1. Experimental papers, review articles and short communications devoted to some aspects of medicinal and fibrous plants including taxonomy, ecology, ethnobotany, cultivation, breeding, processing, genetics, phytochemistry, physiology, biotechnology, microbiology, toxicology, pharmacology, bioactivity of plants, clinical research, medical application, pharmaceutical technology, nutrition and supplements of diet, pro-healthy textile products, natural dyeing, cosmetology are invited. The articles are published in conformance with international editorial standards. Herba Polonica presents mainly original articles covering research work results and review articles dealing with issues related to progress in the field of biologically active substances and herbal medicinal products.

2.To publish in Herba Polonica, authors are not required to pay an Article Processing Charge.

3. Papers sent to the Editorial Office of the Journal must be approved by the head of the scientific department where they originated (the written approval is necessary). Submission implies that the article has not been published previously and is not considered to be published elsewhere, in any language, without the written consent of the publisher of Herba Polonica. Therefore, after the article has been accepted, the Author will be asked to transfer copyright, filling out a special form. The Editorial Office emphasizes that phenomena of ‘ghostwriting’ and ‘guest authorship’ are scientific dishonesty and are not permitted.

4. Papers submitted to the Journal must be written in English. An abstract, being an outline of the main findings, is required in English.

5. Authors are asked to submit manuscripts by

www.editors.publisherspanel.com

6. The text should be double-spaced, using 10 or 12 point font size (approximately 2,000 characters per page). The manuscript should include the form on the conflict of interest (available at www.herbapolonica.pl, signed by all authors), the statement on the originality of the publication and on ghostwriting and guest authorship (available at www.herbapolonica.pl, signed by all authors).

Submitted paper is given with the editorial number which is used in further editorial process. Submission of the manuscript means authors agreement to peer-review process. Submitted manuscript is initially reviewed by Herba Polonica Editor. Afterwards, it is sent to two reliable reviewers who do not work for the same institutions that authors. The peer-review is confidential and anonymous (double-blind review process). The main criteria of qualification or rejection of the manuscript, included in the ‘Reviewer Evaluation Form’ (available at www.herbapolonica.pl), are as follows:
1) consistency or non-consistency with the journal profile;
2) the paper must be based on extensive study with proper controls;
3) the information concerning the identification and documentation of plants is included;
4) the information concerning medicinal use of the plant is clarified;
5) the approach to the subject is innovative;
6) in the article based on animal or clinical studies written approvals of Ethics/Bioethics Committee should be cited;
7) the article must be written in correct English.
The reviewers’ remarks are delivered to authors. Corrected manuscript should be submitted to the Editorial Office in time appointed in the cover letter. Further review of revised paper is allowed. The final approval is held by the Editor-in-Chief.
The list of reviewers is published once a year (Editors will not disclose the names of reviewers of particular articles).
The editors reserve the right to make corrections suggested by the editor of the journal. The proofread version will be sent to the author as a PDF file by e-mail for acceptance. The author’s remarks and suggestions should be included in a print-out of the proof and returned to the editors as soon as possible by e-mail. Galley proofs will be sent to authors by e-mail. Corrections must be clear and legible and the proofs should be sent back to the Editorial Office within five days.

7. The Author should give their forename, initials of other forenames and surname. The surname of the corresponding Author should be followed by an asterisk. The corresponding Authors should include their phone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses. All Authors should submit full postal addresses.

8. The content of original articles presenting research results should be arranged as follows: Summary (within 150 words), Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion (these two may be combined), Conclusions and References. The Author must give a few ‘key words’ in English and in Polish, identifying the most important subjects of the article. Summary in English should be divided to: Introduction, Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusion. For foreign authors, translation of key words into Polish is performed by Editorial Office without additional charge.

9. Plant names mentioned in the title should be accompanied by their Latin equivalents. Full Latin plant names should be given only at first mention, thereafter only the first letter of the generic name should be given.

10. Tables containing only essential results or mean values should be presented at the end of the paper, each on a separate page. They should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. The size of a table should not exceed one typescript page. Provide a title above each table.

11. Diagrams, drawings, schemes, structural formulae, illustrations and photographic prints must be referred to as figures and should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. Photograph prints must have good contrast and if they are submitted as graphic files, the resolution must be at least 300 dpi. The accepted formats of all kinds of graphic files (drawings, graphs, photos etc.) are tif and jpg. The illustrative material should accompany the manuscript, but should not be included within the text.

12. References (in the order cited) should be prepared as in the following examples: (1) papers published in journals: Kowalski J, Nowak A, Malinowski Z, Malinowska E, Wesołowski R, Pawlak I et al. Isolation of new compounds. N Engl J Med 2000; 30(4):230-3. (2) books: Kowalski J. Microbiolgy. 4th ed. Berlin. Pergamon Press, 2003:98-99. (3) chapter of a book: Kowalski J. Toxicology. In: Malinowski T, Nowak U, eds. New pharmacology. 7th ed. Berlin. Pergamon Press, 2000:29-40. (4) conference materials: Nowak U. Searching on Platycodon. In: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Phytochemistry; 2003 Apr 3-5; Kinsdale, Ireland. 2003:30-32. Journal titles should be given in abbreviated form, in accordance with international standards. For more than six authors, give the names of the first six, followed by et al. Important: If the article cited has a DOI number, it must be written of the citation, using the formula: http://dx.doi.org/...

13. Manuscript based on clinical investigations should conform to ethical standards as set out in Declaration of Helsinki and the written approval of appropriate Bioethics Committee should be cited in the body text.
Manuscript based on animal study should conform to current laws of the country in which they were performed and the written approval of appropriate Ethics Committee should be cited in the body text.

14. The authors of manuscript based on human experiments must not disclose personal data of patients described (identifying details should be omitted). In the case of personal information or in the case of photographs written informed consent of the patient should be documented in the paper.

15. The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not follow the instructions.