PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE JOURNAL
The Journal of Food and Nutritional Sciences Research is an open access, international, peer-reviewed Journal that aims to publish high quality, high impact research papers, topical critical reviews, book reviews, special subject area issues, hypotheses, short communications in all the areas of Food Science and Technology and Human Nutrition and Dietetics. Practitioners and researchers in the food and agriculture industry and human nutrition and dietetics fields, academia and postgraduate students are invited and encouraged to submit manuscripts to the Journal for publication.
Kenya Institute of Food Science and Technology (KIFST) membership is not a prerequisite for submission of articles and publication in the Journal.
Journal Publication Frequency and Charges
The Journal of Food and Nutritional Sciences Research accepts and publishes articles throughout the year. Authors will pay for the publication of the manuscripts that have been accepted at rates determined from time to time by the Editorial Board of the Journal. Articles that are accepted for publication can only be published after full payment of the requisite charges by the author(s).
There are no handling charges for manuscripts submitted to the Journal.
THE PEER-REVIEW PROCESS
Transmission of Manuscripts
Manuscripts should be sent online to the Editor-in-Chief as a Microsoft Word document at:
e-mail address: mlokuruka@gmail.com.
Hard copies of manuscripts will not be accepted.
Evaluation of Manuscripts
Initial evaluation of manuscripts
All manuscripts submitted to the journal will initially be screened by the Editor-in-Chief, the Scientific Editor and Members of the Editorial Board for completeness, relevance, quality and adherence to the “Guidelines for Authors and Contributors”.
Expectations on authors
The Journal expects the authors to do the following before sending in their manuscripts:
- Adhere to the aims and scope of the Journal
- strictly follow the guidelines provided
- Edit the manuscript and write in good grammatical English; the document should be without any grammatical errors, as the correction of language and sentence structure are not part of the review process
- Contains a statement on the first page, below the author information, that: “this paper has not been submitted or is being considered for submission and potential publication in any other Journal”
- is accompanied by a second first page, containing only the title of the paper and without the author information-for the purpose of the double-blind review process
Any manuscript that does not meet the above requirements will be rejected and the author informed accordingly. Other reasons for the rejection of a paper will include:
- Lack of a plausible hypothesis or problem statement to anchor the work done
- Failure to follow ethical and legal procedures where these are envisaged
- Not being original, authentic and/or of low quality
Uses offensive language
Type of Peer-review Applicable to the Journal
All manuscripts submitted to the Journal will undergo a double-blind peer review process, where articles will be reviewed for quality, relevance and contribution to scientific knowledge by at least two experts in the relevant field.
Selection of Peer Reviewers
The Editor-in-Chief will appoint reviewers from a list of experienced, subject experts maintained by the Editorial Office and from among members of the Editorial Board of the Journal. Further expert opinion will be sought from other reviewers, where the initial reviewers contradict each other, or where there are inordinate delays in the submission of article review reports.
Evaluation of Manuscripts by Peer Reviewers
The Editor-in-Chief will submit manuscripts that are deemed to be suitable for publication in the Journal to at least two reviewers for expert critique. The reviewers will evaluate the article based on the following criteria:
- Significance and relevance
- Originality, authenticity and comprehensiveness
- Objectivity, clarity and thoroughness in addressing the aims of the topic or research work
- Writing style, adherence to Journal format, and accuracy in the interpretation of the findings
- Adherence to ethical and legal requirements in scientific experimentation, writing and the use of best global practices in scholarly publication
Once a manuscript has been accepted for peer-review, the Editorial Office will assign a unique identification number (ID) to it. This number must be quoted in all correspondence with the Editor-in-Chief regarding the particular article.
Acceptance or Rejection of Manuscripts
Reviewers will submit anonymous reviews to the Editor-in-Chief, who will make the final decision whether to accept or reject the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief will communicate the result of the reviews to the author(s), accompanied by the reports of the reviewers.
