INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS: “ZEMDIRBYSTE-AGRICULTURE”
(updated in April 2021)
General requirements
Zemdirbyste-Agriculture is an open-access international journal that publishes, in English, original research papers and review articles, containing new and significant information in the field of agricultural sciences, agronomy and related areas of life sciences. All contributions must be based on original research and contain novel findings, which have not been previously published in any other scientific journals (except as abstracts, theses, short reports). It is desirable that papers address the problems relevant for agriculture of a temperate climate zone.
The contributions must present recent (preferably – for the last 5 years) research data, adequately statistically validated and followed by a comprehensive discussion of factors affecting results. Results reported in the manuscript must be based on repeated trials or experiments. Review articles are accepted only on the proposal of the Editorial Board.
Upon submission of the manuscript to the Editorial Office, the author(s) warrant(s) that the material and the major scientific conclusions have not been previously published, and that the content of the manuscript and authorship have been agreed with the co-authors. Author(s) grants agreement to publish article in the Information System of Lithuanian Science and Study Electronic Documents – the Lithuania Academic Electronic Library (http://aleph.library.lt), CABI database and in the institution’s website (www.lammc.lt).
Suitability of the articles and its contents is approved by the Editorial Board members, representing the key areas and branches of agronomy and related areas of life sciences.
Manuscripts may be rejected without peer-review by the editor-in-chief if they do not fall within the scope of the journal or do not meet the instructions to authors.
Ethical requirements
Manuscripts are submitted to the plagiarism checking system, which compares the content of the manuscript with a vast database of web pages and academic publications. Manuscripts judged to be plagiarised or self-plagiarised, based on any source of information, will not be considered for publication.
Submission
A manuscript prepared following the directions given in this text shall be submitted online to the Editorial Office at zemdirbyste-agriculture@lammc.lt. After a positive initial evaluation, submissions are anonymously peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers. The Editorial Board meeting makes the final decision whether to accept or reject the manuscript for publication.
Manuscript preparation
Manuscripts should be written in English. Authors are responsible for submitting well-written manuscripts. Manuscript should be written in simple declarative sentences. English spelling and grammar should follow standard British English usage. Authors are strongly advised to have papers reviewed linguistically prior to submission.
Only native speakers of Lithuanian should provide a summary in Lithuanian.
Authors should consult papers in a recent issue of this journal for details of manuscript style and formatting that are given below.
Manuscripts should not exceed 12 pages, including tables and figures. Tables and figures should be inserted in the text. Manuscripts should be typed using Microsoft Office Word text editor Times New Roman, font 12. Format A4 (210 ´ 297 mm), spacing – single (1), alignment – justify. Width of margins: left, top and bottom – 2.0 cm, right – 1.0 cm. Pages and lines should be numbered.
Submission of revised articles
When revision is requested, authors should revise their paper carefully and resubmit a revised version to the Editorial Office together with a letter outlining a point-by-point response to reviewers or editors’ comments and detailing the changes made to the paper. Authors need to return revised paper within 30 days after the first revision and within 15 days after the second revision.
Structure and scope
The text of the manuscript and its constituent parts should be arranged as follows: title section, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and discussion, Conclusion(s), Acknowledgements (optional) and References.
Title section should contain informative title of the manuscript (acronyms should be avoided), not exceeding 15 words, first name and surname of the author(s), the name of institution, its address, corresponding author’s e-mail address.
Abstract should state the purpose of the research, the main methods and results and should not exceed 300 words. It should not contain references.
Key words: maximum 6 words, separated by comas. If possible, acronyms should be avoided. Words from the title should not be used.
Introduction. Background and significance of the problem by using the most recent publications should be provided. At the end, the aim of the study should be clearly stated.
Materials and methods. Authors should provide a concise description of experimental site, design, materials and analytical methods and statistical procedures used. This section should be as clear as possible to enable other scientists to repeat the research presented.
Results section can be divided into subsections. The numbers from the tables or figures should not be repeated extensively in the text, and long explanations of the tables and figures are not acceptable. The same information given in the table should not be repeated in the figure or vice versa. Relevant statistical information should be provided in tables and figures. Statistical significance should be clearly indicated where applicable.
Discussion. Interpretation of data, related to previous research, should be presented. Results and discussion sections may be combined.
Conclusion(s): main significant results of the study should be presented in a clear and concise way and should be numbered.
Acknowledgements (optional) of funds, grants, etc. may be placed.
References. The number of references should not exceed 40. The list should include more recent items: peer-reviewed scientific articles, scientific books and monographs and other scientific publications, except for textbooks, manuals or training materials. References to abstracts or proceedings and thesis of doctoral dissertations are acceptable only in exceptional cases.
All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references. In the text, references should be cited by author and year of publication, e.g., Gupta (2018), Faghih and Mokhtary (2021). If reference is made in the text to a publication written by more than two authors, the name of the first author should be used followed by “et al.”, e.g., Rodríguez-Blanco et al., 2021. References cited together in the text should be arranged chronologically.
The list of references should be arranged alphabetically by authors’ names, and chronologically per author. Publications by the same author(s) in the same year should be listed as 2021 a, 2021 b, etc. All authors of each publication should be included into the reference list. Titles of scientific journals, conference proceedings, etc., should not be abbreviated. Where possible, it is desirable that the DOI (digital object identifier) be indicated.
