Author Guidelines
Instruction
Journal of Nepal Agricultural Research Council (a peer-reviewed and open-access journal published by Nepal Agricultural Research Council, NARC) abbreviated as J. Nep. Agric. Res. Counc. publishes original (not published or submitted for publication elsewhere) research, review, and vision articles written in English (use US or British English which has shorter words or phrases e.g. color, not colour) from the world in all aspects of agricultural sciences, particularly in the field of agriculture (crop science, livestock science, agro-forestry, fisheries) and topics related to agricultural sciences (germplasm characterization, post-harvest technology, integrated agricultural management systems, community based management of crop and livestock diversity, agricultural policy. In addition to full-length research articles or critical reviews, research notes including characterization notes of stable genotypes/landraces having accession numbers from the National Genebank, NARC, and opinion papers may also be published in the journal.
Evaluation of field trials (though depend on the nature of trials) should be repeated across multiple seasons, or multiple locations as appropriate for robust research, especially when the results are intended to be widely applicable. Research findings from a single season or location of evaluation trials may be accepted as Research Note only, if the findings are of exceptional interest. Announcements about meetings, conferences, seminars, workshops, book reviews, correspondence and other items of interest of the NARC may also be included. All materials should be sent to the Managing Editor (Chief, National Agricultural Technology Information Centre; NATIC, NARC, Khumaltar) online through the journal submission system.
Authors interested in publishing their article in the journal are requested to submit online through https://journal.narc.gov.np/submit-manuscript.html. Paper can be submitted anytime. All authors must submit a cover letter mentioning why the content in the submitted paper is of interest to the scientific community, researchers, and general readers, and novelty (key new findings). The letter should also mention that the paper has not been submitted to any other journals for review and publication. All papers are screened first for format and style as per this guideline. The corresponding authors should declare that he/she is authorized by all the co-authors to submit the manuscript in the cover letter and all the co-authors should verify this through the online system. The paper will be returned immediately if guidelines are not met, and resubmission of such a revised manuscript is encouraged. If guidelines are met, plagiarism will be checked thoroughly before the review process. The paper after being accepted at the first stage screening, will be assigned a number and go for the review process.
Each manuscript submitted to the editorial committee is registered and reviewed by at least two peer reviewers. All authors and reviewers are requested not to change the file name; however, words can be added at the last of the file name. Manuscripts that need improvement as suggested by reviewers and editorial committee, will be returned to the corresponding author for correction and incorporation of the comments. The corrected version of the manuscript should be submitted within 7 days to the Managing Editor. The manuscript should be approved by reviewers to make sure the corrections and comments are appropriately amended by the authors before going to the Editor-in-Chief for final decision. Plagiarism is checked on the corrected version, and if noted, the paper will be returned to the author for revision. After the print setting, the author will have a chance for proofread.
Authors are encouraged to have colleagues review the manuscript before submitting it for publication. Additional authorities are consulted as necessary to confirm the scientific merit of any part or all of the manuscript. Each reviewer is asked to review the manuscript and to transmit within 14 days. Each reviewer makes specific recommendations for the manuscript based on the following aspects that are applicable:
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Publication in the journal is free of charge. Print copy is distributed freely from NATIC, Khumaltar. On request, an electronic pdf file will be provided and all papers published in any volume of this journal are downloadable from https://journal.narc.gov.np. Visit https://journal.narc.gov.np for details and earlier volumes.
