Author Guidelines
Focus and Scope of the Journal
The Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics publishes papers and short communications dealing with research in the Tropics and Subtropics in the fields of plant production, animal nutrition and animal husbandry, soil science, agricultural economy and farm management, forestry and forest economy, veterinary hygiene and protection against epidemics.
Cover Letter - Comments for the Editor
During submission, authors are asked to submit a covering message - ‘Comments for the Editor’ (step 1, online form of the submission procedure). In this message field, authors should describe how the submitted paper fits into the scope of the Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics.
Contributing authors are requested to provide the names, addresses and emails of at least four potential referees working outside their home institution(s) and qualified to provide an independent assessment of the submitted work. These suggestions will be used as a guide, however the Editor-in-Chief is not obliged to follow them.
Publication Ethics
Contributing authors are required to confirm that the article submitted to the journal has not been submitted elsewhere for publication, has not been published or accepted for publication, nor is being considered for publication elsewhere (either in whole or substantial part), the work is original and all authors have read the submitted version of the manuscript and approve its submission. If accepted, they will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (Attribution CC BY). Please note that JARTS employs a plagiarism detection system. By submitting your manuscript to the journal, you accept that your manuscript may be screened for plagiarism against previously published work.
Language
Manuscripts are accepted in British English only. Authors from outside Great Britain, Australia or the United States should have their paper reviewed by a native speaker before submission as typescripts of which grammar and/or style is found unsatisfactory can be rejected without further review at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
Manuscript Structure
Original research papers should not exceed 8000 words inclusive of all parts of the paper apart from online Supplementary Material.
Agronomic work based on one-year experimentation will (normally) be considered as a short communication. Short communications should have a length of 3000 - 4000 words, plus 2-3 figures and/or tables, and 15-20 key references. It should follow the same structure as mentioned here below for original research papers.
The Title page should contain:
- A concise and informative title.
- A list of author names, affiliation(s), and e-mail addresses.
- The name, complete mailing address (including e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers) of the corresponding author.
- A word count of the entire paper.
- The number of tables and figures.
Submitted manuscripts should include the following sections:
Abstract
The abstract should outline the objective of the paper and the main results and conclusions, using clear and factual statements. The whole abstract should be readily understandable to all the Journal's readers and accessible to non-specialists and must not exceed 250 words.
Key words
Key words should reflect the precise content of the paper, should be in alphabetical order not exceeding eight words and excluding words used in the title.
1 Introduction
The introduction should be as brief as possible and should state the reason for the work, the context, background, aims and the hypotheses being tested. End the Introduction with a brief statement of what has been achieved. Reference should be made to recent and important literature on the main topic.
2 Materials and methods
Materials used and methods applied should be explained briefly. With all its brevity, this part should enable the reader to assess the findings adequately.
3 Results
Tables and figures should be used to present effectively the results. Explanations and other remarks on the results can be included in the text.
4 Discussion
The Discussion section should be separate from the Results section. Within the discussion section, the author should point out the importance of the results and place them in the context of previous studies. It should end with a clear statement of the main conclusions of the research, and a clear explanation of their importance and relevance for management or policy.
Acknowledgements
The acknowledgements should be brief.
References
(see Manuscript Specifications below)
Manuscript Specifications
Text
Manuscript should be submitted in standard word processing formats: Microsoft Word (doc, docx- or rtf-format) or Open Document format (odf). The manuscript should be written in normal, plain font 11-point Arial and typed in double spacing with a margin of 2 cm each side on DIN A4 format. Pages and lines must be numbered consecutively including those containing acknowledgements, references, tables and figures. Please use italics for emphasis (rather than underlining). Title, headings and references (names of authors) should not be typed in capitals. Please do not use automated or manual hyphenation.
Editors reserve the right to modify accepted manuscripts that do not conform to scientific, technical, stylistic or grammatical standards, and minor alterations of this nature may not be seen by authors until the proof stage.
Scientific writing style
- Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units, SI units. There is a space between the numerical value and unit symbol, even when the value is used as an adjective, except in the case of superscript units for plane angle (e.g., α=30°22'8'').
- Please spell out numbers one through nine, except when used with units. Express decimals using a full stop (e.g., 3.14) and thousands with commas (e.g., 21,314 - but 2131). For decimal quantities <1, place a zero before the decimal point.
- Use the 24-h time system, with four digits for hours and minutes (e.g., 14:30 h for 2:30 p.m.). Report dates with the day first, then the month, and the year last. Abbreviate months with more than four letters (e.g., 14 May 2018, 10 Aug. 2017).
- Genus and species names should be in italics at first mention in the abstract or text. Give the complete scientific name (with authority) for plants. The scientific names for larger animals (e.g., goats) do not need to be given unless germane to the article and/or there may be confusion as to what animal is being discussed.
- Define all abbreviations at first mention in the abstract or text and again in all tables and figures. Once an abbreviation is used, it should be used throughout the entire article, except at the beginning of a sentence.
Tables
Tables must be positioned within the text at the appropriate text passage. Tables should be cited consecutively in the text and numbered with Arabic numerals (Table 1, Table 2, etc.). Tables should be typed as text, using 'tabs' (not spaces) to align columns. Column headings should be brief: with units of measurement in parentheses. Captions should not exceed 120 words per table. The use of graphics programs and "table editors" should be avoided.
