INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

 

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

• Start the submission process reviewing in full the Instructions for Authors to ensure that the article is in agreement with Scientia Agricola standards. These pages are updated periodically so it is strongly recommended that you read them even if you have done that previously.

• Authors should submit manuscripts through the electronic system, in the site http://www.scielo.br/sa, clicking in "submissão online".

• A manuscript submission file in Microsoft Word format (or compatible) is required. Avoid the use of word processing features such as automated bulleting and numbering, head and subhead formatting, internal linking, or styles.

• Keywords should only be added in those cases that the authors believe a word that is not in the title or in the abstract would help in the manuscript indexation.

 

COVER LETTER (must be written in English)

• A cover letter stating that the manuscript has not been submitted for publication elsewhere must be submitted with the manuscript (comments for the Editor or supplemental file).

• Publication of a poster abstract or an oral presentation in a scientific event is not considered previous publication of the research.

• Authors must recommend five qualified reviewers who are expert in the paper's scientific area (please provide e-mail and affiliation). The Board may choose someone who is or is not on that list. Authors should also explain in the cover letter the importance of their work and how and why their major findings relate to the scope of the journal.

•  Competing financial interest. Include a statement in the cover letter declaring whether or not the authors have any competing financial interests. Competing financial interests are those with potential to influence the content that could impair the objectivity, integrity or perceived value of a publication. They can include funding support (by organizations that may gain or lose financially with the publication), employment (present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially with the publication) and personal financial interests. For publications with more than one author, the corresponding should provide a declaration on behalf of all authors.

MANUSCRIPT STYLE

• Define all abbreviations at first mention in the abstract and text, and again in the tables and figures. Once an abbreviation is used, it should be used throughout the entire article, except at the beginning of a sentence.

• The Latin name or binomial (or trinomial) nomenclature and authority must be used for all plants, insects, pathogens, and animals at first listing.

• Both the active ingredient and chemical name of pesticides must be given when first mentioned.

• Identify soils using the USDA soil taxonomy (http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/osd/index.html) up to the second level (suborder) or if possible up to the fourth level (subgroup). FAO classification may be used up to the second level. Free translation for soil classification or name is not allowed.

• International Units System must be used in all manuscripts.

• Check any Greek characters and figures carefully.

• Spell out numbers one through nine, except when used with units. For decimal quantities <1, place a zero before the decimal point.

• For the decimal marker use the point on the line.

• Note and interrelate units as positive or negative powers, e.g.: kg ha^–1; do not interrelated units using slashes, e.g.: kg/ha.

• Leave a single space between units: g L^–1, and not g.L^–1, nor gL^–1.

• Use the 24-h time system, with four digits for hours and minutes: 09h00; 18h30.

• Dates should be written with the day first, then the month, and the year last: 18 Mar. 2000; 01 Feb. 1987.

• Abbreviate months with more than four letters: Jan.; Feb.; Mar. etc.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

• Text and illustrations of originals intended for publication at Scientia Agricola must be written in concise and grammatically correct English, USA orthography and grammar rules apply.

• Manuscripts should be organized in MS Word for Windows or compatible software, font Times New Roman 12, 3.0 cm margins, double spaced.

• Keep the manuscript to a maximum of 30 pages (A4 paper), continuous line numbering and consecutive page numbering, illustrations and tables included.

• Tables and Figures must be included as part of your manuscript file. For reviewing purposes TIFF (300 DPI) files should be inserted into the word processing document, however they should also be submitted in separate files (one figure without legend per file uploaded as supplemental file) because the insertion may reduce resolution.

Cover page:

• Manuscript must have a cover page bearing the title (keep to a maximum 15 words), authors' full names and affiliations.

• A running title of 40 characters or less (in addition to the full paper title) should also be provided.

• Authors should select a category from the following: Agricultural Engineering; Agricultural Microbiology; Agrometeorology; Animal Science and Pasture; Biometry, Modeling and Statistics; Crop Science; Ecology; Entomology; Food Science and Technology; Forestry Science; Genetics and Plant Breeding; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology and Biochemistry; Soils and Plant Nutrition; Zoology.

• The corresponding author has to be identified by an asterisk and an institutional e-mail must be provided.

• Please inform authors' affiliation as detailed as possible.

• The corresponding author will assume full and equal responsibility for the manuscript, including compliance with journal policies and will be the primary contact with the journal office.

• Please provide each author's institutional affiliation at the time the research was done.

• If an author has since moved to a different institution, the new location can be indicated in a footnote. Superscript numbers separated by commas (no spaces) are used for author affiliations. Superscript symbols separated by commas (no spaces) are used for author footnotes. Use in the order §, ¶, §§, ¶¶.

  Cover submissions:


For each one of its issues, Scientia Agricola may feature an image representative of an article published in that issue. Authors are invited to submit scientifically interesting and visually appealing cover images. Images should be high-resolution (300 dpi) and should be 17 by 17 cm. Cover images can be photographs of organisms, habitats, montages of photographs, diagrams, maps or data. Illustrations need not be reprinted in the article but should be representative of the work. Images should be original, and authors grant Scientia Agricola the exclusive license to publish. Upload the image as an additional supplemental file along with a separate text file that includes a brief one-paragraph description of the image relating it to the published manuscript. If an author does not hold the copyright for a submitted image, they are responsible for obtaining the necessary permission to use it.

Organize manuscripts in the following order: Cover page, Abstract (maximum 250 words), Introduction (usually 20-30 lines), Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments (optional), References, Tables, and Figures.

A Conclusion section is optional and when used should come after the Discussion section. The Results and Discussion section may be combined, and the Conclusion may be incorporated into the Discussion.

