Author Guidelines

GUIDELINES TO AUTHORS

GENERAL
The Journal of Science and Technology (JUST) aims principally to publish articles resulting from original research whether pure or applied in the various aspects of academic endeavour broadly classified as science (physical, biologi-cal), the humanities and technology. The pri-mary criteria will be that these papers contrib-ute to the advancement of knowledge in the respective fields. Papers submitted to other publishing houses will not be accepted although manuscripts published in un-refereed maga-zines, proceedings, etc, may be accepted sub-ject to satisfying the requirements for publish-ing in the JUST.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION
Preparation
Manuscripts should generally be arranged in the following order: title page, abstract/summary, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion or results and discussions, acknowledgements, and references. However, papers in the humanities and the technological fields may be exempted from this rule.
Submission
Manuscripts, preferably in English, should be submitted in triplicate to the Editorial Board, Journal of Science and Technology, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana. Articles in French are accept-able if they address French language issues, otherwise they should be accompanied by an English translation. Manuscripts must be typed double-spaced on one side of A 4 paper with
wide margins on either side of the paper. Dou-ble spacing applied to text as well as tables, references and figure legends. It is recom-mended that prospective authors use numbered paper. Papers that fail to meet the JUST style and form, will be rejected outright. When returning reviewed manuscripts, authors are required to include a Windows soft copy on CD to facilitate computerised editing. Scripts should be typeset in MS Word format. Submis-sion of papers to JUST is understood to mean that the author(s) agree to transfer copyright of the article to the publisher to facilitate the wid-est possible dissemination.
Title page
The first page of any manuscript shall include the title, name(s) of authors, their institutional affiliations and addresses, city and country (zip codes, if applicable) and a running head. The title of the article is typed in bold capitals using font size 14 Times New Roman. Abbreviations are not allowed. Title must be short but descrip-tive of the contents of the manuscripts. Authors are listed with surnames first followed by their initials in upper and lower case letters in font 12 Times New Roman. Addresses are listed under the names of authors. Where authors work at different addresses, they should be identified by numbered superscripts against their names. Where an author's current address has changed this may be provided as a footnote on the same page. References to professional qualifications are not necessary. The first author will be assumed to be the contact person unless otherwise stated. Each title page should also have a running heading of 50 characters or less, including spaces placed at the bottom of the page.
Abstract
The abstract heading is typed 12 points Times New Roman bold, but the text will be typed 12 points Times New Roman italic. The abstract is a concise abbreviated version of the paper which telIs the reader whether the paper is worth reading at all; it must therefore be infor-mative with respect to aim, experimental proce-dures, results and discussion and conclusion conveyed in the full paper. An abstract should maintain a maximum of 250 words.
Keywords
Heading should be 12 points Times New Ro-man bold. A maximum of five keywords that best describe the material being presented must follow the abstract.
Introduction
The introduction should follow the key words and should be as brief as possible; it should concern itself with a clear justification for the work undertaken and the underlying thesis; a short review of literature in the field of study is obligatory although any exhaustive review properly belongs to the Discussion section. The introduction is limited to not more than 300 words.
Materials and Methods
This section describes concisely and in detail the experimental procedures employed so that anyone wishing to replicate the trial can do so and obtain comparable results. Provide suffi-cient detail so as to remove any possible ambi-guities with respect to design, treatments, meas-urements, analysis, etc. Where methods em-ployed are commonly known in a given field details should be omitted and the reference given instead. Modifications to known method-ology must however be clearly described and explained.
Results and Discussion
This section describes clearly the observations made and their concise interpretation. While the two sections (Results/Discussion) may be separated, it is generally advisable to combine them to facilitate easy discussion of the results without having to repeat the results. Results should be presented in tables whenever possi-ble, but should be clearly explained in the text taking care to avoid unnecessary repetition of tabular data. Standard deviations/errors help the reader to follow the trend of results and should be supplied as and when applicable. The dis-cussion should include references to earlier or contemporary literature relevant to the topic studied; this way, a reviewer can decide on the merits of the manuscript.
Tables
Tables are to be numbered according to their sequence in the text and should also be referred to in the text. The Tables should be inserted at the exact positions where they belong in the body of the paper. Size and layout limitations of JUST do not allow for large tables. All tables must have short but self-explanatory titles. Ta-ble numbers and titles should be placed at the top left of tables. Roman numerals are to be used.
Figures
Figures/illustrations should be inserted at the exact positions where they belong in the body of the paper. They should be clearly captioned and numbered according to sequence below each figure. Line drawings must be done in black ink and photocopies are not acceptable. Photographs (good, glossy black and white) and line drawings should not be mounted or folded. They should be labelled on the back with author's name in soft pencil. Colour illus-trations cannot be reproduced except at the au-thor's expense. Figures may not be used to du-plicate data already presented in tables or text or vice versa. Photographs and illustrations are considered as figures and should be referred to as such.
