Instructions to author

GENERAL
MANUSCRIPT FORMAT
MANUSCRIPT SECTIONS
MANUSCRIPT CLASSIFICATION
REFERENCES
PUBLISHING CHARGES
OTHER IMPORTANT GUIDELINES

Download manuscript template

 

GENERAL

The manuscript should be original research that represents a real contribution to scientific knowledge. It should not have been concurrently submitted to other journals or previously published elsewhere. The manuscript should be in English and writing clear and concise, according to grammatical rules of the language. If the quality of the English is not adequate, the manuscript will be rejected before being peer-reviewed. It is suggested that non-English native authors have their manuscript professionally edited by an English native translator before submission. The manuscript should be submitted through the Online System available on our website.

In order to fulfill requirements of indexation databases (Science Citation Index, SciELO, SCOPUS, etc.), the manuscript must comply with these instructions of format and section structure or Editorial Office will reject it and it will not be peer-reviewed. ChileanJAR suggest using the following Manuscript template. Editorial Committee and reviewers will accept or reject the manuscript according to its scientific merit. The acceptance will be performed when the author satisfactorily responds to the reviewers' comments. Submitted manuscripts will be screened to detect plagiarism previously the edition process. Plagiarized manuscripts will be rejected. Rejections are unappealable.

After acceptance, ChileanJAR can make changes to the manuscript, delete double affiliation, and modify figures and tables to meet our specifications for publication.

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

Use letter size paper, Calibri light 11, 1.5 spacing, 2.5 cm margins, page number in the bottom right-hand corner, and continuous line numbering. Use of the manuscript template is suggested.

The manuscript should be divided into sections with main headings centered on the page, bold, and capitalized (e.g., ABSTRACT, INTRODUCTION…). Subtitles within each section should be flush left, bold, and the first word capitalized. Do not fragment the manuscript with excessive subtitles.

Tables and Figures should be placed at the end of the text; it is allowed to include more than one for page maintaining its legibility and quality. Do not suggest their place in the manuscript, ChileanJAR will determine design layout. Text length should not exceed 18 pages for SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES and REVIEWS and 10 pages for SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

