1

1 Type of Manuscript: (Research article – maximum of 7,000 words, Review Article –

2 maximum of 10,500 words, Short Communication – maximum 3,000, or Opinion –
3 maximum 2,000 words). Manuscript size includes the whole document, including tables
4 and references.

5 Special Issue (please select)?

No, this is a regular manuscript
Yes, it is part of the special issue: Name of the special issue…
6

7 Running Title: A short title for the running header that does not exceed 40 characters,
8 including the spaces.

9 Title: The title must reflect the work’s content and have no subtitles, abbreviations,
10 formulas, symbols and commercial names. Scientific names should be included in
11 the title only if common-English names of the species are not available. The title
12 must be formatted in upper case, in bold. Avoid description of geographical
13 localization unless it is directly related with the results.

14 AuthorFirstname M. Lastnamea, AuthorFirstname M.M. Lastnameb and

c,
15 AuthorFirstname M. Lastname *
a
16 Affiliation 1 (Position, Department, College, University, City, State, Country); Full Author
17 Name ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-000X-XXX-XXX; e-mail@e-mail.com;
b
18 Affiliation 2 (Position, Department, College, University, City, State, Country); Full Author
19 Name ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-000X-XXX-XXX; e-mail@e-mail.com;
c
20 Affiliation 2 (Position, Department, College, University, City, State, Country); Full Author
21 Name ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-000X-XXX-XXX; e-mail@e-mail.com;

22 * Corresponding author: e-mail@e-mail.com

23

24 Highlights

25 - Describe three major highlights of the manuscript, with a maximum of 110 characters
26 each, including spaces.

27 - The highlights should be related with the main findings of the study and not about
28 methodology, analysis, or general ideas.
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29 Tips to build effective highlights: The highlights are the opportunity of authors to flag the article distinctiveness and
30 describe the key messages for the readers. Make an exercise considering yourself as the reader and ask if you would pay
31 attention on the paper. Write the highlights after all other parts of the article but revise and rewrite after that. Avoid using
32 details, description of methodology and obvious information. Focus on summarizing the fundamental question, what is the
33 problem and why is important. Avoid describing the results itself but explain where it fits. The key strategy is considering
34 that the highlights must be short and comprehensive. Avoid using vague words like effect, result, influence, cause,
35 association, etc. and prefer direct statements using increase or decrease, for example. Considering the readers have
36 agricultural background and avoid weed science jargons as possible. Although the highlights are short messages, construct
37 it as full grammatical sentences. A standard composition is the first highlight for describing the core problem, after stating
38 the main findings and close with the contribution of the paper. Please Remove this comment after reading.

39

40 Abstract: Maximum of 250 words, including the following subtopics:

41 Background: State the importance of the research and present previous findings.

42 Objective: State the goals of the manuscript.

43 Methods: Summarize the methodology and treatments, and experimental design. Inform
44 if the experiments were replicated in time/growing season. Avoid unnecessary details.

45 Results: Explain the main findings that lead to the conclusion.

46 Conclusions: List the main conclusions of the manuscript.

47

48 Keywords: Provide four to eight keywords. Keywords must be distinct from what is in the
49 title and abstract.

50

51

52 Graphical Abstract: A graphical abstract is a visual summary of the main findings of the
53 research. The graphical abstract is used in the Journal webpage and in social media to
54 promote the manuscript. The authors should build the abstract with the main take-home
55 message the authors want the readers to take. The figure should be formatted in JPG,
56 PNG, or TIFF in high resolution figure (at least 600 DPI) and should measure at least
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57 2000 x 1660 pixels (width x height - keep the proportion if using different size). The
58 graphical abstract should be submitted inside the text and as a separate file in the
59 ScholarOne system. The example above was obtained from: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-
60 0472/11/1/9

61 Tips to build an effective graphical abstract: The main idea is introducing the subject of the article, summarizing the
62 most important finding and connecting the whole subject. The title, authors, highlights and graphical abstract will be used
63 together for communicating the article in social media and in the journal webpage. Considering the graphical abstract as the
64 visual advertisement of the article. The graphical abstract can be constructed as a flow diagram, a conceptual model, a
65 scheme, or composition of figures. Start by planning the main concepts, after making a sketch and finalize by improving the
66 quality and connections of the information. Do not use direct figures or results of the article. A composition of result
67 figures can be used as part of the graphical abstract but remember that usually they are difficult to understand after reading
68 the related text and the legend. Therefore, usually a composition of result figures must be edited to improve the
69 understanding as part of the graphical abstract. The illustrations can be originally drawn or composed using tools available
70 on the internet. – Please remove this comment after reading.