PRESENTATION AND FORMATTING GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS
Continuous line-typing in the entire manuscript is mandatory except where a variation is suggested in the guidelines to authors.
Authors should double-space the content in the entire manuscript, except in the Tables and Figures where 1.5 line-spacing is permissible.
All pages should be numbered consecutively.
3.1 Title
The title should be placed at the top of the first page, written in Times New Roman, 14-point font, bold-faced and centered on the page. The title should be informative, concise and without abbreviations or formulae. The first letter of all verbs, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the title should be capitalized, while the first letter of an article, proposition or coordinate conjunction should not be capitalized. Two blank lines should be left after the title.
Author Information
The manuscript should bear the full names of all authors; that is, full first/given name(s), middle initial(s), and last/surname(s) of all authors. Each author’s names should be followed by institutional affiliation, physical and email addresses. The name of the corresponding author should be clearly identified by an asterisk, which is superscripted next, but before the first name.
Multiple authors should be included in the article below the Title. Their affiliations, addresses both physical and email, should appear below their names. The information on authors should be centered, non-bolded and in Times New Roman, Font 12.
Abstract and Keywords
Abstract-the contents in this part of the article should be written out in Times New Roman, Font12, centered, left aligned, continuous and without any paragraphs. The word “abstract” should be bold-faced in Times New Roman, Font 12, aligned to the left and on the second page, below the Title and Author information.
Keywords-the word “keywords” should be bold-faced, in Times New Roman, Font 12, left aligned, and placed two lines below the abstract prose. Keywords should be a maximum of 6 words, with each word separated by a comma or a semi-colon.
Second and subsequent pages
Third and subsequent pages should be left-aligned, with content written out in Times New Roman, Font 12 type face. First Order titles on the pages should be bold-faced, but not second order Titles. The Journal discourages having third order titles. The page titles and content below them need not be separated by a blank line between them.
Any paragraph and the next should be continuous without any line breaks between them.
Two blank lines should be left between one Title content and the next.
Tables
Table titles/captions should be placed at the top of the relevant table, written out in Times New Roman, bold-faced, in Font 12 and left aligned. The first letter of the first word of the Table title should be capitalized. The word Table No. 1 should end with a full colon (:). Table callout titles can be bold-faced, but not the subsequent content in the Table. Tables should be numbered consequently thus: Table 1, Table 2, etc. in Arabic numerals. The Journal accepts a maximum of 6 tables and/or figures in any one manuscript. Table captions and callouts can be 1.5 line spaced.
Figures
The caption should be placed below the figure, written out in Time New Roman, bold-faced, placed flush left-aligned, and end with a full colon. Callouts and content should be in non-bold, Font 12, type face. Figure captions and callouts can be 1.5 line spaced.
Language and Referencing style
Authors and contributors are advised to use the format shown in the reference section. All manuscripts should be in English and authors are expected to edit and rid the document of all grammatical and typing errors before submitting it to the Editor-in-Chief. References cited in the text should be given in the References Section of the manuscript in alphabetical order. Personal communication or any work in progress that is not published is not permissible for use as reference material in any submission presented for publication in the Journal.
Approximate Timelines for Manuscript Processing
- Acknowledgment of receipt-within a day of submission
- Editorial decision informing the author of the intention to peer-review or reject a paper-within 3 days of receipt of the article
The Editor-in-Chief will endeavour to inform the authors of the results of the peer-review process within a month of acceptance of the manuscript.
Detailed Guide for Developing a manuscript for submission to the Journal
TITLE
Should be concise, accurate and written in Times New Roman, boldfaced, Font 14 and centred.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Authors names, affiliations, physical and email addresses in full, should be placed 2 blank lines below the Title of the article and centred. The corresponding author should be clearly identified and authors’ information should be given in separate columns following each other.
