MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

The manuscript should be in English and prepared on the following lines: –

Title: Title should be brief, specific and informative, the scientific name(s) in italics/underlined.

Authors: Names of authors to be typed, in capitals unaccompanied by their degrees, titles etc. Address: Address of the institution where the work was carried out be given below the name(s) of author(s). Present address of correspondence should be given as footnote indicating by asterisk the author to whom the correspondence is to be addressed.

Abstract: The Abstract should be informative and completely self-explanatory, briefly present the topic, state the scope of the experiments, indicate significant data, and point out major findings and conclusions. The Abstract should be in about 250 words. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited.

Key words: Following the abstract, key words not more than 8 that will provide indexing references should be listed and in alphabetical order.

Introduction: This should be brief and the review of the literature should be pertinent to the theme of the paper. Extensive review and unnecessary detail of earlier work should be avoided.

Materials and Methods: It should inform the reader about appropriate methodology etc. but if known methods have been adopted, only references be cited. It should comprise the experimental design and techniques with experimental area and institutional with year of experiment.

Results and Discussion: It should be combined to avoid repetition. The results should not be repeated in both tables and figures. The discussion should relate to the significance of the observations.

Conclusion: In the Conclusion section, state the most important outcome of your work. Do not simply summarize the points already made in the body, instead, interpret your findings at a higher level of abstraction. Show whether, or to what extent, you have succeeded in addressing the need that stated in research question.

Acknowledgement: this enable you to thank all those who have helped in carrying out the research. Careful thought needs to be given concerning those whose help should be acknowledged and in what order and to avoid strong emotive language

Table and figures: Table numbers should be followed by the title of the table, Line drawings/photographs should contain figure number and description thereof. The corresponding number(s) of Tables, Figures etc. should quoted in the text. Size of tables and figures should be below 1 MB.

References: The author should use the author-date format for citations and references (e.g., Hebbar et al. 2006; Rao, 2001; Hebbar and Rao, 2011). A List of all the references quoted should be provided at the end of the paper. It should be prepared alphabetically with surname of all the authors followed by these initials and year of publication in brackets. The titles of the articles should be mentioned. Full journal name should be used and be typed in italics. Volume numbers need to be in bold type and pagination in normal type.

Page/Line Number: Authors are requested to mention Page number and Line number to each line in the MS for easy and quick review. Text Alignment, line spacing (1.5), word count, figures, tables etc. must be as per format.

The journal invites full-length articles (not exceeding 3,000 words including references but excluding Tables and Figures).

Send one file only including Text, Tables and Figures.

All the papers are peer reviewed. Papers sent out for review will, typically, be assessed by two or three independent reviewers. The responsibility for any statement in the article rests with the author(s). The corresponding author must send a filled and signed manuscript verification certificate that verifying the article or its data has not been sent/will not be sent elsewhere for publication. If a manuscript is returned to the authors for revision, it must be resubmitted within 20-25 days of its receipt. The article number allotted should invariably be referred in all correspondence.

JOURNAL ETHICS

The formal component of the scholarly communication system, that is to say the publication of an article in a peer reviewed learned journal, serves many purposes outside of simple communication. It is a building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is prima facie evidence for the quality and impact of the research work of its authors and by extension the institutions that support them. It supports, and is itself and example, of the scientific method. For all these reasons and more, it is important to lay down standards of expected ethical behaviour by all parties involved in the act of publishing: the author, the journal editor, editorial board, the peer reviewers, the publisher and the society for society-owned or sponsored journals.

Following all the guidelines for ethical publishing keeps the scientific community growing forever. Journal of Agro-Technology and Rural Sciences (ATRS Journal) adhere to the notion of ethical practice. Therefore, we always try to stop the abuse of scientific research works.

Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Data manipulation, /fabrication/falsification

Data manipulation, fabrication, and falsification are some of the terms that are common to make it clear how the content of the research works is manipulated. It can be done in the text, images or other relevant documents and shreds of evidence. It is an unethical practice to fabricate the facts, theories, and results in journal publication.

To achieve the illusion in the graphics, some parts of the images are cropped and altered so that the copyright can be infringed. Thereafter, an attempt is made to reproduce the visual information of scientific knowledge with different or personal identity. ATRS journal doesn’t approve of any such practice. Therefore, any change in the pictures or text made by the author should be informed by the covered letter at the time of submission.

Publication Decision

The editor in chief and editorial board of a ATRS journal are solely and independently responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published, often working in conjunction with the relevant society (for society-owned or sponsored journals). The validation of the work in question and its importance to researchers and readers must always underwrite such decisions. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding issues such as libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism/similarity. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers (or society officers) in making these decisions.

