Instructions to Authors

‘The Agriculturists’ is a Scientific Journal (https://www.banglajol.info/index.php/AGRIC/index and http://www.krishibidgroup.com/theagriculturists/), published half-yearly by Krishi Foundation. The journal is peer-reviewed and indexed with CAB Abstracts, BanglaJOL, DOAJ, AGRICOLA, SSRN, Scribd, CrossRef, DOI, INASP, Google Scholar, and EBSCO Information Services. Each volume of the journal is comprised of two issues which are published in June and December of every year.

Aims and Scope

The journal ‘The Agriculturists’ publishes innovative original research reports, not previously or simultaneously published or under consideration for publication in any other scientific journal. The journal welcomes submission of full-length articles, short communications, notes and review articles for publication. The journal publishes articles on all disciplines of agricultural science from national and international forum in the following areas:

• Crop Science
• Soil Science
• Fisheries
• Livestock
• Agricultural Engineering
• Agricultural Economics
• Agricultural Extension
• Forestry and Environment

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be written in correct English in A4 size page in double space leaving wide margins (left and top 3.0 cm, right and bottom 2.54 cm) in single column. Don’t mix up American and British English together. The manuscripts should be prepared sequentially as Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements (if any) and References. Introduction should be numbered 1 (One) and be continued up to acknowledgements by 5. Sub-titles should be written in italic style with respective numbers in sentence case (i.e. 1.1, 1.2 … for Introduction section; 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 …. for Materials and Methods section and so on. For example: 2.5 Experimental design and statistical analysis, is a sub-title under the section 2. Materials and Methods. Sub-sub titles should be in sentence case also but not italic and accordingly it should be numbered as 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3 …., for respective sections. Insert page number and the first page number should be commenced from title page. The contributors are suggested to carefully follow the recent issue of ‘The Agriculturists’ for preparing their manuscripts also. The lengths of full-length research and mini-review articles should preferably be within 8 (eight), review paper within 10-15 and short communication not more than 4 printed pages (including tables and figures).

Title page

The title page should include:

• A concise and informative title, preferably it should not contain more than 15 words.
• A running (short) title of the manuscript
• Name of author(s) with affiliations and address(es)
• The corresponding author should be highlighted with e-mail address and telephone (H/P and Office).

Abstract

The abstract (preferably within 250 words) should follow immediately after the title in the second page. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or references.

Keywords

Appropriate key words (not exceeding six) consistent with the title should be presented after the abstract. Try to avoid multiple words and abbreviations except those which are commonly established.

Text

• Manuscripts should be composed and submitted in Word version.
• Preferably, use 12 font size in Times New Roman.
• Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
• Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
• Make both sides alignment of the text
• Use footnotes instead of endnotes as it needs to necessity.
• Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher).

Acknowledgements (if any)

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section after ‘Conclusions’ section. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

Figures and photographs

• Supply all figures and photographs electronically.
• Prepare figures in black and white graphic with no shading.
• Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are clear enough.
• Illustrations (with appropriate scales) including diagrams and graphs should be as ‘Figure’.
• Fonts should be adequately large to ensure readability.
• Provide concise and meaningful caption of each figure and number sequentially.
• Publication of color illustrations need to pay extra charge.

Tables

• Tables with appropriate title should conform to the page size avoiding vertical lines.
• Table(s) and Figure(s) should not be inserted in text (attached in separate sheets or after the ‘References section’), but those should be referred sequentially in the text. Numerical results should be presented in the form of either Tables or Figures.

Units, Equations and Appendices

For all measurements, SI units must be used. Equations and formulae should be presented properly in the text. Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Use equation mode to write necessary equations. Number properly the equations and appendices while it is more than one in number. Appendices should be place just before references section.

Scientific & Chemical Names

Scientific names should be given for all organisms in italic form. Chemical names and trade names should be given for all chemicals used e.g. herbicides, insecticides etc.

Abbreviations

Standard abbreviations should be used. Extend the abbreviation at first citation only.

Citations and References

Citations should include author(s) and year of publication. Items in the reference list should be referred to in the text by inserting directly (or parenthetically), the year of publication after the author’s name. If there are more than two authors, the first author should be cited followed by ‘et al.’ The names of all authors, however, would appear in the reference list. References should be arranged alphabetically according to the first author.

In the case of citing more than one paper of the same author(s) in the same year, the papers should be distinguished by suffixing with a small letter, e.g. Biswas (2001a), Biswas (2001b).

References should be relevant and updated, it would be limited to 25 in number for full length article, 40 for mini review, 70 for review and 15 for short communication.

For single author – (Biswas, 2015) or Biswas (2015), without initials; Two authors – (Biswas and Ahmed, 2016) or Biswas and Ahmed (2015) and more than two authors – (Biswas et al., 2017) or Biswas et al. (2017).

