Instructions for Authors | AJAR

Ambit Journal of Agricultural Research (AJAR)  is an open access journal committed to prompt publication of articles on monthly basis in all areas of Agricultural Research. Submission of original manuscripts of high impact and scientific merit are readily welcomed for publication in this journal. All articles are peer-reviewed to ensure quality, integrity and fairness. Papers will be published shortly after acceptance.

Electronic submission of manuscripts is strongly encouraged, provided that the text, tables, and figures are included in a single Microsoft Word file (preferably in Arial font).

Types of paper

Three types of manuscripts may be submitted:

Regular articles: These articles should be original, novel and have properly confirmed findings with experimental procedures in adequate detail for easy verifiability by others.

Short Communications: These articles are appropriate for presenting the results of complete small findings or show details of novel methods, models, techniques or apparatus. The sections style of short communications do not necessarily follow that of full-length papers. Short communications are usually 2 to 4 printed pages in length when ready for publication.

Reviews: These are articles evaluating topical matters and concepts. It is compulsory for the study of a review paper to be supported by at least a reference citation of a previously published related paper of at least one of the author(s).

Review Process

All manuscripts are reviewed by members of theEditorial Board or externally qualified reviewers upon which reviewers evaluations are sent to authors for corrections and modifications (if any). Authors are expected to send their revised papers based on the reviewers’ evaluation sent to them for assessment by the Editor upon whom the final decision rests. A manuscript’s process is either terminated if it is rejected by the editor or the manuscript will be re-reviewed if deemed  of good quality but found inadequate in some areas, however, if the paper is accepted then it progresses to the next stage (Proof).

Regular articles

The Title Page should have the title of the paper and also include the authors' full names, current affiliations, email addresses of all authors (both Institutional and personal emailaddresses are acceptable), along with the name of the corresponding author, phone, fax and E-mail information clearly stated.

TheAbstract should be brief, revealing and easilyunderstandable.It should state in a brief summary; the topic, scope of the experiments, show important data, and indicate main findings and conclusions. The Abstract must not exceed 200 words in length. Use of complete understandable sentences, active verbs, and the third person are required and the abstract is to be presented in past tense. It should be totally free of citations and abbreviations. Standard nomenclature should be used.
Following the abstract, about 3 to 10 key words that will provide indexing references should be listed.

A list of non-standard Abbreviations should be added. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelled out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text. Only recommended SI units should be used. Authors should use the solidus presentation (mg/ml). Standard abbreviations (such as ATP and DNA) need not be defined.

The Introduction should provide a clear overview of the study.

Materials and methods should contain procedures that can be repeated. Do note that only new procedures need to be described in detail; earlier published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Subheadings should be used. Methods in general use do not necessarily need to be described in detail.

Results should be presented with simplicity and accuracy. It is important that results are written in the past tense when describing findings in the authors' experiments and previously published findings be written in the present tense. Results should be explanatory with reference to little or no literatureat all.
Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section.

The Discussion should contain detailed interpretation of data and finding of the results obtained from the analysed study and past related studies bordering on the subject matter. Conclusions should be stated in a few sentences at the end of the paper and can also be placed to stand alone 
The Results and Discussion sections may include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.

The Acknowledgments should come at the very end of the paper before references and it may include supporting people, presentations, grants, funds, etc.  It should be brief.

All portions of the manuscript must be typed double-spaced and all pages numbered starting from the title page.

Tables should be made simple and used only when necessary. It is required that Tables are typed double-spaced throughout with headings and footnotes included. Each table should be presented on a separate page, numbered sequentially in Arabic numerals and labelled with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-sufficient without reference to text. The details of the procedure used in the table should be described in the legend rather than the text. Duplication of data presented in a table is not allowed in other tables, graph form or elsewhere in the text. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word only. Tables must be cited in a consecutive manner in the text.