Journal Features
| DOI to each paper | Open access |
| Abstracted and indexed in >18 databases | Can follow on Facebook, Twitter, Linked in Google Plus |
| Scientific editors name in each paper | Free of cost for publication and access |
| Plagiarism checks for each paper | ORCID number of first author added |
| Journal own URL and also available at NepJol | ISSN: 2392-4535 (Print), 2392-4543 (Online) |
| Licensed under a Creative Commons Attrib. 4.0 | Color print, new style and format |
| Awarded two star by INSAP-JPPS | Organize edit shop for papers finalization |
Format for Research Articles
The manuscript should be submitted in English typed in A4 size page in single space (Times New Roman) in MS-Word. Use normal text and do not format text, Table other than as mentioned in this guideline. Capitalize the initial of each keywords in title with 14 font size and capitalize first-level HEADINGS, capitalize the initial of each keyword in Sub-headings. Capitalize the initial letter of Table and Figure. Bold all HEADINGS and Sub subheadings. Do not use period (.) in very common abbreviations for example, eg, etc, et al, ie, Rs, Mr, Dr, spp, sp. All years should be in English calendar and write single year, not two years as 2015/16. Generally, harvesting time as well as the year of a longer growing period determine the year. Use 'and' instead of &. Do not provide space before the percentage sign of any value (67%) and use word per in text or symbol (/) mostly in Table and Figure, not superscript. Italicize non-English words and scientific names and it should be followed by authority (eg Oryza sativa L.) for the first time. Capitalize the first letter in word after colon. Use Times New Roman with 11 font size for general text (body); 10 for abstract, keywords, Table, Figure, acknowledgments and references. Do not keep any things in text box. Foot note or Table foot note, header, footer and source should be italicized with 9 font size. Make appropriate color for Table, Figure, Title, HEADINGS and sub headings (see latest issue for color use). Color is used for title, headings, sub-headings, Table lines, Figures, column headings, headers, all link address (email, URL, etc) without underline, words Table and Figure. Do not justify title, HEADINGS, sub headings, Table caption, Figure caption, authors name and address, keywords, text column, etc. Indicate the end of paper by inserting this symbol |l-------l||l-------l|.
Format for Review Articles
The review article is much different from the main research articles in that it contains detailed description of certain topics researched or investigated earlier by concerned researchers. As in the main research article, it should contain abstract not exceeding 300 words. Each topic should have an appropriate heading and/or sub-headings with relevant Tables and Figures numbered separately but sequentially for each review article. At the end of each article, all discussed items should be summarized and the conclusion should be drawn. All the relevant references should be cited. Authors are requested to choose modern topics of interests to the readers. The review articles should not be of more than 25 pages.
Format for Short Communication
Short Communications present concise reports of original research, typically ranging from 1,500 to a maximum of 3,000 words (approximately 5 to 10 double-spaced manuscript pages), excluding the Abstract and References. These manuscripts should include a brief Abstract, a main text (without subsections), a list of cited literature, and no more than four figures and/or tables in total. This format is intended for timely studies with the potential to inspire further research in the field; however, preliminary findings or minor updates are not suitable for this article type.
Format for Symposia
Symposium papers from scientific conferences may be considered for publication in the journal, provided they undergo the standard peer-review process and comply with the same policies and procedures, as regular articles. The chairperson organizing the symposium is responsible for notifying the Editor-in-Chief prior to the event.
TITLE AND AUTHOR:
The title should be informative and unique, started with a keyword but concise and clear and should reflect the content of the paper. It should be in title case. Abbreviated and shortcut word should not be used in the title. Provide running title (short as much as possible). If the common name of any species or genotype is available, mention only the common name and not the scientific name in the title. Below the title, name and the address of all authors should be given. Write the addresses of the authors at the time of the work reported in the paper. Indicate current addresses as a footnote on the first page of the paper, if the address is different from workplace. Full name and complete address of each author should be written and indicate the corresponding author using symbol @. Provide email address of all authors, in case of multiple authors with same address other than the corresponding author, give email of each author indicating by initials eg (ABC: abnepal@yahoo.com). Corresponding author must mention ORCID (visit this site for getting this ID, https://orcid.org/) as ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7848-5824 just after email address.
ABSTRACT:
Every manuscript (article) must have a short abstract (not more than 300 words), which should be complete itself but it should be concise and clear without any cited references. Abstract should be an informative, self-explanatory abstract that is a single paragraph of 300 words or fewer. It should be specific, telling why and how the study was made, what the results were, and why they were important. The abstract must contain the following five elements:
- Justification or rationale (state the hypothesis or reasons for conducting the research)
- Objectives (goal of the study)
- Methods (procedures used; be specific)
- Significant results (present quantitative results; major findings)
- Conclusion (relevant usefulness of your study)
Keywords (not more than five words) should be written below the abstract in alphabetical order. In addition to these, the abstract should also be written in Nepali language (not applicable to foreign authors) using the Kalimati Unicode font in 11 font size.
