Guide for Authors

Terms and conditions for manuscript submission
Journal Forms

Instruction for Authors

General items for authors 
  • Plant Protection (Scientific Journal of Agriculture) of the Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz is a "free charge Journal" which welcomes the articles in different areas of plant protection science from all over the world.
  • Full-length Original articles and Short Communications are welcomed.
  • Contributions must be original and must not have been submitted for publication elsewhere.
  • Please also make sure that there is no conflict between the authors regarding the submitted manuscript before submission.
  • The manuscript should be submitted to the journal through the Submit Paper system.
  • The publication of any manuscript in the Plant Protection (Scientific Journal of Agriculture) requires strict conformance to the journal template. Nevertheless, the manuscript's initial submission will be returned to the authors to be compliant with the template.
  • Manuscripts submitted to Plant Protection (Scientific Journal of Agriculture) are critically reviewed before they are published. The purpose of review is to assure readers that the papers have been found acceptable by competent and independent professionals. The process often results in desirable changes to the manuscripts.

 


Manuscript preparation guidelines

All manuscripts should be prepared and submitted in a Word document (not PDF).

Lines and pages should be numbered throughout the main text.

 

Cover Letter

A cover letter should accompany the manuscript in a separate Word file. The letter must provide the title (up to 20 words), the running title (up to 40 characters), and the name, position, and the affiliation of authors. The email address and telephone number of the author to whom the journal should address correspondence should also be given in this letter. The cover letter template and a sample file of cover letter has been attached. All editorial correspondences concerning the receipt, status, review, revision, and publication of a manuscript will be sent only to one person who has been designated as the corresponding author during the evaluation period. The corresponding author is responsible for communicating the manuscript status to all coauthors of paper and obtaining the coauthors’ assent to any substantial content or interpretation changes made during revision.

 

Letter of Commitment

The corresponding author should carefully check that all those who contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. All information including content, the names of authors, their ordering, addresses and affiliations, and the corresponding author should be all agreed upon. The Author Commitment Form should be completed by the corresponding author.  It must be submitted with the manuscript in a separate file. 


 Submission of a full-length Original Article

Original Articles should not exceed 7000 words (including all sections). This article should contain the following sub-headings:

  • An informative, concise title
  • Abstract
  • The Persian abstract
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Conflict of interest
  • References

 

  • Article title: The article title represents the research's subject and purpose (up to 20 words).
  • Abstract: The abstract should include the research problem, objectives, method and materials, the general results, and the conclusion (150 to 250 words).
  • The Persian abstract: The Persian abstract (250 to 350 words) will be written for non-Iranian authors by the Journal after issuing the acceptance. So, during the manuscript's registration by the non-Iranian authors, the English abstract should also be repeated in the Persian abstract section.
  • Keywords: The keywords (Up to 5 keywords) should be included due to their importance at the abstract's bottom. Their Persian equivalents should appear in the same order in the Persian abstract. During the manuscript's registration by the non-Iranian authors, the English keywords should also be repeated in the Persian keywords section.
  • Introduction: The introduction includes a statement of the problem, the significance of the study, a review of the literature, and the objectives of the research.
  • Materials and methods: This section includes a complete description of materials, methods, instruments, and trial design used. If these are adapted from other sources, it is necessary to refer to the general principles and references used.
  • Results: This section includes the main results and findings. Please avoid repeating the same results in different ways using figures, tables, etc., simultaneously.
  • Discussion: This section includes the justification, reference to previous research, and the discussion of results. Please avoid extensive citations. At the end of the results, and discussion section, a conclusion of about one to two paragraphs should be added in about ten lines.
  • Acknowledgment: This section usually represents a brief statement (a maximum of 40 words) of acknowledgment appreciating those who funded or contributed to the research.

 Submission of a Short Communication article

"Short Communications" should not exceed 3000 words (including all sections). As with "Original Articles", manuscripts submitted as Short Communications should be novel. Furthermore, Short Communication should include no more than 20 cited references, and no more than 2 tables/figures.

Short Communication articles should contain the following 6 sub-headings*:

  • An informative, concise title (up to 20 words)
  • Abstract (150 to 250 words)
  • The Persian abstract (250 to 350 words; not necessary for non-Iranian authors)
  • Introduction
  • Materials and Methods
  • Results and Discussion can be combined into a single section
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
  • Refer to the section "Submission of a full-length Original Article" for details of sub-headings.

 

References

References in the text.

The American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style is used in-text citations.

If there is an author, then place the author’s last name and year of publication inside: 

If there is no author, then place the source title (with quotation marks and title caps) and the year inside: 

When citing two or more authors in a parenthetical citation, use an ampersand (&) in place of the word “and.” 

  • Example of the use of an ampersand: (Kirchoff & Cook, 2016). 

When citing three or more authors, use the first author’s last name and “et al.”

  • Example: (Anderson et al., 2006).

Reference list. 

The American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style is used in the reference list at the end. Please download these instructions here

All references in Farsi should be translated into English. This issue should be mentioned at the end of the reference, as follows:

- In references with English summary:

Mahi, H., Rasekh, A., & Shishehbor, P. (2014). Cold Storage of the bisexual population of Lysiphlebus fabarum (Braconidae: Aphidiinae). Plant Protection (Scientific Journal of Agriculture), 37(2), 66-78 (In Farsi with English summary)

- In references without English summary:

 Esmaili, M. (1991). Important pests of fruit trees. Tehran, Nashr-e- Sepehr Publication (In Farsi).

 


The final approved article must be submitted to an English edit service for English editing. Acceptance will be issued after submitting the edited article,  and the editing certificate.

Examples of some English language editing services:

Tarjomic:  https://tarjomic.com/

Radan English Edit: http://englishedit.ir/


Attention:

  1. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy and originality of manuscript content.
  2. Articles submitted to the journal should not have been published elsewhere in national or international journals (except in the form of abstracts presented at conferences). Submitted articles should not also be sent to any other journal at the same time or while, it is under review in the Journal of Plant Production for publication. 
  3. Due to the violation of the above obligations, Plant Protection reserves the right to remove the article even after its publication.
  4.  Any modifications to authors’ names (including adding, removing or reordering the names) should be acknowledged and justified by all authors. They should express their consent by signing the agreement form sent to the journal. In the case of disagreement among authors, a formal letter will be sent to their affiliated organization for final judgment.