NEPALESE HORTICULTURE
PUBLISHED BY NEPAL HORTICULTURE SOCIETY
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS
Background:
The Nepalese Horticulture journal is an official publication of Nepal Horticulture Society. The society was established in 1990 and is one of the oldest professional society of Nepal. The society started to publish the journal “Nepalese Horticulture” since 1997. The Nepalese Horticulture is an open access and single blind peer reviewed journal.
Aims and scope:
The journal covers all the aspects of Horticultural Science. More particularly, this may include, but not limited to, physiology, genetics, breeding, biotechnology, nutrition, crop management aspects including disease/pests, post-harvest handling, processing, marketing and storage and socioeconomic aspects of Horticultural Crops. The journal highly welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence, and publishes original articles in basic and applied research along with invited critical reviews. It aims at serving the clients directly or indirectly related to horticulture.
Types of papers:
Research papers: It is original research papers of full length comprising all the components of the research papers. It should contain, title, authors name and address, abstract, key words, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion (result and discussion separately), acknowledgement, declaration of conflict of interest, ethical approval and references. The length of the paper should not exceed to 6000 words including references.
Short communication: The length of the article should not exceed 2000 words. The article should comprise of title with authors detail, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, result and discussion (combined) and references.
Review papers:
The review paper should not exceed 15 pages (approximately 600 words per page). It should contain, title, authors’ name and address, abstract, key words, introduction, body with sub-headings without numbering, conclusion, acknowledgement (optional) and references.
Language of manuscript:
The manuscript should be written in English. The author can choose British or American English ensuring that the consistency is maintained throughout the manuscript. The article should be free from any grammatical and spelling errors. It’s author’s responsibility to maintain the highest quality standard of the language used in the manuscript.
Structure of the manuscript:
The manuscript should be structured in the order given below and contain following components:
Title with author’s name and affiliation, corresponding author’s email, ORCID ID of corresponding/principal author
Abstract
Key words
Introduction
Materials and methods
Result
Discussion
Conclusion
Acknowledgement (optional)
Declaration of the conflict of interest
Ethical approval/declaration
References
Title, author’s affiliation and authorship:
The title, author’s full name (abbreviated names are not accepted) and affiliation should be typed in separate line. The author’s name should be followed by number in superscript to indicate the authors’ affiliation. The email of the corresponding and ORCID ID of the corresponding/principal authors should be included after the postal address. The author can register and get ORCID ID at https://orcid.org/if they are yet to get the one. The order of the authorship should be written based on the contribution on conducting the research and writing the manuscript. The affiliation of author should be written clearly containing institution, city, province and country. The title and position of the author such as Prof., Dr., Scientist, PhD, etc should be avoided before/after the author(s) name. If the author(s) was transferred from the institution/address where the research work was done, the old affiliation should be written as affiliation of the author and the new address as the “present address”. Addition or deletion of any author’s name after the submission is not allowed, however, the changing the order or name of corresponding author can be made before the acceptance of the manuscript.
Abstract:
The abstract should not exceed 250 words. In general, the abstract should be precise and mirror of the manuscript containing problem/objective statement, brief methods of the research, main findings along with concluding sentences. It should not contain abbreviated word(s). If repetition is needed, full form of the abbreviated word must be given the first time it appears.
Keywords:
The key words should not exceed five words. The key words should not repeat with the title of the manuscript.
Introduction:
The introduction part should not contain any sub headings. This may include- background of the study, rationale, objective and novelty.
Materials and methods:
The materials and methods section should be simple, understandable and replicable. The sub-title should not be numbered. The fonts of the sub title should be italicized. If any specific equipments are used, it should be followed by model number and manufacturer’s detail including the country of origin. Chemicals should be followed by manufacturer’s detail in parenthesis. The design of the experiment, number of biological and analytical replicates and statistical analysis procedure should be described well.
Results:
The sub-title of the result section should not be numbered. The fonts of the sub title should be italicized. The result and discussion section should be combined for short communication. All the tables and figures should be quoted in this section. The major inferences of the findings should be made based on the data presented.
Discussion:
The discussion section should cover the explanation of the major findings included in the ‘result’ section. This section may or may not contain sub-title. If sub-title is included, it should not be numbered and should be italicized.
Conclusion:
The inferences of the overall research should be drawn in this section along with concluding notes and way forward, if any.
Acknowledgement(s):
Acknowledgement should be given to the funding sources and the person/institution from whom specific support was received. The kind of support received should be mentioned specifically and clearly. The details of funding such as grant number, institution/project name, etc. should be mentioned clearly in this section. The general acknowledgement such as “thanks for encouraging to do this research” is not permitted to write in the manuscript.
