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Authors
Guidelines
Submission of a manuscript to Biosciences Biotechnology Research
Asia for publication implies that the same work has not been either
published or under consideration for publication in another Journal.
Authors, in their cover note to the Editor, have to clearly mention
whether the manuscript shall be considered as a Research Paper,
Short Communication or Review Article and also confirm that the
manuscript has not been submitted to any other Journal for
publication. Authors publishing results from in vivo experiments
involving animals or humans should state whether due permission for
conduction of these experiments was obtained, from the relevant
ethics committees, in the Materials and Methods section. In
addition, authors wishing to publish research work involving human
studies should also send a notary verified letter of approval from
the Ethics Committee or the Institutional Review Board.
Manuscripts should be concisely written and conform to the following
general requirements: Manuscripts should be typewritten in
double-space in A4 sized sheets, only on one side, with a 2 cm
margin on both sides. Not including illustrations, Research Papers,
should not exceed 10-12 pages, Review Articles, 15-20 pages and
Short Communications, 5-6 pages. Pages should be numbered
consecutively, starting with the title page and the matter arranged
in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction,
Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion or Results and
Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Illustrations (Tables and
Figures including chemistry schemes along with titles and legends)
and Figure and Table titles and legends. Abstract should start on a
separate page and each table or figure should be on separate sheets.
The titles "Abstract" and "Introduction" need not be mentioned. All
other section titles should be in capital letters while subtitles in
each section shall be in bold face lower case followed by a colon.
Preparation of Manuscripts: Research
Papers
Authors desirous of submitting manuscripts for
publication to Biosciences, Biotechnology Research Asia are advised
to refer to the current issue of the Journal to understand the
format and style of papers that get published. Authors are also
advised to go through the current set of Instructions to Authors and
prepare their manuscripts accordingly. Information should be
conveyed in simple language with the correct syntax. Care should be
taken to avoid common errors like having abbreviations in the Title
or Abstract, beginning a sentence with a numeral, adding "etc."
after a few examples, dropping articles and using "&" instead of
'and' in the text. The usage of standard abbreviations and symbols
is encouraged. Manuscripts that fail to conform to the requirements
of the Journal, as specified under Instructions to Authors, will be
rejected outright.
Manuscripts should be concisely written and conform to the following
general requirements: Manuscripts should be typewritten in
double-space in A4 sized sheets, only on one side, with a 2 cm
margin on both sides. Not including illustrations, Research Papers,
should not exceed 10-12 pages, Review Articles, 15-20 pages and
Short Communications, 5-6 pages. Pages should be numbered
consecutively, starting with the title page and the matter arranged
in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction,
Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion or Results and
Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Illustrations (Tables and
Figures including chemistry schemes along with titles and legends)
and Figure and Table titles and legends. Abstract should start on a
separate page and each table or figure should be on separate sheets.
The titles "Abstract" and "Introduction" need not be mentioned. All
other section titles should be in capital letters while subtitles in
each section shall be in bold face lower case followed by a colon.
Title Page – Title page should contain title of the paper in
bold face, title case (font size 14), names of the authors in normal
face, upper case (font size 12) followed by the address(es) in
normal face lower case. The author to whom all correspondence be
addressed should be denoted by an asterisk mark. The title should be
as short as possible and precisely indicate the nature of the work
in the communication. Names of the authors should appear as initials
followed by surnames for men and one given-name followed by surname
for women. Full names may be given in some instances to avoid
confusion. Names should not be prefixed or suffixed by titles or
degrees. Names should be followed by the complete postal address or
addresses with pin code numbers of the place(s), where the research
work has been carried out. At the bottom left corner of the title
page, please mention “*For correspondence” and provide a functional
e-mail address. Address of the corresponding author to whom all
correspondence may be sent should be given only if it is different
from the address already given under authors’ names. Trivial
sub-titles such as ‘Title’, ‘Author’, ‘Address’ or ‘Place of
Investigation’ shall not be included in the title page. Title page
should be aligned centre except for “*For correspondence”.
Provide a running title or short title of not more than 50
characters
Abstract - Should start on a new page after the title page
and should be typed in single-space to distinguish it from the
Introduction. Abstracts should briefly reflect all aspects of the
study, as most databases list mainly abstracts. Short Communications
as well as Review Articles should have an Abstract.
Key-words: Provide four to eight appropriate key words after
abstract.
Introduction - Shall start immediately after the Abstract, as
the next paragraph, but should be typed in double-space. The
Introduction should lead the reader to the importance of the study;
tie-up published literature with the aims of the study and clearly
states the rationale behind the investigation.
Materials and Methods - Shall start as a continuation to
introduction on the same page. All important materials used along
with their source shall be mentioned. The main methods used shall be
briefly described, citing references. Trivial details may be
avoided. New methods or substantially modified methods may be
described in sufficient detail. The statistical method and the level
of significance chosen shall be clearly stated. BBRA prefers to
publish work that has been subjected to an appropriate statistical
test at one level of significance.
Results - All findings presented in tabular or graphical form
shall be described in this section. The data should be statistically
analyzed and the level of significance stated. Data that is not
statistically significant need only to be mentioned in the text - no
illustration is necessary. All Tables and figures must have a title
or caption and a legend to make them self-explanatory. Results
section shall start after materials and methods section on the same
page.
