Author guidelines

• Types of Articles.
• Considerations.
• Text Formatting.
• References.
• Pre-review and Peer Review Process.
• Other Considerations.
• Summary of Requirements.
• Example Statements.
• Authorship Changes.

Types of Articles

The Journal of Natural Resources and Farming accepts: a) Original Articles, b) Short Communications, c) Reviews, d) Technical Notes

These are full-length articles that describe original research (up to 8,000 words) with the following sections:

a) Original Articles

• Abstract (no more than 250 words divided into: purpose, methods, results, and conclusions)
• 4 to 6 keywords
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• References

b) Short Communication

A brief manuscript that reports novel results that do not justify a full article but are standalone findings (not preliminary work), with a length of up to 4,000 words. The manuscript should include:

• Abstract (no more than 250 words divided into: purpose, methods, results, and conclusions)
• 4 to 6 keywords
• Introduction
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusions
• References

Short communications are the only articles that may present results and discussion in the same section.

c) Review

Reviews cover broad and current topics of interest for the journal's readers, providing new, significant insights based on a critical and comprehensive literature synthesis. The Editor-in-Chief welcomes author queries regarding the suitability of a review topic and manuscript submissions.

d) Technical Note

Technical notes report new developments, significant advances, and novel aspects of experimental and theoretical methods and techniques relevant to scientific research within the journal’s scope. Technical Notes generally do not report results. These manuscripts should be brief, with a maximum of 1,500 words.

Considerations

Source Files
Ensure that you provide all relevant editable source files in each submission and review. If you do not submit a complete set of editable source files, your article will not be considered for review. For your manuscript text, always submit in common word processing formats such as .docx or LaTeX.

Author Information

• Author name(s)
• Author affiliation: institution, department, city (state), country.
• Email address
• Author(s)’ ORCID ID(s)

For authors who are not currently affiliated, only their city and country of residence will be captured unless an email address is specifically requested.

Language models like ChatGPT currently do not meet authorship criteria. Authorship implies responsibility for the work, which cannot be effectively applied to AI. The use of a language model must be properly documented in the Methods section (or an appropriate alternative section).

Text Formatting

Manuscripts must be submitted in Word format:

• Use 12-point Times New Roman font.
• Use italics for emphasis.
• Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
• Do not use field functions.
• Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
• Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to create tables.
• Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.
• Save your file in .docx format (Word 2007 or later) or .doc format (older versions of Word).

Footnotes
Footnotes can provide additional information, which may include references to the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation and should never include bibliographic details of a reference.
Text footnotes are numbered consecutively; table footnotes should be indicated by lowercase superscript letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data).
Footnotes in the title or authorship should not use reference symbols.
Always use footnotes rather than endnotes.

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements of individuals, institutions, funds, etc., should be placed in a separate section on the title page. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.

References

Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. Some examples:

• Research on negotiation spans many disciplines (Thompson 1990).
• This result was later contradicted by Becker and Seligman (1996).
• This effect has been widely studied (Abbott 1991; Barakat et al. 1995a, b; Kelso and Smith 1998; Medvec et al. 1999, 2000).

Bibliography
The reference list should only include works that are cited in the text and have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text.

Entries in the reference list should be alphabetically ordered by the last names of the first author of each work. Follow these rules for alphabetizing:

• For one author, by author name, then chronologically.
• For two authors, by author name, then co-author name, then chronologically.
• For more than two authors, by the first author's name, then chronologically.

If available, always include DOIs as full links in your reference list (e.g., "https://doi.org/abc").

