Submissions

Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

General Guidelines

• The journal does not charge towards processing and publication of manuscripts.
• The journal does not charge any manuscript submission fee, processing charge, article processing charge (APC), publication charge or page charge.
• Registration is mandatory for submission of manuscript.
• Authors are advised to see the format of the journal by viewing published articles for submission of review/research/short communication article (see below links given as examples for reference).

1. Review Article: https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/AAZ/article/view/134343/49876
2. Research Article: https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/AAZ/article/view/146162/55483
3. Short Communication: https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/AAZ/article/view/134203/49537

• Corresponding author should fill all components of profile and also the details of co-authors while making submission.
• The manuscript should be in English and type-written. Authors are required to submit their articles online. Authors may indicate their e-mail address on the first page of the manuscript.
• The title should be brief but informative not exceeding 15 words.
• A short running title, not exceeding 30 characters.
• Abstract should be not exceeding 250–300 words.
• Five to six key words should be mentioned.
• In the text and tables, minus sign (kg ha⁻¹) instead of slash (kg/ha) should be used.
• All illustrations should be of good quality.
• Any lettering inside the illustrations should be in upper/lower case.
• Captions of figures should be provided separately.
• Tables should document, but not duplicate, the data already covered in the text or illustrations. Tables should have short title and typed on separate sheets.
• References should be written as per the format of the journal only (refer published articles).
• Only published or in-print papers may be cited in the text and under references. Anything unpublished should be included as 'personal communication/unpublished' in the text only. Journal name should not be abbreviated.
• The research/review article is subjected to plagiarism check not permitted above 20% in general.
• Authors are expected to answer all questions/comments of Referee for reconsideration while submitting the revised manuscript for the final decision of acceptance/revision/rejection by the Editorial Board.
• It is the sole responsibility of the author(s) to ensure the accuracy, authenticity and integrity of the data presented in the research article including text, numericals, figures and maps.

Authorship Policy

All listed authors should have made substantial intellectual contributions to the work and approved the final manuscript before submission. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all eligible authors are included in the manuscript and that all co-authors have approved the final version submitted to the journal.

Conflict of Interest Policy

Authors are required to disclose any financial, professional or personal conflicts of interest that may influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. If no conflict of interest exists, authors are encouraged to state, "The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest."

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Annals of Arid Zone permits the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted technologies solely to improve the language, readability and presentation of manuscripts. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, originality and integrity of the submitted work. AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. Any use of AI-assisted technologies in the preparation of a manuscript must be disclosed by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

Authors are encouraged to retain and make available the supporting research data, wherever appropriate. A statement regarding the availability of supporting datasets may be provided in the manuscript wherever applicable.

Funding Statement

Authors are encouraged to provide details of the financial support received for conducting the research. In the absence of funding support, authors may state, "The authors received no specific funding for this work."

Ethical Approval Statement

Where applicable, authors must provide details of ethical approval obtained from the appropriate institutional or regulatory authority for studies involving humans, animals or other regulated materials.

Plagiarism Policy

Submissions will be checked for originality and evaluated using standard plagiarism detection software, with a preference for less than 20% text resemblance for publication. In exceptional cases, sections such as the introduction, literature review, and methods may be exempted if supported by references. Authors must cite copyrighted material and obtain necessary permissions, as applicable.

Similarity reports are evaluated by the Editorial Board and editorial decisions are not based solely on similarity percentages.

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements:

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
• The submission file is in OpenOffice or Microsoft Word document file format.
• Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
• The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
• The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
• If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
• Ensure plagiarism check as per journal policy.

Copyright Notice

Articles published in the journal are available as Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Authors retain copyright of their published work while granting the journal the right to publish and disseminate the article under the terms of the license.