Discussion - This section should follow results, deal with
the interpretation of results, convey how they help increase current
understanding of the problem and should be logical. Unsupported
hypothesis should be avoided. The Discussion should state the
possibilities the results uncover, that need to be further explored.
There is no need to include another title such as "Conclusions" at
the end of Discussion. Results and discussion of results can also be
combined under one section, Results and Discussion.
Acknowledgements - Should be given after the text and not in
the form of foot-notes.
References –
References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which
they are first mentioned in the text (not in alphabetic order).
Identify references in text, tables, and legends by Arabic numerals
in superscript. References cited only in tables or figure legends
should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by
the first identification in the text of the particular table or
figure. Use the style of the examples below, which are based on the
formats used by the NLM in Index Medicus. The titles of journals
should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus.
Use complete name of the journal for non-indexed journals. Avoid
using abstracts as references. Information from manuscripts
submitted but not accepted should be cited in the text as
“unpublished observations” with written permission from the source.
Avoid citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential
information not available from a public source, in which case the
name of the person and date of communication should be cited in
parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, contributors
should obtain written permission and confirmation of accuracy from
the source of a personal communication.
Journal: Name of author(s), the journal, volume, page nos. and the
year.
Example: Connick R. E. and Hugus Z. Z., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 75, 6012
(1988).
Book: Author's name, title of the book, name and location of
publisher, page and year of publication.
Example: Greenstein J.P. and Winitz M., Chemistry of Amino Acids,
Vol. II, John Wiley, New York, 1009 (1961).
Illustrations: Tables - Should be typed on separate sheets of paper
and should not preferably contain any molecular structures. Only MS
word table format should be used for preparing tables. Tables should
show lines separating columns but not those separating rows except
for the top row that shows column captions. Tables should be
numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and bear a brief title in
capital letters normal face. Units of measurement should be
abbreviated and placed below the column headings. Column headings or
captions hall be in bold face. It is essential that all tables have
legends, which explain the contents of the table. Tables should not
be very large that they run more than one A4 sized page. Tables
should not be prepared in the landscape format, i. e. tables that
are prepared widthwise on the paper.
Figures - Should be on separate pages but not inserted with
in the text. Figures should be numbered consecutively in Arabic
numerals and bear a brief title in lower case bold face letters
below the figure. Graphs and bar graphs should preferably be
prepared using Microsoft Excel and submitted as Excel graph pasted
in Word. These graphs and illustrations should be drawn to
approximately twice the printed size to obtain satisfactory
reproduction. As far as possible, please avoid diagrams made with
India ink on white drawing paper, cellophane sheet or tracing paper
with hand written captions or titles. Photographs should be on
glossy paper. Photographs should bear the names of the authors and
the title of the paper on the back, lightly in pencil. Alternatively
photographs and photomicrographs can be submitted as jpeg images.
Figure and Table titles and legends should be typed on a separate
page with numerals corresponding to the illustrations. Keys to
symbols, abbreviations, arrows, numbers or letters used in the
illustrations should not be written on the illustration itself but
should be clearly explained in the legend. Avoid inserting a box
with key to symbols, in the figure or below the figure. In case of
photomicrographs, magnification should be mentioned either directly
on them or in the legend. Symbols, arrows or letters used in
photomicrographs should contrast with the background. Method of
staining should also be mentioned in the legend.
Chemical terminology - The chemical nomenclature used must be
in accordance with that used in the Chemical Abstracts.
Symbols and abbreviations - Unless specified otherwise, all
temperatures are understood to be in degrees centigrade and need not
be followed by the letter 'C'. Abbreviations should be those well
known in scientific literature. In vitro, in vivo, in situ, ex vivo,
ad libitum, et al. and so on are two words each and should be
written in italics. None of the above is a hyphenated word. All
foreign language (other than English) names and words shall be in
italics as a general rule. Words such as carrageenan-induced
inflammation, paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity, isoproterenol-induced
myocardial necrosis, dose-dependent manner are all hyphenated.
Biological nomenclature - Names of plants, animals and
bacteria should be in italics.
Enzyme nomenclature - The trivial names recommended by the
IUPAC-IUB Commission should be used. When the enzyme is the main
subject of a paper, its code number and systematic name should be
stated at its first citation in the paper.
Spelling - These should be as in the Concise Oxford
Dictionary of Current English.
Ethics of human and animal
experimentation
Papers describing any experimental work with humans
should include a statement that the Ethical Committee of the
institution in which the work was done has approved it, and that the
subjects gave informed consent to the work.
Experiments with animals should be done in accordance with the legal
requirements of the relevant local or national authority. Procedures
should be such that experimental animals do not suffer
unnecessarily. Papers should include details of the procedures and
of anaesthetics used.
The Editors will not accept papers where the ethical aspects are, in
their opinion, open to doubt.
Reprints
Author(s) will be supplied 10 reprints free of cost without cover
gratis. If extra reprints are required it should be indicated while
sending the manuscript.
Editorial Board reserves the right to condense or make necessary
alterations in the script.
Manuscripts should be strictly in accordance with the prescribed
format of the Journal.
Copyright
All articles published in this journal become the
property of the Journal and should not be published or reproduced in
any form in full or in part without the written permission of the
Editor.
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