Submissions

Author Guidelines

Before submitting your manuscript to the Habesha Journal of Agriculture and veterinary Sciences (LJAAS), strict follow-up of this section and its guidelines is needed to ensure a smooth publication process. Submissions that are not aligned with the aims and scope of LJAAS will face desk rejection. The manuscript must be original and unpublished elsewhere, including in other journals, monographs, or book chapters. LJAAS publishes original research articles, meta-analyses, reviews, and short communications demonstrating international significance. 

Manuscripts must be submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere and are only being considered by this journal. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the article’s publication has been approved by all the other coauthors. In addition, a submission email will be sent to all coauthors to confirm their consent.  It is also the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that the article has all necessary institutional approvals. Only an acknowledgment from the editorial office establishes the date of receipt. Further correspondence and proofs will be sent to the corresponding author before publication unless otherwise indicated. Authors must verify compliance with all Author Guidelines during the submission process. Failure to do so may result in the return of your manuscript.

Manuscript preparation format and Structure

Authors should prepare research manuscripts in Microsoft Word, using Times New Roman and a font size of 12, with margins of 1" on all sides of each page. The number of text words in the manuscripts (excluding the reference list) should not be more than 7,000. Manuscripts should not exceed the length of 25 pages (double-spaced), including tables, figures and illustrations. 

Tables and figures could be integrated into the text or placed at the end of the manuscript following the reference section. Use the automatic line number and page numbering function, and the page number should appear at the bottom center of the page throughout the manuscript. Indentations, line breaks, section breaks, and unnecessary spaces in the text are not allowed; paragraphs should be justified. All manuscripts must be written in clear and grammatically correct English.

Abbreviations

In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. The full terms for which an abbreviation should be defined at the first mention and used consistently thereafter throughout the manuscript. Abbreviations used in a table or a figure should be defined in the table footnote or the figure legend. 

Footnotes

Footnotes should be designated within the text using a superscript number to provide additional information. Footnotes should also be well-defined and placed at the end of each respective table. The same could be done for figure legends and authors of the manuscript. It is not allowed to use footnotes for references/citations.

Permissions

Authors wishing to include figures, tables, and photos that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copy right owner(s) and to include evidence(s) that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Also, a proper citation of such sources is required. Any material received without such evidence(s) will be assumed to originate from the authors, and the authors are responsible for any consequences.

Ethical Responsibility

The journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. All authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results, which could damage trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the scientific arena. When reporting experiments involving animals, authors are expected to have observed all ethical standards on the care and use of animals or any pertinent national law. 

Usually, ethical approval is granted by ethical review committees at the authors’ institutions, but we understand that in some cases approval may be granted by other bodies, such as the administration where the research was conducted. You can temporarily replace the name of the institution that granted ethical approval with [Anonymized] if doing so is necessary to protect your anonymity during peer review.  Read more about maintaining the integrity of scientific research and the rules of good scientific practices.

Peer Review

To be published in LJAAS manuscripts must pass double-anonymized peer review. Under double-anonymized peer review, authors and reviewers cannot know each other’s identities. Research on sensitive topics often undergoes additional review by our Section Editors and Editorial Board. The LJAAS Editorial Office has final approval over publication decisions. 

Author Anonymity

To ensure author anonymity for peer review, please move any author-identifying information from the main manuscript. This means that any author-identifying information should not be in the main document except the title page, funding information, and acknowledgments.

Typical research papers to be submitted to the LJAAS should have the following order: Title, Authors’ names, and affiliations, Corresponding author’s email, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Materials and Methods or Methodology, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Conflict of Interest, Acknowledgement (if any), References. Minor variation to the above structure due to the nature of the manuscripts is acceptable. Headings and sub-headings should be in title case; both headings and subheadings should be bold and numbered.

Title Page

A concise and informative title of the manuscript should appear on this page. The title of the manuscript should be concise and represent the scope of the objective(s) and overall content of the paper. Preferably, the title should not contain any kind of abbreviations and scientific names should be replaced with common names, and the former should be placed in keywords. The title should have a font size of 14, bolded, and title case. 

