Online Submissions
Already have a Username/Password for Journal of Agro-Sciences and Technology?
Go to Login
Need a Username/Password?
Go to Registration
Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
I have read the following instructions and my submission complies fully with all requirements.
Original research papers, original review papers, and short communications are the main scientific communication in this journal and are published in English.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND GUIDELINES
- PDF is NOT a suitable format for submission.
- JAST publishes: A) Original research paper B) Review
- Reviews are considered to be invited when invited by JAST.
When submitting please follow these size limits (flexible for invited reviews):
- A) Original research paper (maximum: 16 pages, including references)
- B) Review (maximum: 20 pages, including references)
Special Issues: These may be commissioned from scientists by JAST or suggestions can be submitted to JAST. Special Issues may receive an ISBN number in addition to the journal’s ISSN number.
There are no limits to the number of co-authors in a manuscript. Authors will NOT be charged for colour figures. All manuscripts are subject to international peer-review and copy editing. At least two reviewers will be assigned and authors are requested to provide the names and contacts of three potential reviewers. These should not be from the same institution and the authors. Manuscripts must be written in English (UK (e.g. colour) or US (e.g. color), standard throughout and not a mixture of both. Spacing should be double-line spacing throughout with at least 2.5 cm (1 inch) margins. Use a normal, plain font (Times New Roman) for text, font size 10, line spacing 1.5 and 0pts before and after throughout. Use bold face, italic, subscripts, superscripts, etc., as appropriate. All Latin, Greek or other foreign words should appear as italics, e.g. in vitro, per se, et al. The abbreviations i.e. and e.g. do not require italics. Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages. Lines should be numbered per page, not continous. For indents use tab stops or other commands, not the space bar. Use the equation editor of your word processing program or MathType for equations. Do not use MathType within the text if regular font can be used.
Abbreviations should be avoided as much as possible. All abbreviations must be defined in the text where they are used for the first time. The used abbreviations should be listed in a separate list which will be printed after the abstract and the list of key words.
SI units should be used throughout [e.g. liter (L) for volume]. Negative indices for per unit of volume e.g. mg L-1 should be used in a standard manner throughout the chapter.
Report cultivar and variety names in single inverted commas, e.g. ‘Magic-Blue’.
The reference list should only include peer-reviewed works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications should only be mentioned in the text as (pers. comm.). Personal observations should be reported as (pers. obs.). Unpublished data should be reported as (unpublished data). Where data has not been shown, please report as (data not shown). Authors are solely responsible for the correctness and completeness of the references in the text and reference list.
Please present references in Hanging format at 0.95cm (see Template).
References should follow the following styles:
In the text, references should be cited by author and year (e.g. Musembi, 2003; Musembi and Adeya, 2011; Musembi et al. 2009) and listed in chronological order in the reference list using standard format and order.
a) Journal articles:
Musembi NN, Adeya N. 2011. Effect of auxin-dose and spray-interval and prevention of suckers in rose (Rosa hybrida L.). Journal of Agro-Sciences and Technology 1: 1-14
b) Books:
Musembi NN, Asher FI, Mazarura U. 2009. Press Information on Methyl Bromide. UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya 150 pp
c) Multi-author books:
Musembi NN. 2011. Emergence and implications of technically, economically and commercially feasible methyl bromide alternatives in Africa. In: Asher FI (Ed) Floriculture and Methyl bromide phase-out in Africa: Count-down to zero emissions UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya. pp 202 – 217.
d) Web-sites. Write as: University of Nairobi. URL: http://www.uonbi.ac.ke Accessed 22/03/14.
Non-English sites should be translated into English with the original language listed in parentheses at the end, e.g. (in French). The original title in the original language can also be listed.
BODY TEXT
The body (main text) can vary depending on the manuscript category, but should include:
a) Keywords: 4-6 keywords for indexing purposes. Do not include words already in the title.
b) Abbreviations: List up to 10 of the most commonly-used abbreviations in alphabetical order in the following style: ABA, abscisic acid; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; qRT-PCR.
c) Running title: provide a short version of the title (maximum 45 spaces) + first author’s name.
d) Abstract: The most important results and conclusions in 230-280 words.
e) Introduction: After stating the purpose of the study, give a short review of the pertinent literature.
f) Materials and Methods (not for reviews): Enough information should be provided to permit repetition of the experimental work. Citations to previously published methodology may be used. In materials that are modified from the original, carefully describe any changes from the published protocol.
g) Results (not for reviews): Describe the outcome of the study. Present data as concisely as possible, where appropriate in the form of tables or figures. However, very large tables should be avoided. Tables should fit in one protrait (or landscape) A4 page. Tables and figures cited in the text should be presented as separate pages after references.
h) Discussion (not for reviews): Interpret results with reference to significant and relevant work by other authors. Results and Discussion sections should not be joined into 1 section. Papers submitted with a joint Results and Discussion section will be returned without being forwarded for peer-review.
g) Conclusion
h) Acknowledgements: These should be simply phrased and made to people or entities who have assisted in minor preparations of the chapter, designed parts of experiments, or provided financial assistance for experimental or publishing purposes.