Priority should be given to references in English. In the case of articles in any other language with an English summary, the English title of the article should be provided and the original language should be indicated in parenthesis (e.g., in Lithuanian, in German, in French, in Spanish, etc.); if there is no title of article and summary in English, the reference should be indicated in the original (Indo-European) language, and it should be stated in parenthesis (e.g., in Russian, in Ukrainian, etc.).
Examples of references
For journals:
Almogdad M., Semaškienė R. 2021. The occurrence and control of black bean aphids (Aphis fabae Scop.) in broad bean. Zemdirbyste-Agriculture, 108 (2): 171–178. DOI: 10.13080/z-a.2021.108.022
Ben Taheur F., Mansour C., Kouidhi B., Chaieb K. 2019. Use of lactic acid bacteria for the inhibition of Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus carbonarius growth and mycotoxin production. Toxicon, 166: 15–23. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2019.05.004
For books:
Lamers F., Cremers M., Matschegg D., Schmidl C., HannamK., Hazlett P., Madrali S., Dam B. P., RobertoR., Mager R., Davidsson K., Bech N., Feuerborn H.-J., SaraberA. 2018. Options for increased use of ash from biomass combustion and co-firing. IEA Bioenergy. Task 32: Biomass Combustion and Cofiring, 60 p.
Innovative solutions of soil and agrochemistry science. 2015 / compiled by Staugaitis G., Vaišvila Z. Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, 320 p. (in Lithuanian)
For book chapters:
Blackman R. L., Eastop V. F. 2017. Taxonomic issues. van Emden H. F., Harrington R. (eds). Aphids as crop pests. CABI, chapter 1, p. 1–36. DOI: 10.1079/9781780647098.0001
Rognli O. A., Aavola R., Aleliūnas A., Asp T., Brazauskas G., Gylstrøm K. H., Helgadottir A., Isolahti M., Kovi M. R., Kristjánsdóttir A., Larsen A. S., Marum P., Paina C., Persson C., Rancãne S. 2018. Utilization of genebank accessions to improve northern adaptation of perennial ryegrass. G. Brazauskas et al. (eds.). Breeding Grasses and Protein Crops in the Era of Genomics. Springer, p. 3–8.
For proceedings:
Sterna V., Kunkulberga D., Straumite E., Bernande K. 2019. Naked barley influence on wheat bread quality. FoodBalt 2019: 13th Baltic conference on food science and technology Food. Nutrition. Well-Being: conference proceedings. Jelgava, Latvia, p. 98–102. https://llufb.llu.lv/conference/foodbalt/2019/Sterna_et_al_N125_FoodBalt2019.pdf
For on-line documents:
WRB. 2014. World reference base for soil resources. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3794e.pdf
Eurostat. 2020. Crop production in EU standard humidity. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=apro_cpsh1&lang=en
For thesis or dissertation:
Mažeikienė I. 2020. Genetic background of plant resistance to gall mite and fruit anthocyanin quality in Ribes spp.: doctoral dissertation. Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, 129 p.
Text
Title of the article and headings (Abstract, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and discussion, Conclusion(s), References) should be written in Bold.
Dimensions and nomenclature
All physical units, their names and symbols should meet the requirements of SI system (Système International d’Unités). Soil texture should be indicated according to World Reference Base for soil resources (2014), e.g., Albic Endostagnic Luvisol (Cutanic, Differentic). The rules of WRB should be followed for a detailed description and naming of soils and the Guidelines for Soil Description (2006) should be applied for determining soil particle-size and texture classes.
Latin names of plant species, genus, pests, micro-organisms also causal agents of diseases should be written with taxon name, in Italic, e.g., Triticum aestivum (L.), Blumeria graminis (DC.) Speer. The terms and names of plants, biology, entomology, phytopathology, pesticides, agrochemistry and soil must meet the most recent requirements of their international nomenclature, names and spelling.
Tables
The position of tables should be vertical (portrait) only. Large tables should be avoided. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two (or more) tables. The preferred format for tables is MS Word. Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the text in bold-italics, e.g., Table 1. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Since the tables must be autonomous, any explanation essential to the understanding should be given as a note at the bottom of the table. The columns and rows in the tables should not be separated either by horizontal or vertical lines. Only horizontal lines should be used to separate column headings and the end of the table.
Figures
All illustrative material – graphs, diagrams, photos, drawings, pictures, etc., are called by a common name of figures, e.g., Figure 1. Figures are published only in black and white. Coloured photos will be represented only in the online version, and black and white ones in the printed version. To maintain clear contrast, use line patterns instead of shading and avoid thin, light lines. Graphs should be done using Microsoft Office Excel and provided in the text of the manuscript and by a separate Excel file. If figures are produced not in Excel, they should be in separate graphic .jpg or .tiff format files in a resolution of at least 300 dpi (3000 pixel about 26 cm in size). Times New Roman, font size 12 should be used; there should be no Bold, no frames around figures.
Figure legends should be concise and should give enough information to make the figure understandable. All symbols presented in the figures must be defined, and all acronyms should be explained as a note at the bottom.
Statistical analysis
The data provided in the tables and figures should be statistically processed.