The name(s) of the author(s) and affiliation(s) should appear below the title. Numerical superscripts should be used against affiliations if the authors are more than one. An asterisk (*) should be added to the right of the corresponding author`s name. The authors` affiliations should be indicated by superscripts ¹, ², ³… placed after each name and before each affiliation. Corresponding authors should clearly specify and endorse the accurate spelling of all authors’ full name(s) and provide the details of their addresses. He/she should use a valid email address and ensure that he is using the same email address throughout the publication process.

Abstract

A concise and clear abstract should be written as a short and informative mini-paper (not more than 250-300 words in single spacing) in one paragraph. The abstract should have a structured layout in that it is written by clearly informing readers on the core contents of the paper under the sub-headings of background (problems and rationale), objective(s), material and methods, results (main ones), and the conclusions and implications. An abstract is presented on a separate page. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Key words

Use the most important words explaining the results of the study (up to five, in alphabetical order, separated by semicolon) should be given next to the abstract on a separate line. Avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of').

Introduction

The introduction should be written focusing on background information, a statement of the problem, a brief review of the work done on the topic, gaps to be bridged, justification or rationale (hypothesis) for the study, and objective(s) of the study. Use current journal literature where applicable. This section should not exceed two pages of double-spaced text.

Materials and Methods (Methodology)

This section provides a concise description of the materials used and procedures followed to obtain the results. This section should be written in such a way that it provides a concise description of the experimental site (for experimental field sites), materials used for the study (plant, animal, crop, instruments, equipment, etc.), treatments used, experimental design and replications, research procedures, data collection, statistical data analysis, analytical theories and methods, etc. 

The sequence of implementation of the study should be followed strictly. For cases where multiple procedures and models exist, the choice of one may need justification. In such cases, citations of credible and latest sources of relevant information should be included. In all cases, please cite the developer and not the user of a procedure. The section can be subdivided into different sub-headers like Description of the study area, Data collection and analysis, etc.      

Results and Discussion 

This section should present and describe the results or findings obtained with a logical flow. The result should be concise and discuss articulately the study findings. Data should be clear and concise and presented preferably in the form of tables or figures or text as per the need of the manuscript, but do not try to present the same data in more than one form. Do not include too many tables and try to combine wherever possible. 

Use Arabic numerals for the table and figures and they should not exceed in specified margin area. Citations should preferably consist of current literature and largely from peer-reviewed journals. Sub-headings could be used to present separate sections of the results. The results section should be written in the past tense.

Conclusion

This should clearly explain the main conclusions of the article, highlighting its importance and relevance. The authors should write a conclusion by recapitulating the objectives of the study briefly, indicating the major findings, and indicating the implications. Based on the results, specific recommendations might be given for future research or development interventions.

Conflicts of Interest

Conflict of interest includes financial/employment/intellectual property rights/other relevant interests that may influence the study. Author(s) must declare the absence of conflicts of interest in this section.

Authors' contributions

The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript.

Acknowledgment

All acknowledgments (if any) should be included at the very end of the manuscript before the references. Anyone who contributed to the research or manuscript, but who is not a listed author, should be acknowledged (with their permission).

Appendices

This section is optional. Any additional information that is thought to be relevant for the full understanding of the research work, but is too bulky and complex to be included in the main text of the paper, may be added as an appendix. If there is more than one appendix, authors should identify them as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering as Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. This is done in the same way for tables and figures as Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

References

APA (American Psychological Association) Style uses the author–date citation system, in which a brief in-text citation directs readers to a full reference list entry. Each work cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and each work in the reference list must be cited in the text. Ensure that the spelling of author names and the publication dates in the reference list entries match those in the in- text citations. It is recommended mostly to cite published scholarly materials like journals, books, periodicals, documentary materials, statistical abstracts, annual reports, etc. As a rule, cross-reference is not allowed. If it is to be used for some reason, it should not be more than two or three citations.

In-Text Citations

The in-text citation appears within the body of the paper and briefly identifies the cited work by its author and date of publication. This in-text citation enables readers to locate the corresponding entry in the alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper. When reference is made to a publication written by more than two authors, then indicate the first author’s name (without initials) followed by “et al.”. More than one reference cited together should follow a chronological order.

Reference list entry: Mohammed, T. (2023). A conceptual review on breeding and conservation approaches for Tikur sheep population. Cogent Food & Agriculture, 9(1), 2236824.

The in-text citations that correspond to this reference include the last name of the author and year of publication, which match the information in the reference list entry.

