Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

download PDF version of Author Guidelines (updated on May 1st 2022)

1. General Information

Aims & scope

Agrobiodiversity for Impoving Nutrition, Health and Life Quality is an open access scholarly journal that specializes in the issue of conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of the traditional, forgotten, underutilized and less-known plant species. Published articles focuses on  food safety, food security, biosafety, plant breeding, use of plant species for the improvement population health, ensuring the remediation of the natural resources and environment, improving the socio-economic rural development and creating the conditions for the development of regional economy and supporting the development of small and medium-sized farms.

The base platform and core of published articles is research activities covered within the international network AgroBioNet and institutions within this network associated. The journal is an affiliate publication of this association. The journal is an affiliate publication of this association, but accepted manuscripts that have a global relevance in terms of the topics or issues addressed and from authors without regional or institutional restrictions.

Journal is published twice a year. Periodicity change – from 2021. Articles are submitted and published without any fees (also without APCs), meaning tha journal is free of charge.

All articles are published under Creative Commons licenses, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0 International) and each article is assigned by a DOI identifier. Journal is indexed by the CABI Bibiographic Databases.

Publishers

Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra
Tr. A. Hlinku 2
949 76 Nitra, Slovakia
https://www.uniag.sk/en

M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden (NBG)
of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv
Timiryazevska Str., 1
01014 Kyiv, Ukraine
http://www.nbg.kiev.ua/en/

ISSN 2585-8246

Website: agrobiodiversity.uniag.sk

Topics

  • Plant genetic resources
  • Plant genetics and breeeding
  • Plant biotechnologies
  • Traditional, forgotten, underutilized and less-known plant species
  • Plants, human nutrition & health
  • Plants, human nutrition & life quality

The Journal publishes research articles on Ecology (biogeography, pollination biology, conservation biology, diversity, molecular ecology, phytogeography, vegetation ecology, functional ecology), Ethnobotany (ethnobotany, ethnomedicine), Molecular Biology and Genetics (genomics, proteomics, biotechnology, bioinformatics, computational biology, chromosome, genetic diversity, population genetics, cytology), Physiology and Biochemistry (growth & development, stress, metabolism, enzymes, proteins and natural products), Reproductive Biology (plant breeding, embryology, ontogeny), Structure (morphology & anatomy, palynology, paleobotany, functional morphology, plant development), and Systematics (evolution, phylogeny, taxonomy, nomenclature).

Types of papers

  • Original Papers
  • Short Communications
  • Case Studies
  • Review Articles
  • Letters to the Editor

For full length papers the IMRAD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results, And Discussion) of the document is required.

Papers Language
Manuscripts must be written in English. Contributors who are not native English speakers are strongly advised to ensure that a colleague fluent in the English language or a professional language editor has reviewed their manuscript. Concise English without jargon should be used. Repetitive use of long sentences and passive voice should be avoided. It is strongly recommended that the text be run through computer spelling and grammar programs. Either British or American spelling is acceptable but must be consistent throughout.

The author is fully responsible for the language level of the paper!

Exceptionally, requested high-quality manuscripts may be published in a language other than English. Such a contribution must contain a Summary Plus in English, which summarizes the entire content of the article in a short form.

Open access  policy and licensing information
Agrobiodiversity for Improving Nutrition, Health, and Life Quality is an open access journal available online to the readers without financial, legal, or technical barriers. Non-commercial use and distribution in any medium is permitted, provided the author and the scientific papers are properly credited.

Articles are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0 International). Authors may re-use published data and illustrations without any restrictions other than those mandated by scientific ethical practices (credit must be given and modifications must be noted). Authors may use final published versions in e-repositories, in teaching duties, or in course packs.

Archiving policy
Agrobiodiversity for Improving Nutrition, Health, and Life Quality archives all accepted and published articles within the OJS content management system and allow self-archiving of accepted and published papers through open access policy before and after the publication of a paper. Authors retain the copyright of their scholarly work and can archive publisher’s version/PDF to personal or institutional repositories or libraries anytime without requiring permission from the journal or publisher.

Authors of published articles are entitled to deposit their accepted manuscript or the version in institutional and/or other repositories and can make this publicly available immediately upon acceptance and publication, provided that the journal is attributed as the original platform of publication publishing. Correct full citation is required.

Submission Process

All manuscripts are submitted via the journal publishing system only (Submit here).

After a manuscript has been submitted, it is not possible for authors to be added or removed or for the order of authors to be changed. If authors do so, their submission may be cancelled.

Editorial and peer review process

All submitted manuscripts are checked for compliance with the current journal guidelines and requirements. Manuscripts are managed to check for plagiarism.

