Author Guidelines
Contributions from academics, policy makers, research personnel and manager in public institutions as well as those in private organizations and industry are welcome. However, it is required that manuscript submitted to the Journal should not have been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or publishing elsewhere. Research papers must also be factual and original.
Contributions to the journal will normally include original research work, papers on science and technology policy, and technical notes and communications. As the journal is a prime source in information on science and technology for development, contributions that fall within the following areas are particularly welcome:
- Science and technology policy
- Original research work
- Technical notes and communications
Manuscript structure
Title. Use a concise and informative title in sentence case, with a maximum of 16 words.
Affiliation. Provide the full postal address of each author's affiliation, including the street name and number, city, ZIP code, and country.
Abstract. Should consist of a single paragraph of no more than 200 words. Provide the background and objective of the paper, its principal results, and its conclusions. Avoid using abbreviations and citations.
Keywords. Include a maximum of five keywords or phrases, arranged alphabetically and separated using semicolons (;). Use specific, relevant terms that do not appear in the title, so that the article is easier to find in search engines. Do not use terms that are too general or too long.
Introduction. This section should briefly explain the background of the study, provide a short review of the pertinent literature, state the originality of the research, and state the research objectives.
Materials and methods. Combine the materials and methods used into one narrative passage. Enough information should be provided to enable repetition of the research. For commercial sources of the materials, the name of the company, and the town and country in which they are located should be indicated. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference, with only the relevant modifications described here; e.g. "Powder solubility was evaluated according to the method proposed by Smith (2000), with modifications. In the case of this study, powders were stirred in 25 mL of distilled water for 5 min using a blender."; or "The powder solubility test followed the method of Smith (2000), with modifications in water volume. Powders were stirred in 25 mL of distilled water for 5 min using a blender."
Results. Describe the outcome of the study. Data should be presented as concisely as possible, and in the form of tables or figures if appropriate, although very large tables should be avoided. If needed, this section can be combined with the Discussion section into Results and discussion section.
Discussion. This section should be an interpretation of the results of the work (not a repetition of them) in the context of previous research. Avoid excessive referencing of published literature. If needed, this section can be combined with the Results section into a Results and discussion section.
Conclusions. The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a standalone Conclusions section or included as a subsection of the Discussion section.
Acknowledgments. Acknowledge anyone who contributed to the research, as well as any funding or grants received in support of it. The names of funding organizations should be written in full, along with the grant numbers, if available. List any individuals who helped you during the study (e.g. assistance with study design or analysis, or guidance through a study area), or writing of the article (e.g. providing advice on the language, editing, or proofreading the article).
References. For the purposes of efficiency and conciseness, avoid using more than 25 references and less than 10. AJSTD uses an author-date citation system based on The Council of Science Editors' (CSE) Scientific Style and Format. Authors can download the AJSTD citation guide from its website, which provides common examples of how to cite and format references. For more comprehensive instructions, refer to CSE's Scientific Style and Format (8th edition). For references in a non-English language, provide the English translation between square brackets ([ ]) right after the title. Authors are strongly urged to use a reference manager such as Zotero or Mendeley to build their bibliography, saving the file in .bib format.
Formatting details
Please note that AJSTD editors have the right to change an article's formatting to adhere to the journal’s style or maintain consistency.
Headings. Use no more than three levels of headings (e.g. 2, 2.1, and 2.1.1, but no 2.1.1.1).
Abbreviations. Abbreviations should be given at the first instance of the full term and used consistently thereafter.
Species scientific names. Binomial names with an authority should be given in full in the title and the first time the species is mentioned in the text. Thereafter, either the vernacular or common name of the species or the shortened scientific name (e.g. S. aureus, S. macrophylla) may be used, but not a mixture of both.
Figures and tables
Figure size and quality. When preparing your figures, size them to fit in a column width (either 80 mm or 170 mm), with a maximum height of 230 mm. Ensure that images are of sufficiently high resolution to be easily viewable (minimum of 300 dpi).
Image format. Send images in an image file format (png, jpeg, tiff), vector (eps, svg), or pdf. Do not send them in a PowerPoint presentation format.
Graphs. Graphs created with Microsoft Excel should also be sent in their original Excel file. Present graphs in 2D (not 3D), without shadows or other effects, and without gridlines.
Table size. Size tables to fit in a column width (either 80 mm or 170 mm), with a maximum height of 230 mm. Use only horizontal lines for borders.
Table and figure numbering. Every table and figure should be cited in the text in numerical order using Arabic numerals (i.e. Figure 2 cannot be cited before Figure 1). Tables should be referred to as "Table" and figures as "Figure" (not "Fig."). Place table footnotes below the table, indicating them with superscripted lowercase letters or asterisks (for significance values and other statistical data). Denote figure parts with lowercase letters (e.g. Figure 1a, Figure 1b).
Table and figure captions. Every table and figure should have a title or caption, which should be concise but clear enough to explain its main components independently from the text. If the table or figure contains previously published material, cite the original source at the end of the caption. If the results are expressed as a percentage, state the absolute value(s) that correspond to 100%. State in the caption if a figure has been altered or enhanced in any way.
Figure formatting. Photographs must have internal scale markers and symbols, and arrows or letters should contrast greatly with the background. Lato is the recommended typeface for text within figures (download it here). Otherwise, a sans-serif such as Open Sans, Helvetica, or Arial may be used. Where photographs of gel, autoradiograms, and so on have been processed to enhance their quality, this should be stated. The costs of color printing will be incurred by the author.
Files submission. Submit every figure as a separate file, and all tables in one separate file. You should also provide the captions to tables and figures in a separate text file. For example, if your manuscript contains four figures and three tables, then you will have seven files to submit: 1 manuscript file, 4 figure files, 1 table file, and 1 caption file.
File naming. Name your figure files "Figure" with the figure number; e.g. Figure1.jpeg. Name your tables file "Tables"; e.g. Tables.docx or Tables.xlsx.
Italicization. Words of non-English origin should be italicized, except for terms that are widely used in the English language; e.g. kayu manis and zimt, but in vitro and vice versa. Do not italicize words for emphasis.
These guidelines are also available for download in PDF format.