71

72 Conflict of Interest

73 Please state if the authors have any conflict of interest to declare regarding the
74 research.

75

76 1. Introduction

77 The Introduction should be one to two pages long and contain the background and
78 justification for the study, stating the importance of the scientific problem. The information
79 provided in the Introduction should be enough to establish the research hypothesis.

80 Authors should prioritize referencing recent works published in scientific journals, but
81 the citation of classical works is acceptable in a reasonable number. Citation of bulletins
82 or technical circulars (“gray literature”) is not acceptable. In the last paragraph of the
83 Introduction, the authors should present the scientific hypothesis and the study’s
84 objective.

85 The manuscript should be formatted in page size A4 with a left margin of 3 cm and
86 remaining margins of 2.5 cm; font type Arial, size 11; 1.5 line spacing; pages and lines
87 numbered sequentially. Tables and figures should be included in individual pages at the
88 end of the manuscript.

89

90 2. Material and Methods

91 This section should describe the experimental conditions and methods used so that
92 there is sufficient and detailed information for the work to be replicated. Formulas,
93 expressions, or mathematical equations should be placed in their text line, starting at the
94 page’s left margin. Include references for the statistical methods used and report any data
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95 transformations. Statistical significance should be indicated as follows: p<0.01 or p>0.05

96 (letter “p” in lower case). Genomic information used for primer design or obtained as
97 results of the study must be deposited in a public database and the accession number
98 must be described.

99 If needed, Material and Methods and Results and Discussion can be divided in
100 subsections:

101 Note: the experiment should be repeated in time and/or location. Exceptions will be
102 considered for studies that consist of a series de experiments where the core treatments
103 are common.

104 2.1. Subsection of Material and Methods

105 2.2.1. Subsubsection of Material and Methods

106 ● Authors can include only figures and tables which are properly cited in the

107 manuscript; Each table and figure should be placed in a separate page at the end
108 of the manuscript;

109 ● Figures and graphics must be cited in the text in numerical order, without

110 abbreviations; if the figure is identified with a lowercase letter (for example, Figure
111 1a), it should be cited in the text with the same format;

112 ● The table or figure and its respective caption should be self-explanatory, without

113 the need for using the main text for their understanding.

114 ● The titles of tables and figures should be clear and complete and include the

115 species' name (common or scientific) and dependent variables.

116 ● Units of the variables analyzed must follow the International System of

117 Units and are positioned at the top of the columns in the tables, outside the table
118 header. In composite units, quantities must be separated by space, and the
119 denominators must be indicated in superscript. Examples: µmol m-2 s-1; kg ha-1.

120 ● Values represented in tables and figures are indicated according to the English

121 format, with a period (.) separating decimals and with commas (,) separating
122 groups of thousands (1,000 = one thousand; 1,000,000 = one million; 1,000.45 =
123 one thousand and forty-five hundredths).
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124 ● Herbicide rates, when first mentioned in the text, it must be expressed on g ha -1 of

125 acid equivalent (ae), or active ingredient (ai). Example: glyphosate was applied at
126 1440 g ha-1 ae and clomazone was applied at 900 g ha-1 ai. After that, doses must
127 be described as g ha-1 for both herbicide types.

128 ● Tables must be provided with their respective captions with a period (.) at the end

129 of the caption.

130 ● Tables should be formatted as follows:

131 o Titles must be self-explanatory and contain all the information necessary
132 for understanding the values presented and the statistical analyses used;

133 o The content must be editable in the Table option of Microsoft Word, without
134 lateral borders or separation lines between columns;

135 o The tables must have only three continuous lines borders (two to mark the
136 table header and one at the end of the table). If necessary, a fourth dashed
137 lines borders can be included to separate the necessary statistical
138 parameters, as shown below:

139 o Numbers in the tables must be aligned with the decimal separator in the
140 column;

141 ● Graphs, drawings, maps, and photographs used to illustrate the text are

142 considered figures;

143 ● Figures formatting: Figures should be square rather than rectangles. The square

144 format will fit better in a single column in the published paper. We encourage the
145 authors to use colors in the figures. After acceptance, it will be reformatted to the
146 standard colors of the journal (Green/Gray);

147 ● Figures must be included in the text as JPG, PNG, or TIFF in high resolution ( at

148 least 300dpi). Figure labels must be typed in Arial font, size 8, regular (not bold).
149 Authors should avoid colors in figures, except for photographs. In the case of
150 composite figures, each section (for example, each graph) should be marked as a
151 separate item ("a, b, c..."), in lowercase letters;

152 ● Scanned figures and tables will not be accepted;

153
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154 3. Results and Discussion

155 In the Results and Discussion section, the authors should present the research results
156 and discuss them to evaluate the variables analyzed in light of the study’s objectives. The
157 simple comparison of the results with the data presented by other authors does not
158 characterize a discussion. Speculation must be avoided. Data should not be presented
159 redundantly in tables and figures.

