Author Guidelines

AIM AND SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL

Ondo University Journal of Agriculture and Social Sciences (OUJAS) is a publication of the Departments of Agricultural Economics, and Agricultural Extension & Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria in partnership with Glintplus Publishing. The journal publishes original research articles, critical reviews, case studies, surveys, opinions, commentaries, communication and essays in the fields of Agriculture, Social Sciences and other related disciplines provided the methodology and reporting style meet current standards of adequacy. The journal covers all aspects of Agriculture such as Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Extension, Rural Development, Crop Science, Weed Science; Soil Science,  Agricultural Chemistry; Horticulture; Plant Breeding and Genetics; Plant Pathology; Entomology; Agricultural Economics; Agribusiness, Farm Management, Extension Education; Agriculture Statistics; Seed Technology; Nematology; Plant Physiology; and Forestry. Also, articles are welcome from Animal Behaviour, Biochemistry, Genetics, Nutrition, or Physiology with an interest in Aquatic Animals, Avian Sciences, Companion and Captive Animals, Equine Science, Laboratory Animals, Livestock and Dairy and Poultry. For the Social Sciences, the journal covers aspects like Production Economics, Statistics, Psychology, Marketing, Consumers’ Behaviours, Sociology, Community Development and other related disciplines.

Editorial Team

Please, find the Editorial Board Members on the journal’s page online.

Editorial Privacy Policies

We implore authors to read our Editorial and Privacy Policies.

PREPARATION OF YOUR PAPER

Call for paper

Authors with original research or review articles, which have not been previously published (except for published abstracts, lectures or academic thesis), are invited to submit their manuscripts for publication. Do not submit manuscripts under consideration elsewhere. Likewise, do not submit articles published by OUJAS elsewhere in any form or any other language without the written consent of the copyright holder.

Language

This journal publishes articles in English (either American or British English, but not a mixture of both) language. Acceptable scientific and professional terms appropriate to areas covered by the journal should be used while preparing your manuscript. Also, avoid any discriminating language and tone. Any forms of writing bias, for example by confusingly using gender pronouns as in 'he or she', 'he/she' instead of 'he' or 'she'; job title as in 'spokesman' instead of 'spokesperson', 'policeman' instead of 'police officer'; unclear referent like 'it', 'us', 'them', and the use of ‘the former’ and ‘the latter’ should be checked appropriately.

Arrangement and format

Manuscripts should not exceed 18 pages of A4 paper size inclusive of tables and figures. We encourage authors to use Times New Roman, 12-point, and double-line spacing in the body of the manuscript while the title and author’s details and affiliation should be single spacing. Also, use margins of at least 2.5 cm (or 1 inch) for all sides, and importantly, align text to the left, and do not hyphenate words. Use boldface, italics (instead of underlining), subscripts and superscripts where necessary. Prepare a table using only one grid for tables and not a grid for each row. Save your manuscript in any of the editable (preferably, DOC, DOCX or RTF) formats before submission. Please, add line numbers and set the numbering mode to continuous before submitting. Please, submit only editable manuscript files.

Article structure and presentation

Title page and components

Title. The topic of the paper should be relevant, timely and of interest to the audience in Agriculture and Social Sciences and it should not exceed 22 words.

Authors’ names and affiliations. Below the title, present the names of the authors in the following order: Surname, initials. Example: Aderinto, M; Cathy, B. A; James, J. I. K. Indicate all affiliations with superscript numbers immediately after the author's surname and in front of the corresponding addresses of the affiliated institutions, listed below the names. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name. Indicate the corresponding author who will handle correspondence at all stages with an asterisk (*).

Graphical abstract. Authors are encouraged to summarise their main findings in a pictorial diagram that can enhance quick grabbing of the main information of the study by the readers. Graphical abstract can also be a simple, but concise, pictorial representation of the study objectives or any useful concept covered by the research work. In the case of using data, present them logically from the top or left to bottom or right, respectively. Set its size to 600 x 1256 pixels (or keep the aspect ratio in case of a larger image) and save it preferably in TIFF, JPEG, PDF or MS Office file. The resolution of TIFF and JPEG files should not be less than 300 dpi.

Abstract. A concise and factual abstract not exceeding 200 words that briefly states the objectives of the research, the methods used, the main results and the main conclusions are required. An abstract is a separate section that can stand alone and represents the article in a single paragraph. Hence, do not use references. Also, avoid non-standard or uncommon abbreviations, but, if necessary, define them at their first mention in the abstract.

