Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines (Updated August, 2022)

Aim and Scope

Nepal Agriculture Research Journal; a peer reviewed and open access journal published by Society of Agricultural Scientists Nepal (SAS-Nepal) abbreviated as Nep. Agric. Res. J. publishes original (not published or submitted for publication elsewhere) research and review or feature or vision articles written in English (use US or British English but be consistent throughout the manuscript).  The scopes of Nepal Agriculture Research Journal include, but are not limited to, the following fields of: Agricultural economics, Agricultural extension, Agricultural engineering,  Animal science and veterinary Science, Aquaculture and fisheries, Agronomy, Entomology, Plant pathology, Soil science, Food science, Genetic engineering, Horticulture, Irrigation science, Land use and waste management in agriculture, Agricultural ecology,  Plant and animal biotechnology, Plant breeding and genetics, Production ecology, Sociology of agriculture, Agricultural chemistry, Conservation agriculture, Agro-forestry and pasture and fodder science, Scientific writing and communication in agriculture, Agricultural statistics and bioinformatics.

Why submit:

  • Promotion of each published article,

  • Constructive peer review by specialists,

  • Worldwide dissemination of research results.

Criteria for publication

The primary criteria for judging the acceptability of a manuscript are: its originality, scientific importance and interest to a general agriculture audience. 

The criteria for an article to be accepted and published are:

  • The article should be written in Standard English.

  • The article should be written following the “guidelines for manuscript.”

  • The article should be written in correlation with its title and abstract.

  • The results should be supported with adequate and appropriate discussion.

  • Conclusions are presented in an appropriate fashion.

  • The article as not been published elsewhere.

  • The article should be of interest to the broad community.

  • The article should be original research and scientifically effective.

  • The article contents must not be plagiarized.

Authors interested to publish their articles in the journal are requested to submit online through https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NARJ/about/submissions. All authors must submit a cover letter mentioning why the contents in submitted paper is of interest to scientific community, researchers and general readers, and novelty (key new findings). The letter should also mention that the paper has not been submitted to any other journals for review and publication. The corresponding author must sign the Copyright and  Agreement Form at the time of submission of his/her manuscript. All papers are screened first for format and style as per this guidelines. The paper might be returned immediately, if guidelines are not met, and resubmission of such revised manuscript is encouraged. Paper after accepting at first stage screening will assign a number and go for review process.

Each manuscript submitted to the editorial committee is registered and reviewed by at least two peer reviewers. All authors and reviewers are requested not to change the file name; however, words can be added at the last of the file name. Manuscripts that need improvement as suggested by the reviewers and editorial committee will be returned to corresponding author for correction and incorporation of the comments. The corrected version of the manuscript should be submitted within 7 days to the Managing Editor. If plagiarism crosses the limits, the paper will be returned to the author for revision. The author will have a chance to proofread after print setting.

Authors are encouraged to have colleagues review a manuscript before submitting it for publication. Additional authorities are consulted as necessary to confirm the scientific merit of any part or all of the manuscript. A reviewer is asked to review the manuscript and to transmit within 2-3 weeks. Each reviewer makes a specific recommendation for the manuscript based on the following aspects that are applicable:

  • Importance of the research

  • Originality of the work

  • Appropriateness of the approach and experimental design

  • Adequacy of experimental techniques

  • Soundness of conclusions and interpretations

  • Relevance of discussion

  • Clarity of presentation and organization of the article

  • English composition

Publication in the journal is free of charge. One printed copy for an author will be available freely from SAS-Nepal office, Khumaltar. On request, electronic file of the published article will be provided on PDF format and all papers published in any volume of this journal are downloadable from https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NARJ/issue/archive

Journal Features

  • DOI to each paper

  • Open access

  • Abstracted and indexed in many database

  • Free of cost for publication and access

  • Peer reviewed of article

  • ORCID number of first author

  • Plagiarism check for each paper

  • ISSN 1029-533X (Print)

  • Journal own URL and also available at NepJoL

  • Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Organization of the Manuscript

The manuscript should be typed in A4 size page in single space (Times New Roman) in MS-Word. Use normal text and do not format text, Table other than as mentioned in this guideline. Capitalize the initial of each keywords in title with 14 font size and capitalize first level HEADINGS, capitalize initial of each keywords in Sub-headings. Capitalize initial letter of Table and Figure. Bold all HEADINGS and Sub headings. Do not use period (.) in very common abbreviations for example eg, etc, et al, ie, Rs, Mr, Dr, spp, sp. All years should be in English calendar and write single year, not two years as 2015/16. Generally harvesting time as well as year of longer growing period determines the year. Use ‘and’ instead of &. Do not provide space before percentage sign of any value (67%) and use word per or symbol (/ mostly in Table and Figure) not superscript. Italicize non-English words and scientific name and it should be followed by authority and genetics (eg Oryza sativa L., 2n=2x=24). Capitalize first letter after colon. Use Times New Roman with 12 font size for general text (body); 10 for abstract, keywords, TableFigure, acknowledgments and references. Do not keep any things in text box. Foot note or Table foot note, header, footer and source should be italicized with 12 font size. Use one point font size larger than text for headings, sub headings, Table caption and Figure caption. Make appropriate color for TableFigureTitle, HEADINGS and sub headings (see latest issue for color use). Color is used for title, headings, sub-headings, Table lines, Figures, column headings, headers, all link address (email, URL, etc) without underline, words Table and Figure. Do not justify title, HEADINGS, sub headings, Table caption, Figure caption, authors name and address, keywords, text column, etc.

