Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.

AUTHOR’S GUIDELINE FOR MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION

• Paper category to be submitted

Ethiopian Journal of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Production (EJVSAP) publishes high quality solicited and unsolicited papers from various veterinary sciences and animal production disciplines. Unpublished papers, having scientific value and fulfilling the objectives of EJVSAP, could be accepted for publication after peer review. Besides, to the original full length research articles, the journal publishes review articles, policy briefs, short communications, book reviews, and comments (maximum 3 pages) related to contemporary scientific debates or the published articles.

• Author Guidelines
  • Style and Formatting

Language: All manuscripts should be prepared in English

Length: Manuscripts should be as concise as possible, less than 21 printed pages including the abstract. Longer manuscripts can only be accepted in exceptional cases. Shorter manuscripts will be given priority when space is limited.

File format: Manuscript files should be prepared using Microsoft word. The files should not be locked or protected.

Font and spacing: The text should be double-spaced; 12-point font size; written in Times New Roman font type; employs italics where applicable (abstract, species of an organism, local language). To add symbols/formula to the manuscript, use the Insert → Symbol function in your word processor or paste in the appropriate Unicode character. Use ‘tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar. Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.

Headings: Limit manuscript sections and sub-sections to 3 heading levels. Make sure heading levels are clearly indicated in the manuscript text.

Page and line numbers: Include page numbers and line numbers in the manuscript file. Use continuous line numbers (do not restart the numbering on each page).

Footnotes: Don’t use footnotes in the manuscript

Abbreviations: Define abbreviations upon first appearance in the text. Avoid using non-standard abbreviations unless they appear at least three times in the text.

Reference style: EJVSAP uses “Adv Agronomy” reference style, as outlined in detail in the reference section of this guideline.

Equations: For inserting equations in the manuscript, use Microsoft’s Insert→Equation function, which is simple and convenient.

Nomenclature: Use correct and established nomenclature wherever possible. Scientific names should be italicized, and species and genus names should be written in full names in their first appearance (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus). Then after, the first letter of the genus name followed by the full species name may be used (e.g., S. aureus).

Units of measurement: Use SI units, where applicable.

• Research Manuscript Structure

The papers submitted to EJVSAP should have the following structure: ABSTRACT, INTRODUCTION, MATERIAL AND METHODS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, CONTRIBUTION OF AUTHOR(S), AUTHORS’ DECLARATION and REFERENCES sections in the same order.

Title page: This should include

• a concise title (not more than 20 words),
• Full name (s) of author (s), and their affiliation including their addresses (e-mail. P.O. Box) of each author.
• The author responsible for correspondence must be identified. All authors must meet the criteria for authorship as outlined in the authorship policy of this document. Author’s order should be written in a way that the first name should be the principal author of the manuscript followed by co-authors. Senior staff/supervisor of a student shall be the last/corresponding author.
• A running title with not more than 8 words should be provided.
• Phone number and email addresses of corresponding author.
• ORCID links of the authors shall be written

Abstract: The abstract should be brief, concise and provide a statement of the scope of the work and its major findings and be fully clear without reference to the main document.

• It must contain background, objective, methods, results and conclusion and recommendations.
• It should be limited to 3% of the length of the text, and in any case, not more than 300 words.
• It should also contain no more than six keywords, which should be relevant for literature searching. Keywords should not be a repetition of words present in the research title
• Use of abbreviations should be avoided in the abstract unless they are universal.

Introduction: This section should contain a clear statement of the reason for doing the work, outlining essential background information but should not include either the results or conclusions. The background information provided in this section should put the manuscript into context and allows readers outside the field to understand the purpose and significance of the study. The aim of the study should be outlined at the end of this section.

Methodology: This should be concise but provide sufficient details that can allow the work to be repeated. Product and manufacturer names: Where materials/products with specific names mentioned in the text or specific equipment used (including software packages) in the work, should be identified by their manufacturer and manufacturer's details e.g. town, state, country etc., or a source reference should be given if a standard or replicated procedure is being followed or used.

Statement on Ethical approval or equivalents must be indicated, where appropriate.

