Instructions for Authors

Submission of Manuscripts to the Nigerian Journal of Science and Environment (NJSE)

Original manuscripts that have not been published or are being considered for publication elsewhere should be electronically submitted through the journal website or by email to njse@delsu.edu.ng or editornjse@yahoo.com.

Types of contributions

Manuscripts considered for publication include original research papers, review articles, technical notes, book reviews, reports of conferences and meetings, short communications, and letters to the editor.

Authorship

To include authors’ names in a paper, their contributions to the publication must meet four requirements, which are listed below:

1. significant input towards the conception or design of the work.
2. drafting the work or critically reviewing it for significant intellectual content.
3. final approval of the version to be published
4. a commitment to take responsibility for all aspects of the work, including ensuring that any concerns about the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are duly investigated and addressed

Corresponding author

The author who contacts NJSE and uploads an article on behalf of all authors, regardless of author order, is known as the "corresponding author." He or she must include all of the team members’ personal information, including full names and affiliations, in both the title page file and the online submission form.

Ethical approval

Authors must present proof of ethical clearance for using human and animal subjects, or just the institute’s consent to carry out low-risk research with self-certification. When conducting research with human samples, researchers should request written consent from healthy volunteers or patients, along with their feedback on the research. The Materials and Methods section of the publication should address this ethical question

Plagiarism

To identify instances of plagiarism or cheating, NJSE employs a standard tool. To avoid plagiarism, authors should appropriately cite or quote other authors' work as needed. We will immediately reject the paper, return it to the authors for revisions, or rescind it if we discover plagiarism during the review process.

Originality

Submissions to NJSE should include the findings of original research that hasn't been partially or fully published anywhere else.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be in double-spaced type on A4 paper format (Font type - Times New roman; Font size - 12) with line numbering on the left margin. The title should be Centralized Upper case or capitalize each word except prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc. Each manuscript should be in the following order: title page, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, conflict of interest, acknowledgements, and references.

Title Page

It is necessary to include a succinct, unstructured abstract of no more than 250 words that outlines the goal, methods, key findings, and conclusions of the study. After the abstract, use a "comma" to separate each of the next four to six keywords.

Abstract

Abstract should start on a new page after the title page. A concise and factual abstract, which is unstructured, is required. Abstract should briefly state the purpose of the research, methodology, principal results, main findings, major conclusions and should not be more than 250 words. Abstracts should not be referenced and the use of abbreviations should be minimized and spelled out when first used.

Introduction

The introduction should only include pertinent background material and significant references. You must explicitly state the project's goals, as well as its applicability and contribution.

Materials and Methods

Thoroughly document new procedures and modifications to existing ones to facilitate replication by other workers. Refer to published procedures using the original method's literature citation and any subsequent revisions used for established and published methods.

Results

The results should be concise and easy to understand. Each and every figure and table ought to be self-explanatory. Furthermore, table titles should be given above the tables, and figure titles should be given beneath the figures. High-resolution photos are needed if they are to be utilized as figures.

Discussion

Contrast the findings with those of other studies; in the absence of prior reports, provide a rationale for the results. Repetition of results and technique should be avoided in your discussion. Relate your work to previous publications. The references should be listed as, for example, Okpara (2017), Bade and Abiodun (2009), and Williams et al. (2021), if there are more than two authors.

Conclusion

Provide a summary of the research and suggest a few practical areas for more study.

Conflict of Interest

We publish each article with a declaration detailing any financial conflicts of interest, or none at all. During the submission process, the corresponding author is required to submit this statement on behalf of all paper authors.

Acknowledgments

Funding body and all those who assisted in the work but may not qualify as an author should be acknowledged.

References

NJSE follows the Harvard referencing style. All citations must adhere to this referencing style in the text e.g (Abike et al., 2016; Babalola, 2010), or Abraham et al. (2018) or according to Abiodun (2013) and Bolaji and Akpan (2020). If two or more works by different authors or authoring bodies are cited at one point in the text, use a semi-colon to separate them: (Ikuku 2011; Oloyede, 2012). Unpublished data or private communications should not appear in the reference list. Examples of references are given below:

Reference to a Journal Article:

Agbaede, R.L.S. and Kemp, D.H. (2022). Digestion in the cattle-tick Boophilus microplus: Light microscope study of the gut cells in nymphs and female. International Journal for Parasitology. 12 (2): 147-157.

