conference version with identifiers in the cover letter.
Do one focused pass against the Journal of Experimental Botany guide for authors: scope, length, reference style, required declarations, and figure quality. Then submit through the journal's submission system.