Results:

• This should not include material appropriate to the discussion.
• Pertinent results should be reported using text, table and figures.
• Explain the results and show how they help to answer the research questions posed in the introduction.
• Restrict tables and figures to those that are necessary.
• Do not duplicate data in tables and figures and, where possible, avoid repeating data presented in tables or figures in the text.
• In general, emphasis should be on the size of effects rather than their statistical significance.

Discussion:

• This should highlight the significance of the results and place them in the context of other works but more emphasis shall be made to biological interpretations in relation to the study area subjects.
• Combining results and discussion in one section is allowed.
• New and important findings should be emphasized but, as a rule, data previously presented in the method and result sections should not be repeated.
• Implications and limitations of the findings and their practical application should be discussed.
• The length of the discussion should be commensurate with the number of important findings, but should not exceed 1,000 words.

Conclusion: In this section,

• State the major message of your findings and important recommendations to concerned authorities, the community or scientific society.
• Emphasize the implications of the findings, explaining how the work is significant and providing the key message(s) the author wishes to convey.

Acknowledgments:

• All contributors of the research work but does not qualify for authorship, should be acknowledged.
• Financial sources and institutions with material and technical support should also be acknowledged.
• Authors are responsible for ensuring that anyone named in the acknowledgments agrees to be named.

Authors’ Contribution:

• State the contribution of each author.
• Use initials/abbreviation of each author to state who does what.

Conflict of Interest/Competing Interests: Authors must disclose any conflict of interest. If there is nothing to disclose, authors should indicate the following statement – “All authors do not have any conflict of interest/competing interest”.

Funding: Include information that explains by whom the research was supported, if appropriate.

References:

• Use name-year system of citation and reference styles and better to give examples for citation in text and reference list use.
• All references used in the main text should be listed in the reference section.
• The typescript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of the authors‘names and dates are the same as in the reference list.
• References should not appear in the reference list if they are not quoted in the text.
• References should be listed in alphabetical order and then further sorted chronologically if necessary.
• In the text, refer to the author‘s name (without initial) and year of publication (E.g. “This is in agreement ---- (Abebe, 2016), OR According to the findings of Abebe (2016).
• If reference is made in the text to a publication by three or more authors, the abbreviation et al. should be used.
• All names should be given in the list of references and should be written in “Adv Agronomy style”.

NOTE: Authors who use Endnote, reference manager/ Mendeley or other tools can use the “Adv Agronomy” style by going to the ‘style list’ located in their reference management tool.

The following usage should be confirmed.

Reference Type	Example of proper use
Journal Article (Journal name is full)	Abebe, N., Silassie, H., and Kumar, N. (2015). Retrospective study on Rabies in Laellay Adiabo district of Tigray, Ethiopia. International Journal of Livestock Research, 5(1), 20-27.
Book	Moss, B. (1998). Ecology of fresh waters, man and medium. Blackwell Scientific Publications, London, UK.
Book chapter	Tudorancea, C., Zinabu, G., and Dadebo, E. (1999). Limnology in Ethiopia. In "Limnology in Developing Countries" (R. G. Wetzel and B. Gopal, eds.), Vol. 2, pp. 63-118. International Society of Liminology (SIL).
Conference proceedings	Dourmad, J.-Y., Rigolot, C., and Van Der Werf, H. (2008). Emission of greenhouse gas, developing management and animal farming systems to assist mitigation. In "Livestock and Global Climate Change" (P. Rowlinson, M. Steele and A. Nefzaoui, eds.), pp. 36. Cambridge University Press, Hammamet, Tunisia.
Report/Generic	CSA (2018). Agricultural Sample Survey 2017/18 (2010 E.C.):  Report on Livestock and Livestock Characteristics (Private Peasant Holdings), Statistical Bulletin 587. Vol. II. Central Statistical Agency (CSA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Thesis/Dissertation	Bitewa, A. (2015). Isolation and Identification of Methicilin Resistant S. aureus from Bovine Mastitic Milk in Dairy Farms of Bahir dar and Its Surrounding North West Ethiopia, Addis Ababa University, College of Veterinary Medicine and  Agriculture, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Web-page	DAGRIS (2007). Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System (DAGRIS). (S. Kemp, Y. Mamo, B. Asrat and T. Dessie, eds.), Vol. 2020. International Livestock Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 

Tables:

• Each table should be inserted immediately after the first paragraph in which it is cited.
• Tables should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals (e.g., Table 1, Table 2 etc).
• The caption for tables should be concise, kept as simple as possible, and typed above the table.

