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The Journal of Dry Zone Agriculture (JDZA) publishes research of outstanding significance in all aspects of dry zone agriculture including agronomy, agricultural biology, food and nutrition, soil science, animal science, agricultural engineering, and agricultural economics.
Type of paper
Research papers - Original full-length research papers related to agriculture which have not been published previously, except as an abstract, and should not exceed 6,000 words excluding references. The minimum word count should be 3,000 excluding references.
Publication frequency
The journal is published in two issues per volume annually.
Open access policy
The Journal of Dry Zone Agriculture provides immediate open access to its content to share and adapt.
From December 2021, articles are published under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
Copyright
The copyright of all published articles in the JDZA is retained by the publisher of the journal (Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka).
Article processing fee
There is no fee for processing and publication of articles.
Authorship
The authors should include the persons who have contributed sufficiently to the work submitted to the journal. Changes cannot be made in the list of authors after submission unless all authors agree the addition of new author with the reason in detail for the addition of author.
Plagiarism policy and article review process
If any part of already published work is used in the manuscript, they should be cited properly or in any case, if required they should get permission from the previous publisher or copyright holder as required. All manuscripts will be screened using plagiarism detection software and assessed by the editors for suitability for the journal before sending for review. The screened manuscripts will be sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers for review (double-blind review). The editorial board is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles.
Guidelines for preparation of manuscript
The language of publication of the articles is English (British English). Manuscript should be prepared in MS Word as .docx format (Word 2013 or higher). The style of writing should conform to acceptable English usage. Slang and jargon should be avoided. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but, if necessary, they must be defined at their first mention. The script should be free of errors, double spaced throughout with 2.5 cm margins on all sides. Pages should be numbered consecutively at the bottom right. Continuous line numbers should be added throughout the text. The font style should be Times New Roman and font size 12 throughout the paper.
Title page
Title page should be submitted separately. It includes the title of paper, names with initials and affiliations of all authors. Corresponding author should be indicated by an asterisk (*) and ORCID ID, e-mail address, postal address, telephone, and fax numbers of corresponding author should be given.
Manuscript layout
The manuscript should not contain author names and affiliations. Author should ensure that the manuscript does not contain any clues to the authors’ identity. If the author wants to include any such details in the manuscript, that could be done after review is completed, if the manuscript is accepted for publication. Manuscripts should be organized as follows: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, Declaration of Conflict of Interest, and References.
Title
Title should be concise, informative, and typed in ‘Sentence case’ bold letters. Avoid using abbreviations in the title of a paper.
Abstract
Abstract should have 200 - 250 words. The abstract should not contain any references. It should outline objectives and methodology together with important results and conclusions.
Keywords
A maximum of six keywords should be provided separated by a comma in alphabetical order.
Introduction
It should be concise and well-focused to the research work done. It should provide adequate background of the research and state the objectives of the work. A detailed literature survey or a summary of the results should be avoided.
Materials and Methods
New methods should be described in such a way as to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Established methods should be mentioned in brief with references. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described. A paper reporting the results of the experimental investigations on human subjects or on animals must provide evidence of approval obtained from an ethical review committee. Statistical analyses done should be mentioned where applicable.
Results and Discussion
The results should be concisely and logically presented. Only data essential for the main conclusions emerging from the study should be included. Repetition of the same results in figures, tables or text should be avoided. Long discussions should be avoided. The discussion should deal with the interpretation of results. It should logically relate new findings of earlier ones. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusion
Unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by the data should be avoided. All hypotheses should be clearly identified as such.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements should be brief and made for funding sources, scientific and technical assistance and not for routine help in preparing manuscripts.
Declaration of Conflict of Interest
Authors should declare any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, that might be perceived as influencing on the research. If there are no conflicts of interest, indicate it as ‘Authors have no conflict of interest to declare’.
References
The list of references must be as updated as possible. References to the literature must be indicated in the text and tables as following the general procedure. The references should be in alphabetical order at the end of the manuscripts. Unpublished data and personal communications should not be listed in the references but may be mentioned in the text. Reference to work ‘in press’ implies its acceptance for publication and may be listed under references.
In each reference, all the initials of the author must be given after the surname. The year of publication should follow the author’s name. This should be followed by the full title of the referred publication.
When journal articles are listed, the journal names should be given in full and it should be indicated in italics and followed by the volume number, the issue number in parentheses and then the inclusive pages. When books are listed, the order should be: author(s), year, book title, volume number, edition, pagination/inclusive pages, publisher and place of publication. The book title should be indicated in italics. When sections of a book are listed, the order should be: authors of section, year, title of the section, title of the book, edition, inclusive pages, publisher and place of publication. Wherever available, digital object identifier (DOI) should be provided.
Citation in the text
Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. When two or more references are to be cited together, arrange the citations in alphabetical order, separating them with semicolons. Some examples:
… fully hydrogenated fats are blended with liquid oils as the feed stocks of interesterification (Zhang et al., 2000).
… with low or zero trans fatty acids and the results were promising (Abdhul, 2005; Goli et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2001).