MANUSCRIPT SECTIONS

  • Title. It should clearly identify the topic. It should be centered, bold, and the first word capitalized. The recommended length is 18 words or less.
  • Author(s). Author names should be centered, bold, and separated by commas. In order to avoid confusion in the indexation databases (Science Citation Index, SciELO, SCOPUS, etc.) and prevent the loss of citations, use full first name (no initial allowed), and one surname for each author (when an author has two surnames use only the first or hyphenated them), e.g., Peter Johnson, George S. Stevens, Mary Smith-Moore, Brazilian names, e.g., Igor Borges-Neto, Paulo Andrade-Junior. Do not change authors (addition or deletion) and/or affiliations once the manuscript is registered in the Online System. Changes will entail an immediate rejection by ChileanJAR.
  • Affiliation. One affiliation is suggested, it is included immediately after authors. They must follow hierarchical order, institution (no abbreviation), faculty or experimental center (do not include laboratories), postal address, city, state (if applicable), and country. We do not accept virtual or temporary institutions. No more than two corresponding author are allowed, they must be identified with an asterisk (*) and email address. Do not change authors (addition or deletion) and/or affiliations once the manuscript is registered in the Online System. Changes will entail an immediate rejection.
  • Abstract. The abstract is a single paragraph of no more than 250 words that includes the five parts of the manuscript: (1) an introductory sentence to state the importance of the topic or issue, (2) the main objective, (3) general description of methods, treatments, or evaluations, (4) main results expressed with values and statistical significance (P value), and (5) the conclusion of the evaluation or analysis of the experimental results. It should not cite figures, tables, or references; equations should be avoided.
  • Key Words: Authors must include no more than six words listed in alphabetical order, which reflect the central topics of the manuscript.
  • Introduction. This section should include specific background information and justification of the topic in a clear and organized manner supported by appropriate and recent (10 years or less) bibliographical references. The objective and hypothesis are included at the end of this section.
  • Materials and Methods. This section should provide sufficient information to allow the work to be replicated. The experimental design is clearly defined by a specific description or reference of the biological, analytical, and statistical procedures. Field experiments that are sensitive to interactions and where the crop environment cannot be rigorously controlled, such as crop production and yield component assays, must be repeated for time and/or space, in order to ensure representative results.
  • Results and Discussion. This section can be combined or separated. Results should be clear and concise, supported by tables, figures (at the end of the manuscript), and statistical analyses. Results should be analyzed in the text without repeating table or figure values. Data should be presented, including some variation indexes or significance, allowing the reader to interpret experimental results. The Discussion should clearly and precisely interpret results supported by pertinent and recent scientific literature (less than 10 years).
  • Conclusions. In accordance with research objectives, this section begins with a clear statement based on the results and states whether testing supports or disproves the hypothesis of the article. If the results have no implications, this fact should be mentioned. Conclusions must be based on objective data rather than author speculation, limit comments to the results and do not suggest further research. Do not use abbreviations, acronyms, or references.
  • Acknowledgements. This section must include funding institutions or organizations and corresponding grant and/or project that support the research. Do not mention individuals or institutions that have not contributed funding. Do not change financial organizations (which include grants and projects) once the manuscript is registered, changes will entail an immediate rejection by ChileanJAR.
  • Author contribution. An individual contributor may be assigned to multiple roles, and a given role may be assigned to multiple contributors. Example: Conceptualization: F.Z-P., B.L. Methodology: F.Z-P. Software: F.Z-P. Validation: F.Z-P. Formal analysis: F.Z-P. Investigation: F.Z-P. Resources: B.L. Data curation: B.L. Writing-original draft: F.Z-P. Writing-review & editing: B.L. Visualization: F.Z-P. Supervision: B.L. Project administration: B.L. Funding acquisition: B.L. All co-authors reviewed the final version and approved the manuscript before submission.
  • Conflict of interest. Just include this item if consider pertinent.
  • References. Recently published articles (10 years or less) in mainstream scientific journals should be included. Research Articles should not include more than 35 references, and only published papers can be cited. ChileanJAR does not allow references In Press or just submitted. List references alphabetically. Authors are listed by surname and initial(s); separated by commas if there are more than two authors. Please note the use of commas and periods. If reference management software is used, for example, EndNote or ProCite, use the Agronomy Journal bibliographical reference style. Please convert in-text citations and bibliography to Word plain text before submission.
  • Tables. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. Titles should be brief and descriptive. Tables are numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and are placed at the end of the manuscript after References. Abbreviations are explained in a footnote below the table body. The same style is used for tables and figures, especially for units, dates, and abbreviations. Footnotes are identified with superscripts, preferably in the following order: 1) title, 2) column heading, 3) row heading, and 4) table body.
  • Figures. Figures are placed at the end of the manuscript after References. Graphics, photographs, diagrams, drawings, and maps should illustrate the important data not found in the text or tables. Figures are numbered in the order in which they appear in the text. Titles should be clear and self-explanatory.
Note: ChileanJAR has no extra charges for color tables and figures.

MANUSCRIPT CLASSIFICATION

RESEARCH ARTICLES

Research Articles must not exceed 18 pages and be a significant contribution to the advancement of scientific knowledge. They should adhere to standard experimental design and statistical analysis and discuss results through the review of current literature (less than 10 years published). They include the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion (combined or separate), Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References, Tables and/or Figures. They must be in accordance with the format specified in Manuscript Sections or based on the Manuscript template.

REVIEW

The Review must not exceed 18 pages. It should provide a synthesis of existing knowledge and present new concepts not previously demonstrated in the literature. It must include: Abstract, Introduction ending with objectives, development of the topic organized with titles and subtitles, Conclusions, References, Tables and/or Figures (if applicable). It must be in accordance with the format specified in Manuscript Sections.