Highlights. Highlights enhance the discoverability of papers in search engines; hence, three to four bullet points of the findings of your research and/or methods are required. They should be brief (not more than 85 characters including spaces each) and include searchable terms.

Keywords. Provide keywords between four and six words and/or phrases that have a link to the study described in the manuscript. 

Abbreviations. Define all non-standard abbreviations used in the paper, including in the abstract section and the first page's footer.

Nomenclature and units

All terminologies and units should follow internationally accepted rules and conventions and conform to the international system of units (SI).

Section and Outlining

Divide your work into sections and subsections and number them coherently, 1.0, 2.0 and so on, excluding the abstract. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. Each section and subsection must be given a brief heading and should appear on a separate line.

1.0 Introduction

The introduction should provide the necessary background information. Two or three paragraphs that concentrate on the relevance of the study should be emphasized. Provide a clear, concise and achievable objective in this section. The content of the paper should be technically and scientifically accurate and sound. There should be no subsection.

2.0 Methodology

The research methodology for the study should be appropriate and applied properly. The procedures used should be clearly described with strong and reliable evidence (references) to support and validate the information in the paper. Number subheadings properly as described under ‘Section and Outlining’.

3.0 Results and Discussion

The results of the analysis should be correctly interpreted. Do not present the same result in multiple forms (Table, Graph or Figure) at the same time. Provide a clear description of all results presented. All tables and figures should be placed next to the paragraph they are first mentioned. Number subheadings properly as described under ‘Section and Outlining’.

4.0 Conclusions

Conclusions should be sound, clear and concise. A conclusion should be restricted to six lines and should concentrate on your contribution to knowledge in this paper. There should be no results, figures or references in the conclusion.

Others contents

Data Management. Experimental data should be managed in such a manner that only relevant data should be provided. There should be no appendix. Results in Tables should be presented as mean and standard deviation or standard error. Tables should not be too long or wide to be more than one-page portrait orientation.

Figures. To ensure the uniqueness of figures, use a uniform font (any of Arial, Courier, Tahoma and Times New Roman) and font size in your artwork. Produce images of large size, and convert them to, or save them as, JPEG, TIFF or EPS formats, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Submit figures in Microsoft Office files (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) without conversion. Insert your images and number their captions sequentially immediately after the paragraph of its first mention in the text. Submit the original size of all figures in a separate file. Caption all figures consecutively. Besides, do separate captions from the images. A caption should be a brief title and a description of the picture. Keep the illustrations concise but should explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables. Tables should be numbered consecutively, with concise captions, immediately after the paragraph of its first mention. Place footnotes to tables below them and use a superscript of lowercase letters where necessary. Avoid vertical rules and duplication of results described in figures within the manuscript.

Plates. Use clear pictures in case of photographs and save them as picture-enhanced metafile.

Equations. Use an appropriate equation editor to write all mathematical equations. A mathematical formula should not be placed in a Table.

Acknowledgements. Authors may briefly acknowledge people or organizations who assisted in the manuscript preparation and funding for research, among others. Acknowledgements should be limited to three lines.

Funding. Briefly describe and acknowledge all financial support for conducting the research and/or preparation of the manuscripts. In the declaration, state the funding identification details such as the name of granting agent and grant number.

References

Use American Psychological Association (APA) reference style, 7^th edition, for both content citation and reference listing.  In the content citation, use the author's surname and year of publication; surnames of both authors and year where there are two authors, and in the case of three or more authors, only use the first author's last name plus "et al." and year. Use 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication' in place of the publication date for unpublished results and personal communications. Follow the examples given below. Including 'in press' in references means that the source has been accepted for publication. Please list every reference cited in the text in the reference section and vice versa.

• Published articles

Ma, Y., Liu, H., Jiang, B., Meng, L., Guan, H., Xu, M., Cui, Y., Kong, F., Yin, Y., & Wang, M. (2020). An Innovative Approach for Improving the Accuracy of Digital Elevation Models for Cultivated Land. Remote Sensing, 12 (20), 3401. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12203401

Horsfall, M. J., Arbia, A., & Spiff, A. (2003). Removal of Cu (II) and Zn (II) ions from wastewater by cassava (Manihot esculenta Cranz) waste biomass. African Journal of Biotechnology, 2(10), 360-364. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJB2003.000-1074

Note: If DOI is not available and you can access the resources online, use the URL of the website.

• Published books

Meltzer, Y. L. (1971). Hormonal and Attractant Pesticide Technology. Noyes Data. DOI (if available) 7^th Edition, Whale Publisher, Yorkshaire, London

• Work in an edited collection

Ekpete, O. A. (2013). Kinetic Methods of Analysis. In: Horsfall, M (Ed), Fundamental Principles of Analytical Chemistry (p. 117). Soteria Publishing.