160 Results and Discussion can also be divided in subsections.

161 3.1. Subsection

162 3.2.1. Subsubsection

163

164 4. Conclusions

165 This section is mandatory and should focus on the findings of the manuscript,
166 answering the research hypothesis.

167

168 Author’s contributions

169 In this section the authors must inform the contribution of each author to the
170 manuscript. Use initials to refer for each author name. The content must state the
171 contribution of each author according to the model:

172 Conceptualization of the manuscript and development of the methodology: X.X., Y.X.,
173 and Z.Z.; data collection and curation: X.X., and Y.X.; data analysis: Z.X., and Y.X.; data
174 interpretation: X.X., Y.X.; funding acquisition and resources: X.X., Y.X., and Z.Z.; project
175 administration: X.X., Y.X., and Z.Z.; supervision: X.X.; writing the original draft of the
176 manuscript: X.X., Y.X., and Z.Z.; writing, review and editing: X.X., Y.X., and Z.Z.;. All
177 authors read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

178

179 Acknowledgements

180 Add as necessary. If the material was submitted to specialists that are not authors of
181 the paper, or if materials or samples were borrowed or obtained from different institutions
182 (museums, herbaria, libraries, and other archives), the authors are encouraged to mention
183 them. Authors should avoid personal statements in this section and attain only aspects
184 that directly affected the article's research.

185
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186 Funding

187 Authors must disclose all funding sources. The authors are advised to check if there are
188 any funding agencies’ requirements and supporting institutions to include their
189 grant/process numbers in this section. The funding includes any monetary assistance to
190 conduct the research, including but not limited: assistantship; fellowship, project funding,
191 article processing charge funding, etc...

192 If the authors did not receive funding for the research, please add: “This research
193 received no external funding”, or

194 If the authors received funding for the research please add all the funding sources
195 adding: “This research was funded by NAME OF FUNDER, grant number XXX” and “The
196 article processing charge was funded by XXX”.

197

198 References

199 References should follow the Vancouver (author-date) style, i.e., they should be in
200 lowercase followed by the year of publication. In the case of references with three to six
201 authors, cite the first author in the main text followed by “et al.”, and list all authors in the
202 references section, separated by commas. If there are more than six authors, list the first
203 six authors, followed by the expression “et al.” In the case of several works by the same
204 author, with the same date, lowercase letters are used in the reference, in alphabetical
205 order, following the date, to differentiate the several publications in the bibliographic list,
206 as follows: (1992a,b). Personal communications and unpublished papers or reports
207 should be cited in footnotes and should not appear in the References. Citation of articles
208 published in proceedings of scientific events will no longer be accepted. Independent on
209 the original language, all citations must be in English, stating the original language at the
210 end (see example).

211 Only references strictly necessary for understanding the article should be cited, up to a
212 maximum of 30 references (see section 4.1 of this document). The list of references
213 should start on a new page.

214 We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such
215 as EndNote, ReferenceManager or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated
216 references. Include the digital object identifier (DOI) for all references where available.

217 References should be formatted following the models below, presented in alphabetical
218 order of authors and, within this, in chronological order of publication; the titles of journals
219 should be abbreviated. Include only works cited in the text, tables, or figures, as follows.
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220 In the text, the format should be done as the examples:

221 a. Journal articles:

222 ▪ ARTICLES WITH UP TO SIX AUTHORS: Cite all authors

223 ▪ In the text: (Gaines and Sam, 2011)

224 ▪ In the references:

225 ▪ Author(s). Title. Journal abbreviated name. year;volume(issue):pages.

