RASSA Journal of Science for Society

Author Guidelines for the Journal ‘RASSA Journal of Science for Society’

The RASSA Journal of Science for Society covers topics and issues related to all the disciplines of Sciences and Humanities such as Medical Sciences, Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences, Engineering, Economics, Management and Community Sciences, with special emphasis on the translational impact and usefulness of this research for the Society. This journal is published three times in a year in April, August and December by the Royal Association for Science-led Socio-cultural Advancement (RASSA) Society, New Delhi. It is available in print and online versions.

RASSA Journal of Science for Society is peer-reviewed and publishes original research reports, review papers, communications, news and comments screened by national and international researchers who are experts in their respective fields. Original manuscripts that enhance the level of general awareness of science in society are encouraged and invited. The manuscripts must be unpublished and should not have been submitted for publication elsewhere. There are no publication charges.

Executive Editors:

1. Dr. Govind P. Rao, Principal Scientist, Division of Plant Pathology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi- 110012
2. Dr. Shiv Pratap Singh, Principal Scientist, Division of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi- 110012
3. Dr. Vishal S. Somvanshi, Principal Scientist, Division of Nematology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi- 110012

Editor's e-mail: editor.scienceforsociety@gmail.com

Guidelines For The Preparation of Manuscripts

The RASSA Journal of Science for Society accepts following types of submissions-

Research Articles

Research articles are original reports representing a potential or actual short and long term impact of research findings on the society. The length of these articles should not normally exceed 4000 words and have no more than 50 references. Articles have an abstract of up to 200 words and should not contain references. It should be understandable to general readers outside the discipline.

Articles text is divided into Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Results and discussion can be combined for brevity. Text in Materials and methods, Results and Discussion may contain subheadings. An article should not have more than 8 display items (figures or tables).

Word counts refer to the text of the paper. Abstract, References, Title, Author list and Acknowledgements are not included in total word counts.

Review Articles

The journal would accept reviews on any topic of broader importance for the society. Reviews should be up to 4000 words, must be up to date and comprehensive. Latest references should be cited, and future research gaps should be clearly identified. The review article manuscript should contain abstract, key words, acknowledgements and references. A review article should not have more than 8 display items (figures or tables).

Research Communications/Research Letters

Research Communications/Research Letters are short reports of original research focused on an outstanding finding. They do not normally exceed 2000 words, and have no more than 25 references. They do not contain headings and subheadings but begin with a short general introduction, aimed at readers in other disciplines, followed by description of methods results and a succinct discussion. Letters typically have 3 or 4 display items (figures or tables).

Word counts refer to the text of the paper. Abstract, References, Title, Author list and Acknowledgements are not included in total word counts.

Other Contributions to RASSA Journal of Science For Society

Other contribution types are suggested below-

• Letters to the Editor
• News and Views
• Book reviews
• Policy Issues

Preparation and Organization of Manuscript

All portions of the manuscript must be typed doublespaced, and all pages numbered starting from the title page.

The Title should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the paper. The Title Page should include the authors’ full names and affiliations, the name of the corresponding author along with phone, fax and E-mail information. Present addresses of authors should appear as a footnote.

The Abstract should be informative and completely self-explanatory, briefly present the topic, state the scope of the experiments, indicate significant data and point out major findings and conclusions. The Abstract should be up to 200 words in length for regular article. Complete sentences, active verbs, and the third person should be used, and the abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited in the abstract.

Following the abstract, about 3 to 10 keywords that will provide indexing references should be listed.

A list of non-standard Abbreviations should be added. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelled out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text. Only recommended SI units should be used. Authors should use the solidus presentation (mg/ ml). Standard abbreviations (such as ATP and DNA) need not be defined.

The Introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution.

Materials and Methods should be complete enough to allow experiments to be reproduced. However, only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Capitalize trade names and include the manufacturer's name and address. Subheadings should be used. Methods in general use need not be described in detail.

Results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in the authors’ experiments. Previously published findings should be written in the present tense. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature.

Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section. The Discussion should interpret the findings presented in the results obtained in this and past studies on this topic. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can also be combined.

The Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc should be brief and are a must for research articles and letters.

Tables are to be typed double-spaced throughout, including headings and footnotes. Tables should be kept to a minimum and must be designed to be as simple as possible. Each table should be on a separate page, numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and supplied with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. The details of the methods used in the experiments should preferably be described in the legend instead of in the text. The same data should not be presented in both table and graph form or repeated in the text.

Figures and Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high-resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG or MS Powerpoint before pasting in the MS Word manuscript file. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts (Figure 1). Figure legends should be typed in numerical order on a separate sheet. Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.

