Reviewer Guidelines

REVIEW GUIDELINES:

 Please consider the following points while reviewing the submitted manuscript:

  1. Is the title concise, accurate and informative?
  2. Does abstract give a clear and succinct account of what was done, methods, results and conclusions drawn?
  3. Does the introduction state the scientific problem clearly? Provide background information directly relevant to the reported research?
  4. Are the materials and methods used adequate for the problem under investigation and sufficiently well documented to allow experiments to be repeated? Are adequate controls used? Check trial design, replication, measurements taken, etc.
  5. Does the paper present significant and new information? Are the experimental results sufficient to justify the conclusions?
  6. Is the statistical analysis adequate?
  7. Is there an adequate number of tables and figures? Do the legends adequately describe the data presented?
  8. Does the discussion adequately interpret the results and discuss them in the context of related work?
  9. Are the references appropriate? Is the number of references adequate? Are all references cited in the text shown in the list, and vice versa?
  10. Is the paper well organised, clearly written and of appropriate length?

A manuscript should be rejected if:

- it falls outside the scope of New Zealand Plant Protection

- there are insufficient data to support any useful conclusions

- results have been incorrectly interpreted

- data have not been statistically analysed (unless there is a very good reason for not doing so) 

- information in the manuscript is either not original or not new, (although review papers will be considered)

- there is insufficient information to warrant publication as a full paper.