 Title and Author

The title should be informative and unique started with keyword but concise and clear and should reflect the content of the paper. It should be in title case. Abbreviated and shortcut word should not be used in the title. Provide running title (short as much as possible). If common name of any species or genotypes are available, mention only common name and not scientific name in the title. Below the title, name and the address of all authors should be given. Write the addresses of the authors at the time of the work reported in the paper. Indicate current or postal addresses as a footnote on the first page of the paper, if the address is different from workplace. The initials of the middle names and full form of first and family names, full address of each author should be written and indicate the corresponding author using symbol @. Provide email address of all authors, in case of multiple authors with same address other than corresponding author, give email of each author indicating by initials eg (BKJ <joshibalak@yahoo.com>; TBG <tek_fisheries@hotmail.com>). Corresponding author must mention ORCID (visit this site for getting this ID, https://orcid.org/) as  http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7848-5824  just after email address.

ABSTRACT

Every manuscript (article) must have a short abstract (not more than 250 words), which should be complete itself but it should be concise and clear without any cited references. Abstract should highlight rationale, objectives, materials and methods, important results and conclusion written in a manner so that it is suitable for direct reproduction in abstracting journals. Keywords (not more than 5 words or four to six words) should be written below the abstract in alphabetical order. Authors and subjects index are published at volume number that are divisible by 4. The font size should be 10 (Times New Roman) for abstract, keywords and article info.

 INTRODUCTION

Should give appropriate background and explain the things that are proposed. It should include short introduction to justify the research and relevant reviews and state the objectives clearly.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Should include description of experimental materials, procedures and statistical design used as well as method to analyze the results. New methods should be described in detail and for methods developed by earlier researcher, only reference may be cited. However we prefer detail methodology. Report the location, geo-references (altitude, latitude and longitude, etc) and date of experiment conducted. Write scientific name with authority, common and local name of organism. If possible mention chromosome number of organism as 2n=2x=24 for Oryza sativa L.

RESULTS

Results and discussion should be under different headings. Results should be presented in a concise manner avoiding data that are already given in Tables and Figures.

DISCUSSION

Discussion part should not repeat the results but should explain and interpret the data based on the published relevant studies. Insert graph and Table wherever necessary and number them sequentially within each paper (article). The conclusion, recommendation and possible impact (if any) should be based on the supporting data. But there should not be a separate heading for conclusion and recommendation.

Units of Measurement:

 All units and measures should be in the metric system or in the International System Units (SI) and should be abbreviated for technical values. Local units and measures can be used in parenthesis. Currency exchange rates should be in US$ along with the local currency for the appropriate date for any prices cited.

Reporting Time and Dates:

Use 12-hr time system with four digits, the first two for hours and the last two for minutes (eg 02:30 pm). Dates are reported with day of the month first, then month, followed by the year without comma (,) eg 7 Aug 2000.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledge the person and/or institution and funding agencies, if necessary, who actually help to achieve the objectives of the research. If research is project base, it is suggested to include project brief.

REFERENCES

Only the papers closely related to the authors’ work should be referred in the text by author’s family name and the year of publication and be cited in an alphabetical order. When quoting (citing) references in the text, the last names of the authors for up to two authors (eg Joshi 2015, Gurung and Shrestha 2011) and last name of the first author followed by et al for more than two authors (eg Singh et al 2014) should be given followed by the year of publication within parenthesis. Do not use comma (,) before year or to separate family name and year, do not use period (.) in et al, eg, etc, ed, eds and initials of author name, do not give space between two initials of author name and in between volume and page numbers, do not justify references list, give 0.3” hanging indent to each reference list, capitalize each keyword in title of book, proceedings, workshop, etc. When references made to more than one publication by the authors in the same year, the publication should be numbered as (a) and (b) of that year with the earliest publication the year being designated (a) and so on. Each reference should contain first author’s family name followed by his/her first initial name and the middle name (initial only) and the co-author/s with initials of the first and the middle names followed by family name/s, year of publication (English calendar), title of the research article/s, name of the journal or name and place of publisher (in case of book), volume number and page number/s. If no authority is available for citation, credit the work to the publisher. Please refer following examples for reference citing. Provide the link for references that are available online. If DOI is available, provide at the end of reference in the format as DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.87.12.4576. Bold DOI, volume number (5:34-56), pp (pp.67-70) and In (in case of book chapter, proceedings etc (In: Agrobiodiversity …).