SCIENTIFIC NOTE

The Scientific Note must not exceed 10 pages. It is a short description of different topics such as ongoing research studies, determination of species, description of methods, etc. ChileanJAR does not publish first reports. It should include the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion (combined or separate), Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References, Tables and/or Figures. It must be in accordance with the format specified in Manuscript Sections or based on the Manuscript template.

REFERENCES

Recently published articles (10 years or less) in mainstream scientific journals should be included. Research Articles should not include more than 35 references, and only published papers can be cited. ChileanJAR does not allow references In Press or just submitted.
References in the text should be cited as author-year when there is only one author; use “and” when there are two authors. With three or more authors, use “et al.” after the first author. Two or more references included as a group in the text are listed in chronological order. Several references in the same year are listed alphabetically. For two or more articles using the same within-text citation, add a distinguishing letter to the year (a, b, c, d, etc.) in both the text and the References section.
References list must be alphabetically ordered. Authors are listed by surname and initial(s); separated by commas if there are more than two authors. Please note the use of commas and periods. If reference management software is used, for example, EndNote or ProCite, use the Agronomy Journal bibliographical reference style. Please convert in-text citations and bibliography to Word plain text before submission.
The references to books, postgraduate thesis, and congress or scientific event proceedings available in the bibliographical search system should be limited. Restricted circulation publications and informative magazine articles cannot be cited. “Unpublished data” or “personal communication” will not be accepted as references.
Scientific journal article: Author(s), year, complete article title, complete journal title, volume, and pages. The authors are listed by surname and initial(s) (Wu, J-H.) According to ISI Web of Science do not abbreviate journal names. Do not use a comma after the complete journal name. All abbreviated words are followed by a period (full stop). Only the first word and proper names in the article title are capitalized. Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published (In press) can be just included as reference adding Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number. Example: Wu, J-H., Ferguson, A.R., and Murray, B.G. 2012. Manipulation of ploidy for kiwifruit breeding: In vitro chromosome doubling in diploid Actinidia chinensis Planch. Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture 106:503-511. doi:10.1007/s11240-011-9949-z.
Online-only journals are cited in the same way as the printed version with doi and volume and pages if applicable. Author(s), year, article title, complete journal title, volume, and pages. Example: Wilkerson, G.G., Buol, G.S., Yang, Z., Peacock, C., McCready, M.S., Steinke, K., et al. 2015. Modeling response of warm-season turfgrass to drought and irrigation. Agronomy Journal 107:515-523. doi:10.2134/agronj14.0311.
Books: Author(s) or editor(s), year, title, edition number (except the first), editorial institution or organization, city, state, and country. Example: Blum, A. 2011. Plant breeding for water-limited environments. Springer, New York, USA.
Book chapter: Author(s), year, chapter title, pages, indicate book editor(s) after “In”, complete book title, edition number (except the first), editorial, city, state, and country. Example: Sanders, G.J., and Arndt, S.K. 2012. Osmotic adjustment under drought conditions. p. 199-229. In Aroca, R. (ed.) Plant responses to drought stress. From morphological to molecular features. Springer, Berlin, Germany.
Proceedings: Author(s), year, article or chapter title, pages, the editor(s) after “In”, event or name of publication, city, state, and country, date of event, editorial, city, state, and country. Example: Smith, S.R., and Keene, T. 2012. Switchgrass biomass yield and quality with multiple fertilizer applications and harvest dates. Abstract 257-35. In Visions for a sustainable planet, ASA, CSSA and SSSA Annual Meetings, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. 21-24 October. ASA, CSSA and SSSA, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Thesis: Only postgraduate theses are accepted and are cited as: author, title, number of pages, degree, university, faculty, city, state, and country. Example: Smets, T. 2009. Effectiveness of biological geotextiles in controlling runoff and soil erosion at a range of spatial scales. 270 p. PhD thesis. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Leuven, Belgium.
Electronic sources: Web documents should include the same elements as printed publications plus the URL (uniform resource locator) preceded by “Available at” and with parenthesis “accessed” including month and year. Be sure URL works directing to the cited document. Example: FAO. 2012. FAO statistical yearbook. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. Available at http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/i2490e/i2490e00.htm (accessed February 2013).

