Global Journal of Agricultural and Allied Sciences (GJAAS)

Author Guidelines

Manuscript Formatting

Manuscripts must contain all essential headings as listed below. Texts in manuscripts should be double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, and have consecutive line (on the left side) and page numberings (centered at the bottom of each page). Margins should be 2.5 cm (1 inch) on all sides. Manuscripts submitted for review should be in the Microsoft Word or PDF file format.

Manuscripts in general should be organized in the following order:

• Title
• Name(s), affiliation(s), and mailing and email addresses of author(s)
• Abstract and Keywords
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusions
• References
• Tables
• Figures

Manuscript Length:

The submitted manuscript should not exceed 7,500 words, excluding references. Exception to the manuscript word limit may be granted in special circumstances at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Total number of Tables and Figures normally should not exceed 12.

Section Headings and Subheadings

Manuscripts should be divided into clearly-defined Headings and Sub-headings as:

Section Headings:

Level 1 Heading (Section headings) such as Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, and Conclusions should be bold, numbered (1, 2, 3…) and left-aligned. Level 2 headings (sub-headings) should be numbered 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. and italicized. Capitalize the first letter of all major words of the Section headings (i.e., generally do not capitalize articles such as a, an, the, and coordinating conjunctions such as and, but, for, etc.). The first line of each paragraph immediately after the heading/subheading shall be fully justified with no indentation, but the subsequent paragraphs shall be indented by 1.27 cm (0.5"). Level 3 headings (Sub-subheadings) should be bold, fully justified, and capitalize the first letter of all major words, followed by a period, and the text follows. The subsequent paragraphs of Level 3 heading shall also be indented by 1.27 cm (0.5").

In text citations:

APA style (http://www.apastyle.org/) guidelines for text citations are shown below.

One author:

The last name of the author and the year of publication should be inserted into the text as, Marks (2011) states that or (Marks, 2011).

Two authors:

Both authors should be cited as, Bee and Boyd (2010) state that…. or (Bee & Boyd, 2010).

Three, four or five authors:

If there are three, four or five authors, cite all authors the first time and from then on include only the last name of the first author followed by the words et al.

Examples: Rolfe, Kolbe and Gomez (2010) state that…. or (Rolfe, Kolbe & Gomez, 2010).

Six or seven authors:

If there are six or seven authors, cite only the last name of the first author followed by the words et al. However, reference list shall include all the authors.

Eight or more authors:

If there are eight or more authors, cite only the last name of the first author followed by the words et al. Reference list shall include first six authors followed by ellipsis points (...) before concluding with the last author’s name.

For details on reference citation system, please refer to APA style guide (http://www.apastyle.org/) and the latest articles published in GJAAS.

More than one work citation:

If citing two or more works within the same parentheses, they should be in alphabetical order of authors and each citation separated by a semi-colon, as (Phillips et al., 2010; Rolfe et al., 2010).

Citation for two or more works by the same author but in separate years:

Give the author's last name followed by the years in ascending order and each separated by a comma, as (Davies, 2008, 2010, 2012).

Citation for two or more works by the same author published in the same year:

Use lower case letters (a, b, etc.) to distinguish between works published in the same year by the same author (s) as, Hewitt (2010a) states that…., and/or …this was supported by Hewitt (2010b) or (Hewitt 2010 a, b). The suffixes are assigned in the reference list, where these types of references are ordered alphabetically by title (of the article, chapter, or book).

Websites:

In case if it is difficult to identify the author of a webpage, decide who is responsible for the page and that person or corporate body can be referenced as the author. Searching the 'About Us' or 'Contact Us' will help to identify the author. If no author can be found, use the webpage title as, American Psychological Association (2012). If no title, use URL.

Works with no identified author or with an anonymous author:

Be cited as, Anonymous (2012) states that or (Anonymous, 2012).

Manuscript Format

Title Page:

The Title should be concise and should reflect contents of the manuscript. A title must not have more than 150 characters including spaces and punctuation.

A short Running Title (no more than 50 characters including spaces and punctuation) should also be provided. Title page should include each author's full name, affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail. When there are two or more authors, the corresponding author should be identified.

Abstract:

The Abstract should be concise (maximum 250 words). It should state briefly the rationale of the study, objective(s), materials and methods, the principal findings, and major conclusions. The abstract should stand alone.

Keywords:

A maximum of 6 keywords (alphabetical order, separated by a comma) should be provided immediately after the abstract. Abbreviations should not be used as keywords unless they are firmly established in the field and presented multiple times in the manuscript.