ABSTRACT
The abstract should be between 150 and 200 words for original research papers, and critical reviews. Only conventional acronyms and abbreviations such as FAO, UN, USA, etc. are allowed, but where non-conventional acronyms/abbreviations are used in the section, the author should give them in full (define them); references should not be cited in the abstract. Authors should state in one paragraph what was done, how it was done, major results, and conclusions, in the Abstract.
KEYWORDS-a maximum of 6 keywords for original research papers and concise topical reviews. Book reviews and short communication (unless it is a study) do not require keywords in the write up. A short description of a study/short communication can have a maximum of 6 keywords, which clearly reflect the theme of the article. The use of appropriate keywords is key to effective searchability of an article and the ease of being discovered by search engines.
INTRODUCTION
In this section authors enter introductory text, review pertinent work, cite key and up to date references and explain the importance of the topic and the objectives of their work.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The Journal does not accept the use of the word “Methodology” in manuscripts submitted for potential publication.
Authors are expected to describe the experimental text in sufficient detail so that the work reported can be repeated, if others wish to do so. Any new methods should be described in detail; accepted methods can be described briefly with references, and subheadings (second order) can be used as needed for clarity.
Trade names should be avoided in defining products whenever possible. If the use of a trade name cannot be avoided, the trade names of other similar products should also be mentioned. The first use of a trade name should be followed by the superscript symbol™ or ® and the owner’s name, city, state/province, and country in parentheses. If a product trade name is used, it is imperative that the product be described in sufficient detail so that relationships between product composition and results achieved are evident.
The mention of critical, especially novel, supplies and pieces of equipment should be followed, in parentheses, by the name of the manufacturer or provider, and on the first mention only, city, state/province, and country (such as Sigma-Aldrich Corp., St. Louis, Mo., U.S.A.).
Abbreviations and acronyms at first use in the text, should use the full length form followed by the acronym in parentheses, and only then can the acronym be allowed thereafter in subsequent mentions.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this section authors should present and discuss results concisely, using figures and tables as needed. However, authors should not present the same information in both figures and tables. They should compare results obtained to those previously reported and clearly explain any differences and give plausible reasons for the variation.
Statistical analysis
If the variation within a treatment (coefficient of variation—the standard deviation divided by the mean) is less than 10% and the difference among treatment means is greater than 3 standard deviations, it may not be necessary to conduct a statistical analysis. However, if the data do not meet these criteria, appropriate statistical analysis must be conducted and reported in the text.
Authors should indicate what new information is contributed by the current study.
CONCLUSIONS
In this section, authors should state conclusions (not a SUMMARY or continuing discussion) briefly in one paragraph and without references.
This part of the article can contain any recommendations that the authors wish to present for readers to note.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In this section, authors should list the applicable sources of financial or material support and the names of individuals whose contributions were significant, but not deserving of authorship. Any conflicts of interest should be entered here. Acknowledgment of an employer’s permission to publish is not needed and will not be included in the published work and should therefore be excluded on submission of the manuscript.
REFERENCES
Authors should cite only necessary publications and use primary rather than secondary references when possible. It is acceptable to cite work that is “forthcoming” (that is, accepted but not yet published) with the pertinent year and, if available, the DOI. Works that are “submitted” and under review are not to be cited.
Original research papers, hypotheses and communication on a study can cite up to 30 references, while up to 70 references are allowed for reviews. Solicited short communications can cite up to 10 references.
In text
When the author’s name is part of the sentence structure, the citation consists of the year (in parentheses) immediately following the name. Otherwise, place both the name and the year in parentheses, separated by a comma. If the work has two authors, cite with both names. If the work has three to five authors, cite all authors’ names the first time it is referenced in the text, then cite using the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” each subsequent time. If the work has 6 or more authors, always cite with the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” Use commas to separate publications in different years by the same author. Cite two or more publications of different authors in chronological sequence, from earliest to latest, separated by semicolons. Note the manner of citation of different types of referencing style in the examples under referencing below.
