Rwanda Journal of Agricultural Sciences
Journal / Rwanda Journal of Agricultural Sciences / Submissions

 

Background

The Rwanda Journal Series E: Agricultural Sciences (RJAS) is the official journal of University of Rwanda,  College  of Agriculture,  Animal  Sciences  and  Veterinary  Medicine  (UR-CAVM). Formerly  it was published  by the  former  National  University  of Rwanda  (NUR) but after  the merger of all public universities in Rwanda leading  to formation of University of Rwanda in 2013, the journal management  was transferred  to UR-CAVM. RJEAS publishes  high  quality  scientific articles  and  is  supported  by a highly  competent  Editorial  Board  composed  of internationally recognized  scientists.  The journal accepts papers of relevance  to African  tropical agriculture  and global  advances in agricultural  research with  significant  scientific  and technological  impact  on tropical agriculture.

Scope of the Journal

The RJEAS  publishes  articles  in  the fields  of Agricultural  Sciences,  Environmental  Sciences, Veterinary  Medicine,  Animal  and  Crop  Sciences,  Forestry,  Agricultural   mechanization,   Food science and Nutrition,  Agricultural Economics, Aquaculture and fisheries. Articles describing application   of  mathematical   modeling,   ICT,  genomics,   climate   change,   informatics,   remote sensing  and geographic  information  systems in agriculture  and environment  are highly  welcome.

Submission of manuscripts

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published  previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published  lecture or academic thesis),  that it is not under consideration  for publication  elsewhere,  and that its publication  is approved by all authors  and tacitly or explicitly  by the responsible authorities  where the work was carried out.  If accepted, the article  will  not be published  elsewhere  in  the same form,  in English  or in any other language, without  the written  consent of the Publisher.  If an article has previously  been published,  it will be retracted from the journal and a notice of retraction issued.  The Editors reserve the right to edit or otherwise  alter all contributions,  but authors will receive proofs for approval before publication. Submission  of the manuscript  also  implies  the authors  agree to the following:  (i) The work is original  and free from plagiarism;  (ii) All authors have agreed on the on the authorship  order. The corresponding order shall be responsible for settling disputes. After publication of the final article, it will  no longer  be possible  to change  the authorship  order. (iii)  Conflicts  of interest  must  be explicitly  stated at the end of the manuscript.

Copy right

For all accepted articles,  authors will be requested to complete,  a RJAS publishing  agreement. An email  will  be sent to the corresponding  author confirming  receipt of the manuscript  together with  the  journal  publishing   agreement.   Copyrights   for  articles  published   in  our  journals  are retained  by the authors,  with first publication  rights  granted to the journal.  The journal/publisher is not responsible  for subsequent  uses of the work. It is the author's  responsibility  to bring  an infringement  action if so desired by the author.

Peer Review Process

(i)  On receiving  the manuscripts,  an acknowledgement  letter shall be sent to the corresponding author within  7 working days. (ii) The manuscript  will be checked for completeness,  relevance  to the journal scope and adherence to the author guidelines  by the Managing  Editor. Articles  that do not comply  with the journal requirements  will be sent back to the author without  undergoing  the peer-review  process. The process of peer review  may take 1-2 months.  Authors  will  be able to trace the process by contacting  the Managing  Editor through  email.  (iv) The Editor-In-Chief  will inform the corresponding author through email indicating  if the manuscript has or has not been for publication.  The authors may be requested to revise manuscripts  in accordance  to reviewers  and editors’  comments  before  a decision  to  either  accept or reject  a manuscript.    (v) For revised manuscripts,  authors  are requested  to highlight  the changes  by underlining  and using  blue text color.      (vi)  Receipt  of revised   manuscript   will   be confirmed   by  sending   an  email  to  the corresponding  author. (vii)  After publishing,  the authors may download  the copies of the articles from the journal website.

Preparation  of manuscripts

General Requirements

RJEAS accepts the following  types of articles: (a) Original  research articles.  (b) Review articles. (c) Editorials  (d) Short communications.  (e) Letter to editor.