Declaration of conflict of interest and authors’ contribution:
In this section, all the authors should declare that they do not have any type of competing interest related to the manuscript. The journal strongly encourages to disclose the contribution of each author(s) during the course of conduction of research and writing the manuscript.
Ethical approval:
Ethical approval is required if applicable only. If it is applicable, the author(s) should clearly mention whether they have used any human participants or animals and taken prior approval from the concerning parties before submitting the manuscript.
References:
All publications listed under “References” should appear in the running text with author’s name (without initials) and year of publication (e. g., Sharma, 1998), but authors with more than two may be cited by et al. (e.g. Sharma et al., 1998) after the first author. We tend to follow APA format of referencing and citation (APA style seventh edition: https://apastyle.apa.org/). Some of the examples are given below.
Journal article:
Journal article without DOI:
Acharya, U.K. & Pakka, R. (2018). Evaluation of mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) cultivars to expand production period in the eastern hills of Nepal. Nepalese Horticulture, 13, 34-43.
Journal article with DOI:
Poudel, P. R., Koyama, K. & Goto-Yamamoto, N. (2020). Evaluating the influence of temperature on proanthocyanidin biosynthesis in developing grape berries (Vitis vinifera L.). Molecular Biology Reports, 47(5), 3501–3510. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05440-4
Journal article with electronic version only:
Poudel, P.R., Koyama, K. & Goto-Yamamoto, N. (2020). Evaluating the influence of temperature on proanthocyanidin biosynthesis in developing grape berries (Vitis vinifera L.). Molecular Biology Reports, Article e02345. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05440-4
Book written by the author(s):
Shakya, S. M., Baral, D., Shrestha, G.K. & Gautam, D.M. (2019). Fundamentals of Horticulture (2nd ed.). Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Tribhuvan University. xx P.
Pun, U. (2017). Flower production in Nepal. Jagadamba Books, Kathmandu.
Edited book:
Dahal, K.C. (Ed.). (2020). Horticulture in Nepal. Laligurans Press, Kathmandu.
Poudel, P.R.., Dahal, K.C., Acharya, U.K., Pun, U., Atreya, P.P., & Shakya, S.M. (Eds.). (2019). Horticulture in Nepal: Prospects and problems. Nepal Books. DOI: https://doi.org/xxxxxxx
Conference proceeding:
Atreya, P. N., Kafle, A., Shrestha, B., and Rayamajhi, R. (2019). Strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis of precision and protected horticulture in Nepal: Sustainability and future needs. Proceedings of the eleventh National Horticulture Seminar, Nepal, 11(1), 31–39. DOI: https://doi.org/xxxxx
Published dissertation:
Pandey, B. (2020). Morphological characterization and genetic diversity mapping of local mango genotypes using microsatellite (SSR) markers in far western hills of Nepal (Publication No. 12345) [Doctoral dissertation, Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Tribhuvan University]. XYZ Pulication House.
Unpublished dissertation:
Pandey, B. (2020). Morphological characterization and genetic diversity mapping of local mango genotypes using microsatellite (SSR) markers in far western hills of Nepal [Unpublished master thesis]. Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science ,Tribhuvan University.
Website citation:
The author(s) should learn that the information available in the website are authentic and reliable. The referencing of the webpage content should contain title, year and author. The date of retrieval should also be included in the reference.
Personal communication:
In general, we discourage to cite the information as personal communication. However, if it is needed, give the first and family name of information provider along with the date of communication. Personal communication should not be included in reference list.
Peer review process:
The journal adopts the single blind peer review process. The manuscript will be sent to at least two peer reviewers. The journal maintains the roaster of peer reviewers. Once the journal receives the manuscript, the Associate Editor-In-Chief quickly reviews whether the manuscript will be sent for peer review or not. If the manuscript does not meet minimum quality standards such as style of writing/formatting, number of treatments, number of replication, etc as stated in the author’s guideline, the manuscript may be rejected or sent back to the authors for revision before review process. The manuscript satisfying the minimum quality standard will be given a manuscript ID and sent for peer review process to at least two peer reviewers along with an evaluation form and guideline for reviewer. Generally, the reviewers are requested to submit their comments within four weeks’ period. Based on the suggestions/ recommendations from the peer reviewers, the editor may take any of the following three decision- accept, accept after major/minor revision and reject, and will communicate to the respective authors accordingly. If the recommendation from one peer reviewer contradicts with another one, the manuscript may be sent to a third peer reviewer after consultation with the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board. Based on the recommendations and suggestions of all the reviewers, the handling editor decides whether to accept, reject or accept after revision. The manuscripts which require revision will be sent back to author(s) with the reviewers’ comments. The revised manuscript will be accepted if the authors have incorporated all the suggestions from the peer reviewers. However, the manuscript will be rejected if the comments are not incorporated properly. The whole process takes about three months.