TABLES AND FIGURES
JAST reserves the right to reduce, enlarge or change the arrangement of illustrations, figures or tables.
Tables: Tables must be numbered consecutively with Roman numerals e.g Table VI and submitted separately from the text. They should have a title explaining any abbreviation used in that table. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters. Tables must be formatted to fit a portrait/landscape A4 page and must be created in Table function in Word, one data entry per box. Tables created in Excel are also acceptable. Tables that are too wide or submitted in landscape should be divided into >1 parts.
Figure legends: should appear after the Tables. The first line should be bold. Nucleotide and protein sequences should be designed in table function.
Figures: Illustrations must be restricted to the minimum needed to clarify the text. All figures (photographs, graphs or diagrams) should be cited in the text (e.g. Figure 1, Table IV), and numbered consecutively throughout using Arabic Numerals (e.g. Figure 2). Figure parts should be identified by upper-case Roman letters (e.g. (A), (B), (C). Also use upper-case letters in the figure legends and citations. Figure legends must be brief, self-sufficient explanations of the illustrations. The legends should be placed at the end of the text. Submit all figures as separate files and do not integrate them within the text. The preferred figure format is JPG for illustrations (at least 300 d.p.i.). Where there is a mixture of lines and text, please submit such figures in Power Point.
Drawings and illustrations
- Line drawings: Lines should be legible, with capital letters and appropriately scaled to the size of the drawing.
- Scanned drawings should be scanned at 800 d.p.i. resolution.
- Halftone illustrations (black and white and colour): Magnification should be indicated by scale bars. For scanned halftone illustrations, a resolution of 300 d.p.i. is sufficient.
- No colour costs. JAST reserves the right to request the authors to reduce the number of colour pages.
- Plates: Group several figures or figure parts in a plate on one page (A4 size, to fit margins 2 cm on top, below and right, 2.5 cm on left) and saved as a separate file to the main text. JPG or TIFF files of each photograph in the plate must reach JAST.
Submission of Manuscript
The corresponding author should submit a declaration that the paper has neither been published nor submitted for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts should be submitted in 2 Microsoft Word documents containing the Main text with authors information and tables/ figures at the end of the text, and a cover letter through our online system. If having trouble using this JAST online system, write to the Editorial Office at jast@uonbi.ac.ke Note: authors` information shall include names, addresses and affiliation of authors. The main text shall comprise of the title, authors information, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement, references, tables, figure legends, figures. The cover letter should contain a declaration that the paper has never been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
How to start submission process:
Once on the journal website, http://journals.uonbi.ac.ke/index.php/jast register as an author and then log-in and submit your article documents to the Editor-in-Chief as indicated above.
Peer reviewing
All manuscripts submitted to Journal of Agro-Sciences and Technology will be reviewed by two experts in the field of expertise. Journal of Agro-Sciences and Technology uses double-blinded review. The names of the reviewers will therefore not be disclosed to the author submitting a paper and vise versa. The author, to whom correspondence is to be addressed, will receive comments through online correspondence. These should be corrected and returned to the editorial office by the date specified in the accompanying letter. If proofs are not received by the specified date, the editors reserve the right to treat the manuscript as a fresh submission.
Copyright Agreement
Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that the work and its essential substance have not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Authors will sign a Copyright Transfer Form (CTF) to transfer copyright to the Journal. However, articles can be freely redistributed and reused as long as the article is correctly affiliated, but not resubmitted for publication in other journals. Meaning that, a published article can be posted on a personal or institutional homepage, emailed to friends and colleagues, printed and sent to people, archived in a collection, or distributed in any way.
Registration details and Publishing fees
We are an Open-Access Journal whereby users will not be charged for using published articles.
A uniform publication processing charges of 200 USD will be charged to the corresponding author upon acceptance of the paper. This fee is meant to cover costs of JAST overheads such as editing, publishing, maintaining and archiving, and to allow for readers open access to full text articles. Payment details will be communicated once the paper has been conditionally accepted. Ability to pay the proccessing fees is not a guaranteee of the acceptance of the paper and vice verse, but the quality of the work is what will be paramount.
- The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
- Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
- The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-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 Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
- If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
Copyright Notice
Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that the work and its essential substance have not been published before and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Authors will sign a Copyright Transfer Form (CTF) to transfer copyright to the Journal. However, articles can be freely redistributed and reused as long as the article is correctly affiliated, but not resubmitted for publication in other journals. Meaning that, a published article can be posted on a personal or institutional homepage, emailed to friends and colleagues, printed and sent to people, archived in a collection, or distributed in any way.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
ISSN: 2304-2648
Copyright © 2012. All Rights Reserved.
Site developed & maintained by ICTC, UoN