… trans-free margarine formulations and most widely used enzyme for the interesterification is Lipozyme TL IM (Ferreira-Dias, 2013).
… fatty acids can be obtained by enzymatic interesterification (Huang and Akoh, 1994).
This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman (1996).
Reference list
Journal articles
1. Single author
Gil, A. 2002. Polyunsaturated fatty acids and inflammatory diseases. Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy, 56:388–396.
2. Two authors
Huang, K.H. and Akoh, C.C. 1994. Lipase-catalyzed incorporation of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids into vegetable oils. Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, 71:1277–1280.
3. More than two authors
Zhang, H., Xu, X., Mu, H., Nilsson, J., Adler-Nissen, J. and Høy, C.E. 2000. Lipozyme IM-catalyzed interesterification for the production of margarine fats in a 1 kg scale stirred tank reactor. European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology, 102:411–418. https://doi.org/10.1002/1438-9312(200006)102:6<411::AID-EJLT411>3.0.CO;2-T
Books and other monographs
4. Chapter in book
Gordon, M.H. 2001. The development of oxidative rancidity. In: Pokorny, J., Yanishlieva, N. and Gordon, M. (eds) Antioxidants in Food – Practical Applications. CRC Press, Washington, pp 7-225.
5. Web references
The full URL should be given with the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Example,
WHO. 2015. Eliminating trans fats in Europe: A policy brief. http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/288442/Eliminating-trans-fats-in-Europe-A-policy-brief.pdf. Accessed January 30 2021
Abbreviations and symbols
Unless common, these should be defined when first used, and not included in the abstract. The SI system of units should be used wherever possible. If measurements were made in units other than SI, the data should be reported in the same units followed by SI units in brackets. E.g. 5290 ft (1610 m)
Equations
Equations can be inserted using Insert Equation option available in the Microsoft Word.
Nomenclature
Scientific names of plants and animals should be in italics. In the first citation, genus, species and authority must be given. E.g. Scirtothrips dorsalis L. In later citation, the generic name may be abbreviated. E.g. S. dorsalis.
Tables
The maximum number of tables should not exceed six. Tables should be placed in their correct places within the text of the manuscript. Table should be clear and intelligible without references to the text and should not repeat data available elsewhere in the paper. They should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. If a table must be continued, a second sheet should be used, and all the headings repeated. All tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
The number of columns or rows in each table should have a title which makes its general meaning clear without reference to the text. All tables’ columns should have explanatory headings. Units of measurements, if any, should be indicated in parentheses in the headings of each column. Vertical lines should not be used, and horizontal lines should be used only in the heading at the bottom of the table. Footnotes to table should be placed directly below the table and should be indicated by subscript lower case italic letters (a, b, c, etc.).
Figures (Illustrations)
The maximum number figures should not exceed six. Figures and should be placed in their correct places within the text of the manuscript. If previously published illustrations are essential, the copyright holder’s written permission should be obtained. All illustrations are considered as figures, and each graph, drawing or photograph should be numbered in sequence with Arabic numerals. Scanned figures should be of high quality. Size of the figures should fit the proportions of the printed page (B5 size). All figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
Each figure should carry a legend so that the general meaning of the figure can be understood without reference to the text. The maximum number of words per legend should be 40. Where magnifications are used, they should be stated.
Magnification should be indicated with the scale line on the photograph. If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format.
Note: original artwork should not be sent until the manuscript has been accepted for publication.
Supplemental materials
Since the manuscript cannot contain all relevant materials, the author can submit any documents related to the content of the manuscript as supplemental materials which will be made available online. Supplemental material should directly supplement the material described in the manuscript. They can be submitted in any form such as figures, illustrations, text, images, videos etc. as a separate file along with the manuscript. Author can include the link to the supplemental materials in the suitable place in the text of the manuscript.
Manuscript submission
Manuscript should be submitted along with author declaration and copyright transfer form electronically via email; jdza@univ.jfn.ac.lk. Before submission, ensure that,
Submission of revised manuscript
Manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author along with minimum of two reviewers’ report. Author should revise the manuscript based on the reviewers’ comments. The changes to the original manuscript should be indicated in the original manuscript by using different colour. Author should address all points raised by the reviewers as well as the editor and the revised manuscript should be submitted along with a letter to show the revisions to your manuscript to each comment raised. If the author disagrees with any points or comments, author needs to provide a scientific rebuttal.
Proof Reading
After completion of the review, accepted manuscript will be sent to the corresponding author for proof reading before publication. Any necessary changes should be indicated in a different coloured font. Substantial changes in the manuscript cannot be made during the proof reading.
Contact us:
Mailing address:
The Chief Editor/Journal of Dry Zone Agriculture
Faculty of Agriculture
University of Jaffna
Ariviyal Nagar
Kilinochchi
Sri Lanka
Tel: (+94) 212060175
Fax: (+94) 212060175
e-mail: jdza@univ.jfn.ac.lk
URL: http://www.jdza.jfn.ac.lk/
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 copyright of all published articles in the JDZA is retained by the publisher of the journal: the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
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. The full privacy policy can be viewed here.