Instruction for Authors

RKGP Journal of Plant Science and Agricultural Research (RKGP JPSAR) publishes high-quality research articles, review papers and short communications. The journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and academic excellence. All articles published in RKGP JPSAR are peer-reviewed. After acceptance, a paper is published on its turn.

 

Submit manuscripts: Authors should read the Editorial Policy and Ethical Publishing Practice before submitting their manuscripts. Authors should also use the appropriate reporting guidelines in preparing their manuscripts. Electronic submission of manuscripts via the manuscript management portal is strongly encouraged (Author needs to do a one-time registration by clicking “Register” and subsequently login). Manuscript can also be submitted as e-mail attachment to the Editorial Office at rjcsar@rkgpjournals.org provided that the text, tables, and figures are included in a single Microsoft word file. An acknowledgement mail as well as a manuscript number will be mailed to the corresponding author same day and within 72 hours respectively upon receipt of manuscript.

 

Cover letter: The cover letter should include the corresponding author’s full address and email address. The authors may also suggest two to three reviewers (names and emails) for the manuscript.

 

Research Ethics

Studies involving human subjects should be conducted according to the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects while studies involving non-human animals should follow appropriate ethical guidelines such as the Animal Welfare Act, The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (Amendment) Order 1993, The EU parliament directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes,  ARRP policies and guidelines, etc.

 

Reporting guideline

Responsible reporting of research studies, which includes a complete, transparent, accurate and timely account of what was done and what was originated during a research study, is an integral part of good research and publication practice. See additional guidelines for reporting of health research.

 

Article Types

The manuscripts may be submitted in the following three formats:

 

Original Scientific articles (Full Length Research Paper): These should describe latest findings, and experimental procedures should be given in sufficient detail for others to verify and repeat the work.

 

Short Communications: A short communication is suitable for recording the results of complete small investigations or giving details of view models or hypotheses, innovative methods, techniques or apparatus. The style of main sections need not conform to that of full-length papers. Short communications are 2 to 4 printed pages (about 6 to 12 manuscript pages) in length.

 

Review: Submissions of reviews and perspectives covering topics of current interest are welcome and encouraged. Reviews should be concise and no longer than 4-6 printed pages (about 12 to 18 manuscript pages). Reviews manuscripts are also peer-reviewed.

 

Preparation of manuscript

The type of article should determine the manuscript structure. However, the general structure for articles should follow the IMRAD structure.

 

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

 

Title: The title should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the paper. The Title Page should include the authors’ full names (first-name, middle-name, and last-name) should be listed as well as the affiliations of authors (departments and institutions), emails and phone numbers names and the name of the corresponding author along with phone and e-mail information.

 

Abstract: The abstract should be informative and completely self-explanatory, briefly present the topic, state the scope of the experiments, indicate significant data, and point out major findings and conclusions. The Abstract should be 100 to 200 words in length. Complete sentences, active verbs, and the third person should be used, and the abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited. Abstract may be presented either in unstructured or structured format.

 

Key words: Following the abstract, about 3 to 5 key words that will provide indexing references should be listed.

 

Abbreviations: Abbreviation(s) should be used only for non-standard and very long terms.

 

Introduction: The introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem in a clear and concise manner, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of scientific disciplines.

 

Materials and Methods: It should be complete enough to allow experiments to be reproduced. However, only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Subheadings should be used.

 

Results and Discussion: The results and discussion should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in the authors’ experiments. Previously published findings should be written in the present tense. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. 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 interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies on this topic. Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.

 

Conclusion: State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper

 

Acknowledgments: The acknowledgment of people, grants, funds, etc. should be brief.

 

Disclosure of conflict of interest: Authors should disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the study.

 

Tables and Figures

Tables should be kept to a minimum.

Tables should have a short descriptive title.

The unit of measurement used in a table should be stated.

Tables should be numbered consecutively.

Tables should be organized in Microsoft Word or Excel spreadsheet.

Figures/Graphics should be prepared in GIF, TIFF, JPEG or PowerPoint.

Tables and Figures should be appropriately cited within the text of the manuscript.

Tables and Illustrations should be arranged at the end or typed on separate sheets and numbered in Roman numerals. Lower-case superscript letters should indicate footnotes to tables. All tables must be cited in the text. Illustrations (referred as photographs, line graphs or bar charts) should be either in black and white or colored. Scan of photographs may be supplied using Tiff or JPG file separately or inserted in the text. Legends for illustrations should be numbered consecutively to correspond with the figures.

