Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture

Guidelines for Authors

The Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture [EJFA] is a peer-reviewed international journal publishing basic and applied research articles in the field of agricultural sciences by theCollege of Food and Agriculture, United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates. The journal also publishes invited reviews relevant to current agricultural and food system topics. Submitted manuscripts are reviewed and edited by two reviewers and the Editorial Board. The Journal’s full-text articles are published both in print and online, and are accessible electronically via the journal's main page  www.ejfa.info.

Having published 26 volumes since 1989, the frequency increased from 6 issues to 12 issues per year starting with volume 25. The EJFA is the first monthly scientific journal in this field from the region. Issues will appear online prior to printing, and soon after final acceptance, the article with abstract and doi numbers will appear in the e-Preview issues section.

All articles should be original works and not already published, nor submitted for publication elsewhere. Author(s) is/are solely responsible for authenticity of cited literature and originality of data being reported. The editorial office will not be responsible for any plagiarism. View EJFA's plagiarism policy here .

The submitted papers will pass through initial screening in the editorial office followed by internal review by the Internal Board of Reviewing Editors. Then the paper will be checked through the advanced plagiarism detection software (CrossCheck by iThenticate). After this, the paper will be assigned to a senior editor for conducting the External Peer Review by two reviewers. After revision, the paper will again undergo the CrossCheck screening.

Manuscript Submission:

Before submission, please ensure that the manuscript is in accordance with the EJFA policies .

Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editorial Office of EJFA through the advanced online submission, Peer Review and Tracking System available at Online Submissions  on the top of this page.

Journal Language:
Only English language articles submitted for publication will be considered.

Manuscript Preparation:
Manuscripts should be typed single-spaced and with lines numbered. A font size of 12 points (Times New Roman) text is preferred. Manuscripts should be written in sound, clear and concise language. Page numbers should be located on the bottom-center of every page of the manuscript including the title page, references, tables etc.  The title should be centered at the top of page 1 of the manuscript. Capitalize only the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns or abbreviations that require capitalization. The title should not be more than 100 characters followed by the author(s) name(s), affiliation(s), and address(es) and additional contact information (e-mail). For authors’ names use only initials for all but the family or last name. Indication of other professional titles should not be used.

Structure of Manuscripts:
Abstracts: Abstract should be concise, clear and include an objective description of the contents and the major significant findings of the article. Each abstract should not exceed 1250 characters plus spaces in one paragraph.

Keywords: At the end of abstract list, in alphabetical order, up to five key words that best describe the research.

Introduction: Should reflect a brief background of the research and the purpose of its initiation. Extensive discussion of relevant literature should be included in the discussion of results, not in the introduction.

Materials and methods: A clear description or specific original reference is required for all procedures including statistical procedures.

Results and discussion:  These can either be pooled together or presented under separate sections.

Conclusions: The conclusion should not be more than 1000 characters plus spaces in one paragraph.

Acknowledgement(s): If necessary.

References: References should be arranged alphabetically by author’s last name then chronologically per author. Publications by the same author(s) in the same year should be listed by year followed by the letters a. b. c. etc. (e.g. 2002a. 2002b, 2002c.).

Examples of reference listing formats

Journal articles
Jenkins, T. G., C. L. Ferrell and A. Roberts. 2000. Lactation and calf weight traits of mature crossbred cows fed varying daily levels of metabolizable energy. J. Anim. Sci. 78:7-14.

Proceedings
Johnson, E. H., D. Muirhead, R. Al-Busaidy and B. E. Musa. 1998. The ultrastructure of the camel eosinophil. In: proceedings of the third annual meeting for animal production under arid conditions ‘the international conference on camel production and future perspectives’. Publisher United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates. p.88-95.

Abstracts from conferences and meetings
Hymadan,  H. S. 1983. Impact of seedborne pathogens on international movements of seeds.  Phytopathology. 73:784. (Abstr.).

Books and chapters within edited books
AOAC. 1990. Official Methods of Analysis. 15th ed. Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Arlington, VA.
O'toole,  J. C. and T. T. Chang. 1979. Drought resistance in cereals: Rice-a case study, In: H. Mussel and R. C.  Stafle (Eds.). pp. 373-406. Stress Physiology of Crop Plants.  Wiley-Interscience.  N.Y.

Handbooks, Technical bulletins and Dissertation
Goering, H. K. and P. J Van Soest. 1970. Forage fiber analyses (apparatus, reagents, procedures, and some applications). Agric. Handbook No. 379. ARS, USDA, Washington, DC. 
Nouri, L. K. and A. R. Hassan. 1973. Studies on soil fertility and fertilizers in Iraq. Tech. Bull. No. 43. Ministry of higher education and scientific research. Baghdad.  Iraq.
Alhadrami, G. A. 1991. Effect of preservatives and maturity on the nutritional value of alfalfa hay for lactating dairy cows. Ph. D. dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Tables: Should be organized similar to the text, so that the table can be read without turning the page sideways (if possible). Large tables should be avoided. They should be typed on separate pages and numbered sequentially according to the order of their respective appearance in the text.  Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should include the International Standard abbreviations(s) of their respective units of measurement included between parentheses. Footnotes should be indicated by superscript letters starting with (a) in each table and kept as short as possible.

Illustrations: Drawings and photographs should be numbered sequentially according to their respective order of citation in the text. Explanations should be given in the typewritten legend, which should contain sufficient details to permit figure interpretation without reference to the text. Colored and black and white photographs are accepted. All illustrations should be limited to an A4 size paper. In case of using MS Excel program for diagrams, the original MS Excel file should be sent also.

Footnotes: Footnotes are permitted in the tables but not in the rest of the text.

Citations: Citations should be referenced in the text in one of two ways, depending on the sentence structure: 1) At the beginning of the sentence [Alhadrami et al. (2001)]; 2) At the end of the sentence [(Alhadrami et al., 2001)]. When a citation has one or two authors, cite the reference using the name(s) and the date. The name of the first author should be used followed by ‘et al’ when there are more than two authors in the citation. However, ‘et al’ should not be used in the list.

Review articles and short communication: Can also be published in the journal and they need not be divided into the above-mentioned sections. The subheadings in Review article can be numbered. Normally, original papers and review articles should not exceed 20 typewritten single spaced pages while short communications should be limited to a maximum of five pages.

Proofs: One set of galley proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for typographical checking only. It should be returned within three days of receipt.

Reprints: Corresponding author will receive a complimentary copy of journal upon request.

Submission Preparation Checklist

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.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
3. 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.
4. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines , which is found in About the Journal.
5. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
6. The article submitted is in adherence to the EJFA policies listed in http://ejfa.info/index.php/ejfa/pages/view/journal_policies section.

 Copyright Notice

Published by United Arab Emirates University; Printed in United Arab Emirates. All works published are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

The views expressed in this issue are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the policies of the United Arab Emirates University.

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