Footnotes
Footnotes to tables should be superscript num-bers while superscript letters should be reserved for statistical analysis; asterisks are reserved for probability values. Footnotes to the title page (including title, authors, addresses etc) are numbered sequentially from the beginning. Footnotes should be used sparingly and only if absolutely required, otherwise the information should be embodied in the text of the paper.
References
References to literature in the body of the manuscript are cited by author(s), followed by year. Authors are cited by their surnames only, e.g., Asamoah-Hassan (1999) or (Asamoah-Hassan, 1999) depending on sentence structure. Asamoah-Hassan (1999) stated that archival collections present an impartial body of information. Archival collections present an impartial body of information (Asamoah-Hassan, 1999).
Distinguish between different papers by the same author(s) by postscript letters (Osei, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c). In the body of the paper, where a paper has more than two authors, give only the name of the first author followed by et al. (see Osei, Okai and Tuah below). Unpub-lished papers must be referred to only in the text ( e.g. Osei, unpublished or S.A. Osei, per-sonal communication) and should not be listed in the References section.
All literature mentioned in the text should be listed in alphabetical and chronological (if same authors have more than one paper cited) order at the end of the paper under References. The year of publication (in brackets) must follow the names of authors who should be listed sur-name first followed by initials. The use of et al in the references section is not allowed. Provide the full title of the paper in the original lan-guage or in an English translation.
For Journals, use the proper journal abbrevia-tions; if in doubt, quote the full name of the journal. The name of the journal, volume and pages should be typed in italics. Follow the title with the volume number in Arabic numer-als and the first and last pages of the citation. Issue numbers are not necessary except for journals where continuous pagination is not used. Only proper nouns in titles of papers and books need to be capitalized; for example:
Osei, S.A., Okai, D.B. and Tuah,A.K. (1999). ―Quality protein maize as the sole source of amino acids in the diets of starter pigs: a pre-liminary study‖. Journal of the University of Science and Technology 19: 1 – 4
For books, the full citation should also include the title, edition number (if more than one), name of publishers, city of publication and country (if city cannot be easily identified by readers): Cryer, P.E., (1976). Diagnostic Endocrinology. Oxford University Press, New York.
Where the book is edited, a reference to part of it must be given the normal literature citation but the title of the article is followed by the word In: and then the name of editor, book title, publishers and city of publication:
Baker, D.H. (1977), Amino acid nutrition of the chick. In: Draper, H.H. (Editor) Advances in Nutrition Research. Plenum Press, New York.
For references to conference and seminar pa-pers, the citation should include the title of the paper, the theme of the conference/seminar, place where it was held and date (days and month, e.g., 19 – 21 May).
LATIN WORDS AND PHRASES
Latin words used to identify biological struc-tures or entities are always italicised; similarly phrases like et al., in situ, in vivo, versus, per se. On the other hand, commonly used abbre-viations such as etc., viz and e.g. do not require italicisation.
NUMBERS
As a rule, numerals are not used to start sen-tences; words are preferred. In addition, words should be used for all numbers less than 10 and numerals for those greater than 10. In the situa-tion where a sequence of numbers is given with some less and others more than 10, the use of numerals for all is advised. If a number is fol-lowed immediately by a unit of measurement use the numeral, e.g., 200g. 30cm.
UNIT OF MEASURE
The metric system of measure is obligatory.
PEER REVIEW
All manuscripts are subject to review by two referees knowledgeable in the author's field of study. These reviewers ensure the accuracy, currency and relevance of papers and their comments aid the Editor-in-Chief in deciding on the acceptability or otherwise of submitted manuscripts. Based on their review, authors may be required to make alterations to their papers before final acceptance.
PROOFS
Galley proofs of all accepted manuscripts are sent to the senior author (or as indicated in the original manuscript) who should check for ty-pographical errors and answer queries raised by the Editor-in-Chief. The checked proofs should be returned to the Editor-in-Chief. They should be accompanied by a version of the papers on floppy disks. Extensive alterations to the galley proof beyond those demanded by the Editor-in-Chief will attract a surcharge.
COPY OF THE PUBLISHED PAPER
Authors whose papers are accepted for publica-tion will be sent one copy of the volume of the JUST in which their papers appear. Additional copies will be sent only on the payment of the appropriate fees.
ORIGINALITY OF MANUSCRIPTS
The Editorial Board of JUST assumes no re-sponsibility for statements made or opinions expressed by authors who should ensure that all submitted manuscripts have resulted from their own original work.
MANUSCRIPT LENGTH
Manuscripts submitted for publication should be between 1,500 and 5,000 words (or between 6 and 20 pages long when typed in double spacing), including tables and figures. The Edi-tor-in-Chief reserves the right either to refuse long articles or to request that such articles be reduced in size to fit this maximum limit.