REVIEW MANUSCRIPTS
Essential elements are title, Author information, abstract, introduction, main text, conclusions, and references. Summary tables and figures dealing with key points should be used liberally. Use headings and subheadings (second order) in the main text as needed to improve the clarity and readability of the presentation.
The topic must be covered in depth and information must be critically evaluated (strengths, weaknesses, discussion of discrepancies in results among similar studies) so that insightful, integrative interpretations and conclusions are achieved.
Concise Reviews should deal in depth with a narrowly defined topic and be under 8,000 words in the main body text, including abstract, foot notes, and references but excluding appendices, tables, and figures. The content in the body text should be double spaced, except in the Tables and Figures where 1.5 line-spacing is acceptable.
Authors are encouraged to consult with the Editor-in-Chief before preparing a review for consideration.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS
These should essentially be near-complete studies that an author wishes to publish. However, solicited short communications in specific topical areas of study requested by the Journal can be presented so as to pass for mini-reviews.
HYPOTHESES
The essential elements of a hypothesis paper are title, author information, abstract, introduction, main text, conclusions, and references.
A statement describing the importance of the topic and the objectives of the presentation should appear in the Introduction.
This should be followed with a logical progression of ideas or concepts that provide the rationale for the hypothesis, and end with conclusions, including recommendations for hypothesis-testing research.
In the main text, headings and subheadings as needed (second order) to improve clarity and readability of the presentation should be used. The text including abstract and references should be under 6,000 words.
Authors are encouraged to consult with the Editor-in-Chief before preparing a hypothesis paper for consideration.
Proofs
Galley proofs that are sent to the corresponding author should be carefully checked and returned within 48 hours. Where the corresponding author is not available to proof read the galley proofs, one of the authors or another person familiar with the work should be suggested to avoid delays in publishing the issue.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Original research papers, and topical critical reviews should have a minimum of 6,000 words and a maximum of 8,000 words. Book reviews shall not exceed more than 6,000 words (including abstract, foot notes, and references but excluding appendices, figures, and tables). Hypotheses should not exceed 6,000 words while unsolicited short communications should not exceed 2,000 words of text, abstract and references.
A separate title page must be presented containing the Title but without the Author information as required for double blind-peer review, while a similar title page accompanying the complete paper can have the Title, and Author information
Original research articles must be accompanied by an abstract of between 150 and 200 words, while book reviews should have between 100 and 150 words in the abstract. The abstract should be presented on the first page following the title page.
Original research papers and concise reviews can have a maximum of 6 keywords but book reviews should not present more than 5 keywords as part of the manuscript.
All maps, tables, figures and appendices that are included in the manuscript must be editable and ready for digital reproduction. Authors must make sure that each table and figure is cited within the text. Tables should not have more than 12 rows of content.
Permission for the use of any copyrighted maps and other illustrations, etc. must be sought by the authors from the publishers or copyright owners before inclusion in the manuscript and must be acknowledged in the appropriate section of the article.
All articles submitted to this Journal shall not be submitted to any other Journal or forum until the Editor-in-Chief has rendered a decision
It is the responsibility of the Corresponding author to ensure that any manuscript submitted to the Journal is done with the full knowledge of all the authors.
Correspondence to the Editor on any article that has been submitted to the journal must be done only through the corresponding author. The corresponding author should ensure that applicable addresses or emails are up to date all the time during the process of review, proof reading, etc.
All ethical issues related to the research work described in the manuscript, especially with animal or human experiments, must have been followed and taken care of at the research stage. It is the responsibility of the authors to do so.
If the work involves experimentation on living animals, authors must provide evidence that it was performed in accordance with local ethical guidelines. In the case of work involving human beings, evidence must be provided that it was performed with the approval of the local ethics committee.
Authors are expected to adhere to established ethical best practices, such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) International Standards for Authors.
Once a paper is published, the authors automatically transfer the article’s copyright to the Journal.