Original Research  Articles: These  articles  describe  original  observational  or interventional research concerning  all agricultural  related  fields.  Organize  manuscript  text into  Abstract,  Key words, Introduction,  Methods,  Results,  Discussion  (results  and discussions  may  be combined, Conclusion,   Acknowledgements,   and  References.  Please  proof read  the Abstract  carefully  to assure that all results and conclusions mentioned  in the Abstract are also reported in the main body of the text, figures  or tables of the manuscript.  Original  research articles  should  have a detailed description  of the study design and analysis.  They should  not exceed 4, 000 words (not including title page, abstract, references,  tables, figures,  figure  legends,  or appendices).   If needed, authors are encouraged to submit additional supporting  material for publication  on the RJAS website

Review articles: Reviews include meta-analyses of randomized  trials, systematic reviews (without quantitative  meta-analysis),  and narrative  reviews.  Reviews  of agricultural  based topics should include  references  to relevant  practice guidelines.  Reviews  should  follow  the general  format  of original  articles,  and not exceed 7,000 words

Editorials: Editorials  are solicited  by the Editors and provide commentary  on articles selected for publication.  Editorials  should be 1200-1500 words in length  and be accompanied  by no more than 10 references.  Solicited  Editorials  should  be submitted  as a MS Word document  to the Editorial official e mail

Short communication: Short Communications  are urgent  communications  of important  results that are very original,  of high interest and likely  to have a significant impact on the agriculture and Veterinary  medicine  related fields.  Short Communication should be no more than 2500 words, and could  include  two figures  or tables.  It should  have at least 8 references.  Short communications must report completed work, not preliminary findings: they are an alternative format for describing smaller  pieces of work

Letter to the Editors: Letter to the Editors are considered for publication  (subjected to the editing

and abridgment)  provided  they do not contain  the material  that has been submitted  or publishe

elsewhere. The letter must be typewritten and double-spaced. Its text, not including  reference, must not exceed 350 words. The author of the work concerned is given the opportunity to submit a reply for publication  together  with  the Letter.  Both the letter and reply  may be sent to reviewers  for scientific  assessment  prior to publication.  Publication  takes place after all parties concerned had an opportunity  to respond appropriately.

Language

Please write your text in good English.  British usage is accepted, Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above). We only accept manuscripts  in English  language.

Manuscript preparation:

All manuscripts  should be prepared in MS-Word and PDF format and submitted  online  or through the journal’s E-mail address.

Page setup

Page size: A4; Margins: Normal standard 1 inch

Pages should  be numbered  consecutively  in Arabic numerals.  All lines from the beginning  to the end of the manuscript  must be numbered.

Title Page

The title page should  be a separate page before the main body. Provide the following  informat ion on the title page (in the order given).  It should  include:

Title

Times New Roman; Size-20; Line Spacing: Double; Paragraph Spacing: Before paragraph-1 line; after paragraph-1 line; Center

The title should be concise and informative.  Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations  and formulae  where possible,  and do not exceed 45 words.

Author names and affiliations

Please indicate the given name and family  name clearly.  The given  name should  be in front of the family  name.  Present the authors'  affiliation  (where the actual work was done) below the names.

Provide the full postal address of each affiliation,  including the country name. Then, list the e-mail address, and, if available,  the telephone and fax number of each author.

Corresponding author

Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publicat io n, also post-publication.  Please add the words “corresponding  author” into parentheses after his/her name. The details of the corresponding  author should be presented as a footnote

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required (maximum  length  250 words). The abstract should  state briefly;  (i) the purpose of the research, (ii) the methodology  (study design,  place and duration  of study, procedures and analytical  techniques,  (iv) the principal  results providing  specific  data and their statistical  significance  and (iv) major conclusions  that emphasize  new and important  aspects of the study. An abstract is often presented separate from the article,  so it must be able to stand alone. References should  therefore be avoided but, if essential,  they must be cited in full,  without reference to the reference list.

Keywords

Immediately  after the abstract, provide a maximum  of 8 keywords,  avoiding  general  and plural terms and multiple  concepts (avoid, for example,  'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations:  only abbreviations  firmly  established  in the field  may be eligible.

General Rules for Text

Please use the following  rules for whole text (except for the title),  including  abstract, keywords, headings,  tables, references,  acknowledgement,  glossary  and appendixes.