Figures:

• Figures should be inserted immediately after the first paragraph in which they are cited and numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals (e.g., Fig 1, Fig 2).
• For better quality in the online and printed versions of the manuscript, figure files should be submitted separately in high resolution (quality) possible with numbers and text clearly legible.
• You can use either of the following formats ‘jpg’ or ‘jpeg’ or tiff or ‘png’.

• Review Article Preparation

Reviews are aimed at giving an overview of a particular subject suitable for a wider audience that includes recent advances in any branch in which the author has been actively engaged. Reviews are summaries of recent insights in specific research areas within the scope of EJVSAP. These are aimed at giving an overview of a particular subject suitable for a wider audience that includes recent advances in any particular branch in which the author has been actively engaged. EJVSAP does not encourage submission of reviews, unless there is convincing evidence to conduct the review that can add to the scientific knowledge. Under certain conditions, EJVSAP invites for submission of review articles. In general, reviews should not be more than 8000 words including tables and figures.

While you do the review, respect the following simple rules.

• Define a topic and audience
• Search for articles exhaustively
• Take notes while reading: avoid copy paste
• Keep the review focused, but make it of broad interest
• Be critical and consistent
• Find a logical structure and flow
• Make use of feedback from reviewers
• Include your own relevant research, but be objective
• Be up-to-date, but do not forget older studies

Review articles submitted to EJVSAP should follow the following section headings:

• Title page: should present the title, list of authors and their institutional affiliations and addresses; indicate the corresponding author and full address
• Abstract: The abstract should be concise summary of the overall review and it should not exceed 300 words. Try to avoid too much use of abbreviations. This section should not have citations.
• Keywords: List a maximum of six keywords that represent the main content of the article
• Introduction: This section should highlight background information of the intended review.
• The summary of a search of the recent existing literature and the issue under discussion should also be given in this section.
• Mapping the gap:  clearly state the knowledge gap that motivates you to do this review
• Finally, the aim of the review should be clearly indicated.
• Methodology:
• What are the search engines
• Inclusion and exclusion criteria for manuscripts
• Main body of the review: This section should present the details of the review undertaken with citations. This section can be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.
• Discussion: Discuss the arguments in the various literatures read.
• Conclusions: This should clearly state the main conclusions and include an explanation of their relevance or importance to the field.
• List of abbreviations: All abbreviations used in the article should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations should also be provided.

• Short Communication

It must report completed work, not preliminary findings. They are alternative formats for describing smaller piece of work. The report should not be more than five pages and should not contain more than two figures, tables or combinations.

Short Communication/Case Reports

Short communications/case reports submitted to EJVSAP should fulfill the following conditions

• Unexpected or unusual presentations of a disease/condition that can be a good lesson for other professionals and experts in the field
• A new outbreak investigation process
• Presentations, diagnoses and/or management of new and emerging diseases
• Side effects of medications encountered in the treatment process of a disease condition
• Findings that shed new light on the possible pathogenesis of a disease or an adverse effect

Short communications/case reports submitted to EJVSAP should not be more than five printed pages and should not contain more than two figures, tables or combinations. Short communications/case reports should make a contribution to the knowledge in veterinary sciences and animal production and must have educational value or highlight the need for a change in clinical practice or diagnostic/prognostic approaches. Authors should provide a strong justification regarding the importance and value of their short communication/case report. The following sections should be considered while preparing short communications/case reports.

• Title page: should present the title, list of authors and their institutional affiliations and addresses; indicate the corresponding author and full address
• Abstract: The abstract should be the concise summary of the case report, and it should not exceed 300 words. Try to avoid too much use of abbreviations. This section should not have citations. The abstract should be divided into three subsections: Background (brief highlight of the case), Case presentation (brief description of the case and the findings) and Conclusion (the brief impact and implications of the case presented)
• Keywords: List five to seven keywords that represent the main content of the article
• Introduction: This section should highlight background information of the case report/short communication using the existing literature, and the aim of the work.
• Case presentation: This section should include a detailed description of the case report including demographic details, patients’ medical history, symptoms and signs, treatment or intervention, outcomes, and any other significant details.
• Discussion and Conclusions: In this section discussion should be made in line with existing relevant literature. Finally, a brief conclusion about the importance and implications of the case presented should be given. 
• List of abbreviations: All abbreviations used in the article should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations should also be provided.