INTRODUCTION:
The introduction should give an appropriate background and explain the things that are proposed. It should include short introduction to justify the research and relevant reviews and state the objectives clearly.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Materials and methods should include description of the site or system where the work was carried out, the experimental materials, procedures and statistical design used as well as the method to analyze the results. New methods should be described in detail and for methods developed by earlier researchers, only a reference may be cited. Detailed methodology descriptions are preferred. Report the location, geo-references (altitude, latitude and longitude, etc) and date of experiment conducted. Write the scientific name with authority, common and local name of the organism. If possible, mention chromosome number of organism as 2n=2x=24 for Oryza sativa L.
RESULTS:
Results and discussion should be under different headings. Results should be presented in a concise manner avoiding data that are already given in Tables and Figures.
DISCUSSION:
The discussion part should not repeat the results but should explain and interpret the data based on the published relevant studies. Insert graph and Table wherever necessary and number them sequentially within each paper (article).
CONCLUSION:
The conclusion, recommendation, way forward and possible impact (if any) all comes under this heading and should be based on the supporting data.
Units of measurement:
All units and measures should be in the metric system or in the International System Units (SI) and should be abbreviated for technical values. Local units and measures can be used in parenthesis. Currency exchange rates should be in US$ along with the local currency for the appropriate date for any prices cited.
Reporting time and dates:
Use 12-hr time system with four digits, the first two for hours and the last two for minutes (eg 02:30 pm). Dates are reported with day of the month first, then month, followed by the year without comma (,) eg 7 Aug 2000.
Supplementary files:
Data that are not essential to the main text or cannot be included due to size or format limitations (e.g., videos, raw data, PowerPoint presentations) may be submitted as supplementary material during the submission process. These materials will be made available alongside the published article and are permanently stored in Figshare, where they are assigned a DOI.
Since supplementary files are not typeset, authors must ensure the content is clearly presented, without tracked changes, highlighted text, or line numbers, and that each file includes an appropriate caption. To maintain consistency with the main article, do not include the title, author names, affiliations, or correspondence details in the supplementary materials.
Accepted formats for supplementary files include:
- Data files: Word, Excel, CSV, CDX, FASTA, PDF, or ZIP
- Presentations: PowerPoint, PDF, or ZIP
- Images: CDX, EPS, JPEG, PDF, PNG, or TIF/TIFF
- Tables: Word, Excel, CSV, or PDF
- Audio: MP3, WAV, or WMA
- Video: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, or WMV
- Image requirements: 300 DPI resolution and RGB color mode.
Acknowledgment:
This section briefly recognizes the support of particular colleagues, organizations, or agencies that assisted the authors in their work. If any part of the manuscript has been previously published online such as in a thesis or preprint this should also be noted here, with the corresponding source included in the reference list.
If the authors received any funding, it must be acknowledged in this section. Where applicable, include the grant number, the name of the funding agency, and the institution that received the funding.
Guidelines for artificial intelligence:
Uses of generative AI technologies such as Large Language Models (ChatGPT, Jasper) and text-to-image generators (DALL-E 2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion) in the editing of manuscripts. However, authors should declare the use of LLM in preparation the manuscript.
Authors contribution:
Each author must have contributed significantly to the work's conception or design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, the development of new software used in the work, or the drafting or substantive revision of the work; and must have approved the submitted version (as well as the version heavily edited by journal staff that incorporates the author's contribution to the study); and accepts personal responsibility for the author's own contributions and for making sure that any concerns regarding the integrity or accuracy of any portion of the work even those in which the author was not directly involved are duly looked into, addressed, and documented in the literature. In research studies with multiple authors, a brief paragraph outlining each author's
For research articles with several authors, a short paragraph specifying their individual contributions must be provided. The following statements should be used: "Conceptualization, R.B.K. and R.R. Methodology, R.R.; Software, R.B.K.; Validation, R.R., N.G. and T.G.; Formal Analysis, M.P.; Investigation, R.B.K.; Resources, N.G., Data Curation, R.B.K.; Writing -- Original Draft Preparation, R.B.K; Writing -- Review & Editing, N.G.; Visualization, M.P.; Supervision, N.G.; Project Administration, N.G.; Funding Acquisition, T.G.", please turn to the CRediT taxonomy for the term explanation. For more background on CRediT, see here. "Authorship must include and be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work. Please read the section concerning the criteria to qualify for authorship carefully."