References In the text, a reference identified by means of an author's name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. When there are more than two authors, only the first author's name should be mentioned, followed by ‘et al’. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like ‘a’ and ‘b’ after the date to distinguish the works.

Examples:

Abayomi (2000), Agindotan et al. (2003), (Kelebeni, 1983), (Usman and Smith, 1992), (Chege, 1998; Chukwura, 1987a,b; Tijani, 1993,1995), (Kumasi et al., 2001) References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text (e.g., A. Kingori, University of Nairobi, Kenya, personal communication). Journal names are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Examples:

Ogunseitan OA (1998). Protein method for investigating mercuric reductase gene expression in aquatic environments. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 64: 695–702.

Gueye M, Ndoye I, Dianda M, Danso SKA and Dreyfus B (1997). Active N2 fixation in several Faidherbia albida provenances. Ar. Soil Res. Rehabil., 11: 63-70.

Charnley AK (1992). Mechanisms of fungal pathogenesis in insects with particular reference to locusts. In: Lomer CJ, Prior C (eds) Biological Controls of Locusts and Grasshoppers: Proceedings of an international workshop held at Cotonou, Benin. Oxford: CAB International, pp 181-190.

Mundree SG and Farrant JM (2000). Some physiological and molecular insights into the mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in the resurrection plant Xerophyta viscasa Baker. In Cherry et al. (eds) Plant tolerance to abiotic stresses in Agriculture: Role of Genetic Engineering, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands, pp 201-222.

Proofs, Colour Plate Charges, Mode of Payment

Once a manuscript is accepted, the corresponding author and co-authors have to sign the copyright form (attached). An article processing charges of Rs. 1000/- would be levied on all published articles. The colour plates will be published free in the online issue, but charged extra for publication in hard copy @ Rs. 2,500 for Indian submissions and US$ 100 per page for submissions from the rest of the world. Please draw your bank drafts or multicity at par cheque in favour of “RASSA” payable at Delhi, India, and mail to-

The Editor,

RASSA Journal of Science for Society Royal Association for Science-led Sociocultural Advancement (RASSA),

28/142, West Patel Nagar, New Delhi-110008

RASSA journal of ‘Science for Society’ follows an A copy of same please be mailed at editor. scienceforsociety@gmail.com. Open access model, and the soft copy of the published articles would be available through the journal website. After the journal is printed, the corresponding author would be sent a soft copy of the journal. The annual subscrition to the hard copy of the journal is available on a payment basis @ Rs. 5000/- (for library / institutions) and @ Rs. 3000/- for the individuals. Please write to editor. scienceforsociety@gmail.com for hard copy subscriptions.

Submission of Manuscript

The manuscript may be submitted in the doc or docx format as an e-mail attachment to the Executive Editor's email (editor. scienceforsociety@gmail.com) or online on journal website www.rassa.org.in/online-publications/rjss. The authors should send a signed declaration form mentioning that the matter embodied in the manuscript is original and copyrighted and that the other material and references used for the preparation of the manuscript have been duly acknowledged. The copyright form is provided herewith. The declaration should also carry consent of all the authors for submission to the journal. It will be the responsibility of the corresponding author to secure requisite permission from his or her employer that all papers submitted are understood to have received official clearances for publication. The authors shall also assign the copyright of the manuscript to the journal RASSA Journal of Science for Society.

In future, all submissions to the journal would be accepted online through indianjournals.com website. The online article submission guidelines are:

1. Go to indianjournals.com website using the link https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx
2. Click on ‘Article Submission’ menu using the link https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=manuscript_submission
3. Select RASSA Journal of Science for Society from the drop down menu and select Go
4. Sign up using your email id and other contact details
5. Upload the manuscript file (and images) as per the instructions
6. Click Submit, and a manuscript number would be generated for you. An email confirmation would be sent to your registered email address. You can check progress of your article by logging into indianjournals.com website's Author's Center any time.

Peer Review Policy

Every article is first checked for plagiarism and processed by a masked peer review of double-blind or by three referees and edited accordingly before publication. The criteria used for the acceptance of article are - contemporary relevance, updated literature, logical analysis, relevance to the global problem, sound methodology, contribution to knowledge and fairly good English. Selection of articles will be purely based on the experts’ views and opinion. Upon receipt of the manuscript at the journal office, a manuscript number would be assigned to the manuscript and communicated to the authors. The editorial decision would be communicated to the authors within one month from the date of receipt of the manuscript. The editorial office will endeavor to assist where necessary with English language editing, but authors are requested to seek local editing assistance as far as possible before submission. Papers with immediate relevance would be considered for early publication. The possible exceptions would be in the case of occasional invited papers and editorials, or where a partial or entire issue is devoted to a special theme under the guidance of a Guest Editor.