Styling and formatting: The styling and formatting described for original research articles also applies for review articles and short communications/case reports

Reference: The reference style described for original research articles also applies for review articles and short communications/case reports

Other policies that apply for original research articles also apply for review articles and short communications/case reports.

• Book Reviews

A critical evaluation of recently published books in any discipline of veterinary sciences and animal production can be published in EJVSAP.

• Submission checklists

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check their submission's compliance with the entire aim and scope of the journal and should strictly follow the following submission checklist. Submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• Check if your manuscript is in line with the journal aims and scope. If not, the editor may decline it without peer review.
• The submission has not been previously published, nor submitted to other journal(s).
• The submission should be provided in Microsoft Word document file format.
• Authors should check their submission is in line with the formatting of the Journal.
• All illustrations, Figures, and Tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
• Figures included in the manuscript should be prepared in high resolution (quality) and provided in ‘jpg’, ‘jpeg’, tiff, or ‘png’ formats, in addition, to the figure in the manuscript.
• The manuscript should adhere to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Authors’ Guidelines.
• The details of all contributing authors (full names, affiliations, email address, mailing address) should be provided on the first page of the manuscript.
• The submitting author should make sure that financial disclosure and competing interest statements are included in the manuscript
• To facilitate the blind-review process, make sure that there is no information that might help the reviewer identifies you. This could compromise the blind peer review process. A few tips to follow:
• If you need to refer to your own work, use wording such as ‘previous research has demonstrated’ not ‘our previous research has demonstrated’.
• If you need to refer to your own, currently unpublished work, do not include this work in the reference list.
• We accept only online submission through the journal website.
• Carry out a final check to ensure that no author names appear anywhere in the manuscript. This includes in figures or captions.

• Submission of Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted preferably as a single file including Tables, Figures and supporting files, if any. Submission must be made in the online submission portal of the journal (https://journal.mu.edu.et/index.php/ejvsap) and also sent through email to ejvsap.cvm@mu.edu.et. 

 

• Copyright Policy

The Ethiopian Journal of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Production (EJVSAP) accept manuscripts for consideration with the understanding that the manuscript has not been published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The authors should transfer copyright ownership to the publisher (Mekelle University) if the manuscript is accepted for publication. A copyright statement signed by the corresponding author must accompany accepted manuscripts. A copyright form will be supplied along with the final reviewed version of the manuscript that is sent for final proofreading.

 

1.6. Authorship Policy

• Criteria for authorship

The journal has a policy on authorship for manuscripts submitted to EJVSAP. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, and preparation of the manuscript. Every author(s) must review the manuscript critically and approve before submission to EJVSAP. Acquisition of funding, collection of data or general supervision of the research group, by himself or herself does not justify the authorship. Each author in the case of multiple-authored manuscripts that are accepted for publication in EJVSAP will be required to confirm in writing, prior to publishing the manuscript, that he or she satisfies the journal criteria for authorship. Authors must submit statement of authorship to the Editorial Office of EJVSAP. 

• Four criteria must all be met to be credited as an author:
  • Substantial contribution to the study conception and design, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation.
  • Drafting or revising the article for intellectual content.
  • Approval of the final version.
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work.
• The order of authorship should be ‘a joint decision of the co-authors.
• Individuals who are involved in a study but do not satisfy the journal’s criteria for authorship, should be Acknowledged. Examples include assisting the research by providing advice, providing research space, departmental oversight, and obtaining financial support.
• Three types of authorship are considered unacceptable:
  • ‘Ghost’ authors, who contribute substantially but are not acknowledged (often paid by authors); hence they deserve to be authors.
  • ‘Guest’ authors, who make no discernible contributions, but are listed to help increase the chances of publication; they do not deserve authorship.
  • ‘Gift’ authors, whose contribution is based solely on a tenuous affiliation with a study, don’t deserve authorship.
    • Authors declaration form

All authors must sign and complete a form. Please complete multiple forms if necessary and upload the signed copy with your submission.

Manuscript title: ______________________________________________________________

Corresponding author: _________________________________________________________

Article type: __________________________________________________________________

Manuscript reference number: ___________________________________________________

Authors’ contributions: Complete list of authors is made. There is no someone who can claim authorship.