All appendices should be labelled in Arabic numerals and placed below the references.
Equations and Formulae should be editable and given separate numbers e.g., Equation A, B, etc.
Tables and Figures must be placed at the end of the manuscript similar to appendices. They should be presented as editable text not as images. Each Table and Figure should be placed on a separate page. The Journal advises against duplicating information in Tables and Figures with information given elsewhere in the text. Authors should avoid the use of vertical rules.
Authors presenting manuscripts that have been rejected elsewhere should submit review reports to the Editor-in-Chief at the time of manuscript submission in order to expedite decision-making
Units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other units are mentioned, please give their equivalent in SI.
Abbreviations
Use the short from of conventional measures, e.g., t (tons), min (minutes), h (hours), sec (seconds), d (days), mm (millimeter), mL (milliliter), DOS (days of storage), kD (Kilo Dalton), SD (standard deviation), SE (standard error), ha (hectare), mol wt (molecular weight), wt (weight), etc.
Scientific naming
The binomial Latin names of plants, animals and microorganisms should be italicized.
REFERENCING
The manuscript should be consistent with the guide provided below.
In-text citations
For one author: Lokuruka (2009), showed that—; the cause of —- was demonstrated by (Lokuruka, 1993); for 2 authors: (Lokuruka & Regenstein, 2005), Lokuruka and Regenstein (2005) explained the cause of —– as ——-.
For 3 authors or more: (Osapir et al., 2009); Osapir et al. (2009) defined for the scientific community the word, “astrophysics” as the “branch of astronomy that deals with the physical properties of celestial bodies and with the interaction between matter and radiation in the interior of celestial bodies and in interstellar space”.
Authors should ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, and neither are they recommended for mention in the text. Citation of a reference as ‘in press’ implies that the item has been accepted for publication-this is acceptable if quoted as discussed elsewhere in this document.
Web references
As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.
Reference styling
Text Listing: references should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters a, b, c, etc., placed after the year of publication.
Examples
Reference to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J. & Lupton, R. A. (2010). The art of writing a scientific article. Journal of Scientific Communications 163, 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.Sc.2010.00372. Accessed on 20 December, 2018.
With an Issue,
Lokuruka, M.N.I. & Regenstein, J.M. (2004). Biogenic amines in iced and temperature-abused
tropical fish-a comparative study with temperate Atlantic mackerel. Journal of Aquatic
Food Product Technology 13(1), 87-99. DOI 10.1300J030v13n01_08.
Reference to a journal publication with an article number:
Mettam, G.R., Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J. & Lupton, R. A. (2018). The art of writing a scientific article. Heliyon, 19, e00205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e00205. Accessed on 20 January, 2017.
Reference to a book:
Strunk, W., Jr. & White, E. B. (2000). The elements of style. (4th ed.). New York: Longman, (Chapter 4), p 25-37.
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam, G. R. & Adams, L. B. (2009). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In B. S. Jones, & R. Z. Smith (Eds.), Introduction to the electronic age (pp. 281–304). New York: E-Publishing Inc.
Reference to a website:
Cancer Research UK. Cancer statistics reports for the UK. (2003). http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/ Accessed 13 March, 2003.
Reference to a dataset:
[dataset] Oguro, M., Imahiro, S., Saito, S. & Nakashizuka, T. (2015). Mortality data for Japanese oak wilt disease and surrounding forest compositions. Mendeley Data, v1. https://doi.org/10.17632/xwj98nb39r.1. Accessed on 15 June, 2015.
Reference to a conference paper or poster presentation:
Ogolla, E.K., Lokuruka, T.F. & Aboul, J.L. (2009, November). The Body Image Behaviours Inventory-3: Validation of the Body Image Compulsive Actions and Body Image Avoidance Scales. Poster session presentation at the meeting of the Kenya Association of Medical Radiologists. 20-22 December, 2009, Serena Hotel, Nairobi.