INPS Journal is published quarterly for members and friends of the Indiana Native Plant Society. Material may be reprinted with permission of the editor.

Acceptance for publication is at the discretion of the editor. We welcome photos, plant features, activity reports, announcements of upcoming events, and book reviews.

INPS Journal Joins Harvard Biodiversity Database

In 2018, the INPS Journal was honored to become part of Harvard University’s Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), a global online database of literature accessible to both scientists and the public. Founded in 2006, BHL is a consortium of more than 30 organizations that share data from universities, herbaria, botanical gardens around the world, the Library of Congress, and private collections. Topics range from agriculture and geology to insects, extinct species, and flora and fauna of the world. The website’s stated purpose is to “provide access to the world’s collective knowledge about biodiversity” in a time of species extinctions and climate change.

Issues of INPS Journal can be found on the site at www.biodiversitylibrary.org. Click on “Browse by: Contributor” at the top of the page and scroll down to “Other Contributors,” where the journal will be listed alphabetically. Choose the issue you want from the drop-down menu.  Older issues appear under “News” or “Inpaws journal.”

Writing for INPS Journal

Submit ideas, written material, and/or graphics via email to journal@indiananativeplants.org. Before launching an article, we suggest you query the editor about what you have in mind.

Submission deadlines for specific issues are as follows:

Spring—January 22 for April 1 mailing

Summer—April 22 for July 1 mailing

Autumn—July 22 for October 1 mailing

Winter—October 22 for January 1 mailing

Note: Information to be shared with INPS members via email may be directed to webmaster@indiananativeplants.org.

Writer’s Guidelines

  • The journal is a quarterly publication. Deadlines are noted above. If you wish to see your edited article pre-layout, deadline is a week earlier.
  • If you have an article idea, please query the editors at journal@indiananativeplants.org before sending it. It is helpful to review back issues for style and format. Several are in the INPS Journal Archive on this page.
  • Consider the timeliness of your subject matter and the journal issue in which it might appear. (Fall bloomers for fall issue, spring ephemerals for winter or spring issue, etc.)
  • If writing about activities, consider whether an event that is future at the time of writing may actually be past by the time the issue comes out, and use past tense instead.
  • Submit articles via email to journal@indiananativeplants.org as Word documents in 12-point Arial, double-spaced, left-justified. Indent (5 points) all paragraphs except the first. Do not add extra returns between paragraphs.
  • Depending on the topic, articles run from 300 to 1,000 words. Query the editors.
  • Cite all sources, whether quoted verbatim or paraphrased, immediately following the relevant material within the text using this format: (Last_name year).

Ex: (Smith 2020).

  • List full references at the end of the article under the heading “References,” using the following format: Last name, initials. Year of publication. Title of book or web site, comma, publisher name, comma, city, state followed by a period. (If a web page without a date, use “accessed …” with month and year you searched it.)

Ex.: Smith, J. 2017. Introduction to Weeds, Podunk Publishing, Chicago, IL.

Articles follow a format similar to books but include the journal or magazine title, volume:pages.

Ex.: Golly, G. 2020. How to grow wildflowers. Botany Journal 32:5-8.

  • With few exceptions, plant, insect and animal names are to follow this format: common name first (all lower case), followed by Latin binomial (initial cap) in parentheses and italics. The parenthesis marks should not be italic.

Ex.: common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).

After the first use, Latin binomials that are repeated should use only an initial for the genus name, unless at the beginning of a sentence.

Ex.: (A. syriaca)

  • Do not bold or underline anything. Do not italicize anything except Latin names.
  • Photographs are to be 300 ppi. Submit separately as email attachments, not embedded in text. If you have no photos, the editors can find appropriate ones as needed.
  • Photo captions should be accompanied by the photographer’s name.
  • Provide a one-sentence bio note about yourself, including whether you are a member of an INPS chapter.