Tables/Figures

Tables:

• Start each table on a new page.

• Number tables sequentially using Arabic numerals; tables should be created with the "Tables" function of MS Word or in MS Excel (manuscripts showing tables pasted as figures will be returned to authors).

• Table's titles should appear right above tables' body.

• Number figures and graphs sequentially using Arabic numerals.

Figures/Graphs:

• Start each figure on a new page.

• Figure’s legends should appear right below each figure.

• Graphs should be created using MS Excel.

• Supply photographs as tagged image format files [TIFF], 300 DPI.

• Number figures consecutively according to the order in which they appear in the text.

• Figures should provide enough information so that the reader can understand them without significant input from the text.

• For those figures that contain more than one panel, designate the panels with capital letters (no parentheses and no periods following letters) in the upper left-hand corner of each panel, if possible.

• Wording in figures must match the rest of the manuscript for capitalization, italics, and use of symbols.

COMPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

• Manuscripts dealing on the evaluation of bioactivity of chemical and/or biological products, including growth regulators on insects, spiders, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and weeds, will not be considered for publication in Scientia Agricola.

• Manuscripts that report evaluation of tissue culture improvements or protocols based on test of additives, explants or growth conditions, or that fail in proving a substantial improvement that could not be deduced from the existent literature, will no longer be considered for publication in Scientia Agricola either.

• Manuscripts must follow the criteria established by the International Codes of each area.

• Opinions and concepts emitted in the articles are of authors' exclusive responsibility.

REFERENCES

References and citations for Scientia Agricola articles should be organized in the 'author, year' or 'name (year)' style, minimal format. Remember to make sure text citations match the list of references. Examples:

1. Single author: Reichardt (2000) or (Reichardt, 2000).

2. Two authors: Fiorio and Demattê (2009) or (Fiorio and Demattê, 2009).

3. Three or more authors: Rosso et al. (2009) or (Rosso et al., 2009).

4. Arrange references alphabetically and chronologically within brackets, and use semicolon (;) to separate multiple citations within brackets, e.g.: (Boleli, 2003; Boerjan, 2006; Muraroli and Mendes, 2003).

5. Order multiple citations 'same author-same date' with the aid of lower case letters, e.g.: (Cyrino, 2004a, b).

6. Use "author-year" style to format the list of references, and: (i) do not abbreviate any other words but the first and middle names of authors; (ii) use all capitals only for acronyms, i.e., when the author is an organization; (iii) name all authors and capitalize authors' last name and initials, which should be separated by a period (.); (iv) separate authors by semicolon; (v) do not use ampersand (&) in the citations nor in the reference list; (vi) do not use bold characters to highlight any part of the reference; (vii) capitalize books and periodicals titles; (viii) do not use a comma (,) to separate periodical's title and volume; (ix) separate periodical volume from page numbers by a colon (:); (x) use full page numbering; (xi) separate page numbers by a dash (-); (xii) separate pages groups by a comma if the article was published in discontinuous pages; (xiii) discriminate the number of a given edition of a book or manual as "2ed", for instance; (xiv) regarding books and manuals, name publishers or editorial office before full discrimination of head locality of the publisher or editorial office; (xv) separate publishers or editorial offices from locality by a comma; and (xvi) in such cases, name city, state and/or province and country.


6.1 Scientific journals
Guillard, R.R.L.; Wangersky, P. 1958. The production of extracellular __carbohydrates by some marine flagellates. Limnology and Oceanography 3: __449-454.

6.2 Books


6.2.1 Books with authors
Pais, I.; Jones Jr., J.R. 1998. The Handbook of Trace Elements. St. Lucie __Press, Boca Ratón, FL, USA.

6.2.2 Books with editors/organizers
Day, W.; Atkin, R.K., eds. 1985. Wheat Growth and Modelling. Plenum __Press, New York, NY, USA.

6.2.3 Books (and manuals) with organization as author or editor/organizer
Association of Official Analytical Chemists - International [AOAC]. 2005. __Official Methods of Analysis. 18ed. AOAC, Gaithersburg, MD, USA.

6.3 Book chapters
Sharpley, A.N.; Rekolainen, S. 1997. Phosphorus in agriculture and its __environmental implications. p. 1-53. In: Tunney, H.; Carton, O.T.; __Brookes, P.C.; Johnston, A.E., eds. Phosphorus loss from soil to water. __CAB International, New York, NY, USA.

6.4 Electronic media sources


6.4.1 Required elements for listing website citations are:
Authorship, author or source. Year. Title of Web Document or Web Page
__(i.e. pages main heading). [Medium] (date of update). Available at: full __Uniform Resource Locator (i.e. URL / address) [Accessed Sep. 14, 1992]


6.4.2 Required elements for listing publications available from websites are:
Authorship, author or source. Year. Title of Document or Web Page.
__[Medium] Producer/Publisher. Available at: full Uniform Resource Locator
__[Accessed Sep. 14, 1992]



6.5 Listing references not written in English

Scientia Agricola does not encourage authors to use references that cannot be easily accessed and understandable by readers abroad. However, if citing those articles would be essential for interpretation of findings reported in the manuscript, provide the English title being cited informing the original publishing language of the periodical at the end of the reference as exemplified below.

Baretta, D.; Santos, J.C.P.; Figueiredo, S.R.; Klauberg-Filho, O. 2005. __Effects of native pasture burning and Pinus monoculture on changes in __soil biological attributes on the Southern Plateau of Santa Catarina - __Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo 29: 715-724 (in Portuguese, __with abstract in English).

 

SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts must be submit through the electronic system, in the site http://www.scielo.br/sa, clicking in "submissão online".

Please read carefully the checklist before submitting the manuscript.