PUBLISHING CHARGES

Publication charge of papers accepted for publication is USD800 (CLP650 000) until 18 typewritten pages including figures and tables. Extra pages USD50 (CLP40 000) each. Payment is mandatory prior to the publication of the manuscript. The author is responsible for transfer charges.
The text format is letter size paper, Calibri light 11, 1.5 spacing, 2.5 cm margins. Submission of manuscripts is free.
There is no refund once the payment has been made.

OTHER IMPORTANT GUIDELINES

Scientific names. Identify plants, insects, and pathogens at first mention in the Abstract and text and include both a common and scientific (in italics) name, complete with authority. Confirm the nomenclature in a reliable source, such: Plants (https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/taxon/taxonomysearch.aspx).
Soils. Identify soil of the study at Order level according to USDA and/or FAO classification system. Available at: USDA (http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/soils/survey/class/taxonomy/); FAO (http://www.fao.org/soils-portal/soil-survey/soil-classification/world-reference-base/en/).
Chemical products. Identify herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers at first mention with their technical or generic name and the used rates; include the manufacturer between parentheses with the city, state, and country. Only use the technical name afterwards. Simple compounds formula (NaCl) is accepted. Use IUPAC name. (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/).
Equipment and instruments. Equipment and instruments used in experimental work should be mentioned by their common name and between parentheses model, brand, city, state if any, and country of the manufacturer.
Numbers. In the text numbers from one to nine are written in full, except when they include units of measurement or several numbers are mentioned, for example, “six irrigation events”, “6, 9, and 12 irrigation events”, or “8 kg”. Use a zero before the decimal point. To separate the numbers in intervals of one or more years, use “to” and a hyphen for growing seasons (e.g., period from 2002 to 2005; 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 growing seasons).
Units of measurement. Results should be expressed in the International System of Units (SI) (https://www.nist.gov/pml/weights-and-measures/metric-si/si-units); if other units are used, put them between parentheses after the SI unit. Exponential notation should be used, for example, kg ha-1.
Abbreviations and symbols. These save space and time, but their excessive use can make the text more difficult to understand. Some abbreviations do not need to be defined because they are widely used and well known, such as SI units or chemical elements. All abbreviations should be written out in full at first mention in the Abstract, text, tables, and figures; the abbreviation is then used consistently. Avoid redefining well-known variables, such as DM for dry matter, and only define specific abbreviations used in the article. Do not include abbreviations in Conclusions section.

Other norms

  • Use subscripts for modifications and reserve superscripts for powers in table and figure footnotes.
  • Use the 24-h time system with two digits for both hours and minutes (e.g., 14:30 h instead of 2:30 pm).
  • Avoid redundancy in stating significant statistical differences (do not use “significance” as well as probability), e.g., "stearic acid concentration was greater than … (P < 0.05)"
  • Do not begin sentences with a number, write it out in full and include the SI unit. Abbreviate all SI units preceded by numbers (e.g., 7 kg, 32 d), except at the beginning of a sentence.
  • Ordinal numbers from first to ninth are written out in full in the text, but can be abbreviated in tables. Abbreviate larger ordinals (e.g., 12th, 32nd).
  • Leave a space before and after each mathematical operator (the main exception is the division sign “/”).
  • The (+) and (-) signs do not need a space between the sign and the number when they indicate positive or negative.
  • Formulae for simple compounds (NaCl) are acceptable.
  • The first letter of brands should be capitalized without the ™ symbol.