Parenthetical citation: (Tassew, 2023)

• The dominant sheep breed in the highlands of the North Wollo Zone is sub-alpine short fat-tailed-Tikur sheep (Tassew, 2023) 

Narrative citation: Tassew (2023)

• According to Tassew (2023), the genetic diversities of Tikur sheep have been threatened due to extensive and indiscriminate crossbreeding with Awassi sheep.

·       When two authors

  Parenthetical citations: (Lilienfeld, 2018; McDaniel et al., 2018)

 Narrative citations: Lilienfeld (2018) and McDaniel et al. (2018)

·       When citing multiple works parenthetically, place the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons.

          (Adams et al., 2019; Shumway & Shulman, 2015; Westinghouse, 2017)

·       Arrange two or more works by the same authors by year of publication. Place citations with no date first, followed by works with dates in chronological order; in-press citations last. (Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d., 2017a, 2017b, 2019)

     Zhou (n.d., 2000, 2016, in press)

·       If multiple sources are cited within the narrative of a sentence, they can appear in any order.

  Suliman (2018), Gutiérrez (2012, 2017), and Medina and Reyes (2019) examined . . .

·       To cite a specific part of a source, provide an author–date citation for the work plus information about the specific part. There are many possible parts to cite, including

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, p. 10)

(Shimamura, 2017, Chapter 3)

(Armstrong, 2015, pp. 3–17)

(Shadid, 2020, paras. 2–3)

(Kovačič & Horvat, 2019, Table 1)

(Thompson, 2020, Slide 7)

·       When the author of a work is overtly designated as “Anonymous” (“Anonymous” takes the place of the author's name in the in-text citation.

    (Anonymous, 2017)

 

 

Table . Basic In-Text Citation Styles

Author type	Parenthetical citation	Narrative citation
One author	(Ebrahim, 2023)	Ebrahim (2023)
Two authors	(Ebrahim & Ajanaw, 2023)	Ebrahim & Ajanaw (2023)
Three or more authors	(Ebrahim et al., 2023)	Ebrahim et al. (2023)
Group author with abbreviation First citationa   Subsequent citation	(National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2023) (NIMH, 2023)	National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH, 2023) NIMH (2023)
Group author with abbreviation	(Woldia University, 2023)	Woldia University (2023)

^aDefine the abbreviation for a group author only once in the text, choosing either the parenthetical or the narrative format. Thereafter, use the abbreviation for all mentions of the group in the text

Reference listing

All references are listed alphabetically with the author's surname. All author names should bear their initials after the surname or last name of each author or co-author but separated by a comma. Examples of reference listing:

1. Journal article with a DOI

McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review, 126(1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

2. Journal article without a DOI, with a nondatabase URL

Ahmann, E., Tuttle, L. J., Saviet, M., & Wright, S. D. (2018). A descriptive review of ADHD coaching research: Implications for college students. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 31(1), 17–39. https://www.ahead.org/professionalresources/publications/jped/archived-jped/jped-volume-31

3. Journal, magazine, or newspaper article without a DOI, from most academic research databases or print version

Anderson, M. (2018). Getting consistent with consequences. Educational Leadership, 76(1), 26–33.

Goldman, C. (2018, November 28). The complicated calibration of love, especially in adoption. Chicago Tribune.

4. Journal article with a DOI, 2 or more authors

Kalnay, E., Kanamitsu, M., Kistler, R., Collins, W., Deaven, D., Gandin, L., Iredell, M., Saha, S., White, G., Woollen, J., Zhu, Y., Chelliah, M., Ebisuzaki, W., Higgins, W., Janowiak, J., Mo, K. C., Ropelewski, C., Wang, J., Leetmaa, A. . . . Joseph, D. (1996). The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 77(3), 437–471. http://doi.org/fg6rf9

5. Journal article with an article number or eLocator

Burin, D., Kilteni, K., Rabuffetti, M., Slater, M., & Pia, L. (2019). Body ownership increases the interference between observed and executed movements. PLOS ONE, 14(1), Article e0209899. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209899 

6. Journal article, in press

Pachur, T., & Scheibehenne, B. (in press). Unpacking buyer–seller differences in valuation from experience: A cognitive modeling approach. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

7. Special section or special issue in a journal

Lilienfeld, S. O. (Ed.). (2018). Heterodox issues in psychology [Special section]. Archives of Scientific Psychology, 6(1), 51–104.