Examples of References are as follows

Journals

Talukder MAI., Panandam JM. 2008. Genetic and non-genetic factors affecting gestation length and calve birth weight of sahiwal-friesian crossbred groups. The Agriculturists, 6(1&2):1-8.

Molla AH., Haque MM., Haque MA., Ilias GNM. 2012. Trichoderma-encriched biofertilizer enhances production and nutritional quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) and minimizes NPK fertilizer use. Agricultural Research, 1(3):265-272

Books and book chapter

Gomez KA., Gomez AA. 1984. Statistical Procedures of Agricultural Research, 2^nd end., John Wiley and Sons, Singapore, 21 p.

Roberts DW. 1980. Toxins of entomopathogenic fungi. In: Microbial Control of Pests and Plant Diseases, (Ed.). H.D. Burgess, New York, Academic Press, 441-463 pp.

Proceedings

Hung CS., Tseng TH., Liu C. 1986. Inheritance of fertility restoration of cytoplasmic male sterility in indica rice. Proc. of the international Rice Genetics Symposium, 27-37 May 1985, IRRI, Manila (Philippines), 649-654 pp.

Thesis, reports and documents

Hossain MA. 1998. Selection of parents for transferring TGMS gene in rice. MS thesis, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Salna, Gazipur 1706.

Web references

The full URL address should be given with the date when the reference was last retrieved. If the link carries addition information (such as DOI, 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) or can be included in the reference list.

Submission of manuscript and correspondence

Submission of manuscript and all correspondences should be electronically through emails. Author(s) may submit the manuscript to any of the following email addresses.

Publication Charge

The editorial board limits maximum five authors for a manuscript. For each accepted full-length paper and mini-review the author(s) has to pay Tk. 2500, for review article Tk. 3000, short communication Tk. 2000. The authors of overseas manuscript need to pay US$ 50.

At the time of manuscript submission, the author needs to pay Tk 1000 (in US$ 10). The remaining payment should be made during submission of the revised manuscript in cash or cheque or DD or TT in favour of “The Agriculturists”, savings A/C no. 13321060031529, Prime Bank Ltd., Islami Banking Branch, Mirpur, Dhaka 1216. The author may pay their subscription (with service charges) through ‘bKash’ in mobile number 01819823030 (personal) also.

Reviewing and Publication Process 

The journal practices blind peer-review processes of the submitted manuscripts for publication. After initial screening, the manuscript is sent to a relevant and potential reviewer (1^st reviewer) with an evaluation form (Form 2) and instructions to authors. The reviewed manuscript along the comments of the 1^st reviewer is then delivered to the corresponding author for revision. Then the revised manuscript is sent to another potential and relevant reviewer (2^nd reviewer) for comments/evaluation with necessary documents. The second time reviewed manuscript is again delivered to the corresponding author for revisions. The Executive Editor then examines whether the author has complied with the comments of the reviewers and has edited the manuscript.

Finally, the editorial board examines the individual manuscript particularly, whether the author had satisfied all the comments of the reviewers. Based on reviewers’ recommendation, the board then decides whether the manuscript would be accepted for publication or be rejected.

Copyright and Declaration

Upon acceptance of an article, the authors are asked to sign a declaration form (Form 5). Subscribers may reproduce articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions, for teaching and training among their students and trainees for academic activities not for commercial purposes. Authors are to transfer copyright of the article to the Publisher.  The publisher reserves the right to resale or distribute outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. Moreover, the author(s) must declare the novelty of the research activities as well as the manuscript (partial/full) in clear statement that the article(s) has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. The declaration must be signed in prescribed form by all authors along with individual’s contribution in manuscript explicitly and has to be sent at the time of submission of revised manuscripts.

Reprint

Corresponding author is entitled to receive 10 copies of reprint of the published article or one volume of the published journal free of charge.

Important notes

• In preparation of manuscript, the author(s) must not plagiarize, the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.
• Do not submit the results/materials which is already published elsewhere but if it is necessary, then you have to collect prior permission from proper person/authority and that should be submitted together your manuscript submission. Besides, it is also prohibited to submit same manuscript for publication to different journals at a time.
• The declaration should be made (by signature) in prescribed form by all authors along with individual’s contribution in manuscript explicitly and has to be sent at the time of submission of revised manuscripts.
• Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct names of the contributors, corresponding author, and order of authors at submission. Changes in authorship or in the order of authors are not accepted after submission of finally revised manuscript.
• Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all co-authors, as well as from the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out, before the work is submitted.
• Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.
• If any mistake about author names and affiliations is happened in published manuscript by journal office, only then the attempt may be executed by journal authority for its correction.
• If any unethical activities is proved after publication against any manuscript, then the journal authority possesses the right for cancelation and judicial actions against the authors of that published manuscript.