Role of the funding source: the funder has no role in design, analysis and interpretation of the research work.

Conflicts of Interest: Authors have no conflict of interest.

Ethical research conduct: Any aspect of the work covered in this manuscript that has involved either experimental animals or human patients has been conducted with the ethical approval of all relevant bodies, and that such approvals are acknowledged within the manuscript.

Double use consent (if you are using someone else properties): If your manuscript has a Figure/Table/ a data published by other authors and publishers, please make sure that you have requested them to  include the data in your publication and got an approval. If so, please attach the confirmation to publish. The signed consent form should be retained by the corresponding author.

Duplicate submission

• We confirm that there is no parallel/duplicate submission of the manuscript at the time of submission to EJVSAP.
• If your manuscript has been submitted earlier to other journals, please state the reason why you are submitting it to EJVSAP. ________________________________

Signed by ALL AUTHORS as follows:

Author name	E-mail Address	Signature	Date

 

• Removal or rearrangement of authorship

Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue:

• Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Journal editorial office from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include:

(a) The reason why the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and

(b) Written confirmation (e-mail, fax, and letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.

1.7. Conditions for manuscript withdrawal by EJVSAP

Withdrawal of a manuscript from publication could be made while the manuscript is in the process of publication or after the manuscript is published. The withdrawal of a manuscript from publication could be done by the editor – in -chief of the journal. Some of the conditions are:

• Any requests to add, delete, or rearrange author names in an article published in an online issue is not allowed. If we receive any such issues from missing authors, modifying the authors’ name or other conflicts of interest after publication that particular manuscript will be withdrawn/retracted without any prior notice.
• The chief editor could withdraw the manuscript from publication, if the manuscript has series ethical misconduct issues such as plagiarism, duplication, publication fraud, data fabrication, data manipulation, misleading reporting, extremely defective erroneous data. Generally, the chief editor could withdraw the manuscript from publication if the reliability of the data and validity of results are doubtful.
• Published manuscript could be also withdrawn, if the manuscript has a serious problem related honorary authorship.
• If the above ethical misconduct is confirmed, the chief journal editor could withdraw the published manuscript and notify officially to the team of the authors. Furthermore, the chief editor should inform the readers and other journal editors as well as mangers about the case. He/she should notify the title of the manuscript, the names of authors, and the reason of the withdrawal.
  • Duplicate/multiple submissions
• A duplicate/multiple submission of the same manuscript to different journals is an unethical practice and is not a healthy scientific publishing practice. It would be a waste of time being spent by the editors and reviewers.
• Authors are requested to respect the scientific time involved (by both editors and reviewers) in refining one’s paper.
• Authors are not allowed to request for withdrawals two weeks after their submission to EJVSAP. Authors request for withdrawal after getting inputs from the journal process is unethical and will put authors in blacklist that has serious consequence in (inter)national journals.
• When authors request for withdrawal within the first two weeks of their submission, the request shall be made with a confirmation letter. This letter must include the title and identification number of the manuscript, names and signature of corresponding author, date and the reasons why the manuscript must be withdrawn.
• The chief editor will officially notify to the authors whether their request is accepted or not. While the withdrawal process is on the way, authors shall not send the manuscript to other journals. If they send the manuscript to another journal prior to getting an approval, it should be considered as a duplicate publication.
  • Authors’ ethics policy

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential building block in the development of a coherent and respected network of knowledge. It is a direct reflection of the quality of work of the author and the institutions that support them. Peer-reviewed articles support and embody the scientific method. It is therefore important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. Ethics topics to consider when publishing are:

• Authorship of the paper: Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. Transparency about the contributions of authors is encouraged.
• Originality and plagiarism: The authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others, which has been appropriately cited or quoted.
• Data access and retention: Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review and should be prepared to provide public access to such data.
• Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication: An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication.
• Acknowledgement of sources: Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given.
• Disclosure and conflicts of interest: All submissions must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.
• Fundamental Errors in Published Works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
• Reporting standards: Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance.
• Hazards and human or animal subjects: Statements of compliance are required if the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that has any unusual hazards inherent in their use, or if it involves the use of animal or human subjects.
• Use of patient images or case details: Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in the paper.