Submissions

Author Guidelines

Important Note

Please read and comply with the submission preparation checklist. Any item missing or not complied with during submission process will cause an immediate differel of the submission.

General Information

The Sindh University Research Journal (Science Series) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access multidisciplinary science journal, regularly published by the faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan, since 1964. The journal is biannual, which calls for the publication of two issues in a calendar year between June and December (twice a year) and is accredited by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan in the "Y" category of Higher Education's Journal Recognition System (HJRS). The journal is indexed in major online indexing services, including Google Scholar, CrossRef, EBSCO, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS, etc. The journal publishes original scientific research in the form of research articles, review papers, short communications, mini-reviews, case studies, data sources, and case reports about all fields of Natural Science including, but not limited to; Agriculture and Biology, Health Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Physics and astronomy, Environment and earth sciences, Mathematics and Computer, Information, and communication sciences (for more details see aims and scope of the journal).

The policy of the Journal

Authors are required to read the journal?s policy document carefully before the submission of article/manuscript

Click Here to Download the Policy Document

How to prepare an article

Click here to Download the manuscript template

Authors are required to follow the instructions carefully.

Text: The article must be in MS word (doc. Or Docx) file, Times New Roman 12 pt font, line space 1.5.  All the text should be in a single column.

Title page: The title page must contain the title of the article (Times new roman 12 pt boldface font), Names of authors with affiliation, Abstract, and Keywords (5 not included in the article title). The different author affiliations should be indicated with superscripted a, b, c, and so on, immediately after the name. The author's names should be correctly spelled, ordered, and with no abbreviations. The corresponding author (to whom all the future correspondence will be done) should provide a valid email address along with a WhatsApp number.

Headings

The article should be divided into the following sections, each containing the main headings.

Abstract (not exceeding 250 words, times new roman 12 pt, 1.5-line space, justified. The abstract should have a brief objective or purpose of study, brief methods, results, and conclusions in a single paragraph).

Introduction (The introduction must present a brief introduction of the study, importance, background information, identification of gap, and clear research objectives/questions).

Materials and Methods (This section can be divided into sub-sections like sampling, experimentation, experimental design, data analysis, etc. The methods should be clear so that they can be replicated by any scientist easily).

Results (Results should explain all the parameters presented in the materials and methods section. Their presentation should be correlated with data presented in tables and graphs. The results section can also be divided into sub-sections according to the parameters presented in the materials and methods section. All the results should be well explained).

Tables (The tables should be made in MS word doc. Or Docx file format and should be editable. The tables in images or pictures will not be accepted in any case. Each table should have a self-explanatory title embedded in the topmost row of the table. The tables with outside titles will be sent back to the authors for correction. The extra details, i.e. abbreviations, statistical or mathematical notations, etc should be placed in a footnote embedded inside the lowermost row of the table. All tables should be inserted in the main body of the article along with their corresponding section.

Graph figures (The graphs should be prepared in MS excel xl. Or xlxs editable format. The graphs in picture or photo format, except those developed by certain instruments, will not be accepted in any case. The caption for each graph should be given at the bottom of each graph. The fonts in graphs, for example, axis titles, category values, etc. should be visible. The graphs should be embedded in the text wherever appropriate).

Photo or picture figures (The figures containing pictures or photos should be provided in the best quality JPEG or Bitmap format. The maps, heatmaps, satellite images, etc should possess legends/annotations in clear readable font size and color. The authors are bound to provide photos in original size and quality, as separate files, if demanded by the reviewers or editor. All the photos or pictures taken from books, the internet, or any other source, not of the author, are bound by copyright laws. Therefore, authors will be asked to provide written permission from the original source before using it in the article).

Artwork figures (The figures that include artwork like, botanical illustrations, anatomical redrawn shapes, process cycles, etc should be of the best quality JPEG or Bitmap format. The artwork other than own should be used with permission).

Mathematical equations (All the equations should be created in MS word?s equation editor feature and should be numbered chronologically if more than one equation is used. The equations in picture or photo format will not be included or accepted in any case).

Discussion (The discussion should be presented in a separate section or mingled with results. Both the formats are acceptable. The discussion should provide logical reasons to justify the results. The discussions should not be a mere citation of previous work).

Conclusion (Conclusion should be linked with objectives or research questions of the study. This section should explain whether the questions raised have been answered satisfactorily or not through the data).

Acknowledgment (The authors should acknowledge those who helped them to conduct the research in any means. The funding, technical support, lab facilities, working space, logistics, etc should be acknowledged properly).

References (The authors are required to follow the reference format strictly. The authors are encouraged to use reference managers like Endnote or Mendeley etc).

In-text citation (in-text citation style should be APA 6^th author year. The format should be;

Single author for example David, 2020

Two authors Ashraf and Yasin, 2021

More than two authors Agha et al., 2020.

Bibliography/Reference list (The style should be APA 6^th)

How to submit an article?

The Sindh University Research Journal Science Series accepts all articles through the online submission system. No articles will be accepted and sent through email or hard copies to the editor or any other editorial staff. Authors are required to visit the journal webpage to submit the articles. Prior to submission, authors are required to create an account and then login into the submission system. On the submission system page follow the instructions. The authors are encouraged to check the submission checklist.

Submission checklist

Please confirm, before submission, that

1. You have completed all the necessary fields in the submission system
2. Uploaded all necessary files required for the submission
3. Provided names, affiliations, and addresses of 05 reviewers
4. All authors are listed with affiliations, emails, and contacts
5. Author contributions are provided
6. Declarations and agreements are read carefully, understood, and verified.

Article Publication Charges

The journal is open-access; hence, all the articles are freely available online for download.  The Journal costs nominal article processing charges (APCs) as under

For national authors

Article processing charges = 15,000/- (Pakistani Rupees)

For international authors

Processing charges= $300/- (US Dollars)

The charges will be applied once the manuscript is accepted for publication. The corresponding author will be responsible to pay the APCs. There are no APC waivers available in any condition.

Declarations

Conflict of interest

Authors should declare any conflict of interest at the end of the manuscript. This will be published with the article text.

Funding

The authors are strictly advised to mention the funding sources either for research execution or for publication. The details of the funder should be provided while submitting an article. If no funders are available, authors can simply declare ?there is no funding source for this research or publication?.

Ethics

Authors should read and agree with the ethics involved in research publication. The journal has zero tolerance for plagiarism. Any fake, stolen, manipulated data presented in the manuscript will lead to rejection (if the article is not published yet), cancellation (if the article is accepted), and retraction (if the article is published).  It is mandatory for all the authors and co-authors to sign a publication agreement or the corresponding author will be responsible, on behalf of all co-authors, for the publication agreement. Research involving human and animal subjects should provide a bioethics certificate duly signed by the bioethics committee/office of the institute. If the copyrighted material is used in the manuscript, it is mandatory for authors to seek permission from original source before using it in their manuscript. 

Copyright

Copyright is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Publishing Agreement

Authors are required to sign a publishing agreement with the journal on a prescribed form once the manuscript is accepted.