Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. Submission of a manuscript

Agriculture and Forestry Journal (AFJ) accepts article submissions only online. All contributions must comply with the Aims and Scope of the Journal.

All articles submitted to the journal must comply with instructions. Papers submitted without adhering to the AFJ template will be rejected.

Each article is reviewed by three reviewers. The article is suitable for publication if it receives at least two positive reviews.

 Publication charges. There are no publication charges for submitting articles to the Agriculture and Forestry Journal.

Journal language. Articles can be submitted either in English or French, but preferably in English.

2. Manuscript Information

 2.1. Types of articles

Agriculture and Forestry Journal publishes regular research papers and short Communication. Maximum page length should be 6 and 15 pages for Short Communication and Regular research papers, including text, tables, figures, references, and abstract.

Maximum 25 and 50 references for short communication and Regular research papers, respectively.

 2.2. Manuscript layout.

Manuscripts must be in a form of a single Word file. They must be prepared using accepted word-processing software, and all parts must be double-spaced.

Standard size of paper (A4 format), type size 12 font, double-space lines, 2.5 cm margins on each edge of the page. Lines of the manuscript should be numbered.

If any abbreviations are used in the main text, they must be explained appropriately when used for the first time.

Use italics for scientific names or Latin expressions (for example, Pistacia vera L., in vitro.).

2.3. Style

Manuscript should be arranged as follows: title page, abstract, Main text (with tables and figures) and references.

 2.3.1. Title page

The title should be informative and concise. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliation addresses below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address.

The corresponding author should be identified with an asterisk and footnote. There can be only one person as corresponding author. Ensure that the e-mail address is given, and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author

 2.3.2. Abstract

Each paper should be provided with an abstract of about 100-150 words. The abstract, placed at the beginning of the text, should briefly indicate the experiments described the main results and the most important conclusions. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

Keywords: Authors should provide 4 to 6 keywords. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

 2.3.3. Main text

The text of the manuscript should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements (if any) and references. All tables and figures must be included in the text and also inserted in separated files.

-          Introduction.  State the reason for the work, the context, aims and the hypotheses being tested.

-          Materials and methods. This section should include sufficient detail to understand and to replicate the experiments performed, in conjunction with cited references.

-          Results. This section should describe the results of the experiments performed and should be broken up by subheadings to organize the findings presented and walk the reader through the results. The Results section should conform to the highest standards of rigor.

-          Discussion. The Discussion section is the only proper section for subjective comments. This section should explain the significance of the results and should place them into the broader context of the current literature. In short communications, results and discussion could be combined in one section.

-          Conclusion. The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

After the main text, Acknowledgements (if any) should follow the text and precede the references

Tables should be easily readable and numbered in Arabic numerals consecutively in the sequence of their appearance in the text. Tables should be cited properly in the text and accompanied by a legend at the top. They should bear a descriptive, self-explanatory clear heading.

Illustrations (graphics, photographs, etc.): These must all be labelled as figures and must also be numbered using Arabic numerals. Do not include high-resolution versions of figures at submission. Reduce the size and resolution of graphics to a file size of less than 1 MB. If a manuscript is accepted, higher quality versions of figures can be submitted at a later stage (min. 300dpi, in JPG and TIFF formats).

 2.3.4. References

 Reference style in text

Cite references in the text by name (without initial) and year in parentheses. If single author: Ochatt (2010) or indirectly (Ochatt, 2010). If two authors: Ochatt and Sangwan (2010) or indirectly (Ochatt and Sangwan, 2010). Where there are several authors (three and more), only the first author should be used, followed by ‘et al.’ meaning “and others”. Example: Ochatt et al. (2007) or indirectly (Ochatt et al., 2007).

If you are quoting several works published by the same author in the same year, they should be differentiated by adding a lower case letter directly, without space, after the year for each item. Example: (Benmahioul et al., 2009a) …… (Benmahioul et al., 2009b).

Groups of references should be listed chronologically. Example: (Benmahioul et al., 2009a, 2009b; Haddouche, 2010; Bouhraoua et Dehane, 2015).

 Reference list

All publication cited in the text should be given in a reference list following the text.

In the references list, names and initials of all authors should be given and written in font style regular. The list of references should be arranged first alphabetically on authors' names, and then further sorted chronologically. If an author's name in the list is also mentioned with co-authors, the following order should be used: publications of the single author, arranged according to publication dates - publications of the same author with one co-author - publications of the author with more than one co-author. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication (2009a, 2009b, 2009c, etc.).

- Journal article:

Benmahioul B., Dorion N., Kaid-Harche M., Daguin F., 2012. Micropropagation and ex vitro rooting of pistachio (Pistacia vera L.). Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture, 108: 353–358.

- Book:

Houghton J.T., Jenkins G.J. and Ephraums J.J., 1990. Climate change: The IPCC scientific assessment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 365p.

 - Book chapter:

Lamotte M., 1975. The structure and function of a tropical savannah ecosystem. In : Golley F.B. and Medina E. (Eds.). Tropical ecological systems. Trends in Terrestrial and Aquatic Research. Springer, Ecological studies, 11: 179-222.

 - for conference Proceedings:

Valášek P., Müller M., 2010. Possibilities of use of mechanical surface treatment waste in form of polymeric particle composite fillers. In: Proceedings from 9th International Scientific Conference Engineering for Rural Development, Jelgava, May 15–17, 2010: 267–270.

3. Analysis of Manuscripts

The Editorial Board maintains the option of returning to authors, before any further evaluation, manuscripts that do not comply with the recommendations to authors or do not fit within the scope of the journal. Suitable manuscripts will be assigned to an associate editor and sent to at least two reviewers, usually three.

After reviewing, a decision is provided to the authors: (i) Accept with minor modifications; (ii) Major revision. The revised version will be analyzed by the editorial board before a final decision is made.

4. Proofreading

The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. After online publication, further changes can only be made in the form of an Erratum.

Peer Review Process: All AFJ journal manuscripts are peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers of the journal’s international Editorial Review Board of experts in fields specifically matching the journal topics. Papers are reviewed, double-blind, in full publishable form; no manuscripts are accepted based only upon submission of an abstract. Reviewers are required to provide the author with comments intended to improve the content, style, and other issues which should improve the quality of the article.

Important Notes on Plagiarism
Agriculture and Forestry Journal treats plagiarism as a serious academic misconduct, and therefore reserves the right to reject manuscripts if plagiarism is detected before or during the review process and to retract manuscripts if plagiarism is detected after the paper is published.
Agriculture and Forestry Journal also reserves the right to inform the authors' institutions of the matter.

Please be aware that all manuscripts will be submitted to the Turnitin software before processing.