Figures, Illustrations and Maps
All illustrations (including photographs) are classified as figures and should be cited consecutively in the text by Arabic numerals (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). All figures must be positioned within the text at the appropriate text passage. All figures must be preferable in black & white or greyscale. The use of coloured figures has to be charged with 50 € per page.
Each figure must have a legend that makes the material completely understandable. Legends should be written in normal, plain font Arial. Captions should not exceed 120 words per figure.
Maximum no. of figures and tables is 10 by ca. 8000 words, 8 by ca. 7000 words, and 6 by ca. 6000 words or less.
After acceptance of your manuscript for publication, figure files should be supplied as follows. Photographic figures should be saved in tif format at 300 d.p.i. (or failing that in jpg format with low compression). Line figures should be saved as vector graphics (i.e. composed of lines, curves, points and fonts; not pixels) in eps, svg or pdf format, or embedded as such in Word, as this enhances their display. Combination figures (those composed of vector and pixel/raster elements) should also be saved in eps, svg or pdf format where possible (or embedded as such in Word). If line figures and combination figures cannot be saved in vector graphics format, they should be saved in tif format at high resolution (i.e. 600 d.p.i.).
If you are unsure about the resolution of your tif files, please zoom in and check that fonts, curves and diagonal lines are smooth-edged and do not appear blocky when viewed at high magnification.
Please ensure that electronic artwork is prepared such that, after reduction to fit across one or two columns or two-thirds width (80 mm, 169 mm or 110 mm, respectively) as required, all lettering and symbols will be clear and easy to read, i.e. no labels should be too large or too small.
Please note that your paper will go through production more quickly if instructions on content and format are followed carefully.
References
Citing references in text Jones (2019) [narrative]; (Jones, 2019) [parenthetical]
For references made to papers with three and more authors, only the first name is cited and adding "et al." (Italic letter).
Example: Spring et al. (1996) [narrative]; (Spring et al., 2019) [parenthetical].
References made to works by the same author(s) and publication year; a, b, c (and so forth) should be included after the year of publication.
Example: (Summer et al., 1980a, b).
Multiple references should always be listed chronologically and in full unless there are three and more authors.
Example: (Spring & Summer, 1996; Autumn, 2002; Winter et al., 2020).
Reference list
In the reference list, provide the names and initials. References should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the article and in the following standard forms (examples):
Journal articles:
Author, A. A. (yyyy). Title of the journal article: Subtitle. Journal Title, ab(c), xy--yx. https://doi.org/DOI.
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (yyyy). Title of the journal article: Subtitle. Journal Title, ab(c), xy--yx. https://doi.org/DOI.
For references with more than 3 authors, all authors should be mentioned till number 20. For more than 21 authors, “…” should be placed after author 20 followed by the last author name.
Reference examples:
Ahmed, M. H. (2016). Climate change adaptation strategies of maize producers of the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics, 117(1), 175--186. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hebis:34- 2016050350187.
Muth, P. C., Pöhlmann, I. K., Bae, S., Reiber, C., Bondoc, O. L., & Valle Zárate, A. (2020). Does backyard-keeping of native sows by smallholders in Quezon, Philippines, offer sustainability benefits compared to more intensive management of exotic sow breeds? Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics, 121(1), 43--55.
Books:
Harlan, J.R. (1998). The Living Fields, Our Agricultural Heritage. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Book Chapter/Proceedings:
Lawn, R. J., & Ahn, C.S. (1985). Green gram (Vigna radiata L.). In: Summerfield, R. J., & Roberts, E. H. (Eds.). Grain Legume Crops. Collins, London, England, pp. 584--623.
Reddy, D., & Austin, D. (2019). Impact of Urbanisation on Water Bodies in AgroEcosystems of Bengaluru-Metropolitan City of India. In: Tielkes, E. (ed.). Tropentag 2019 : Filling gaps and removing traps for sustainable resources management. Göttingen, Cuvillier. pp. 19.
Dissertation:
Reyes-Aguero, J. A. (2005). Variacion morfologica de Opuntia (Cactaceae) y su relacion con la domesticacion en la Altiplanicie Meridional de Mexico. Ph.D. Thesis; Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico, D.F.
Websites:
Koh, J. K. H. (2012). A Guide to Common Singapore Spiders. Available at: http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guidebooks/spiders/text/a-home.htm. Last accessed 11.11.2019.
Software:
R Development Core Team (2009). A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria.
SPSS Inc. (2008). SPSS Statistics 17.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago IL.
Submission and Review Process
Online registration and login as author should be done at http://www.jarts.info. Authors may submit items and are able to check the status of current submissions continuously. Papers may not be published in the order of receipt; those that require minor revisions only are likely to appear earlier. All for review accepted manuscripts will be peer-reviewed by at least two experts (members of the Editorial Board or external experts) that remain anonymous to the authors.
The corresponding author will be informed of the outcome of the evaluation. According to the outcome of the review, the corresponding author will then receive the reviewers' comments in order to incorporate these into the manuscript. The corresponding author must return (upload) the corrected version of the manuscript to the editor within 80 days. When the authors upload their revised paper, they should explicitly mention and explain any potential disagreement with the reviewers' comments.