Front: Times New Roman; Size: 12; Paragraph Spacing: An empty line will denote a paragraph. Line Spacing: Double

Main Body of Manuscripts

Full papers should  be structured  as follows:1,  Title  page; 2, Abstract; 3, Introduction;  4, Material and  Methods;  5, Results  or Results  and  Discussion  combined;  6, Discussion;  7, Acknowledgements  (optional but brief); 8, References; 9, Tables; 10, Figure legends; 11, Figures; Illustrations,  tables and figures should  be limited  to six; Appendices are not permitted.  Results and Discussion  chapters can be combined  at the discretion of the author.

Subdivision of the article

Divide  your article into  clearly  defined  and numbered  sections.  Subsections should  be numbered

1, 2. (Then 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2; 1.2, etc.) (The abstract, acknowledgement,  references,  glossary  and appendix  are excluded  from the section numbering).  Use this numbering  also for internal  cross - referencing:  do not just refer to 'the text.' Authors are urged to write as concisely  as possible,  but not at the expense of clarity.

Tables

Tables should  be numbered consecutively  in Arabic numerals  according to their appearance in the text. Place descriptions  of tables below the table body. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing  in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables does not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

Tables should be:

Integrated  into the submitted  document,  Captioned above the table, Should  NOT be submitted  as an image,  but as MS Word-Table, Subtitled  with all units of measurement  (metric  units).

Borders setting: all; width: 1/2 pt, Cited in the text as e.g. Table 1.

Figures, Photos, Illustrations

Figures,  photos, illustrations  and so forth  should  be of reproducible  quality  and attached  in TIF format or in JPG format.  They should  have a minimum resolution  of 300 dpi   and inserted  at the appropriate place in the manuscript.  A clear legend should  be inserted inside  the figure,  Presented with metric units,  Captioned below the figures.  Cited in the text as e.g. Figure 1.

Formulae and units

The text size of formulae  should  be the same as normal text size. All measurements  must be in SI units.

Scientific Terminology

Scientific Names of Plants and Animals

Authors requiring  detailed guidance should  consult Scientific Style and Format as provided by the International  Code of Botanical  Nomenclature  (ICBN) whose  guidelines  are followed   in  the botanical examples below, and International  Code of Zoological Nomenclature  (ICZN). Note that authors in the field  of virology  have slightly different  rules. They should try to follow the standards established  in those fields.  The Latin names of species of plant and anima ls  are always italicized. Do not confuse  these names with  phyla,  orders and such which  are not italicized  (e.g. the Pike, Esox lucius, is valued  for food as well as sport

Domestics and horticulture  names

Either  a dictionary  or the guides  to nomenclature  IC ZN and ICBN should  be consulted  for the proper spelling  of breeds of domestic  animals  and broad horticultural  categories  (e.g.  German shorthaired  pointer) in some horticulture  publications,  such names are enclosed in single  quotation mark any following  punctuation  is placed after the closing  quotation  mark.

E.g. The hybrid  agastache’ Apricot  Sunrise ‘best growing  in zone 6, mingles  with sheaves of cape fuchsia  (phigelius  ‘Salmon  Leap’)

Genetics terms

Names of genes,  or genes  symbols,   including  any Arabic  numerals  that  form  a part of such symbols,  are usually  italicized.(  italicization  helps  differentiate  genes from entities  with  similar names.) Symbols for genes contain no Greek characters or roman numerals.  Human gene symbols are set in full  capitals,  as are the gene symbols  for other primates.  Mouse and rat genes symbols are always spelled with the initial  capital letter.

Human Genes: BRCA1; GPC3

Mouse Genes: Cmv1; Fgf12; Rom1…..

Geological Terms

Writers  and  editors  working   in  geological   studies   should   consult   US  Geological   Survey, suggestions  to authors of the Reports of the United States Geological  Survey, and Scientific  Style and Format.

Authorship

It is important for the integrity  of science and the appropriate attribution of effort that only persons who  have  had  an active  role  and  significant  impact  on conceptualizing,   funding,  performing, analyzing,  or writing  up research be included  as authors.  Every  person who  contributed  to the writing  of a manuscript  must be listed  as an author. RJAS reserves the rights to question the role that co-authors have played on the work being reported.