Equal contributions:
The authors who have contributed equally should be marked with a symbol (†) in the author list of the doc/latex and pdf files of the manuscript uploaded at submission.
Please use the appropriate standard statement(s) to indicate equal contributions:
- Equal contribution: These authors contributed equally to this work
- First authorship: These authors share first authorship
- Senior authorship: These authors share senior authorship
- Last authorship: These authors share last authorship
- Equal contribution and first authorship: These authors contributed equally to this work and share first authorship
- Equal contribution and senior authorship: These authors contributed equally to this work and share senior authorship
- Equal contribution and last authorship: These authors contributed equally to this work and share last authorship
References
Only the papers closely related to the authors' work should be referred in the text by author's family name and the year of publication and be cited in an alphabetical order. When quoting (citing) references in the text, the last names of the authors for up to two authors (eg Joshi 2015, Gurung and Shrestha 2011) and last name of the first author followed by et al for more than two authors (eg Singh et al 2014) should be given followed by the year of publication within parenthesis. Do not use comma (,) before year or to separate family name and year, do not use period (.) in et al, eg, etc, ed, eds and initials of author name, do not give space between two initials of author name and in between volume and page numbers, do not justify references list, give 0.3" hanging indent to each reference list, capitalize each keyword in title of book, proceedings, workshop, etc. When references made to more than one publication by the authors in the same year, the publication should be numbered as (a) and (b) of that year with the earliest publication the year being designated (a) and so on.
The references should be formatted in APA 6th Referencing Style (For detail guide, please refer https://aut.ac.nz.libguides.com/apa6th/referencelist)
Annual Report
NWRP. (2015). Rice-wheat system: Opportunities and constraints. In: Annual Report 1980. National Wheat Research Program (NWRP), Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Bhairahawa, Nepal; pp.60-65.
Genebank. 2019. Annual Report 2075/76 (2018/19) (BK Joshi, KH Ghimire and S Shrestha, eds). National Agriculture Genetic Resources Center (Genebank), NARC, Khumaltar.
Serials, Newsletter
Shrestha, J., Bhatta, M. R. and Ghimire, K.H. (2013). Shali Dhan: Elite line of rice from Far West Nepal developed under the pre-breeding program in Genebank, Khumaltar. NARC Newsletter 20(4):5.
Web Material
Pretty, J. (2003). Genetic modification: Overview of benefits and risks. http://www2.essex.ac.uk/ces/.
In case of citing only website, it is not necessary to include the list in references section, only citation is enough with link.
Thesis and Dissertation
Shrestha, S.K. (2000). Assessment of the potential of Nepalese rice cultivars and landraces for hybrid production. Master Thesis. Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, Nepal.
Paper Presented in Workshop or Seminar
Don't cite presentation, in case of necessity followed this style. Author can consider abstract publication of such workshop.
Upadhyay MP, BK Baniya, BK Joshi, HB KC and D Gauchan. 2003. On-farm management of agrobiodiversity: Experiences of Nepal. Paper presented in: International Conference on Himalayan Biodiversity (ICHB 2003), 26-28 Feb 2003, Kathmandu.
Personal Communication and Unpublished Article
These can be mentioned directly in the text in parenthesis (eg R.C. Sharma 2014 personal communication, T. B. Gurung 2016 email correspondence).
Nepali Language References
If references are in Nepali languages, first write authors' name and year in English and write title in Roman. Remaining parts eg publisher, address, page number, etc are same as other publications and at last write In Nepali language) within parenthesis.
Khatri BH, BP Luitel and D Chaudhary. 2015. Nepalma Sifarish tatha unmochan gariyeko aaluko jaatharu: Ek parichaya. NPRP, NARC, Khumaltar (in Nepali language).
Thesis or Dissertation
If the manuscript to be published is from his/her thesis or dissertation, it should be indicated at the footnote of the first page.