For electronic sources follow as the same kind of material in print, starting with the author, year, title and then giving further information as for a chapter or journal article and add the on line address URL and the date of information accessed. If web address is too long, shorten it through https://goo.gl and cite this short link in the text. For reference without date, write DNA (date not available) in the place of year, eg Maharjan B. DNA.

Journal

Joshi BK, S Gyawali and DS Poudyal. 2002. Regression analyses and multiple comparison procedures: Uses and misuses. J. Institute Sci. Tech. 12:69-81.

Book

Cochran WG and GM Cox. 1968. Experimental Designs. 2nded, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.

Lewis WH, ed. 1980. Polyploidy: Biological Relevance. Plenum Press, New York.

Book Chapter and Proceedings

Yuan LP, ZY Yang and JB Yang. 1994. Hybrid rice in China. In: Hybrid Rice Technology: New Development and Future Prospects (SS Virmani, ed). IRRI, the Philippines; pp.143-147.

Joshi BK, KP Shrestha, A Mudwari, SP Khatiwada, BK Baniya and BR Sthapit. 2003. Process documentation on deployment of rice and buckwheat diversity through participatory varietal selection for specific adaptation. In: On-farm Management of Agricultural Biodiversity in Nepal (B Sthapit, M Upadhyay and BK Joshi, eds). Proc. National Workshop, 24-26 April 2001, Lumle; NARC, LIBIRD and IPGRI; pp.229-232.

Annual Report

NWRP. 1980. Rice-wheat system: Opportunities and constraints. In: Annual Report1980. National Wheat Research Program (NWRP), Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Bhairahawa, Rupandehi, Nepal; pp.60-65.

Genebank. 2013. Annual Report 2069/70 (2011/12) (BK Joshi, KH Ghimire and D Singh, eds). National Agriculture Genetic Resources Center (Genebank), NARC, Khumaltar.

Serials, NewsletterJoshi BK, MR Bhatta and KH Ghimire. 2013. Shali Dhan: Elite line of rice from Far West Nepal developed under the pre-breeding program in Genebank, Khumaltar. NARC Newsletter 20(4):5.

Web Material

Pretty J. 2003. Genetic modification: Overview of benefits and risks. http://www2.essex.ac.uk/ces/.

Thesis and Dissertation

Joshi BK. 2000. Assessment of the potential of Nepalese rice cultivars and landraces for hybrid production. Master Thesis. Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, Nepal.

Paper Presented in Workshop or Seminar

Generally, don’t cite presentation, in case of necessity followed this style. The author can consider abstract publication of such workshop.

Upadhyay MP, BK Baniya, BK Joshi, HB KC and D Gauchan. 2003. On-farm management of agrobiodiversity: Experiences of Nepal. Paper presented in: International Conference on Himalayan Biodiversity (ICHB 2003), 26-28 Feb 2003, Kathmandu.

Personal Communication and Unpublished Article

These can be mentioned directly in the text in parenthesis (eg RC Sharma 2014 personal communication, TB Gurung 2016 email correspondence).

Nepali Language References

If references are in Nepali languages, first write authors’ name and year in English and write title in Roman. Remaining parts eg publisher, address, page number, etc are same as other publications and at last write In Nepali language) within parenthesis.

Khatri BH, BP Luitel and D Chaudhary. 2015. Nepalma Sifarish tatha unmochan gariyeko aaluko jaatharu: Ek parichaya. NPRP, NARC, Khumaltar (in Nepali language).

Thesis or Dissertation If the manuscript to be published is from his/her thesis or dissertation, it should be indicated at the footnote of the first page.

 Table: Each Table with a number and proper title heading should be prepared and sorted appropriately. Use the following symbols for footnotes in the order shown: †, ‡, §, ¶, #, ††, ‡‡, etc. The single (*) and double asterisks (**) are used to indicate statistical significance and have priority in this order to show 5 and 1% levels of significance, respectively. Do not repeat information in the text presented in charts or graph. Use 10 font size and bold word Table. The title of table should not be bold. Table caption and column headings with only horizontal lines. When necessary, provide actual p-value.

Figure: Each Figure and/or graph with a number and the proper title heading should be drawn or prepared. Figure/picture should be with good color so it can be printed well in black and whiteUse 10 font size and bold word Figure. The title of figure should not be bold, use period (.) at the end of caption. Provide Figure both in Word and Excel format or original picture with high resolution (editable one). If there are many images, they can be arranged in tabular cells. Do not abbreviate Figure as Fig. if there is no line at the bottom of any drawing, underline the drawing to separate such picture from its caption.

The footnote of table should have 10 font size.

 So far as possible, Table and Figure should be either one-column width or two-column width in portrait orientation.

  This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)