Submissions

Author Guidelines

INTRODUCTION

SAARC Journal of Agriculture (SJA) is one of the official journals of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and published from SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), Dhaka, Bangladesh.  It is an open accessed, peer-reviewed international journal with two issues in each year. The aim of the journal is to advance and share scientific knowledge in all spheres of agricultural sciences. The SJA welcomes the manuscripts relevant to the SAARC Member States namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Articles from rest of the world are also welcome subject to its applicability over the agricultural sciences.

SCOPE OF JOURNAL

Topics include (but are not restricted to):

Crop: Agronomy, soil science, plant breeding and genetics, cytogenetics, post-harvest processing and agricultural engineering, agricultural biotechnology, agro-forestry, horticultural sciences, microbiology, pest, weed control, molecular biology, plant pathology, innovative technology, crop modeling, physiology and biochemistry, stress breeding, land use, forestry, climate change, conservation agriculture, extension, economics, watershed, farm mechanization, etc.

Livestock: Animal nutrition/ biotechnology/ production and management/genetics and breeding/ physiology/ reproduction, meat science, dairy technology, veterinary medicine/bacteriology/ virology/ surgery/ public health/ immunology/ parasitology/ epidemiology, fodder production and conservation, poultry production and management, nutraceuticals, safe food production, antimicrobial usages and antimicrobial resistance, greenhouse gas emission and mitigation, veterinary extension etc.

Fisheries: Aquaculture- coldwater, freshwater, brackish-water/ marine, inland fisheries/ fish nutrition and biochemistry/ aquatic animal health/ ecosystem/ processing and value addition/ climate change/ fisheries economics/ resource management/ fish genetics and bio-technology/ aquaculture engineering etc.

Socio economics/cross cutting issues:

Gender mainstreaming, agricultural market, food safety, value chain system, food systems, safe food, biofortification, Policy, nutrition etc.

TYPE OF ARTICLES

Authors are requested to mention the type of articles i.e., original research article, review, case study and short communication. At the time of submitting the article, the corresponding author must choose one or more areas mentioned above.

SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES

Articles from all SAARC Member Countries are invited. Nevertheless, manuscript from rest of the world with direct or indirect impact on agriculture/ livestock/ fisheries will also be considered for publication subject to its applicability in the SAARC region. Manuscripts complete in all aspects may be e-mailed to the editorial desk (saarcjournal@yahoo.com). For any queries regarding the submission, potential authors are requested to contact with editorial desk of SAARC Journal of Agriculture through email.

COVERING LETTER TO THE MANAGING EDITOR

During submission of articles, it is compulsory to include a covering letter to the managing editor. The covering letter must be attached separately stating following:

• Broad topic (crop science or livestock or fishery or cross cutting issues);
• That all the authors have given consent to submit the manuscript to the SJA;
• It is the original work of the authors and all authors have contributed significantly for the pursuance of research;
• The manuscript is not submitted to any other journal or not under consideration for publication elsewhere;
• State the novelty in results/findings, or significance of results (two to three bullet points);
• Three potential referees name, affiliation, mail id, and reason for their selection.
  

STRUCTURE

Follow this order while preparing the manuscript:

TITLE PAGE

Title, details of authors (names, affiliations, email), abstract, keywords, corresponding author. The corresponding author should be marked using asterisk (check the spelling)

MAIN MANUSCRIPT

Title, names of authors, abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and method, results and discussion (combined), conclusion including future researchable issues, acknowledgment, conflict of interest if any, reference, tables with title, figure with captions.

TEXT LAYOUT

Prepare manuscript using ‘Times New Roman’ with font size 12 pt having double spacing and wide (0.3 cm) margins on right and left side in word format. Please ensure that each new paragraph is clearly indicated. Present table and figure with appropriate title and caption, respectively. Number all pages consecutively using 12 pt. font size and standard fonts.

MANUSCRIPT LENGTH

The maximum word count of the manuscript should be restricted to 5000, 4000, and 2500 for review, original research article and case-study/short communication, respectively.

PEER REVIEW

The SJA is a journal that operates on single blind review process. All submitted manuscripts are initially assessed by the editorial desk for its scientific merit and suitability of publication in the SJA. Manuscripts deemed appropriate are then sent to expert reviewer to assess the scientific merit of the article. The reviewer’s comments are communicated to the corresponding author and she/ he is expected to comply with recommendations/ suggestions. The author is expected to revise the manuscript after incorporating suggestions or remarks of the referee. The changes of the revised manuscript need to be marked in different colour. Finally, the corresponding author will submit revised manuscript with colour marking, cleaned version and compliance report in separate files.  The editorial team is responsible for the final decision regarding the publication of the manuscript.

ARTICLE STRUCTURE (Research articles)

Authors are requested to divide their manuscript into clearly defined sections as mentioned below:

TITLE

Please be concise and informative as it is often being used for the scientific information retrieval.  Title should be self-explanatory to convey message about the article. Avoid stale words. A small running title may be provided.

ABSTRACT

The manuscript should contain an abstract. It should be self-contained and citation-free, and should not exceed 250 words. An ideal abstract should contain introductory lines, objectives, materials and method, results and conclusions of the experiment. Abbreviations that appear in the abstract must be defined before they are first used.

KEYWORDS

List up to 5 keywords in alphabetical order and separated by comma at the end of the abstract. The first letter of each of the keyword should be in upper case.

INTRODUCTION

Introduce the topic with relevant and appropriate background information evading detailed literature survey or results. Try to use latest references. This should not exceed three pages.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Describe the methods in such a way that an independent researcher could reproduce the same during their future investigation. Methods which are already published should be mentioned in brief citing the reference. Any modifications or changes made on the established protocol should be described in detail. 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results should be elaborated clearly and briefly. Discuss significance of the results based on available and published literature. Repeated citation and discussion should be avoided.

