Instructions for authors

03/12/2019

The Journal of Kerbala for Agricultural Sciences (JKAS) is an official Journal of the College of Agriculture, University of Kerbala in Iraq. It is a scientific, peer-reviewed, open-access journal published quarterly that publishes high-quality research at the forefront of research and describes significant developments in all Agricultural and related sciences.

Submission preparation checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors who do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The Journal accepts original unpublished papers in different agricultural sciences.
  • The submission file is in Open Office, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 14-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's Guidelines.
  • Articles should be examined by academic referees, Author must corrections and comments made by the referees for acceptance.
  • The papers can be written and published in English, and the author (s) must submit the manuscript through the Journal website after registering and obtaining a username and password.
  • Use a Times New Roman line for the English language; both of them should have font sizes 14 for the text and 16 for the title, with a single space between the lines.
  • Papers should include English abstracts and shouldn't be more than 250 words.
  • Papers arrangement is as follows:  Abstract in the English language, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion,  acknowledgment (if found), and English References.
  • References should be listed according to Numeric style.
  • Tables &Figures should be clear and contain subtitles describing their contents.
  • The manuscript title should include the author's addresses, scientific titles, physical and e-mail addresses, and keywords.
  • The manuscript must not be more than 21 pages, with 2 cm left on each side of the paper.
  • The paper manuscript must be checked for plagiarism which should not exceed 20%.

Plagiarism

     All submitted manuscripts are checked for plagiarism by Turnitin software (online plagiarism detection software) and must pass any issue that occurs regarding plagiarism and similarities. Authors should ensure the originality of their content. Thus, manuscripts must be of scientific value and must not have been published elsewhere.

     COPE flow charts (below links) shall also be considered while dealing with plagiarism complaints.  

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be typed single-spaced. A font size of 14 points (Times New Roman) is preferred. They should be written in clear language. Page numbers should be located on the bottom center of every page. The title should be centered at the top of page 1. Capitalize the first letter of all words. The title should be followed by the author(s) name(s), affiliation(s), address(es), and e-mail.

Structure of manuscripts

 A detailed guide to authors is given below. The manuscripts submitted should be in accordance with these guidelines.

Title

 It should be brief and relevant. It must contain the essentials of the report and accurately reflect its contents (no author names or addresses).

Author names and affiliations

First Name, Second Name, Last Name should be written in FULL.
Department, College, University, and Country.
E-Mail

Abstract

The abstract should be clear and include an objective description of the article's contents and major significant findings. It should be concise and contain the objectives, methodology, main results, and conclusions. It should not exceed 250 words.

Keywords

At the end of the abstract, Appropriate 3-5 keywords must be provided.

Introduction

 A clear description of relevant literature should be included here.  It should be concise to the point and must explain clearly the objectives of the study by giving essential background in content to relevant literature.

Materials and Methods

must explicitly describe the materials used, the analytical techniques followed, and the procedures employed for the data analysis. When using the standard method, provide a complete reference. In case a modified method has been applied, then the modification must be elaborated. The year and place of study, laboratory (s) must be indicated. Experimental design (if applicable) and statistical techniques employed for data analysis must be mentioned clearly

Results and Discussion

An extensive discussion of the proposal work and a discussion of the results are shown here. It could either be combined or treated separately. The results should be concisely presented using tables and figures. The same data may not be used in both. Appropriate statistical data should be given. Discussion must be developed logically in a proper sequence and should cover the implications and consequences not merely recapitulating the results. 

Acknowledgment (s)

If any, should precede references. 

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when judgment regarding the research is influenced by factors such as financial gain or personal relationships. All authors are required to disclose any financial, personal, or other associations that may influence, or be perceived to influence their work.

 Ethics 

The corresponding author hereby confirms that ethics were considered for this research and that the article is original, and its contents are unpublished. The co-author has read and approved the manuscript for submission.

 Citations

Citations should be referenced in the text using the Numeric style. When you refer to another document you must acknowledge this within the text of your work with a citation. A citation is a number between two square brackets [reference number]. The first item you cite is numbered [1] and the second is numbered [2] and so on. Sometimes you may need to refer to two documents at the same point in the text. Separate the citations with a comma [2,3]. Multiple citations are treated as a range [2-5]. If you need to cite an item more than once in your document, use the same number every time. You should use the smallest number - the one used when the item is first cited in the document. Do not include the page numbers in the citation, even for a table or image.

References

The references should be (Numeric style).

Examples of reference listing format:

Journal articles

  • Abbas, M. and Cheema, K. J. (2015). Arsenic levels in drinking water and associated health risk in District Sheikhupura, Pakistan. Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 25(3): 719-724.

Proceedings

  • Hussein, M. H.; Nawaf, H. N. and Bhaya, W. S. (2017). Exploiting the shared neighborhood to improve the quality of social community detection. In New Trends in Information & Communications Technology Applications (NTICT), 2017 Annual Conference (pp. 52-56). 

Books

  • Longmore, J.M.; Wilkinson, I.B.; Baldwin, A. and Wallin E. (2014). Oxford Handbook of clinical medicine 9th editionOxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Chapter Book

  • Tricco, A.C.; Tetzlaff, J.; Moher, D. (2013). Knowledge synthesis. In Straus SE, Tetroe J, Graham ID. editors.Knowledge translation in health care: moving from evidence to practice 2nd edition. Wiley, New Jersey, USA: 29-49.

E-books

Website

  • FAOSTAT (2017). FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations statistics). Retrieved on July 4, 2019, from http://www.fao.org/faostat/en /#data/QC.

Thesis

  • Sangoyomi, T. (2004). Post-harvest Fungal deterioration of yam (Dioscorea rotundata. Poir) and its Control. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Tables and figures

The tables should be organized similarly to the text so that the numbers of tables and figures can be read without turning the page sideways (if possible). Large tables should be avoided. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should include the International Standard abbreviations(s) of their respective units of measurement included between parentheses. They should be mentioned as: Table (number of the table): title of the table...

Figures must be included in the center of the page, close to where it is first referred to, preferably immediately below the paragraph where the data was mentioned. All figures must be identified with a number and followed by a brief but intelligible statement that describes the data provided. They should be mentioned as: Figure (number of the figure): title of the figure followed by the description.

Proofs

One set of galley proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for typographical checking only. It should be returned within three days of receipt. Further changes will not be possible.

Reprints

Authors will receive a complimentary copy of the printed journal upon request.