Table:
Each Table with a number and proper title heading should be prepared and sorted appropriately. Use the following symbols for footnotes in the order shown: †, ‡, §, ¶, #, ††, ‡‡, etc. The single (*) and double asterisks (**) are used to indicate statistical significance and have priority in this order to show 5 and 1% levels of significance, respectively. Do not repeat information in the text presented in charts or graph. Use 10 font size and bold word Table, Table caption and column headings with only horizontal lines. When necessary, provide actual p-value.
Figure:
Each Figure and/or graph with a number and the proper title heading should be drawn or prepared. Figure/picture should be with good color so it can be printed well in black and white. Use 10 font size and bold word Figure, use period (.) at the end of caption. Provide Figure both in Word and Excel format or original picture with high resolution (editable one). If there are many images, they can be arranged in tabular cells. Do not abbreviate Figure as Fig. if there is no line at the bottom of any drawing, underline the drawing to separate such picture from its caption.
So far as possible, Table and Figure should be either one-column width or two-column width in portrait orientation. In case of two column width, figures can be inserted in table cell without boarder.
Page Limit:
The page limit for the main research article is 15 typed pages in single space including Tables, Figures and References.
Checklist of papers submitted to J. Nep. Agric. Res. Counc.
Content
- Significance and originality of work are shown. Reproducibility of results is illustrated
- Objectives are clearly stated in the introduction
- Introduction includes a succinct evaluation of the topic, including all relevant literature
- Experimental design and methodology are fully explained
- Proper and sufficient analyses are conducted (review by qualified statistician before submission)
- Discussion relates work to other published material and addresses strengths and weaknesses of research
- Major conclusions are supported by results from repeated experiments. Manuscripts are reviewed critically before submission
Format
- Normal text, paragraph and single spaced
- Numbered Tables and Figures sequentially and located in right place
- Do not use both common and scientific names for organisms in the title
- Full author names, affiliations, addresses, e-mail and telephone number included
- Consistent style, format and size are used for all Figures and Tables
- Subheadings may be used, but avoid, excessive fragmentation of the text.
- Words or phrases useful in index retrieval systems are listed in alphabetical order
- Abstract should be one paragraph. Do not underline and do not make 2-column
Writing
- Give the name of the institute where the research was conducted and not the name of the institute where you are employed at present. If there is a change of address, give the present address as a footnote
- Specify location and the period during which the experiment was conducted.
- Use past tense for materials and methods and results in active voice
- Results should be specific, instead of being indicative
- Indicate date as 21 Jan 2015. Spell out the standard abbreviations when first mentioned
- Do not give data in Table, if they are depicted graphically or described in text
- Do not repeat ideas in different forms of sentences. Check and avoid all repetitions and duplications
- Do not acknowledge for official facilities or help or for encouragement etc
- Avoid period with initials of authors, acronyms, etc
- Do not cite anonymous as author, instead cite the name of the institute, publisher or editor
- Give only selected, recent references. Avoid reference from non-science literature. Avoid comma between the surname of an author and its initial or the year of citation
Supporting material
- Cover letter with the name, address, phone and email address of the corresponding author, and names and addresses of potential reviewers as well as key findings.
Submission
- Pay good attention on presentations of the article. Always consult a recent copy of our journal
- Check all data and references from original source
- Ensure that all references in the text find a place in the references part of article and vice versa
- The spellings of names and years should correspond in the text and references part
- Do not send the article for publication until it confirms in all respects to the style of the journal and has been checked very carefully. Before submission, check carefully all data and text for factual, grammatical or typographical errors. Send the article electronically
- On revision, please answer all the referees' comments point wise, indicating the modifications made by you. If you do not agree, give reasons for your disagreement with full justification
- Return the corrected electronic copies immediately
Disclaimer
All opinions published in the journal reflect the views of author/s and are not necessarily the views of NARC and editorial board. The editorial board reserves the right to reject or accept any submitted manuscript. All final decision will be of the Editor-in-Chief. No complaints can be lodge against to the Journal and concern authorities for manuscript rejection, delay and changes in contents of the manuscript. The submission of the manuscript in the journal declares that all terms and conditions of the journal has been read and accepted by the authors.