To qualify  as an author  one should:  (i) Have made substantial  contributions  to conception  and design, or acquisition  of the data, or analysis  and interpretation of the data, (ii) Have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (iii) Have given final  approval of the version  to be published,  (iv) Agree to be accountable  for all aspects of the work in ensuring  that questions  related  to the accuracy of integrity  of any part of the work are appropriately  investigated  and resolved,(v)  Each author  should  have participated  sufficiently  in the work to take public  responsibility  for appropriate  operation  of the content.  Acquisition  of funds,   collection   of data  or general  supervision   does not  justify   the  authorship.   Additiona l guidelines           can          be          obtained           from          the           following           website;

http://pub lica tio ne thic s.org/reso urces/guide lines

Change to Authorship

Normally  there should  not be any change in authorship  after the manuscript  is submitted.  But in case this happens, a letter requesting  to rearrange,  add or to remove the author should  be sent to the Journal Manager by corresponding  author and must include  the following:  (a) The reason the name  should   be added  or removed  or the  authors  names  should  be rearranged,   (b) written confirmation (e mail,  fax or letter) from all authors that they agree with the change. In the case of addition  or removal  of authors,  this  include  confirmation  letter  of the  author  to be added or removed.  For proper handling  the  authorship   issue,  Journal  Manager  will  inform  the Journal Editors  of any such request and publication  of the accepted manuscript  will  be suspended  until authorship  has been agreed upon by the Editor.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Summarize  and  disclose  all  conflicts   of interest   by  all  authors  in  a paragraph,  immedia te ly following  the References section.  Additionally,  the corresponding  author must submit  as a Word document a Conflict  of Interest statement  (online  provided  at (www.rwoj.ur.ac. rw)  Include a line for each author,  even if there are no conflicts  of interest.  Conflicts  of interest  are defined  as all relationships  or interests  that could influence  or bias the work. Although  an author may not feel there are conflicts,  disclosure  of relationships  and interests  affords  a more transparent  process, leading  to an accurate and objective assessment of the work. In addition,  interests  that go beyond financial  interests  and compensation  (non-financial  interests)  that may be important  to readers should  be disclosed.

Manuscript Evaluation

Every manuscript  submitted  to RJAS is immediately  assessed by an editor for initial  process (internal peer review)

Depending  on  the  potentiality   of an  article,  based  on the  quality,   novelty   and  relevance  for publication,  the article  should  be sent to two external peer reviewers to evaluate  the suitability  of article.  The  corresponding  author  is  requested  to  nominate  at least  three  potential  reviewers. However, the Editor will  have the overall authority  on selection  of reviewers.  A time frame of 8 weeks maximum  will  be given  to a reviewer  to go through  a manuscript  and  send his  or her suggestion  to the editor. If a reviewer is unable to meet the time frame, the article is given to other relevant   reviewer.   The  Editor  may  establish   a rapid  review  system  of special  manuscripts. Reviewers   are  advisors  of authors  and  editors.  The  Editor  may  asking  reviewers   to  make recommendations  regarding  acceptance or rejection  of manuscripts,  and should  be careful to the provided  recommendations;  however the final decision  belongs to editor.   The editor may reject manuscripts  without review, for example if the subject matter is outside the purview of the journal, a manuscript  on the same topic is just about to be published,  the quality  of the manuscript  is poor or criteria  for the submission  of manuscripts  are not met.

Decision making and communication  to Authors

The editor will make a decision about the manuscripts  (accept, invite  a revision  or reject) based on a consideration  of all reviewer  comments,  his own critique  and external  factors. The comments and recommendations  of the reviewer  should  be considered in the decision making,  however the judgment  of the editor is the most important  regarding  the suitability  of the manuscripts  for the journal.  Decisions  are communicated  to authors by the Editor.