Supporting materials

Separately number supplementary materials, like formulae, equations, tables and figures, in appendices following the format: Eq. (s1), Eq. (S2), Table S1; Figure S1.

SUBMISSION

Submit your manuscript online. If you encounter any submission-related issues, please contact the editorial office at ujas@aaua.edu.ng.

Suggestion of Reviewers

Authors should download, fill and upload the suggest reviewers form to suggest at least two reviewers during online submission, providing their personal and contact information, including names, affiliations and e-mail addresses. The suggested reviewers must be from the same field of study, not from the same institution or department and not present or previous research guide of any of the authors, not collaborated with any of the authors in the recent time. The editorial team will decide the suitability of the suggested reviewers.

Declaration of Interests

Competing interest should be declared by downloading, filling and uploading the declaration of interest form. Disclose any relationship (financial or personal) with other authors or organizations that could inappropriately influence the work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent-licensing arrangements, grants or other funds accessed, stock ownership, or other equity interest.

Checklist

Double-check your manuscript and ensure the following before submission:

1. authors’ details, including names and affiliations, are stated on the cover page. Indicate the corresponding author with an asterisk (*);
2. we have an unstructured abstract of not more than 200 words;
3. we already provided keywords;
4. we captioned all figures;
5. we have formatted all tables (including title, description, and footnotes) properly;
6. the manuscript is already "spellchecked" and "grammar-checked";
7. we have provided funding details;
8. we have added line numbers, and used 'continuous' as the numbering mode;
9. we have listed all content cited references under "References" and vice versa;
10. we already obtained the necessary permissions to use copyrighted material from other sources (including web content);
11. names and affiliations of the authors, including the ‘document properties and personal information’, have been removed from the manuscript and saved with “Manuscript without Author Details".

PEER REVIEW

This journal operates a double-blind review process; hence, submit two (2) copies of the manuscript. In one of the manuscript documents, remove the names and affiliations of the authors, as well as the document properties and personal information, and upload it as "Manuscript without Author Details". An editor will first assess the submission for suitability. Manuscripts potentially suitable will be sent to independent reviewers to check their scientific and language quality. The Editor makes the final decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of articles, based on the recommendations by reviewers, and the author (s) response to the reviewers’ comments.

POST ACCEPTANCE

Galley Proofs

The corresponding author will receive a copy of the accepted manuscript (as PDF files) by e-mail or a link in the e-mail to allow the authors to download the galley proof. Authors are to check the arrangement and completeness of the contents’ text, tables and figures and notify the handling Editor in an e-mail, indicating the page and line number(s) of any corrections. In case of significant changes to the contents, the Editorial Board may recommend a reassessment of the manuscript before publication. Proofreading of an accepted paper is the sole responsibility of the authors; therefore, authors should carefully crosscheck ALL documents before sending them in a single communication.

Article Processing Fee

As an Open Access Journal, authors of an accepted paper are to make a one-time payment (OTP) of an article processing fee of $70. This fee covers all the processing costs including, but not limited to, peer review, copyediting, production of publishable files, online publishing and archiving of the articles. APF does not cover submission charges as submission to OUJAS is free of cost. Manuscript with Tables, figures and plates combined that is more than 18 A4 pages will be charged an extra fee.

Discount and Waiver Policy

Nigerian authors will be eligible for a flat discounted APF of N30,000.00. OUJAS offer a discount of 25% on APF to articles whose corresponding authors are based in countries classified by the World Bank as low-income and lower-middle-income economies as of July 2020. Please apply for a discount or waiver during the submission process, and a decision on the waiver will be made, under normal situations, within two working days. Discount or waiver requests made during the review process or after acceptance may not be considered.

Payment Methods

The APF can be paid through three different methods: (1) Remita, (2) Sterling Bank Nigeria Plc, and (3) PayPal. Further details regarding the payment process will be provided upon acceptance of the manuscript.

Copyright

OUJAS is an Open Access journal and the articles are published under Creative Commons Attribution- Non-Commercial License (CC-BY-NC). Therefore, articles in OUJAS, permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Hence, authors are responsible for the originality and quality of their manuscripts. This permits anyone to copy, redistribute, remix, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source are appropriately cited. The citation should include the article DOI. When an article is published in OUJAs, the author(s) retain the copyright. Cite this journal as OU J. Agric. & Soc. Sci.