Submissions

Author Guidelines

"All guidelines must be strictly followed when submitting your article."

Author Guidelines

1. The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences is published every month.
2. The following types of material will be considered for publication in the Journal:

2.1 PAPERS ON ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMPLETED, comprising of 4,000-5000 words (approximately 12-15 typed pages) including tables, figures and references, should be exclusive for the journal. The paper should present a connected, cohesive narrative of the research work conducted. The submitted data should not be split into separate parts.

2.2 SHORT RESEARCH NOTES of 2500-2800 words (about 8-10 typed pages) including tables, figures and references, which deals with (a) research results which are complete but do not warrant comprehensive treatment, and (b) descriptions of new material or improved techniques, with supporting data. Such notes require no headed sections. Summary (not more than 80-100 words) is to be provided at the end of the text.

2.3 CRITICAL RESEARCH REVIEW of 8,000-9,500 words (approximately 20-25 typed pages) including tables, figures and references pointing out lacunae in research and suggesting possible lines of future work. Review articles on topical issues are invited from prominent scientists only, having 20-25% of self-citation in peer-reviewed journals.

2.4 Contributors are requested to ensure that the research papers or notes submitted for publications have a direct bearing on agricultural production or open up new grounds for productive research. Basic types of papers and notes which relate to investigations in a narrow-specialized branch of a discipline may not form an appropriate material for this journal.

Author should check that articles have all the following sections and appear in that order of:

• Title, Name(s) of author(s), Complete postal address(es) of affiliations (place where work was conducted)
• Present address(es) of author(s) if applicable; Complete correspondence address including e-mail address to which the proofs should be sent (these are given as footnote on first page).
• Abstract, Keywords (indexing terms) in alphabetical, normally 3 - 6 items.
• Introduction (without heading)
• Material and Methods
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusion (without heading)
• Authorship Contribution Statement (This must include the contribution of each author in research and/or preparation of manuscript of the article.)
• Funding Source of Research
• References
• Tables
• Figures (separate file(s) preferably in JPEG, JPG format
• Titles and subtitles should not be run within the text. They should be typed on a separate line, without indentation. Use lower-case letter type.
• Names of 5 potential reviewers (along with their affiliation, contact details, specialization/ work interest and email ID) for the said manuscript (separate file).

The ICAR reserves the rights of returning the manuscript to the author for revision of accepted manuscripts and illustrations which are not in the proper form given in this guideline.

3. Manuscript Preparation

3.1 All the manuscripts should be prepared in Times New Roman, font size: 12 and spacing 1.5.  The manuscript of the paper starts with the title. It should be short, specific and informative. It should be phrased to identify the content of the article and include the nature of the study, and technical approach, which is essential for key-word indexing and information retrieval. Title should be as brief as possible, and include the species (with their scientific names in brackets), involved in the research when applicable. Abbreviations are not permitted in the title.

3.2 In addition, a short title/ running headlines not exceeding 50 letters should be provided.

3.3 The BYLINE should contain, in addition to the names and initials of the authors, the place where research was conducted. Naming an author on a paper implies that the person named is aware of the research reported and agrees with and accepts responsibility for any results or conclusions reported. The address of the institution should include the name of the institution, city, country and pin code. Present address should be given as a footnote. When a paper has several authors from different institutions, key the author to the address with superscript Arabic numerals and present the additional addresses as footnotes at the bottom of the page, e.g. Present address: Give designation, present address of all the authors and email of corresponding author.

¹Designation, Division of...( ¹email of first author); ²Designation, Division of...( if second author is from different division),³ Designation, Division of...(if the author is from different place).

3.4 ABSTRACT

1. An abstract is defined as an abbreviated accurate representation of the contents of a document, preferably prepared by its author(s) for publication with it. Such abstracts are also useful in access [abstracting] publications and machine-readable databases.
2. The abstract should be written in complete sentences, should not have more than 250 words. The abstract should start with a clear statement of the objectives of the experiment and must conclude with one or two sentences that highlight important conclusions. It should contain a very brief and consolidated account of the materials, methods, results, discussion and conclusion, so that the reader need not refer to the whole article except for details. It should not have references to literature, illustrations, tables and levels of significance (p value).
3. Abstracts are not given in Short Communication. Instead, a short Summary should be provided at the end of the article before listing the references.

3.5 Keywords: At the end of the abstract, up to six key words that best describe the nature of the research should be given in the alphabetical order. The major words in the subject matter, which are not used in the title, should be listed as key words.