Journal Article
Gamelin FX, Baquet G, Berthoin S, Thevenet D, Nourry C, Nottin S, Bosquet L (2009) Effect of high intensity intermittent training on heart rate variability in prepubescent children. Eur J Appl Physiol 105:731-738. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-008-0955-8
Ideally, the names of all authors should be provided, but the use of "et al." is also accepted for long author lists:
Smith J, Jones M Jr, Houghton L et al (1999) Future of health insurance. N Engl J Med 965:325–329

DOI Article
Slifka MK, Whitton JL (2000) Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001090000086

Book
South J, Blass B (2001) The future of modern genomics. Blackwell, London

Book Chapter
Brown B, Aaron M (2001) The politics of nature. In: Smith J (ed) The rise of modern genomics, 3rd ed. Wiley, New York, pp 230-257

Online Document
Cartwright J (2007) Big stars have weather too. IOP Publishing PhysicsWeb. http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/6/16/1. Accessed June 26, 2007

Thesis
Trent JW (1975) Experimental acute renal failure. PhD thesis, University of California

Always use the standard abbreviation for the journal name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see ISSN LTWA.
If in doubt, please use the full journal title.
The reference list should only include works cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text.

The reference list must be alphabetically ordered by the last names of the first author of each work. Alphabetize according to the following rules:

• For one author, by author name, then chronologically;
• For two authors, by author name, then co-author name, and then chronologically;
• For more than two authors, by the first author’s name, then chronologically.
  If available, always include the DOI as a full link in your reference list.

Tables

All tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals.
Tables must always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.
For each table, provide a title that explains the components of the table.
Identify any previously published material by giving the original source as a reference at the end of the table title.
Footnotes to the tables should be indicated by lowercase superscript letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included below the table body.

Guidelines for Illustrations

Submit all illustrations electronically.
Indicate which graphics software was used to create the illustration.
For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, use TIFF format.
Vector graphics containing text must have the fonts embedded in the files. Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.TIFF.

Color Illustrations

Color illustrations are free of charge for online publication.
If black and white will be shown in the printed version, ensure that the main information is still visible. Many colors do not distinguish well when converted to black and white. A simple way to check this is to make a xerographic copy to see if the necessary distinctions between the different colors are still apparent. Color illustrations should be submitted in RGB (8 bits per channel).

Figure Lettering

Use Helvetica or Arial for figure lettering.
Keep lettering consistently sized throughout the final-sized artwork, usually 2 to 3 mm (8 to 12 pt).
The variation of lettering size within an illustration should be minimal; for example, do not use 8 pt on an axis and 20 pt for axis labels.
Avoid effects such as shading, outlining, etc.
Do not include titles or legends within your illustrations.

Figure Numbering

All figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals.
Figures must always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.
Parts of figures should be indicated with lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
If your article includes an appendix with one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures as "A1, A2, A3, etc." However, figures in online appendices [Supplementary Information (SI)] should be numbered separately.

Figure Legends

Each figure should have a concise title that accurately describes what the figure depicts. Include figure titles in the manuscript's text file, not in the figure file.
Figure titles should start with "Fig." in bold, followed by the figure number, also in bold.
No punctuation should be included after the number or at the end of the title.
Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use squares, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
Identify previously published material by providing the original source as a reference citation at the end of the figure title.

Figure Placement and Size

Figures should be submitted within the manuscript text. Only if the manuscript file size causes problems should large figures be submitted separately.
When preparing your figures, size them to fit the column width.
Figures should be 84 mm (for two-column text areas) or 174 mm (for one-column text areas) wide and not exceed 234 mm.
For small-format journals, figures should be 119 mm wide and no more than 195 mm long.

Accessibility

To make the content of your figures accessible to people of all abilities and disabilities, ensure that:

• All figures have descriptive legends (blind users may use text-to-speech software or a Braille reader).
• Patterns are used in place of or in addition to colors to convey information (color-blind users may distinguish visual elements).

Accession Numbers

For all bacterial, yeast, and mycorrhizal strains used in the research reported in the manuscript, provide at least one accession number from a recognized culture collection in a specific sentence for that purpose.
For new DNA or protein sequences or new sequence alignments, the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) or a similar institution must provide a number and present it in the manuscript. Manuscripts lacking this information will not be considered for publication.