226 Available from: DOI

227 ▪ Gaines TA, Sam M. The quick and the dead: a new model for the

228 essential role of ABA accumulation in synthetic auxin herbicide mode of

229 action. J Exp Bot. 2020;71(12):3383–5. Available from:
230 https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraa178

231 ▪ Observation: Each article must present the valid DOI

232 ▪ ARTICLES WITH MORE THAN SIX AUTHORS:

233 ▪ In the text: (Viero et al., 2009)

234 ▪ In the references:

235 ▪ Author(s). Title. Journal abbreviated name. year;volume(issue):pages.

236 Available from: DOI

237 ▪ Viero JLC, Schaedler CE, de Azevedo EB, Dos Santos JVA, Scalcon R

238 de M, de David DB, et al. Endozoochorous dispersal of seeds of weedy

239 rice (Oryza sativa L.) and barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli L.) by
240 cattle. Cienc Rural. 2018;48:e20170650. Available from:
241 https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-8478cr20170650

242 ▪ Observation: Each article must present the valid DOI

243 b. Books:
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244 ▪ Citation of books and book chapters should be avoided. However, when such a

245 citation is unavoidable, it must be made as follows:

246 ▪ Author(s) of the book. Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher; year of

247 publication.

248 ▪ Senseman S.A. Herbicide handbook. 9th ed. Lawrence: Weed Science Society of

249 America; 2007.

250 c. Dissertations and Thesis:

251 ▪ Citation of dissertations and theses should be avoided. Try to cite instead their

252 resulting articles published in full in indexed journals. Cite only very recent
253 dissertations/theses, when articles have not yet been published, as follows:

254 ▪ Author. Title [Type of document]. Place: Institution where it was presented; year.

255 Available from: link to the webpage

256 ▪ Ribeiro DN. [Characterization of the glyphosate resistance in Lolium multiflorum

257 (Lam.)] [thesis]. Piracicaba: Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz Armando de

258 Queiroz”; 2008. Portuguese. Available from:
259 http://bdtd.ibict.br/vufind/Record/USP_057b21cae41e9974c17901e2b25b94fa

260 d. Citing publications original in other languages

261 When citing publications original in other languages the authors should cite the title in
262 English between square brackets and the language at the end of the citation. Examples:

263 ▪ Avila LA, Marchezan M, François T, Cezimbra DM, Souto KM, Refatti JP. [Injury

264 caused by the formulated mixture of the herbicide imazethapyr and imazapic in
265 ryegrass as affected by soil moisture]. Planta Daninha. 2010;28:1041–6.
266 Portuguese. Available from: http://doi.org/10.1590/S0100-83582010000500012
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267 Comments: Tables and figures should be included in individual pages at the end of the
268 manuscript. In addition, each table and figure need to be uploaded in the system in
269 separate files; the figures must be sent in the original editable file (the original format the
270 authors used to create the figures – Sigma Plot, Excel, R, etc…).
271
272 Table 1. Tables should be placed in the main text near to the first time they are cited.
273 Titles must be self-explanatory and contain all the information necessary for
274 understanding the values presented and the statistical analyses used.

Title 1 Title 2 Title 3

entry 1 data1 data

entry 2 data data

entry 3 data data

1
275 Tables may have a footer.

276 Tables should be formatted as follows:

277 ○ Titles must be self-explanatory and contain all the information necessary for
278 understanding the values presented and the statistical analyses used;
279 ○ The content must be editable in the Table option of Microsoft Word, without
280 lateral borders or separation lines between columns;
281 ○ The tables must have only three continuous lines borders (two to mark the
282 table header and one at the end of the table). If necessary, a fourth dashed
283 lines borders can be included to separate the necessary statistical
284 parameters, as shown below:
285 ○ Numbers in the tables must be aligned with the decimal separator in the
286 column;
287
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288

289 Figure 1. This is a figure. Figure can be divided in panels as in this example: (a)
290 Description of what is contained in the first panel; (b) Description of what is
291 contained in the second panel. Figures title must be self-explanatory and
292 contain all the information necessary for understanding the values presented
293 and the statistical analyses used.

294 Figures formatting: Figures should be square rather than rectangles. The square format
295 will fit better in a single column in the published paper. We encourage the authors to use
296 colors in the figures. After acceptance, it will be reformatted to the standard colors of the
297 journal (Green/Gray);

298 Figures must be included in the text as JPG, PNG, or TIFF in high resolution ( at least
299 300dpi). Figure labels must be typed in Arial font, size 8, regular (not bold). Authors
300 should avoid colors in figures, except for photographs. In the case of composite figures,
301 each section (for example, each graph) should be marked as a separate item (“a, b, c…”),
302 in lowercase letters;

303 Scanned figures and tables will not be accepted;