• Major headings are MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION, SUMMARY (in case of Short Communications only) and REFERENCES.
  Major headings of review papers or special invited articles may deviate from this standard format; however, all papers must contain an abstract, key words, and an introduction. Abbreviations should be avoided in headings.

5.0 The INTRODUCTORY part should be brief and limited (~300 words) to the statement of the importance of the study, problem or the aim of the experiment. And may briefly justify the research and specify the hypotheses to be tested. The review of literature should be pertinent to the problem. Objective of the study should be discussed in view of latest references.

5.1 Authorities for the Latin binomial of every organism are not used in the title or summary, and only on the first mention in the main body of the text. Subsequent appearances may be in abbreviation of genus names followed by full species name. Gene names, loci, words and names in other languages should be in italics, proteins should be roman. Virus nomenclature (and acronyms) should follow the guidelines of the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). The current report is: van Regenmortel MHV, Fauquet CM, Bishop DHL (Eds) (2001) Virus Taxonomy: Seventh Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy Viruses. San Diego: Academic Press. Authors are also advised to check the ICTV website for the latest information. Biological nomenclature, as laid down in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature should be followed. www.sp2000.org websites may be checked for nomenclature. Chemical nomenclature should follow the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) definitive rules for nomenclature. Full names of chemicals should be given instead of common name or abbreviations.

5.2 Relevant details should be given of the crop, MATERIALS AND METHODS, including season/ year (period of study), place of study, experimental design and the techniques employed. Where the methods are well known, the citation of a standard work is sufficient. All modifications of procedures must be explained. Experimental materials and statistical models should be described clearly and fully. Calculations and the validity of deductions made from them should be checked and validated statistically. When possible, results of similar experiments should be pooled statistically. Units of measurement, symbols and standard abbreviations should conform to those recommended by the International Union of Bio-Chemistry (IUB) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Metric measurements are preferred, and dosages should be expressed entirely in metric units (SI units). In exceptional circumstances, others may be used, provided they are consistent. Give the meaning of all symbols immediately after the equation in which they are first used. Equations should be numbered serially at the right-hand side in parentheses. In general, only equations explicitly referred to in the text need be numbered. The use of fractional powers instead of root signs is recommended. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. In chemical formulae, valence of ions should be given as, e.g. Ca²⁺, not as Ca++. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols, e.g. ¹⁸O. The repeated writing of chemical formulae in the text is to be avoided where reasonably possible; instead, the name of the compound should be given in full. Exceptions may be made in the case of a very long name occurring very frequently or in the case of a compound being described as the end product of a gravimetric determination (e.g. phosphate as P₂O₅). Formulae and equations are placed in separate lines centrally aligned with font size 9.

5.3 The RESULTS AND DISCUSSION should be combined to avoid repetition.

Results should be presented in tabular form and graphs when feasible but not both. All the data must be presented in concise and cohesive manner. Tables and/ or figures should be given optimally, not exceeding six in each article. Additional data, only, if necessary, may be submitted as supplementary files to be published online only. The colour figures and plates, are printed when information would be lost if reproduced in black and white. Mean result with the relevant standard errors should be presented rather than raw data. The data should be so arranged that the tables would fit in the normal layout of the page. Tables and figures should be self-explanatory containing appropriate titles and footnotes. All the abbreviations used in the tables/ figures should be explained in the footnotes of respective data. The tabular matter should not exceed 20% of the text. Paginate the tables in series within the text. All tables should be cited in the text. References to footnotes in a table are specified by superscript numbers, independently for each table. Superscript letters are used to designate statistical significance. Use a lower-case p to indicate probability values (i.e. p<0.05). In general, use numerals. When two numbers appear adjacent to each other, spell out the first (i.e. ten 2-day old chicks rather than 10 2-d old chicks). In a series using some numbers less than 10 and some more than 10 use numerals for all (i.e. 2 splits, 6 plants were selected). Do not begin a sentence with a numeral. Spell it out or rearrange the sentence. Abbreviate the terms hour (h), minute (min) and second (sec) when used with a number in the text but spell them out when they are used alone. Inclusiveness or numerical range should be denoted using en-dash (–) (e.g. 12–14 mg or 3–4 week). Use Arabic numerals with abbreviated units of measure: 2 g, 5 d, $4.00, 3% and numerical designations in the text: exp 1, group 3, etc.

5.4 Author is required to submit high-resolution images, preferably with the initial submission but no later than revision stage. Electronic images (figures and schemes) must be at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. for line drawings (black and white) and 300 dpi. for colour or greyscale. Colour figures must be supplied in CMYK not RGB colours. Please ensure that the prepared electronic image files print at a legible size (with lettering of at least 2 mm).