 

References: In the text, a reference identified by means of an author’s name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. When there are more than two authors, only the first author’s name should be mentioned, followed by ‘et al‘ in italics. 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 date to distinguish the works. For Example: Smith (2008), Jack et al. (2007), (Hanna and Smith, 2009), (Sarah, 2001; Nishinari, 2006 a,b; Kyuto, 2001, 2007), (Allen et al., 2004)

References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text. Journal names are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts. DOIs, PubMed IDs and links to referenced articles should be stated wherever available. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Examples:

Conrado, L.S., Veredas, V., Nobrega, E.S and Santana, C.C (2005). Concentration of α-lactalbumin from cow milk whey through expanded bed adsorption using a hydrophobic resin. J. Chem. Eng. 2006 22(4): 501 – 509

Regenstein, O.B (2005). Determination of fatty acid profile of sesame seeds. Appl. J. Chem. Microbiol. 18:123-129

Benjamin, F.K (2009). Mechanisms of fungal pathogenesis in insects with particular reference to locusts. In: Lomer CJ, Prior C (eds) Biological Controls of Locusts and Grasshoppers: Proceedings of an international workshop held at Cotonou, Benin. Oxford: CAB International, pp 181-190.

Goren A, Laufer J, Yativ N, Kuint J, Ben Ackon M, Rubinshtein M, Paret G, Augarten A (2001). Transillumination of the palm for venipuncture in infants. Pediatric. Emerg. Care 17:130-131.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00006565-200104000-00013      PMid:11334094

Baumert J, Kunter M, Blum W, Brunner M, Voss T, Jordan A, Klusmann U, Krauss S, Neubrand M, Tsai YM (2010). Teachers` mathematical knowledge, cognitive activation in the classroom, and student progress. Am. Educ. Res. J. 47(1):133-180.

http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0002831209345157

 

Short Communications: Short Communications are limited to a maximum of two figures and one table. They should present a complete study that is more limited in scope than is found in full-length research papers. The items of manuscript preparation listed above apply to Short Communications with the following differences:

Abstracts are limited to 100 words;

instead of a separate Materials and Methods section, experimental procedures may be incorporated into Figure Legends and Table footnotes;

Results and Discussion should be combined into a single section.

 

Review Process: All manuscripts are reviewed by an editor and members of the Editorial Board or qualified outside reviewers. Decisions will be made as rapidly as possible, and the journal strives to return reviewer’s comments to authors within 4 weeks. The editorial board will re-review manuscripts that are accepted pending revision. It is the goal of the RKGP-JPSAR to publish manuscripts within 8 weeks after submission.

 

Acceptance Certificate: Authors are issued an Acceptance Certificate for manuscripts that have been reviewed and accepted for publication by an editor.

 

Payment of manuscript handling fee: Once a manuscript has been accepted, the corresponding author will be contacted to make the necessary payment of the manuscript handling fee. Kindly note that on the manuscript management portal, the “make payment” option is only enabled for manuscripts that have been accepted for publication. An invoice as the handling fee of $500 (USD) will be billed to the authors for each manuscript accepted for publication. Note: Publication of an article in the RKGP Journal of Plant Science and Agricultural Research (RKGP JPSAR) is not dependent upon the author’s ability to pay the handling fee. Neither is acceptance to pay the handling fee a guarantee that the paper will be accepted for publication. Under some special circumstances, authors may request in advance for publication fee support.

 

Proofs and Reprints: Upon satisfactory revision, acceptance and receipt of publication charges, the manuscripts are typeset. Galley proofs are prepared and sent to authors for correction, which should be sent back to the editorial office within 72 hours. Only minor corrections (not more than 5% of the data or text) are allowed at this stage. If the corrected proofs are not received by due date, the Editorial Office will make corrections and send the papers for final printing. Handling of proofs is done electronically. No copy of the journal will be sent to the authors. Only PDF of the final manuscript will be emailed to the corresponding author after publication. Hard copies may be provided on the payment of extra charges in advance.

 

Publication and Notification: Once galley proofs corrections are effected at the editorial office, the manuscripts are usually included in the next issue of the journal. The article will thereafter be published on the journal’s website. After the article is made available on the journal’s website, a publication notice is sent to the corresponding author with links to the issue and article.

 

Copyright: Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis) that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher.