Instructions for Authors

When submitting a manuscript to the journal of Food Biotechnology and Agricultural Science (FBAS), please follow these requirements:

• All authors must be listed on the title page of the manuscript with full affiliations. Only one corresponding author is allowed.
• The abstract of the manuscript and the text must be placed in one column with double spacing.
• Each line in the manuscript must be numbered continuously on the left-hand side of the page. Each page must be numbered.
• Research articles should include such section as: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion (a combined form of Results and Discussion is also acceptable) and Conclusions.
• A minimum three candidates of potential reviewers with full affiliations and e-mail addresses are recommended. The recommended reviewers should be experts in the field of the publication. They must not be scientists with whom the author (or co-author) has joint publications, patents or any other affiliations behind which there may be a conflict of interest.

Types of publication

Research articles - must contain original research that is expected to have a specific impact on the development of agricultural sciences. Novel experimental results, theoretical developments, interpretations of data and no previous publications on similar topics are documenting the originality of the research work. Splitting or fragmenting the work into several publications is not allowed.

Review articles - must comprehensively summarise information in the field where the literature is scattered and/or treat published data or other information in a way that provides a new approach or identifies further research horizons. Authors considering preparing a review article may contact the Editor.

Mini-review articles - refers to a short and concise review article (up to a maximum of 5,000 words) on a discussion in the context of the journal's preferred issues. As a rule, these articles must refer to perspectives, advances and research trends in the topic. The number of cited references in such articles is limited to 30 references.

Cover letter

Each submitted manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter as a separate MS Word or pdf file. The cover letter should present original research, explain the novelty of the research presented, not be previously published and not be considered for publication elsewhere.

Formatting of manuscripts

The journal has no restrictions on the length of the text. However, it is important to ensure that the text of the manuscript is concise and does not contain unnecessary repetitions. Also, there is no limit to the number of tables and figures; however, the data in the tables must not be the same as data presented in the figures.

The submitted manuscript should be arranged in the following order:

• Title of the manuscript and list of authors with full affiliations (for correspondence author e-mail address should be also indicated)
• Abstract and keywords (up to five keywords)
• Introduction
• Materials and methods
• Results
• Discussion (or Results and Discussion)
• List of abbreviations
• Source of funding
• References

Title: The title of the manuscript should be specific, concise and informative. Keywords in the title help in effective literature searches. If the common name of a plant appears in the title, the scientific name of the plant should be given in brackets immediately after mentioning the plant name. This name, should be given as one of the keywords.

Authorship: Be consistent in the attribution of authorship and in all correspondence with the Editorial Office. Include the name(s) of the individual authors and indicate the corresponding author. For each author, provide the full affiliation of the institution to which the author is assigned. For the correspondence author a telephone number and e-mail address should be provided.

Abstract: The abstract should be a clear, concise, informative but non-descriptive one-paragraph abstract, covering the aim and scope, experimental model, relevant results and key conclusions of the research.

Keywords: Relevant keywords (up to 5 keywords), specific to the field of the submitted manuscript, should be provided. Keywords should be given before the text of the manuscript, immediately after the abstract.

Introduction: Present the issues of the described research in the context of previously published works. An extensive literature review should not be repeated and presented.
In the conclusion of the Introduction, state the purpose or reason for the research being carried out, justify the originality or contribution to the acquisition of new knowledge in the topic of the journal. The aim should be clear and concise.

Materials and methods: All apparatus, reagents and materials used in the study should be listed. The origin, supplier/manufacturer (city, country) of equipment, reagents and all materials used in the study should be identified. Biological materials should be identified by their scientific (Latin) name. Organisms obtained from the natural environment should be deposited in the collection. They must have an identification number. Publications where the results of the research are based on the use of live animals or humans must include a statement that such experiments were carried out in accordance with the relevant legislation. The name of the institution/bioethics committee that granted the approval and the number and date of the approval must be given. Research methods should be sufficiently detailed to be reproducible. Details of the description of procedures that are well known to professionals should be omitted. If procedures or methods described in other published literature are used, the course of action should be briefly presented and reference should be made to the source in the References section. Significant and critical moments of the procedures should be presented so that the method can be reproduced but without excessive description.

Results and discussion: The results and discussion can be presented in one or separate sections. When discussing the results, they should be contrasted and compared with the results of studies conducted by other authors. The results should be comprehensively discussed with reference to other scientific papers published on the topic described. Conciseness of opinion should be maintained. Irrelevant comparisons and speculation unsupported by the results should not be used.

Abbreviations and nomenclature: Use standard abbreviations throughout the text, without full stops. Specialized abbreviations should be used in brackets, immediately after the words defining them. SI units should be used throughout the text. Correct naming of compounds is the responsibility of the authors. In the case of unusual chemicals, especially where the common name is complex or not clear, their structure should be presented in the form of a figure or tables. All nomenclature should be consistent, clear and unambiguous. Whenever possible, the systematic nomenclatures recommended by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology should be used.

Acknowledgements: This section can be used to include acknowledgements to institutions, individuals who have contributed to the publication in a non-direct way. The corresponding author must notify the persons mentioned in the Acknowledgements.

Source of funding: Authors are required to indicate the source of funding (grant number, name of funding institution) that made it possible to create the publication.

References: Authors must list all cited references in the text. They must be related to the content of the manuscript. The total number of cited references in the text should not exceed 50 (except for review articles). The authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy of the data in the References section, so each reference cited should be checked against the primary source. The References list should be placed on a separate page in an alphabetical order.

The references should be prepared as follow:

For scientific articles:
Surname, initial(s) of first name(s). Title of the article. Abbreviation of the journal name . Year, issue/issue number, pages.

For monographies:
Surname, initial(s) of first name(s). Title of the chapter. Title of the monography. Issue number, surname, initial(s) of first name(s) of editor(s). Publisher, city, country (state, if any) year, volume, pages.

For web pages:
Name, initial(s) of first name(s). Title of page. URL (http://...) (date of access).

The articles should not cite unpublished data and references to publications with a status of ‘in print’ are discouraged. When citing an articles ‘in print’, copies of these articles should be provided to allow reviewers the evaluation of the manuscript. Articles with 'in print' status should include a digital DOI number assigned by the publisher.

Tables and figures: Tables and figures should be carefully designed and their visual presentation should be as clear as possible.
Tables must be prepared in such a way that they can be understood without reading the text of the article. It is permissible to include information not directly related to the discussion of results in the ‘Additional information’ section.
Tables can be created using the text editing mode or the table format function. Make sure that each data entry is in a separate table cell. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Footnotes to tables should be lettered and cited in the table in italic superscript. Letter order should be by row, not column. Each table should be described by a table title. Table titles should be clear and as concise as possible.

Figures/schemes/charts: It is preferable to include illustrated content in the submitted manuscript (in an MS Word document). Illustrations should be numbered sequentially in order, numbering them with Arabic numerals. Diagrams, charts and figures must include titles and possibly footnotes. Titles of individual illustrations should be located immediately after the literature list, and illustrations should fit immediately after tables.
TIFF, JPEG, PDF, EPS files will be acceptable. Attached illustrations must be captioned, e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2 (without title).
TIFF files should have the following parameters: black and white illustrations with a resolution of 1200 DPI, grey colour illustrations 600 DPI and colour illustrations 300 DPI.

Only clear and legible illustrations are acceptable. The editors reserve the right to reject figures/illustrations that do not have satisfactory quality parameters.

Revision and resubmission of the manuscript

In case of preparing proofreading of the manuscript:

• All changes to the document should be visible. It is recommended to use the document change tracking mode.
• In correspondence with the Editorial Office, refer to the manuscript number assigned. Response should be attached as a separate document with a list of changes made. Refer to each comment/remark of the reviewer and/or editor.
• Please note that the manuscript may be sent for re- or additional review at the Editor's discretion.

Supplementary Information

A supplementary material file may be attached to the manuscript and must be submitted with the manuscript and other attachments. The supplementary file will be available to readers after publication of the manuscript. Figures or tables included in the 'Supplementary Information' file must be labelled Figure 1S, Figure 2S...; Table 1S, Table 2S, ....

Publication policy

Food Biotechnology and Agricultural Science (FBAS) publishes original and review scientific papers that have not been previously published or are not under consideration for publication in other journals. Scientists with expertise in the relevant scientific area review the manuscript for originality and relevance of the subject matter to agricultural science as well as relevance to the journal. All submitted manuscripts are checked and handled by the Editor(s). The Editors assign reviewers to individual manuscripts, monitor the progress of the evaluation and communicate the outcome of the evaluation to the authors. After receiving reviews of their manuscripts, authors communicate with the Editors until the final decision of the Editor to accept or reject the manuscript, and then to review the final version of the accepted articles.

Typically, Editors select two or three reviewers whose area of scientific expertise relates to the topic described in the manuscript. The authors may identify/suggest at least three reviewers who have no conflict of interest with the authors or the content of the manuscript. Reviewers are usually asked to submit their reviews within 2-3 weeks. Anonymous copies of the reviews and the Editor's decision on the status of the manuscript are sent to the authors. The Editor may reject the manuscript or select additional reviewers. If the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript or if the authors do not sufficiently address the reviewers' comments, the Editor may decide to reject the manuscript. The Editor may decide to appoint an additional reviewer. An additional review of the content of the manuscript is carried out to facilitate the Editor's decision as to the status of the manuscript.

Publication process

Proofreading and final verification of accepted articles is the responsibility of the correspondence author. The correspondence author will receive an e-mail notification and instructions related to the final revision of the manuscript. Extensive and important changes made, including changes to the title or list of authors, are subject to the Editor's review and decision. The corresponding author must declare that all listed authors in the manuscript agree with the changes made to the article. The final revised manuscript must be returned within 48 hours to ensure timely publication of the manuscript.
Accepted manuscripts will be published on the journal platform. The first date on which the manuscript will be published online is the publication date.
Manuscripts may be published online several months before the paper version is published.

All articles published prior to print receive a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, which is used to cite the manuscript before and after the article appears in the issue. In addition, a DOI number will also be automatically assigned to the 'Additional Information' file submitted with the manuscript.
After publication of the article, there may be a situation where there is a need to revise the article (e.g. correcting minor errors). This necessity, can be initiated by the author or the Editor. Additions and major errors, including factual errors, are not subject to correction. Readers who detect errors in the work of others should contact the correspondence author of the article in question.

Additions and corrections must be submitted as new manuscripts via the publishing platform. Before submitting a correction, the correspondence author should obtain permission from all authors and provide a statement that they agree with the content of the correction/addendum. The manuscript should include the original title of the article, list of authors, references (including DOI number) and details of the correction.

Articles may be withdrawn for scientific or ethical reasons and this action may be requested by the author(s) of the article, with the Editor making the final decision. Articles that contain serious flaws or erroneous data may be withdrawn. When an article is withdrawn, a notice will be published on the journal's website stating the reason for the withdrawal of the article in question.