Introduction:

The introduction should identify problems/research question(s) and provide an adequate background and rationale for the study with relevant literature review in a logical order. A typical ending of the introduction should include objectives, hypotheses or questions being addressed. It should not include any methods, findings, or conclusions.

Theory/Calculation/Equations (if necessary in the field of Social Sciences/Economics, wherever appropriate): This section should extend the background of the article with necessary theoretical/empirical framework without repeating from the Introduction.

Materials and Methods:

This section should provide sufficient details of materials and methods/procedures, experimental/research design, survey design, equipment and measurements, data (study setting, sample, data collection), and statistical analyses to allow other researchers to reproduce the work.

Results and Discussion:

Results and Discussion can be separated or combined. All major results should be presented clearly, concisely, and sequentially in the order of Objectives/Hypotheses/Research questions. If Results and Discussion are presented separately, Results section should not include material appropriate to the Discussion section. The Discussion section should explore the significance/implications of the results without repeating them. While pertinent literature may be used to discuss the current research results, repetitions of extensive citations and discussion of published literature should be avoided.

Conclusion or Summary:

This section should provide the main takeaways and implications of the findings.

References:

Authors should follow APA (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association) sixth edition reference style. All references cited in the text should be in the reference list and vice versa. The number of references should not exceed 50 for research papers and 100 for review papers.

A sample of the most common entries in reference lists are given below.

Book with single author:

Last name, Initial (s). (Year). Title. Place: Publisher. For example, Pant, P. R. (1975). Social science research and dissertation writing. Kathmandu: Buddha Academic Enterprises.

Book with two authors or more:

Last name, Initial(s), & Last name, initial (s). (Year). Title. Place: Publisher. For example, Phillips, J., Ajrouch, K., & Hillcoat-Nalletamby, S. (2010). Key concepts in social gerontology. London: Sage.

Edited book:

Last name, Initial(s). (Ed.). (Year). Title (ed.). Place: Publisher. For example, Cash, T. F., & Smolak, L. (Eds.). (2011). Body image: A handbook of science, practice, and prevention (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Use (Ed.) if one editor and (Eds.) if two or more editors:

For example, Kozier, B., Erb, G., Berman, A., Snyder, S., Harvey, S., & Morgan-Samuel, H. (Eds.). (2012). Fundamentals of nursing: Concepts, process and practice (2nd ed.). Harlow: Pearson.

Woodhead, S. (Ed.). (2013). A core care pathway children with life-limiting and life threatening conditions (3rd ed.). Bristol: Together for Short Lives.

Chapter in edited book:

Last name, Initial (s). (Year). Chapter title. Initial. Last name (eds.), Book title (pages of chapter). Place: Publisher. For example, Benton, D. (2011). Diet, behaviour and cognition in children. In D. Kilcast & F. Angus (Eds.), Developing children's food products (pp. 62-81). Cambridge: Woodhead.

E-book:

Last name, Initial(s). (Year). Title (ed.). Retrieved from URL. For example, Ogden, J. (2007). Health psychology: A textbook (4th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.dawsonera.com.

Unpublished Thesis/Dissertation:

Author, A. A. (year). Title of doctoral dissertation or master's thesis (Unpublished doctoral dissertation or master's thesis). Name of institution, Location. For example, Pokhrel, N. (2014). Effects of different fertilization and feeding systems on water quality and growth performance in Nile tilapia (Unpublished master thesis). Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan, Nepal.

Journal article:

Last name, Initial (s), & Last name, Initial (s). (Year). Article title. Journal title, Volume number (issue or part number if needed), page numbers. For example, Blann, A. (2014). Why do we test for urea and electrolytes? Nursing Times, 110 (5), 19-21.

Tapper, K., Shaw, C., Ilsley, J., Hill, A. J., Bond. F. W., & Moore, L. (2009). Exploratory randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness-based weight loss intervention for women. Appetite, 52, 396-404.

Online journal article:

Last name, Initial (s), & Last name, Initial (s). (Year). Article title. Volume, Page numbers. DOI or journal homepage URL. For example, Allen, S. J., Jordan, S., Storey, M., Thornton, C. A., Gravenor, M., Garaiova, I., and Morgan, G. (2010). Dietary supplementation with lactobacilli and bifidobacteria is well tolerated and not associated with adverse events during late pregnancy and early infancy. The Journal of Nutrition, 140, 483-488. doi:10.3945/jn.109.117093.

