Submissions

Types of article

 Original Research
 Review Article
 Case Report
 Letters to the Editor
 Editorial
 Short Communications
 Technical Notes
 Hypothesis
 Other

Original Research Papers should report the results of original research. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form.

Review Articles should cover subjects falling within the scope of the journal which are of active current interest.

A Short Communication is a concise but complete description of a limited investigation, which will not be included in a later paper. Short Communications should be as completely documented, both by reference to the literature and description of the experimental procedures employed, as a regular paper. They should not occupy more than six printed pages (about 12 manuscript pages, including figures, tables and references).

Online Submissions

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Article Structure
Manuscripts should have numbered lines, with wide margins and double spacing throughout, i.e. also for abstracts, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered continuously. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Avoid excessive usage of italics to emphasize part of the text.

Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods
Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described.
If reference is made to AOAC, ISO or similar analytical procedure(s), the specific procedure identification number(s) must be cited.

Results
Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature. Combined 'Results and Discussion' sections are only acceptable for 'Short Communications', except under compelling circumstances.

Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Essential title page information

• Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.
• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Abstract
The abstract should be clear, descriptive and not longer than 400 words. It should contain the following specific information: purpose of study; experimental treatments used; results obtained, preferably with quantitative data; significance of findings; conclusions; implications of results if appropriate.

Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Abbreviations
Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Nomenclature and units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. You are urged to consult IUB: Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents:  http://www.chem.qmw.ac.uk/iubmb/ for further information.
Authors and Editors are, by general agreement, obliged to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. All biotica (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.) should be identified by their scientific names when the English term is first used, with the exception of common domestic animals. All biocides and other organic compounds must be identified by their Geneva names when first used in the text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be likewise identified.
SI or SI-derived units should be used throughout (e.g. MJ and not Kcal for energy concentrations). Concentrations should be expressed on a 'per kg' basis (w/w); however, w/v, v/v, mol/mol or M may be accepted depending on the circumstances. In addition, 'units' and 'equivalents' are acceptable. Normality should be avoided, as it may be ambiguous for certain acids. If analytical standards have been used, they should be specified by name (e.g. yeast RNA) and form (e.g. lactose monohydrate). Percents should only be used when describing a relative increase or decrease in a response. Proportions should be maximum 1.0 or ?1.0. For more details see the editorial in Vol. 118/3-4.
Percent is only used to indicate relative changes. For composition, both w/w (often solids composition g/kg) and w/v (e.g. g/L), v/v (e.g. m/L), mol/mol or M can be accepted depending on the circumstances. Specify units (e.g. g/L) and never as percent.
Digestibility/metabolisability and degradability should always be expressed as a coefficient (not %), and the content of, for example, the digestible component should be expressed as g/kg: thus, the coefficient of digestibility of dry matter is 0.8, while the content of digestible dry matter is 800g/kg. A distinction between true and apparent digestibility should be made, as well as between faecal and ileal (e.g. coefficient of total tract apparent digestibility - CTTAD). The terms 'availability' and 'bioavailability' should be avoided without definition in context.
In chemical formulae, valence of ions should be given as, e.g. Ca²⁺, not as Ca⁺⁺. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols e.g. ¹⁸O. The repeated use of chemical formulae in the text is to be avoided where reasonably possible; instead, the name of the compound should be given in full. Exceptions may be made in the case of a very long name occurring very frequently or in the case of a compound being described as the end product of a gravimetric determination (e.g. phosphate as P₂O₅).

Tables
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.

References
All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of authors' names and dates are exactly the same in the text as in the reference list. The accuracy of the references is the responsibility of the author(s).
References published in other than the English language should be avoided, but are acceptable if they include an English language 'Abstract' and the number of non-English language references cited are reasonable (in the view of the handling Editor) relative to the total number of references cited.
In the text refer to the author's name (without initial) and year of publication, followed - if necessary - by a short reference to appropriate pages. Examples: "Since Peterson (1988) has shown that...". "This is in agreement with results obtained later (Kramer, 1989, pp. 12-16)".
If reference is made in the text to a publication written by more than two authors, the name of the first author should be used followed by "et al.". This indication, however, should never be used in the list of references. In this list names of first author and co-authors should be mentioned.
References cited together in the text should be arranged chronologically. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically on authors' names, and chronologically per author. If an author's name in the list is also mentioned with co-authors the following order should be used: publications of the single author, arranged according to publication dates - publications of the same author with one co-author - publications of the author with more than one co-author. Publications by the same author(s) in the same year should be listed as 2001a, 2001b, etc.

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 style
Text: All citations in the text should refer to:
1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by 'et al.' and the year of publication.
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically.
Examples: 'as demonstrated (Allan, 2000a, 2000b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1999). Kramer et al. (2010) have recently shown ....'
List: 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. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51–59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.
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: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.
References concerning unpublished data and "personal communications" should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.

Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal abbreviations:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of title word abbreviations:  http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):  http://www.cas.org/sent.html.

Submission checklist
The following list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are present:
One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded, and contain:
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked'
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
• Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print, or to be reproduced in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only color on the Web is required, black-and-white versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes

Proofs
One set of page proofs (as PDF files or word) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves. Sjournals now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from  http://get.adobe.com/reader. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online).

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.