McDaniel, S. H., Salas, E., & Kazak, A. E. (Eds.). (2018). The science of teamwork [Special issue]. American Psychologist, 73(4).

8. Authored book with a DOI

Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000

9. One volume of a multivolume work

Fiske, S. T., Gilbert, D. T., & Lindzey, G. (2010). Handbook of social psychology (5th ed., Vol. 1). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470561119

Travis, C. B., & White, J. W. (Eds.). (2018). APA handbook of the psychology of women: Vol. 1. History, theory, and battlegrounds. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000059-000

10. Chapter in an edited book without a DOI, from most academic research databases or print version

Weinstock, R., Leong, G. B., & Silva, J. A. (2003). Defining forensic psychiatry: Roles and responsibilities. In R. Rosner (Ed.), Principles and practice of forensic psychiatry (2nd ed., pp. 7–13). CRC Press.

11. Report by a government agency or other organization

Australian Government Productivity Commission & New Zealand Productivity Commission. (2012). Strengthening trans-Tasman economic relations. https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/australia-new-zealand/report/trans-tasman.pdf

Canada Council for the Arts. (2013). What we heard: Summary of key findings: 2013 Canada Council’s Inter-Arts Office consultation. http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/canadacouncil/K23-65-2013-eng.pdf

12. Annual report

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (2017). Agency financial report: Fiscal year 2017. https://www.sec.gov/files/sec-2017agency-financial-report.pdf

13. Issue brief

Lichtenstein, J. (2013). Profile of veteran business owners: More young veterans appear to be starting businesses (Issue Brief No. 1). U.S. Small Business Administration, Off-ice of Advocacy. https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/Issue%20Brief%201,%20Veteran%20Business%20Owners.pdf

14. Policy brief

Harwell, M. (2018). Don’t expect too much: The limited usefulness of common SES measures and a prescription for change [Policy brief]. National Education Policy Center. https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/SES

15. Press release

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2019, February 14). FDA authorizes first interoperable insulin pump intended to allow patients to customize treatment through their individual diabetes management devices [Press release]. https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm631412.htm

16. Conference session

Fistek, A., Jester, E., & Sonnenberg, K. (2017, July 12–15). Everybody’s got a little music in them: Using music therapy to connect, engage, and motivate [Conference session]. Autism Society National Conference, Milwaukee, WI, United States. https://asa.confex.com/asa/2017/webprogramarchives/Session9517.html

17. Unpublished dissertation or thesis

Harris, L. (2014). Instructional leadership perceptions and practices of elementary school leaders [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia.

18. Dissertation or thesis published online (not in a database)

Hutcheson, V. H. (2012). Dealing with dual differences: Social coping strategies of gifted and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer adolescents [Master’s thesis, The College of William & Mary]. William & Mary Digital Archive. https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/bitstream/handle/10288/16594/HutchesonVirginia2012.pdf

19. Unpublished manuscript

Yoo, J., Miyamoto, Y., Rigotti, A., & Ryff, C. (2016). Linking positive affect to blood lipids: A cultural perspective [Unpublished manuscript]. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison.

 

Tables

Tables and figures must be relevant to the article and should be numbered consecutively in which they appear in the text. Tables should present new information rather than merely duplicating what is reported in the main text, and should follow standard templates and are submitted as editable text, not as images. Use Arabic (1, 2, 3 ¦) numbering instead of Roman (I, II, III) numerals. 

Figures

Figure captions should be descriptive enough to understand the content by the reader without cross referencing the main text, usually at the bottom of the figure. Figures should be of high quality that could be saved in either format (TIFF, JPEG, PNG, CDX, PS or EPS). If there are several related photographs or drawings or illustrations, assemble them into a composite figure, and label each component as A, B, C, etc., give a general title and describe each panel (A, B, C, etc.) separately. 

Figure legends should provide enough information for the figure to be understandable without frequent reference to the text. Lines of both horizontal and vertical axes of figure should be thick (bold) enough to make it clearly visible at printing. Number the figures according to their sequence in the text using Arabic numerals. Also, all symbols and abbreviations used in the figure that have not been defined elsewhere should be defined.

Equations

If you are submitting your manuscript as a Word document, please ensure that equations are editable. More information about mathematical symbols and equations.

