Author Guidelines

The University of Zambia Journal of Agricultural and Biomedical Sciences (UNZA-JABS) is a quarterly Journal open to journal article publications in the fields of agriculture, medicine, veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences as well as such allied life sciences. The Journal welcomes manuscripts submissions that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Papers will be published approximately eight weeks after acceptance. Submit manuscripts online by clicking here.

Cover letter: Submission of manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter that should include the corresponding author's full address and telephone/fax numbers and should be in an e-mail message attachment addressed to the Editor, with the file, whose name should begin with the first author's surname. This cover letter must be signed by the first author or corresponding author designate and must state clearly that the manuscripts are original work, have not been submitted or published elsewhere and ethical clearance, where appropriate, for the research was obtained. The authors are also free and encouraged to suggest two to four peer reviewers with contact details for the manuscript. The University of Zambia Journal of Agriculture and Biomedical Sciences will not accept overlapping or manuscripts submitted/published elsewhere.

Journal Article Types

Four types of manuscripts may be submitted:
Regular Original research articles: Regular original research articles must describe new and carefully confirmed research findings, and experimental procedures should be given insufficient detail for others to verify the work. The length of a full paper should be the minimum required to describe and interpret the work clearly. Ordinarily, the length would be not more than 20 manuscript text pages (text only without figures and tables) and covers not more than 7 journal print pages.
Short Communications: A Short Communication is suitable for recording the results of complete small or preliminary/pilot investigations or giving details of new 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 1 to 4 printed pages (about 3 to 12 manuscript pages) in length.
Reviews: Reviews and perspectives addressing and covering topics of current interest are welcome and encouraged. Typically reviews shall be invited by the journal editorial. These should be concise and not longer than 4-6 printed pages (about 12 to 18 manuscript pages). Uninvited authors of reviews should contact the editors in advance to determine whether the topic that they propose is of current potential interest to the Journal. These manuscripts should be no longer than 4000 words and include no more than four figures and tables and at least 50 references. All reviews are peer-reviewed.
Letters/Correspondence to the Editor: Letters to the editor commenting or seeking clarification on work or issues published in the journal or any such related issues of the stated journal fields are welcome. These letters to the editor should have a maximum of 500 words, one table or figure and not more than six references. A summary is not necessary and headings, apart from 'References', are optional. Authors' names and addresses should be listed at the end of the text, before the references.

Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to UNZA-JABS will be reviewed (double-blind) by at least one of the editorial board members and three qualified reviewers outside the editorial board. Decisions will be made as rapidly as possible, and the journal endeavours to return reviewers' comments to authors within 4 weeks of manuscripts submission. It is the aim of UNZA-JABS to publish manuscripts within 8 weeks after submission. All manuscripts are checked for Plagiarism by the editorial team before sending it for review.

Manuscript Preparation

General Format The UNZA-JABS requires that all manuscripts be submitted in a single-column and justified format following the following guidelines:

-The manuscript text should be double-spaced with 1-inch margins on both sides using 12-point type in Times Roman font.

-Page numbers must be inserted consecutively from the title page onwards.>br/>
-All tables and figures must be placed separately after the text (MUST NOT BE INSERTED IN THE TEXT) and must be labelled.

-Submitted manuscripts must be complete, including the title page, abstract, Manuscript text (introduction/background; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion), Acknowledgements, References, figures, and tables. Manuscripts submitted without following this format will not be processed until the manuscripts are resubmitted in the correct and JABS format.
Regular Original research articles: The Regular original research article manuscript submitted to UNZA-JABS must be formatted with subsections of Title; Abstract; introduction/background; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledgements; and References as detailed below. All portions of the manuscript must be typed double-spaced and all pages numbered starting from the title page.

The title page

The title page should include the following: i)The Title that should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the paper, ii) the list of authors, including their full names, and their respective institutional affiliations (Authors must be restricted only to those who have made material contributions to the research and who contributed to the writing and review of the manuscript), iii)the name, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the author who should be contacted regarding reprint requests or other correspondence received in the Editorial Office regarding the manuscript, iv)A declaration of all sources of funding (Authors must disclose any financial relationship to the work in the manuscripts).

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 not exceed 500 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.

Key Words

Following the abstract, about 3 to 10 keywords that will provide indexing references should be listed.

Abbreviations

A list of non-standard Abbreviations should be added. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelt out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text. Only recommended SI units should be used. Authors should use the solidus presentation (mg/ml). Standard abbreviations (such as ATP and DNA) need not be defined.

Introduction/Background

The introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, 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

Materials and methods 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. Capitalize trade names and include the manufacturer's name and address. Subheadings should be used. Methods in general use need not be described in detail.

Results

Discussion

The Discussion should interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies on this topic. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.

Acknowledgements

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

References

Referencing in JABS should follow the Vancouver style (for f u r t h e r i n f o r m a t i o n v i s i t t h i s w e b s i t e :http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html).The references must be cited in the text by superscript Arabic numerals (or Arabic numerals in brackets) and numbered in consecutive order as they are mentioned in the text. The list of references, in numeric sequence, should be typed at the end of the article. List all authors' names when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, list the first six and add "et al.”

Referencing Examples

Journal articles:

1. Phiri IK, Dorny P, Gabriel S, WillinghamAL3rd, Speybroeck N, . The prevalence of porcine cysticercosis in Eastern and Southern provinces of Zambia. Vet Parasitol. 2002 Aug 30;108(1):31-39.

2. Parkin DM, Clayton D, Black RJ, Masuyer E, Friedl HP, Ivanov E, et al. Childhood leukaemia in Europe after Chernyobyl: 5-year follow-up. Br J Cancer 1996; 73:1006-1012.

3. Samaila AA, Amans EB, and Babaji BA. Yield and fruit quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) as influenced by mulching, nitrogen and irrigation interval . Int. Res. J. Agric. Sci. 2011; 1(3): 90-95.

Book Citations

Pauling, L., 1972. Science and Peace: Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1963. In: F.W. Haberman (Ed), Nobel Lectures, Peace 1951 - 1970. Amsterdam: Nobel Foundation/Elsevier,. 271-287.
Tables and Figures

Tables

Tables should be kept to a minimum and be designed to be as simple as possible. Tables are to be typed double-spaced throughout, including headings and footnotes. Each table should be on a separate page, numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and supplied with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. The details of the methods used in the experiments should preferably be described in the legend instead of in the text. The same data should not be presented in both table and graph form or repeated in the text. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word.
Figures Figures and Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high-resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG or Powerpoint before pasting in the Microsoft Word manuscript file. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts.

Figure Legends

Figure legends should be typed immediately below each respective figure. Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript.

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 papers. The items of manuscript preparation listed above apply to Short Communications with the following differences: (1) Abstracts are limited to 100 words; (2) instead of a separate Materials and Methods section, experimental procedures may be incorporated into Figure Legends and Table footnotes; (3) Results and Discussion should be combined into a single section.

Proofs and Reprints

Electronic proofs will be sent (e-mail attachment) to the corresponding author as a PDF file. Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. With the exception of typographical or minor clerical errors, no changes will be made in the manuscript at the proof stage.

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 in this case to UNZA-JABS. See the copyright transfer statement form overleaf.

Fees and Charges

Authors may be required to pay manuscript handling charges primarily to meet printing costs of exceptionally expensive manuscripts components especially colour figures, graphics and photos. Publication of an article in the UNZA-JABS is not contingent upon the author's ability to pay such charges. Neither is acceptance to pay the handling fee a guarantee that the paper will be accepted for publication. Authors may still request (in advance) that the editorial office waive some of the handling fees under special circumstances.