Peer review (blind)

The editor shall ensure that the peer review process is fair, unbiased, and timely. All the manuscripts received to ATRS journal are allocated to a relevant member of the Editorial board, who decides whether the paper should go forward to peer review. Those that do not will be returned at this stage; we make every effort to do this as quickly as possible (usually within 10 days). Papers sent out for review will, typically, be assessed by at least two or three independent reviewers. and where necessary the editor in chief should seek additional opinions. It should be double blind review that the authors information must not be declared to the reviewer Authors may also nominate potential reviewers, but we do not guarantee that these individuals will be invited to review. Maximum 6 weeks are given to revivers to review the manuscript.

The editor shall select reviewers who have suitable expertise in the relevant field, taking account of the need for appropriate, inclusive and diverse representation. The editor shall follow best practice in avoiding the selection of fraudulent peer reviewers. The editor in chief shall review all disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and suggestions for self-citation made by reviewers in order to determine whether there is any potential for bias.

Authorship conflict

There can be a conflict of authorship for the article. It occurs owing to various reasons. Some of the common reasons are the dual-authorship, multi-authorship, corresponding author and group authorship. Any conflict of authorship can arise at any time either before or during the process of submission of the article. It is the sole and collective responsibility of the authors to take it as their obligation to resolve it. The journal editor cannot be held responsible for any type of mediation or participation to resolve the conflict. It is not the role of an editor to determine who qualifies or not for the authorship. Therefore, a signed statement from all the authors is requested for the listed authors.

Transparency

Transparency is an important part of the journal publication which generally remains behind the door. The rapport among the authors, peer reviewers and editor makes the task of publishing a smooth sailing. Explicit disclosure of the findings from the peer reviews and actions taken on those reports by the editor makes it easy to remove conflicts. This process of thoroughly analysing the reports helps the author and the publisher to publish an effective report on a scientific subject. It often includes disclosing the identity of the peers, their history of peer-reviews and the team involved in the process of writing a journal.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study.  All those who have made substantial contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the paper (e.g. language editing or medical writing), they should be recognised in the acknowledgements section.

The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider (at their discretion) the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been submitted and the author must clearly flag any such request to the Editor. All authors must agree with any such addition, removal or rearrangement.

Originality of the article

The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, that this has been appropriately cited or quoted and permission has been obtained where necessary. Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have influenced the reported work and that give the work appropriate context within the larger scholarly record. Information obtained privately, as in conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit, written permission from the source.

Plagiarism and Similarity

Plagiarism can be defined as presenting someone other’s works with different or personal authorship. It is the commonest of all the other malpractices in the journal publication. The authors intentionally or unintentionally try to copy the researches from the other authors and thereafter republish them again with their name and credentials.

Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others.  Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical behaviour and is unacceptable.

ATRS journal is checked the similarity of the all manuscripts will be received to the journal. Journal is accepted the manuscript’s similarity less than 20% (except names, scientific names and references). The ATRS journal adhere to the guidelines of the Publication Ethics and therefore, never promotes the plagiarism in the journal.

Duplication text/figure

ATRS journal object the exercise of duplication of the text as well as figures in any form. It is well recommended before the time of submission of the research papers. The authors are required to inform them before the submission of manuscripts with sufficient documents. The right to reject or accept the manuscripts completely lies with the Editor of the journal.

Conflict of Interest 

Conflict of interest can be defined as “a divergence between an individual’s private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities, such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual’s behaviour or judgment was motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests”. These conflicts can be personal, financial or professional. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could be viewed as inappropriately influencing (bias) their work.

All sources of financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article should be disclosed, as should the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, then this should be stated. Examples of potential conflicts of interest which should be disclosed include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. The author must be declared any type of potential conflicts of interest at the earliest possible stage.

Duplicate submission policy

Duplicate Submission is misconduct in the domain of scientific journals. To increase the frequency of the research paper by the authors the same text, images and manuscripts are submitted with a different article-title. This is considered as a duplication of the papers. Often many of the researches are rejected by the editors or reviewers. Therefore, ATRS journal expects from the authors to submit unique and original researched articles.

Send your papers to: atrsjournal@uciars.cmb.ac.lk

 

For more details

Dr. Champathi Gunathilake

Editor / ATRS Journal

atrsjournal@uciars.cmb.ac.lk

champathi@uciars.cmb.ac.lk

+94 47 2034200

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