Manuscript will be rejected in first evaluation if the similarity index (iThenticate result) is higher than the permitted threshold. There is no single number for the similarity percentage since each report is investigated in detail, but submissions exceeding 25% score are generally returned to authors. The resubmission of the same title without reducing the similarity score may cause a ban of the authors from the journal. Similarity reports with more than 50% scores, even in a single submission, may cause a ban from the journal and the authors’ future submissions may not be considered for publication. Authors can to check the status of their manuscript  in the submission system. Authors will be notified by emails when decisions are made.

Peer review process
Submissions are evaluated by 2 external reviewers in a single blind review process.

Publication ethics

Editors' responsibilities – publication decisions
The editor is responsible for the decision on which of the papers submitted to the scientific papers will be published. The editor will evaluate manuscripts irrespective of the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, or citizenship. Decisions will be based on the papers’ importance, originality and clarity, and the studies’ validity and relevance to the scientific papers' scope. The editor and any editorial staff member must not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone except of corresponding authors, reviewers, potential reviewers,  and the publisher, as appropriate. Unpublished materials disclosed in submitted papers will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the authors ' explicit written consents.

Reviewers' responsibilities – contribution to editorial decisions
The peer-reviewing process assists the editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions and may also serve authors in improving their papers. Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be disclosed to or discussed with others only if authorized by the editor. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of authors is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer reviews must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.

2. How to...

How to prepare your manuscript (for authors)

Manuscripts must comply with international standards/nomenclatures and best practicies in force in the specific scientific fields, must be prepared with respect of international standards for the formal editing of scientific/scholarly texts  and using the APA Style Guide (7th Edition). Used  standards/nomenclatures must be detailed described in Material and methodology session. For plant/animal identification is using of common and/or scientific (Latin) name required.

Structure of manusript
Manuscript text for fulltext articles should be organized as follows:

  1. Title
  2. Author(s)
  3. Abstract & Keywords
  4. Introduction
  5. Material and methodology
  6. Results and discussion
  7. Conclusions
  8. Conflict of Interests
  9. Ethical Statement
  10. Funding
  11. Acknowledgements (if applicable)
  12. References

Manuscript text for review articles should be organized as follows:

  1. Title
  2. Author(s)
  3. Abstract & Keywords
  4. Main text
  5. Conclusions
  6. Conflict of Interest
  7. Ethical Statement
  8. Funding
  9. Acknowledgements (if applicable)
  10. References

Abstract
The abstract should provide clear information about the research and should have 200 to 300 words and should not exceed 300 words that have to be included in the abstract text. It should include all new names, combinations, and rank transfers. It should not contain citations. Abstracts of review articles should be a brief overview of the main points from the review.

Keywords
Please provide a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 keywords or phrases to enable retrieval and indexing. Keywords should be written in lower case separated by a comma. Please, do not put a period at the end of the list of key words. Acronyms should be avoided. Keywords should not be a virtual copy of the title.

Acknowledgments
Purpose of this part of manuscript is to thank all who helped with the research, who provided intellectual assistance or technical support (writing, editing, material, equipment...) and help. Recommended wording: We are (I am) grateful to [Name Surname] for assistance with ... [data and other part of manuscript preparing].

Funding
Indicate number and name of the grant, according to which was the work supported. Names of funding organizations should be written in full. Recommended wording: This research was supported/partially supported by [list all institutions, companies, individuals who supported your paper] or This work was supported by the [institution, company] via grant/project [number and title].

In cases when no specific funding has been provided, authors use the following sentence: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Style and Format
Manuscripts should be single spaced with 20 mm margins on all sides of the page, using font Cambria, size 12pt (Cambria is a standard font available in Microsoft Windows, but in case you do not have it in your system, it can be downloaded freely, e.g. here https://fontsnetwork.com/cambria-font-family/). Manuscripts must be written in English. Either British or American spelling is acceptable but must be consistent throughout.

Symbols, Units, and Abbreviations
If symbols such as μ, η, or ν are used, they should be added using the symbols menu of Word in Cambria font. Degree symbols (°) must be used from the symbol menu, not superscripted letter o or number 0. Multiplication symbols must be used (×), not the letter x. Spaces must be inserted between numbers and units (e.g., 3 kg), between numbers and mathematical symbols (+, –, ×, =, <, >), between numbers and percent symbols (e.g., 45%). Please use SI units. All abbreviations and acronyms should be defined at first mention.

