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Paper Structure

Title

Titles should be as concise as possible, as a guide try not to exceed 12 words.

A good title:

1.     briefly identifies the subject,

2.     indicates the purpose or main result of the study, and

3.     contains key words.

The title must catch the readers’ interest as well as describe the content of the paper.  For technical articles, a brief description is paramount.  The title needs to supply information as to whether the paper is of interest.  Title should be in 16 point Times New Roman Bold and centre justified.

 

Author

The author list should in 12 Point Times New Roman, be centre justified and follow the following style:

 A.B. Author1, C.D. Author1 and E.F. Author2

1Author affiliation, address including country

2Author affiliation, address including country

email of contact author

 

Abstract

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words and should state concisely and clearly the objectives, the results obtained, and the main conclusions.  An abstract must be completely self-explanatory and intelligible in itself, so that readers are able to quickly decide whether they should read further.  Since abstracts are likely to be read more often than the associated papers, authors should devote considerable care to their composition.

 


Additional keywords

Additional index words, written as Additional keywords: in bold and italics, are used to complement those in the paper title.  Important materials, operations and ideas covered in the article must be given as short phases or words that are placed immediately after the abstract.  They must not duplicate the ‘key’ words in the title and they should only give important extra items.  To choose additional key words, read through the manuscript for significant words or phases that characterise the study.  Up to eight additional key words may be given.

 

Introduction

The aim of the introduction should be to engage the interest of the reader.  The introduction should include a short review of the subject to establish the nature of any problems, and the main work previously undertaken to solve them.  The objectives of the reported work and/or of the paper itself must be clearly stated.  The groups of people expected to use the information should be indentified.

 

Materials and Methods

Relevant details of chemical, plant or animal materials used, environmental measurements taken, soil type and techniques used should be presented clearly.  In many cases these details require little amplification and a tabular form of presentation may suffice.  For example, trial designs can be given efficiently in this form.  The use of sub-headings is encouraged.

 

Results

The principal results should be presented as concisely as possible.  The presentation and use of environmental data is encouraged.  Although the 0.001 % or 0.05 % probability levels should be used when presenting statistical analysis of results, higher levels of probability may be used when interpreting data for management purposes provided there is a logical and biological basis for the conclusions. When probability levels are given there should be no spacing between the P-value and the operator e.g. (P<0.05)

 

Discussion and Conclusion(s)

In the discussion section the author assesses the meaning of the results.  Authors should show how the results provide a solution to the problem or satisfy the objectives stated in the introduction, and connect the work of this study with previous work showing how and why they differ or agree.  The significance and implications of the work should be explained and possible future developments indicated.  Speculation or conjecture that is not clearly supported by data is allowed but must be identified.

Papers must have conclusions either as part of the discussion section or in a separate section.  Conclusions should be carefully and unambiguously worded and should be written in a form which is relevant to the intended users of results (e.g., a statistically significant result may be relevant to a scientist, but an adviser is interested in economic significance).