Figure should be given in numerical order on a separate sheet. Graphics of good quality high resolution prepared in the GIF, TIFF, JPEG or PowerPoint formats presented in the Microsoft Word format only are acceptable. The use of Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts (Figure 1) is required. Each Figure should contain captions; a title and legend. Legend should clearly describe a Figure in an easily understandable manner without consultation of the text of the manuscript. Information presented in legends should not be repeated in the text. Figures must be cited in a consecutive manner in the text

References: When citing a reference in the text, the reference should be indicated by the author’s name followed by the date of publication in brackets. In the case of two authors, both authors’ names are to be indicated alongside the year of publication in brackets. However, where there are more than two authors, only the first author‘s name should be indicated, followed by 'et al' and the year of publication. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like ’a‘ and ’b‘ after the publication date to distinguish the works.For Web references, the full URL should be given and date when it was accessed. Additional Information if available should be provided (author names, dates, DOI, reference to a source publication, etc.). Web references should be listed after the reference list. 

Examples:

Vaghn (2009),

Lindsay and Blaq, (2010)

Stone et al., (2011)

Stiller, 2014a,b;

References should be sorted in alphabetical order at the end of the paper. Unpublished articles which includes articles in preparation, articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. need not be presented in the reference list but should only be indicated in the article text (e.g., A. Armstrong, University of Leicester, United Kingdom, personal communication). Journal names are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS). Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Examples:

 

Giannou V, Tzia C (2007). Frozen dough bread: quality and textural behavior during prolonged storage-prediction of final product characteristics. J. Food Eng. 79: 929-934.

Gokcen YC, Belma A, Yavuz B (2008). Ehanced Crude Oil biodegradation and rhamnolipid production by Pseudomonas. StutzeriStrdin C1 11 in the presence of Tween-80 AND Triton X-100. J. Environ. Biol. 29(6): 867-870.

Kontogiorgos V (2011). Microstructure of hydrated gluten network. Food Res. Int. 44: 2582-2586.

Lima AJB, Corrêa AD, Dantas-Barros AM, Nelson DL, Amorim ACL (2011a). Sugars, organic acids, minerals and lipids in jabuticaba. Rev. Bras. Frutic. 33:540-550.

Lima AJB, Corrêa AD, Saczk AA, Martins MP, Castilho RO (2011b). Anthocyanins, pigment stability and antioxidant activity in jabuticaba [Myrciariacauliflora (Mart.) O. Berg]. Rev. Bras. Frutic. 33:877-887.

Zhou ZY, Tao DD, Cao JW, Luo HS (2013). Application of surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry technology for the diagnosis of colorectal adenoma. Oncol. Lett. 5(6):1935-1938. 

Short Communications

A Short Communication is a complete study with a more limited scope than the full length paper. They are limited to a maximum of two figures and one table. The common differences of Short Communications when compared to the full length paper are: (1) Abstracts are limited to 100 words; (2) Rather than a separate Materials and Methods section, experimental procedures may be combined into Figure Legends and Table footnotes; (3) Results and Discussion should be joined to form a single section.

Proofs and Reprints:

Corresponding author will receive Electronic proofs as PDF file via e-mail as attachment.  Only typographical or minor errors corrections are allowed in the proof stage as major changes/modifications demands that the paper undergoes a fresh review. Prompt publication will be made as soon as proofs are accepted by author(s). Published articles can be accessed and downloaded by all.

Copyright: 

Submitted manuscript must be original, unpublished (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis). Authors the retain copyrights of their published papers.

Disclosure Policy

A conflicting interest occurs when the validity of a research is influenced by bias rather than promotion of the body of knowledge in that specific field, such as financial gain. Authors are required to reveal any conflict of interests in their submitted manuscripts. In the case of no conflict of interests, authors should state “The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.�?

Fees and Charges: 

Authors are required to pay a $200 handling fee.  Do note that publication of an article in the Ambit Journal of Agricultural Research is not dependent on the author's ability to pay the charges. Acceptance to pay the handling fee does not guarantee that the paper will be accepted for publication.