UNITS

Please follow internationally accepted rules. Always use the international system of units (SI).

CONCLUSION

The main conclusions arrived from results should be presented briefly (maximum 150 words). Authors may also point out the future research scope on the particular topic. Should be avoided repetition of sentences.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It should appear at the end of the article, before the references. Provide funding details with project or sanction number. Please acknowledge the individuals (if any) who have extended help during the research, assisted in language editing, helped in procurement of research materials etc.

ARTICLE STRUCTURE (Short communication)

It should restrict the word count to 2500 including title, names of authors and affiliation, abstract (150 words), brief introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion (combined), references, relevant tables and figures.

ARTICLE STRUCTURE (Review)

It should restrict the word count to 5000 including title, name of authors and affiliation, abstract (250 words), introduction, aim, headings and sub-headings (context specific), references, relevant tables and figures. The authors of the review should have adequate number of research publications on the subject. 

Reference style in Text

1. Single author: the author surname followed by year of publication (Singh, 2020).
2. Two authors: both authors surnames followed by the year of publication (Singh and Jahan, 2020).
3. Three or more authors: first author surname followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication (Singh et al., 2020).

REFERENCES

Restrict the references which are relevant to the particular topic. Recent and relevant, not more than 20 years old references are encouraged;

All references quoted in the text must appear at the end of the article and vice-versa. The spelling of names of author and date or year at the two places should be carefully checked;

The references should include names of all authors, year (within brackets), full title of the article, full name of the journal (in italic, no abbreviation), volume number, issue number in bracket, and pages. For book or monograph, the name of the publisher should also be given as well as its volume, edition and relevant pages;

The references cited together in the text should be arranged chronologically. The list of references should be arranged in alphabetical order. A few examples for correct citation of references are mentioned herewith.

Journal Article

Khan, M.M.H. (2018). Abundance, damage severity and management of guava mealybug, Ferrisia virgata CkII. SAARC Journal of Agriculture, 16(2): 73-82.

Khan, M.M.H., Islam, M.M., Asaduzzaman, M. and Uddin, M.N. (2018). Mutants and weather parameters affecting the population dynamics of three major insect pests of mungbean. SAARC Journal of Agriculture, 16(2): 1-12.

Reference to a journal publication with an article number

Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J. and Lupton, R.A. (2018). The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon, 19: e00205.

Book/ policy brief

Gyeltshen, K. and Sharma, S. (2019). Integrated plant nutrition system modules for major crops and cropping systems in South Asia. SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pp. 176.

Ali, Y., Shrestha, R.B., Bokhtiar, S.M. and Samanta, A.K. (2019). Food safety in South Asia: Challenge, opportunity and policy perspectives. SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pp. 184

George, G. and Hassan, M.S. (2020). Policy brief on “Guidelines for ensuring sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture in South Asia”. SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pp. 1-4.

Chapter in a Book

Bhatta, R., Anandan, S. and Giridhar, K. 2019. Livestock feeds and feeding practices in India. In: Samanta, Ashis Kumar, Bokhtiar, Shaikh Mohammad and Ali, Mohammad Younus (Editors). Livestock feeds and feeding practices in South Asia. SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pp. 64 - 100.

Conference/Symposium/ Proceedings

Joshi, B.K. (2004). Crossing frequency and ancestors used in developing Nepalese mid and high hill rice cultivars: Possible criteria for yield improvement and rice genes conservation. Proceedings of 4^th National Conference on Science and Technology held at Kathmandu, Nepal. Pp. 502-523.

Reference to a website

Cancer Research UK. (2003). Cancer statistics reports for the UK.  https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/bowel-cancer. Accessed on 8^th June, 2019.

Figures

The number of figures should be restricted to 4 and it should have title below the figure. Citation of figures should appear within the main manuscript chronologically.

Tables

The number of tables should be restricted to 4, should be numbered and have title (above the table). Avoid large tables, which are not comprehendible. In case of large tables, the data could be presented using graphs for better understanding. Citation of table should appear within the main manuscript chronologically. The combined number of tables and figures should be restricted to eight only.

Abbreviations

Should use internationally accepted abbreviations. New abbreviation for manuscript should be defined during their first use.

Authorship and its sequence

Before submission, authors are anticipated to consider carefully the list and order of authors and mention the definitive order of authors at the time of the original submission based on their contribution. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names will lead to rejection of the manuscript by the editorial board of the journal. Only in exceptional circumstances, the corresponding author can submit such request through their head of organization stating the reason.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Authors should follow “guide for authors” stringently, else the manuscript would be rejected without peer review. Editors reserve the right to adjust the style to certain standards of uniformity.

ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE

Articles of any type (review, research, short communication and case study) are accepted based on scientific merit and published free of cost.

Submission checklist

Before sending the manuscript to the designated email id of SJA, the authors are requested to undertake final check of the prepared manuscript:

1. Covering letter;
2. Among all the authors, one has been designated as corresponding author;
3. Affiliations along with email id of all authors at the title page;
4. Full postal address of the organization where particular research has been approved and carried out;
5. Title page including title of manuscript, authors name/ address/ email id, abstract, keywords, corresponding author;
6. Entire file should have two parts:
7. Title page: as mentioned before.
8. Main manuscript: title, running title, name of authors (initial followed by surname), abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion (combined), conclusion including future researchable issues, acknowledgment, conflict of interest if any, references, tables with title and figures with caption.
9. Manuscript has been spelling and grammar checked;
10. Permission is taken for the use of copyright material;
11. All references mentioned in the body of the manuscript are being cited in the reference list and vice versa.