Correct and Incorrect forms of use of symbols, units and abbreviations (PDF)

Tables and Figures
All illustrations (photographs, drawings, graphs, etc.), not including tables, must be labeled “Figure.” All tables and figures must have a caption and/or legend and be numbered (e.g., Table 1, Figure 2). The font used in the figures should be Cambria. If symbols such as ×, μ, η, or ν are used, they should be added using the symbols menu of Word in Cambria font. All tables and figures, including subfigures, must be numbered consecutively as they are referred to in the text; e.g., Figures 2a, 2b, and 2c should be referred to in the text in that order before Figure 3. Please, refer to tables and figures with capitalization and unabbreviated (e.g., “As shown in Figure 2…”, and not “Fig. 2” or “figure 2”).

Figure must be in an editable vector format, which allows us to make necessary grammar corrections (please, insert full MS Excel sheet). Scanned or photocopied graphs and diagrams are not accepted.

For all tables, please use Word’s “Create Table” feature, with no tabbed text or tables created with spaces and drawn lines. Please do not duplicate information that is already presented in the figures.

All re-used tables and figures (or data) must be in text correct indentified and referred.

See the Article Template for more details on preparing the manuscript: Article Template

References

The Agrobiodiversity for Improving Nutrition, Health and Life Quality using Harvard citation format (authorship with date ) and APA referencing style (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples).

References in text
In-text references are references written within the main body of text and refer to a quote or paraphrase.

References should be cited in the text by the last name(s) of the author(s) and year of publication with a comma between them: for example, (Vergun, 2005) or (Vergun and Ivannikov, 2005). If the citation is the subject of the sentence, only the date should be given in parentheses: “According to Vergun (2005)… ” or “According to Vergun et al. (2010)...” or “According to Vergun and Klymenko (2019)...”. For citation of references with 3 or more authors, only the first author’s name followed by et al. (not italicized) should be used: (Klymenko et al., 2002). If there is more than one reference in the same year for the same author, please add the letters a, b, etc. to the year: (Klymenko et al., 1998a, b). References should be listed in the text chronologically, separated by semicolons, and references published in the same year should be further ordered alphabetically: (Klymenko et al., 1987; Ivannikov, 1987; Vergun et al., 2000; Grygorieva et al., 2004a, b). If the author of a reference is an organization or corporation, use its name in the reference list (using an abbreviation in the citation, if appropriate); do not use “Anonymous”.

Reference list (References)
Reference list is arranged in alphabetical order by authorship with date (Harvard citation format).

If the source document (primary source) was published in a non-Roman (Latin) script (for example in Cyrillic script), the author must for conversion use the required romanization system/standard to refer of the source: http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/.

Do not include personal communications or unpublished data or materials (such as project final reports, websites, computer programs, poster papers, presentations, and manuscripts that are not published yet) as references. Do not include personal communications or unpublished data or materials (such as project final reports, websites, computer programs, poster papers, presentations, and manuscripts that are not published yet) as references. However, these materials may be inserted as a footnote in the main text.

Reference examples

Book
Author surname(s), Initial(s).  Year. Title of work in original language [English translation of title]. City: Publisher. Pages. ISBN

Bitt, J.I., & Hocklend, A.R. 1995. Fungi and food spoilage. 3rd ed. Springer. 197 p.
Ostrolucká, M.G., & Križo M. 1989. Biológia samčích reprodukčných orgánov druhov rodu Quercus L. [Biology of male reproduction organs in species of the genus Quercus L.]. Acta Dendrobiologica. Bratislava: Veda, SAV. ISBN 80-224-0133-1 [In Slovak]

Chapter in book
Author surname(s), Initial(s).  Year. Title of work in original language [English translation of title]. In Author surname(s), Initial(s). (Eds.), Title of book, City: Publisher. Pages. ISBN or DOI

Brindza, J., Toth, D., Brindza, P., Grygorieva, O., Sajbidor, J., & Kucelova, L. 2016. Forgotten and Less Utilised Plant Species as Functional Food Resources. In Kristbergsson K. & Ötles, S. (Eds.), Functional Properties of Traditional Foods, 209–232. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7662-8_15

Online book
Author surname(s), Initial(s).  Year. Title of book [online]. City: Publisher. Pages. ISBN or DOI

Wansink, B. 2005. Marketing Nutrition: Soy, Functional Foods, Biotechnology, and Obesity [online]. Champaing: University of Illinois Press. 257 p. ISBN 0-252-02942-9 http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt1x74kd
IPGRI, 2002. Neglected and underutilized plant species: strategic action plan of the international plant genetic resources Institute [online]. Rome : International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, 27 p. ISBN 92-9043-5291  https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/_migrated/uploads/tx_news/Neglected_and_under
utilized_plant_species_837.pdf

Script
Author surname(s), Initial(s).  Year. Title of script. City: Publisher. Pages. ISBN or DOI

Brindza, J. 2001. Ochrana genofondu rastlín. [Conservation of plant geen pool]. Nitra: Slovenská poľnohospodárska univerzita. 143 s. ISBN 80-7137-974-3 [In Slovak]