A number of different file formats are acceptable, including: Tagged Image File Format (.tif), Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg), Graphics Interchange Format (.gif), Portable Network Graphics (.png), Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and Excel (.xls) but not Portable Document Format (PDF). However, figures should preferably be submitted in jpeg or jpg formats.

Please ensure that the figure is clearly labelled with its figure number.

The text should explain or elaborate on the tabular data, but data should not be repeated extensively within the text. Sufficient data, all with some index of variation attached, should be presented to allow the reader to interpret the results of the experiment. The discussion should interpret the results clearly and concisely in terms of biological mechanisms and should integrate literature results with the research findings to provide the reader with a broad base on which to accept or reject the hypotheses tested.

5.5 DISCUSSION should relate to the limitations or advantage of the author's experiments in comparison with the work of others. Authors must obtain permission to reproduce any copyright material, and include an acknowledgement of the source in their article. They should be aware that the unreferenced use of the published and unpublished ideas, writing or illustrations of others, or submission of a complete paper under a new authorship in a different or the same language, is plagiarism.

A one paragraph/ 4–5-lines Conclusion must be provided at the end of the results and discussion section in a new paragraph without heading to explain in general terms the implications of findings of the research on crops. Abbreviations, acronyms, or citations should not be used here.

Though some speculation is permitted, this section should also caution the reader against over extrapolation of results. For manuscripts with direct applications, this section will consist of an interpretive summary. If results have no implications, this should also be stated.

6.0 REFERENCES

• References should be cited in the text in Harvard Style i.e.  author-date style of referencing.
• A recent issue of the journal should be consulted for the methods of citation of References in the text as well as at the end of the article. Reference citations in the text are typed as follows: Black (1971) or (Black 1971); Dickerson et al. (1974) or (Dickerson et al. 1974); Smith and Jones (1977) or (Smith and Jones 1977).
• Groups of references cited in a sentence in the text must be listed in chronological order as in the previous sentence.
• REFERENCES lists should be typed in alphabetical order. The reference list should be first sorted alphabetically by author(s) and secondly chronologically.

For journal articles

Author(s). Year. Title. Journal title (full name and in italics) Volume number(bold): Page-page. <to be ended by period>

Example:
Panda D, Sharma S G and Sarkar R K. 2007. Chlorophyll fluorescence transient analysis and its association with submergence tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa).  The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 77(3): 344–48.

For whole books

Author(s). Year. Title (Italics)., edition if any, edn. Vol., page number. (Eds). Publisher, address.
Example:
Lombard P B and Waetwood M N. 1987. Rootstocks of Fruitcrops, pp. 145–83. Room C R and Carlson R F (Eds). A Wiley-Intescience Publication, New York.

 For chapters from books

Author(s). Year. Title. (In) book title, edition if any, edn. Vol., page number. (Eds). Publisher, address.

Example:

Lombard P B and Waetwood M N. 1987. Pear Rootstocks. (In) Rootstocks of Fruit crops, pp. 145–83. Room C R and Carlson R F (Eds). A Wiley-Intescience Publication, New York.

For Symposium

Author(s). Year. Title. (In) Name of symposium/ Proceeding, Place, Date, Volume (Issue), pp. Page.

Devegowda G, Raju M V L N, Afzali N and Swamy H V L N. 1998. Mycotoxin picture worldwide: Novel solutions for their counteraction. (In) Proceedings of 14^th Alltech's Annual Symposium on Biotechnology in the Feed Industry, Bangalore, 5 May 1997, pp. 241–55.

Authors should ensure that all references in the text appear at the end of the paper and vice-versa, and that names and dates at the two places correspond.

1. All articles are sent to referees for SCRUTINY and authors should meet criticism by improving the article.
2. Papers should be sent as MS Word file (including references and tables). Article (including illustrations) should be sent after a careful check-up of typographical errors.
3. The journal follows a strict anti-plagiarism policy. The submitted manuscript should have similarity index below 20% for processing.
4. Authors are requested consult The Council of Biology Editors Style Manual 7^th edn, American Institute of Biological Sciences, Washington DC.
5. Proof-correction should be in Track Change mode. All queries marked in the article should be answered and highlighted. Proofs are supplied for a check-up of the correctness of type setting and facts. Excessive alteration may be charged to the authors. The proofs should be returned within 3 days.
6. Please click here to download article certificate and upload the duly signed certificate by all the authors at the time of submission. Authors are advised to keep the original certificate for future references.