Newspaper article:

Ruddick, G. (2013, October 3). Tesco suffers sales slump in all global businesses; UK rivals gain ground but boss Clarke confident turnaround plan is working. Daily Telegraph, Business News, p. 1 online.

Magazine:

Allen, L. (2004, August). Will Tuvalu disappear beneath the sea? Global warming threatens to swamp a small island nation, Smithsonian, 35 (5), 44-52.

Begley, S., & Murr, A. (2007, July 2). Which of these is not causing global warming? A. Sport utility vehicles; B. Rice fields; C. Increased solar output. Newsweek, 150 (2), 48-50.

Book review in a journal:

Nagorski, A. (2013). The totalitarian temptation [Review of the book The devil in history: communism, fascism and some lessons of the 20th century, by V.Tismaneanu]. Foreign Affairs, 92, 172-176.

Website:

Author. (Year). Title, Retrieved month day, year, from URL. For example, American Psychological Association. (2015). APA style blog. Retrieved September 25, 2015, from http://blog.apastyle.org/.

Personal communication:

P. Mooney (personal communication, June 6, 2013). Use your judgment in citing other electronic forms of personal communication. What you cite should have scholarly relevance.

Code of Practice:

Author. (Year). Title. Place: Publisher. For example, Welsh Assembly Government. (2008). Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice for Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government.

Great Britain. Department for Constitutional Affairs. (2007). Mental Capacity Act 2005: Code of Practice. London: TSO.

More details on the APA style can be found in http://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-references.aspx#In-Text and http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/apa/.

Tables:

Each table should have a descriptive title that begins with Table 1, Table 2 and so on.

Example: Table 1. Growing season sum of evapotranspiration (ET) in maize during the 2014 growing season.

Explain all symbols and abbreviations on first mention in tables.

Each column and row should have headings.

Tables should be numbered in the order they are cited in the text.

Submit tables as editable text (not as images).

Tables should be embedded within the main text for review purpose.

Use asterisks *, **, and *** to indicate significance at the 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001 probability levels, respectively. Significance at other probability levels should be designated by supplemental notes. Each supplemental note should start on a new line.

Figures:

Each figure should have an explanatory caption that begins with Figure 1, Figure 2 and so on.

Example: Figure 1. Evolution of leaf area index (LAI) of maize during the 2014 growing season.

Explain all symbols and abbreviations on first mention in figures. Most common symbols or legends (e.g. ○,●,▲, Δ, □, ■) should be used in figures.

Figures should be numbered in the order they are cited in the text. Figure panels should be labeled with lower case letters in parentheses as (a), (b).

Refer to the figures in text as Fig. 1, Fig. 2. Figures should not have outer borders, and all lines and bars should be distinct with different colors or symbols. Figures should be embedded within the main text for review purposes.

Figure formatting details are as follows:

File format – pdf, tiff or eps (image files should be saved at 300 dpi or higher)

Line width – 0.25 mm (0.1")

Tick marks - major ticks (inside), minor ticks (none)

Data symbol size – 3 mm (0.12")

Data line thickness – 0.5 mm (0.02")

Legend box – none

Equations and Formulae:

Units:

Standard metric units should be used. If other units are reported, provide conversion factor with the standard metric units.

Language:

American English should be used.

Appendices:

Identify appendices as A, B, etc. if there are more than one appendix. Provide separate numbering for formulae and equations in appendices as Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2) etc.

Supplementary material:

Extra supporting materials can be published with the manuscript to enhance it. Provide a concise and descriptive caption for each supplementary file. Provide numberings for supplementary figures and tables as Fig. S1, Fig. S2, Table S1, Table S2 etc.

Peer Review Process:

Completed manuscripts should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief and/or Member Secretary. The Editor-in-Chief will review each submitted manuscript for its completeness, formatting appropriateness, and suitability for publication in GJAAS. The Editor-in-Chief or the assigned Subject Editor will send suitable manuscripts to reviewers for peer review. The reviewers will not receive the author-identifying Title Page to keep the peer review completely anonymous. Authors may cite their own work, but self-identifying information must be avoided in the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief will make the final decision of acceptance or rejection.

Authors should recommend 3-5 qualified independent reviewers with their email addresses. Authors should not suggest reviewers with whom they have a personal or professional relationship such as close family members, students, mentors, co-authors (within the past 4 years), and members of the same institution. Authors may also identify reviewers they do not wish to review their manuscripts with reasons. The assigned Subject Editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers can be used.