Journal article
Author surname(s), Initial(s). Year. Article title. Source, vol(no), pages. DOI

Horčinová Sedláčková, V., Hulin, M., Ostrovský, R., & Motyleva, S. 2021. Study of Phenotypes Variability of Pollen Grains Malus domestica Borkh. by Scanning Electron Microscopy. In Agrobiodiversity for Improving Nutrition, Health and Life Quality, 5(2), 304–314. https://doi.org/10.15414/ainhlq.2021.0029

Unpublished dissertation or thesis
Kucelová, L. 2013. Useful value of bee pollen and fruit from lesser-known plant species in human nutrition [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Nitra: Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. 202 p.
Guikema, J.W. 2004. Scanning hall probe microscopy of magnetic vortices in very underdoped yttrium-barium-cooper-oxide: dissertation theses. Serra Mall, Stanford, USA: Stanford University. 177 p.

Published dissertation or thesis
Kucelová, L. 2013. Useful value of bee pollen and fruit from lesser-known plant species in human nutrition [Doctoral dissertation: Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra]. Central Register of Dissertations and Theses. https://opac.crzp.sk/?fn=detailBiblioForm&sid=96D6D14AE6883BC5DA045D2A43F0

Conference proceeding
Author surname(s), Initial(s). Year. Article title. In Title of Proceeding, City: Publisher, pages. DOI or ISSN

Pavliuchenko, N., Grygorieva, O., & Klymenko, S. 2019. Allelochemicals from Castanea sativa Mill.: plant-root environment interactions. In 4th International Scientific Conference Agrobiodiversity for Improve the Nutrition, Health and Quality of Human and Bees Life. Nitra: Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, 122 p.
Bányiová, T., Bieliková, T., & Piterková, A. 2014. Prediction of agricultural enterprises distress using data envelopment analysis. In European financial systems 2014. Brno: Masaryk University, 18–25. https://is.muni.cz/do/econ/sborniky/2014/proceedings-EFS-2014.pdf

Translated work
Karnatovskaya, M.Yu. 2013. Rezultaty izucheniya zimostoykosti nekotoryih sortov zizifusa v Hersonskoy oblasti [Results of studying the winter hardiness of some cultivars of jujube in the Kherson region]. Introduktsiia roslyn, 2, 37–39. [In Poland]

Organisation, Institution
Institution. Year. Title of webpage [online]. <url address>

FAO. 2016. Zika Virus [online]. https://www.fao.org/zika-virus/en/?utm_source=faohomepage&utm
_medium=web&utm_campaign=featurebar

Database
PalDat. 2021. Palynological Database. Fagaceae. Castanea sativa. [online database].
https://www.paldat.org/pub/Castanea_sativa/303767

Webpage
National Institute of Mental Health. 2018, July. Anxiety disorders. National Institute of Health.  https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

Report by a Government Agency
Slovak Business Agency. 2020. Report on the state of Small and Medium Enterprises in the Slovak Republic in 2019. Slovak Business Agency. http://www.sbagency.sk/sites/default/files/report_on_the_state_of_small_and
_medium-sized_enterprises_in_the_slovak_....pdf

Datasets
FAOSTAT. 2019. Crops [Datasets]. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC 
FAOSTAT. 2019. Crops [Fact sheet]. http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/crops.pdf

Anonymous. 2002. Grasses and country [online]. http://pinching_pesticide_use.com

How to submit your manuscript (for authors)

All manuscripts must be submitted in the journal publishing system only: Submit here.

The submission process for authors has three base phases – registration/login, metadata insert, manuscript/file insert (including the License to Publish).

Login: Agrobiodiversity login
Registration: Agrobiodiversity login user registration

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another publication for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.

How to process a review of a received manuscript (for reviewers)

The review process (include communication with authors) takes place in the online publishing system and has three base phases – acceptation of manuscript for review, review and review report (includes submission of a review form available in the journal system). 

Login: Agrobiodiversity login
Registration: Agrobiodiversity login user registration

Each reviewer must register and log in to the system and result of the evaluation will be communicated within the system, too. If necessary, contact the executive editor/editor-in-chief directly in the system, or by e-mail (agrobiodiversity@uniag.sk, or olgrygorieva@gmail.com).

3. How to contact us (for all)

General e-mail contact to the Journal editorial office: agrobiodiversity@uniag.sk

Chief-in-editor, Executive Editor:

Olga Grygorieva
M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden, Kyiv, Ukraine
Phone +380 67 198 8082
E-mail: agrobiodiversity@uniag.sk or olgrygorieva@gmail.com

Technical support:

Martin Lopusny
Publishing Centre of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra
E-mail: martin.lopusny@uniag.sk