PLAGIALISM

Plagiarism  is the most and serious  ethical  violation  in publication.  To avoid  this,  author  must acknowledge  the work of others. Intellectual  contribution  and originality  of every articles  are to be defined  by the authors and it is the responsibility  of authors to be aware of various  forms of plagiarism like; the plagiarism of ideas, text, paraphrasing,  self-plagiarism which include  duplicate publication,  splitting data etc.…. Ignorance of plagiarism and its various form will not be tolerated. If any form of plagiarism  is suspected, Editorial Board will immediately  stop the processing/publication   of  the  article   and  seek  the  explanation   from  the  author(s),   and  the corresponding  author will be asked to provide the response within  30 calendar days, of receiving the letter from the editor.  All accepted manuscripts  will  be screened  using  plagiarism  detection software.  Failure  to provide acceptable explanation,  the RJAS Editorial  Board will  determine the  fate  of  the  article  and  the  author  including   actions  may  be  effected;   Rejection   of  the manuscripts,  Withdrawal  of already  published  article,  and restricting   the author(s)  from further publication  in the RJAS for one year or permanent depending  upon the nature of offence

If there is any claim of intellectual,  idea or data theft of a publication work, proof must be provided in the claim for further handling.  More guidance  on plagiarism can be obtained from the follow ing

website:  http://p ub licatio nethics.org/reso urces/interna tio na l-sta ndards- for-ed itors-a nd-authors

Acknowledgement and Sponsoring information

Put the acknowledgement or sponsoring information after the main body and before the references.

References

Responsibility  for the accuracy  of bibliographic  citations  lies  entirely  with  the authors.  RJEAS uses the APA style citation  system (American  Psychological Association).  Authors are advised to consult  to the “Publication  Manual of the American  Psychologica l  Association  (www.apa.org).”

Details      concerning      the     APA-style      citation      system     can     also     be     found      at http://linguistics.b yu.ed u/fac ulty/he nric hse nl/apa/apa01. html

Citations in the text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list  (and vice versa). . Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publicat io n.

Citing and listing of web references

As a minimum,  the full  URL should  be given.  Any further  information  if known (author names, dates, reference to a source publication,  etc.) should  also be given.  Web references  can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or they can be included in the reference list.

Text

Citations  in  the  text should  follow  the referencing  style  used  by the American  Psychological Association  (APA).

E.g.:  Bazerman,   C.  (1981)  ‘What  Written  Knowledge  Does:  Three  Examples   of Academic Discourse’,  Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 11, No.3, pp. 361–388.

Lists

References  should  be arranged  first  alphabetically  and  then  further  sorted  chronologically   if necessary.  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.

Digital object Identifiers (DOIs) in References

The  journal/publisher   encourages   authors   to  cite  those  items   (journal   articles,   conference proceedings,  book chapters, technical reports, working papers, dissertations,  etc.) that have DOIs. When  the cited  items  have DOIs,  the authors  should  add DOI persistent  links  to  the regular references.  The DOI persistent  links  should  be the last elements  in the references.  The persistent links should  be active.

Format of persistent link: http://dx.doi.org/+DOI  (without  “doi :”)

Example  of persistent  link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/2.901164

The authors or editors may retrieve articles’  DOIs at:  http://www.crossre f.o rg/S imp le Te xtQue ry/

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Kornack,  D.  Rakic,   P.  (2001).  Cell  Proliferation   Without   Neurogenesis   in  Adult   Primate Neocortex. Science. 294 (5549). 2127-2130. http://dx.do i.o rg/10.1126 /sc ie nce.1065467

Reference to a book:

Strunk,  W., Jr., & White,  E. B. (1979). The elements of style. (3rd ed.). New York: Macmilla n. p.12.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Mettam, G. R., & Adams, L. B. (1994). How to prepare an electronic  version of your article.  In B. S. Jones, & R. Z. Smith  (Eds.), Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281-304). New York: E- Publishing  Inc.

Reference to a web source:

Smith,       Joe,      (1999).      One      of      Volvo's      core      values.       [Online]       Available : http://www.volvo.com/environment/index.htm (accessed on July 7, 1999)

Glossary

Appendix

Please be sparing  in the use of appendices unless  they are absolutely  necessary,.  The appendixes should  be numbered  as, e.g. Appendix 1, Appendix  2, etc.

Privacy Statement

The names  and E-mail  addresses entered  in  this  journal’s  site will  be used exclusively  for the purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Ethical standards

The journal will not accept for publication  papers that describe experiments  of concern for present ethical  and  welfare  standards.  The  Editor’s  decision  in  this  regard  is  final.   RJAS  follow guidelines    and    standards    established     by    Committee    on   Publication    Ethics    (COPE: http://pub lica tio ne thic s.org).