Copy right policy:
The article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC; Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International) license. The CC-BY-NC licensing allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material for noncommercial purposes provided original work is duly acknowledged. The detail is available at the following link: https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ . The copy right form is sent to author once the article is accepted for publication. The author(s) should visit the link given above and read the copyright form well, signed off and send back the scanned copy to the journal office within the stipulated time.
Open access policy:
The accepted article will be available at the journal’s homepage (http://www.horticulturenepal.org/). Anyone can access the article without paying any cost. The hard copy may be charged NRs.100 per copy. The author(s) are free to put the link of published article in their personal and institutional homepage acknowledging that the original copy is available at the journal’s homepage. The published article will also be available at Nepal Journals Online (https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/index ).
Publication ethics and inclusive language:
The author should follow the internationally accepted research and manuscript writing ethics. The references are available at https://www.who.int/ethics/research/en/ and https://publicationethics.org/. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited. The submitted article may be subjected to plagiarism check. The language used in the manuscript should not be offensive to any caste, race, creed, color, religion, gender, communities, nationalities, etc. The writing should be free from any bias, stereotypes and use inclusive language throughout.
Erratum and corrigendum:
The author should write to the editorial board if any error appeared in the published manuscript. Besides, the authors should also write to the editorial board if the author wishes to change the previously published view/statement (eg. misleading statement etc). Both the types of corrections will be published in the immediate next issue upon approval from the editorial team.
Manuscript submission:
The author(s) are kindly requested to read the author’s guideline well before submitting the manuscript for review. The following checklist may help author to be prepared for submission. Negligence in any stage of submission may lead to rejection of the manuscript.
Quick check lists:
Font of the manuscript: Type- times new roman, Size (Main title- 14 pt bold, sub heading-12 pt bold, sub-title- 12 pt. italics and text-12 pt regular)
Structure of the manuscript: The manuscript should be written in following order- Main title, Author’s name and affiliation, corresponding author’s email address, ORCID ID, abstract, key words, introduction, materials and methods, result, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement, declaration of conflict of interest and ethical issues, reference)
Insert line and page numbers
References APA styles
All the authors read the guideline carefully
Submit your manuscript(s) to: nepalesehort.journal@gmail.com for publication.
The submission of the manuscript to Nepalese Horticulture, the author(s) warranties that-
All authors have read the submitted version of the manuscript and there is no any competing interest regarding the manuscript
The work is original (not published elsewhere) and not submitted elsewhere or not currently being under consideration for publication elsewhere
All the authors have read author’s guideline of the journal Nepalese Horticulture
The article mentioned above has been written by the stated author(s) and contains no unlawful statements
The article does not violate any intellectual/personal property right of any person or entity.
Manuscript requiring revision:
The manuscript requiring revision will be sent to the author(s) along with reviewer’s comment. The reviewer may work on word file in ‘track change’ mode and provide specific comments in specific section. In addition to the file of the manuscript on ‘track change’ mode, the authors may receive specific instruction and comments from the reviewer(s)/editor. The author should read all the comments and suggestion carefully and include in the revised manuscript. The article failing to incorporate reviewer’s comment may be returned to the author or rejected without giving further opportunity of revision based on the degree of revision and quality of the manuscript. The revised manuscript should be submitted to the journal office within the given deadline. The journal won’t be able to consider the manuscript not meeting the deadline of the revision.
Disclaimer:
The Nepal Horticulture Society and the Editorial Board of the journal “Nepalese Horticulture” remain neutral to the views presented in the article. The author of the respective article will be responsible to defend all the views/statements presented in the article.
Publication/processing fee:
The accepted manuscript will be published free of cost. The journal does not charge general cost of processing/publishing to authors. However, if the author(s) wish to produce color figure(s)/photograph(s) in hard copy, the cost of color printing will be charged on actual basis. However, there is no restrictions for electronic version.
General style of formatting
The following points should be considered while formatting the manuscript:
The manuscript should be double spaced and insert line and page number
All measurements should be in International System of Units (SI system).
The electronic version of original illustrations and figures should be submitted separately.
Indicate table or figure number in the text where most appropriate. Each table and figure should be marked according to its sequence in the text.
Photographs should have good contrast; sharp and glossy copies are required.
Color photographs can be included if the cost of their reproduction is paid by the author(s) for hard copy. However, there is no restriction for electronic version.
Use biological nomenclature on the abstract/introduction section. It must be underlined or italic and given with authority. The genus name could be abbreviated in subsequent writing after writing the complete name when they appear first.
Capitalize the first letter of trade or brand names.
Abbreviation should be defined in first writing and used in subsequent writing
Tables and figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals such as Table 1, Figure 1. The table number should be mentioned above the table whereas figure number should be at the bottom of the figures.
It is the responsibility of the author(s) to make sure that the referencing is done properly and it is free of errors.