Units of measurement 

Authors are encouraged always to use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units). All dates in manuscripts should be based on the Gregorian calendar. When reporting financial matters on data collected within Ethiopia, the preferred currency to use is Birr, with exchange rates indicated in US Dollar. The number of decimal places to use in reporting the results of experiments and data-analytic manipulations better to round to two decimal places or to rescale the measurement (in which case effect sizes should be presented in the same metric). 

Plagiarism

Authors should avoid plagiarism at all cost by recognizing originators of ideas through citations in addition to paraphrasing their phrases in a way fits their own discussion. Authors are encouraged to read editorial policy of the journal for details of plagiarism. We will return your manuscript to you if we find continuous overlap with other published sources without proper attribution. We also recheck articles following revisions and before publication to ensure no new issues were introduced.

 Submission of manuscript 

Submissions, that do not adhere to the guidelines of the journal, would be returned to the author(s). A soft copy of a manuscript, along with a cover letter confirming that it describes original research not submitted for publication or already published elsewhere, can be submitted online submission portal by developing the journal wave site or data base and manuscript handling system. The database will be developed in the way that shows the progress of the review process. The plagiarism and spelling checker software will be linked to the database. 

The online system will be developed in collaboration with ICT directorate. In the online submission system, the authors need to register with the journal before submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin their submission. Submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be accepted. The submitting author is responsible for ensuring that the article’s publication has been approved by all the other coauthors. Authors of submitted papers are obligated not to submit their papers for publication elsewhere until an editorial decision is rendered on their submission.

First Decision: After peer review, your review team will recommend a decision to our Editorial Office. Once the decision is approved, you will receive a decision letter. Sometimes reviewers leave confidential comments to the Editor that are not shared with authors.

Paper revision: The author will receive the comments of the reviewers from the editor. The author is advised to submit the revised manuscript in accordance with the deadlines provided by the Editor. Authors are supposed to return the revised version of the paper along with the “comment-by-response” rebuttal sheet. Both author letters to the reviewers and revised manuscripts should be anonymized. The author should use a text highlighting color (yellow) to indicate any changes you have made in the revised manuscript. 

Most articles have undergone revisions, but revisions do not guarantee acceptance.

On acceptance and publication: If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. The acceptance of a paper implies that it has been reviewed and recommended by at least two reviewers and the Executive Editor-in-Chief. The Editor-in-Chief/s decision is final. Authors will generally be notified of acceptance.

Publication charge: There is no Article Processing Charge (APC) to publish in the Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

Production: After the manuscript is accepted, the manuscript send to production. The article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within 5-6 weeks. 

Proofs: Production will send proofs to the corresponding author by e-mail as PDF files for checking and correcting typographical errors. Substantial changes in the content (new results, corrected values, title, and authorship) are not allowed without the prior approval of the editomanager. To avoid delay in publication, proofs should be returned within a week of reception. If this is not done in the specified period, for timely publication of the Journal, the editorial staff will make their decision.

 

Erratum: If any errors are detected in the published material, they should be reported to the Editor of the journal. The corresponding authors should send the appropriate corrected material to the Editor via email. This material will be considered for publication as soon as feasible.

 

Reprints: Because the journal is published in an Open Access model, and has no printed version, the authors receive no reprints.

 

Open Access: LJAAS is a fully Open Access (OA) journal and all the accepted articles are published in OA.

Promoting Article: Publication is not the end of the process. The author/s can help disseminate the paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible.

 

Privacy Statement: The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

 

Changes of authorship: Authors should consider carefully and agree on the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and approved for publication. To request such a change, the Editor must receive in writing the reason for the change and confirmation (e-mail or letter) from all authors that they agree to the request. In case of addition or deletion of author names, written confirmation (e-mail or letter) is required from the author whose name is to be added or deleted. While the Editor is considering the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended.

 Copyright: Authors assume full responsibility for the contents of the manuscript and for any claim or disclaim therein. Authors agree to retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously allowing others to share with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

 

Further information: Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the LJAAS editorial office as follows:

 

Contact:

College of Agricultural Sciences, Editorial Office, Woldia University

Mersa, Ethiopia

P.O. Box 71

Principal Contact

Name: Tassew Mohammed (PhD)

Phone: +251935418642

Email: tassewm010@gmail.com