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Author Guidelines
Contributions are accepted for consideration on the understanding that they are not concurrently being offered elsewhere, in the same or similar form; that the author states the name of the organization in which he works and the position he holds, or his independent status. The paper should commence with the author's own Summary of not more than 150 words. The Summary of a paper accepted for publication will be published in both English and French. Authors should submit along with their manuscripts an accurate French translation of the English summaries. Papers published in the Journal are classified under the under listed categories and authors should state in which category the paper should be assessed.
Original scientific papers: Written in such a way that a qualified research worker, specializing in the same branch of science, is able on the basis of the information given, (a) to reproduce the experiment and secure the results described with equal accuracy or within the limits of experimental error specified by the author; or (b) to check the accuracy of the analyses and deductions on which the author's findings are based; or (c) to repeat the author's observations and judge his findings. ...'
Provisional communication: Contains one or more novel items of scientific information, but is insufficiently detailed to allow readers to check the said information in the ways provided in (a), (b) and (c) above.
Subject review article: A survey of one particular subject in which information already published is assembled, analysed and discussed. In assessment, preference will be given to papers which are precise and logically planned.
If papers are assessed as not being acceptable in any of the above categories, contributors will normally be invited either to shorten their papers for submission as Research and Development Notes, or to withdraw them.
Manuscripts must be typed, 1 1/2 or double spacing, on one side of the paper only. There should be a generous margin on the left hand side, and authors should arrange for at least three copies to be typed so that a spare is available for retention after the top copy plus one carbon copy have been sent to the Editors.
LAYOUT OF PAPERS
Titles
Titles should be concise but as informative as possible. But it should be long enough, up to a limit of 25 words, to include all the keywords which describe the main topics of the paper.
Summaries
The Summary (abstract) of the paper should not be more than 150 words in length. It should be placed at the beginning of the paper and comprise a brief and factual account of the contents and conclusions, refer to any new information; which the paper may, contain and give an indication of the papers relevance. It should enable the busy reader to decide more surely than he can from the mere title of the paper whether it merits his reading it. The Summary should therefore be intelligible in itself without reference to the paper. Unnecessary contractions and non-standard abbreviations should be avoided. Complete sentences rather than just a list of headings should be used. Any reference to the author of the paper should be in the third person.
Introduction
After the Summary, the first section "Introduction"
will normally contain an explanation of why the work described in the paper was carried out. It should include a brief historical or critical review of previous works on the subject. The review should contain explicit reference to any previously published works by the author or others. This is essential in other to see how the paper fits into the general picture of scientific progress in the subject. The review should also state the degree of duplication between previous publications and the new paper and mention any assumptions on which the investigation was based, and the main achievements of the investigation.
The Introduction is followed by a description of the experimental methods and/or materials used (Materials and methods), followed by a statement of the Results obtained. Only those data which are conclusive, indicative, or representative of successful experiments should be included. The text should end with a Discussion of the significance of the work in relation to other work in the subject.
A statement of the Conclusions will then follow. It is desirable that the author indicates the degree of certainty or uncertainty which attaches to the conclusions.
The final sections of the paper will comprise a list of Acknowledgements, the References and the Figure captions, if any.
Illustrations may be submitted in the form of photographs or of line diagrams or both. Illustrations should be numbered Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc. (Note the word 'Plate' is not required). Line diagrams must be drawn in ink on cartridge paper or tracing cloth, preferably by a professional draughtsman or artist, and designed for linear reduction in the ratio of 2: 1 and 1.5: 1 for printing within column width (7.1 cm) or full-page width (14.7 cm). All lettering on diagrams should be in blue pencil (though if the author's draughtsman is skilled in completing diagrams for printing he may work in ink throughout). No diagram should be larger than foolscap size. Some graph papers reproduce badly. Those printed in light grey are best.
Photographs must be black and white glossy prints of good definition, similarly designed for reduction 2: I or 1.5: I if possible. If only part of a print is to be used, hold the face of the photograph against a window, lightly draw a line in blue pencil on the reverse side to indicate the area to be printed and shade the part to be masked.
Captions for each illustration must be typed out in full at the end of each paper (after the References). On the illustration itself only the Fig. number is required, on the reverse side in the case of photographs (write lightly) and underneath in the case of diagrams. See that each Fig. number is specifically mentioned in the text and indicate in the manuscript where each illustration is to be placed by writing Fig.1, Fig.2 etc., in the margin.
Tables: whatever their length, should be numbered 1,2,3 etc. Complicated tables are best submitted on separate sheets of paper and, because it is not always possible to place them immediately adjacent to the relevant text, tables similarly require mention by number in the passage to which they refer. Always check the typed numerals in tables very carefully against your original data.
Headings must be consistently arranged in a logical sequence of diminishing importance for each main section of a paper.
Consistency in spelling, numeration and abbreviation should be checked before the manuscript is typed. All units of measurement must be in the metric form. Where the use of non-metric units is unavoidable, metric equivalents should be given. Standard abbreviations should be used throughout.
Latin flames of plants, animals, pathogens and pests should be used in preference to local common names on first mention, but the latter may be used thereafter authors should themselves decide in which papers it is necessary to quote authorities. The rule-of-thumb procedure is that authorities need not be quoted if the text is descriptive, but that they must be quoted if any degree of precision is required in the identification of species, sub-species and varieties. In the latter case, quote authorities 011 first mention only.
Proofs: Authors will normally be told in advance when proofs are expected (though such notice cannot be guaranteed). A period of 2 weeks is assumed to be adequate for their inspection, and authors who fail to return their proofs to the Editors' desk within 3 weeks of their despatch from Accra will forfeit the right to make corrections. Only minimal amendment to the original wording is permitted, and the Editors reserve the right to levy a charge when excessive amendment is requested by the author. Standard proof correcting marks should be used. In the case of papers with two or more authors, one proof is sent to each author. But the senior author is responsible for collating the corrections provided by the other author(s), and the proof which he returns is the one that will be forwarded to the printer.
Off prints: Off prints are available free of charge on the following basis:
One author: I0 copies
Two authors: 5 copies each
Three or more authors: 5 copies each
Further copies may be made available to authors for a fee.
For further information, please write to:
The Technical Editor
Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science
C.S.I.R.-INSTI
P. O. Box M.32 Accra, Ghana
Or
The Technical Editor
Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science
CSIR-INSTI
P.O. Box CT 2211
Cantonments –Accra, Ghana
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.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- The submission file is in 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
Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the journal.
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