Pre-review and Peer Review Process
Pre-review: Authors initiate the process by submitting the article through the OJS platform of the Journal of Natural Resources and Farming. At this stage, the Editor, in collaboration with the Editorial Committee, performs an initial review of the manuscript considering: 1) relevance to the editorial line; 2) compliance with submission requirements; 3) initial plagiarism check by the technical team. If the first two criteria are not met, the authors are informed and given the opportunity to make corrections. In the case of detected plagiarism, depending on its complexity, the Editorial Committee will inform the authors of the rejection or the possibility of correction. If all criteria are met, the manuscript proceeds to peer review.

Peer Review: The Editor, with the collaboration of the Editorial Committee, seeks the collaboration of peer reviewers based on the following criteria: 1) the reviewer has academic training, research, and publications in the field of knowledge; 2) the reviewer does not have any conflict of interest that could affect the evaluation process.
Reviewers evaluate using an online form or Word format and are also encouraged to include qualitative comments or an anonymized copy of the manuscript with comments.

The evaluation options are: 1) Rejected: the manuscript does not meet relevance, originality, and quality criteria; 2) Accepted with major revisions: the article could be accepted after a second peer review process; 4) Accepted with minor revisions: the Editorial Committee requests changes from the authors, and if the changes are verified, the article is accepted; 5) Accepted: the article can be published as is. In cases where necessary, a third reviewer is consulted, and the final decision is based on their recommendation. The final publication decision depends on the Editorial Committee and requires compliance with the established style and plagiarism checks.

Authors with approved articles, with revisions or accepted for publication, commit to making content, form, and style corrections within 5 business days from the date they are requested.

Other Considerations

• Authors must ensure that they have the necessary permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/surveys (web), and scales in their studies (if applicable).
  Research and non-research articles (e.g., reviews) must cite appropriate and relevant literature to support the claims made. Authors are advised to avoid excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts between multiple authors to collectively self-cite.
  Authors should avoid making false statements about an entity (which could be an individual or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could be seen as personal attacks or accusations.
  Research that could be misused and pose a threat to public health or national security must be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g., dual-use research). Examples include the creation of harmful consequences from biological agents or toxins, alterations of vaccine immunity, unusual dangers in the use of chemicals, or the misuse of research/technology as a weapon (among others).
• Authors are strongly advised to ensure that the group of authors, corresponding author, and order of authors are correct at the time of submission. Adding and/or removing authors during the review stages may be justified in some cases. The reasons for authorship changes must be explained in detail in a manuscript sent to the Editorial Committee, which will evaluate the case. Note that no authorship changes can be made after the manuscript has been accepted.
• Upon request, authors must be prepared to provide relevant documentation or data to verify the validity of the results presented. This may include raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

In the event of suspected misconduct or fraud, the Journal and/or Publisher will conduct an investigation following the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). If, after the investigation, valid concerns remain, the authors in question will be contacted through the provided email address and given the opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal and/or Editor implementing the following measures, including but not limited to:

• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the violation, a correction/erratum may be placed alongside the article, or a notice of concern may be issued alongside the article. In severe cases, the article may be retracted.

Fundamental Errors

Authors have an obligation to correct errors once they discover a significant mistake or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) should contact the journal and explain how the error is impacting the article. The decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may involve either a correction or retraction. The retraction notice must provide transparency about which parts of the article are affected by the error.

Suggesting/Excluding Reviewers

Authors may suggest appropriate reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when submitting their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors must ensure that they are entirely independent and not connected in any way to the work. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the corresponding author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer or, if this is not possible, include other means of verifying identity, such as a link to a personal homepage, a publication record, or an investigator/author ID in the cover letter. Note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but we welcome them as they can help facilitate the peer review process.

Summary of Requirements
The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a "Declarations" section before the reference list under the title "Funding" and/or "Competing Interests." Other declarations include ethics approval, consent, data/materials/code availability, and author contribution statements.
Refer to the various examples of wording below and review/customize the sample declarations according to your own needs.