Reference to Books:

Symth, J.D. (2008). Introduction to animal parasitology. 3rd Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Pp.62

Reference to Chapters in edited books:

Jeffries, P. (1994). Biochemical cycling and aruscular Mycorrhiazas In: the sustainability of plant-soil systems. Impact of Arbuscular Mycorrhizas on sustainable agriculture and natural system: Gianianazzi, S. and Schuepp. H. (Eds), Birhauser Verlag, Basel, pp 101-115.

Illustrations

Line drawings should be provided in Microsoft Word. Diagrams and graphs should generally be of such size that, after linear reduction to one-half or one-third, they should be legible. Photographs must be of good quality and should be sharp black-and-white prints.

The manuscript should not be more than fifteen (15) pages.

The SI units should be used for all scientific and laboratory data; if in certain instances it is necessary to quote other units, these should be added in parentheses, and temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. The abbreviations for units should follow international standards. There is no need to use full stops to mark abbreviations, e.g., M (not M.), ppm (not p.p.m.). Authors should use the current recognized (IUPAC) chemical nomenclature, but in cases of ambiguity, you may use commonly accepted trivial names.

Avoid using footnotes; instead, include this information in the text.

Online Submission of Manuscript

If you have prepared the title page and manuscript, you can now submit them online using the process as detailed below.

1. Select "Submit Article."
2. There are four steps in the submission process:
   1. Read and agree to the terms of the article submission agreement
   2. Enter your details as the corresponding author, including your full first name, affiliation, and family name (as stated on the title page).
   3. Enter the details of the co-authors, including their full first names, affiliations, and family names (as stated on the title page).
   4. Upload the manuscript and title page. Title page and checklist file should be uploaded after entering article title, keywords, disciplines, document type, and abstract.
3. You'll get an email confirming your submission shortly after that
4. An editor will check your content before sending it to reviewers. After reviewing your manuscript, the editor will send you an email to inform you of its acceptance, the need for minor or substantial revisions, or its rejection

Submission of revised manuscript

If you receive an email indicating that there are "minor or major revisions," you have two weeks to make minor revisions to the article and four weeks to make major revisions. Please download the form that addresses reviewers' suggestions, and look at the revised online submission form as an example to help with the revision process. Next, follow the guidelines provided in the submission procedure.

1. Make necessary revisions to the text in light of the reviewers' feedback, emphasizing any changes in red.
2. Fill out the "Responses to reviewers' comments" form, providing an explanation or changing a few points in the reviewers' remarks.
3. To access the revised submission page, click the link in the editor's email. Then click on the revised submission link.
4. Verify that all of the information—such as the authors' names, the article's title, keywords, disciplines, document type, and abstract—is accurate and make any necessary corrections in line with the manuscript's revisions.
5. Upload your files, including the updated manuscript and your answers to the reviewers' feedback.
6. If you receive a follow-up email from the editor suggesting additional minor changes to your updated manuscript, simply go through steps 1 through 5 again.

Publication process after acceptance

You will receive a galley proof of your accepted manuscript a few weeks after receiving an acceptance email. After that, you'll need to copyedit and proofread as needed, then email the proof back to NJSE. NJSE will then notify you about the publication of your article.

It should be noted that no further corrections to the article are allowed after publication.

Handling Charges

Authors who have their papers accepted for publication are expected to pay US $100 for authors outside of Nigeria or thirty thousand naira (₦30,000.00) for authors based in Nigeria. Details about the payment will be provided in the acceptance notice or letter.

Frequency of Publication

The NJSE publishes three issues in a year. Issue 1 runs from January to April; issue 2 runs from May to August; and issue 3 runs from September to December. Journal issues or archives can be sourced from https://njse.org.ng/index.php/njse.