EDITORIAL POLICY
UNIOSUN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE
OSUN STATE UNIVERSITY, PMB 4494, OSOGBO, NIGERIA.
Introduction
Section 1: General Editorial
Section 2: Editorial Board
Section 3: Signed Editorials
Section 4: Journal Website and Office
Section 5: Submissions
Section 6: Opinions and Challenges of Content
Section 7: Sponsorship and Page Charge
Section 8: Copyright, Reprint and Linking
Section 9: Author Guidelines
INTRODUCTION
The following is the Editorial Policy for the UNIOSUN Journal of Science. The document is intended as a description of the operations of the “UNIOSUN Journal of Science” and is used as a guideline for all materials published in this publication. These policies are necessary to ensure that Osun State University has a strong, world class University based journal which captures specialized areas of Science based disciplines. This policy should only be added to or altered with great discretion. All changes to this policy must be approved by the UNIOSUN Journals Committee.
1. GENERAL EDITORIAL – Scope and Content Sources
1.01 The mission of the UNIOSUN Journal of Science is to expand the body of knowledge in the core areas of Agriculture, Applied and Pure Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences and Science Education through our editorial content. Content includes columns (Vice-Chancellor, Editor-in-Chief), feature articles, short communications and the core of the publication-, peer-reviewed technical articles.
1.02 Two issues of UNIOSUN Journal of Science shall be published annually.
1.03 The Journal welcomes suggestions for editorial topics and potential content sources from all segments of the academic community, allied professionals, manufacturers, industry, including individual practitioners and firms and the general public. The content of the Journal shall be 50%, 30% and 20% from Nigeria, other African countries and other continents of the world, respectively. The final selection of those sources, topics and their treatment will be determined by the Journal's Editorial Board and the UNIOSUN Journals Committee.
2. EDITORIAL BOARD
2.01 The editorial board of UNIOSUN Journal of Science comprises an Editor-in-Chief, seven (7) review editors drawn from Nigeria and other continents, a Technical Editor, one Language/Formatting Editor and a Managing / Desk Editor. These shall be entirely composed of renowned reputable scholars within the scope of the Journal.
2.01 The positions in the editorial board of UNIOSUN Journal of Science are tenured.
2.02 All submissions are preliminarily evaluated by assigned editorial staff and, when appropriate, an editorial review board. Submissions are evaluated based on a list of criteria, including objectivity, applicability to Journal readership, conformity with Journal format, quality of writing and level of discussion.
2.03 In the case of peer-reviewed articles, members of the editorial review board will make every reasonable effort to check facts, quotes, figures and statements. But ultimate accountability and accuracy of the work rests with the author(s).
2.04 The Journal's editors and its editorial review board evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
2.05 The decision to publish a submission remains wholly with the editorial board and the UNIOSUN Journals Committee. When peer review is part of the submission process, the reviewers' evaluations drive the decision of whether to publish or reject the submission.
2.06 The Journal editors reserve the right to reject a submitted work without a formal review by the editorial review board should the editors deem the work inappropriate for the Journal's audience, repetitive of previous content, not of adequate depth, not well written, similarly published or under consideration elsewhere, too narrow in focus, or which otherwise does not fit the Journal's needs.
3. SIGNED EDITORIALS
3.01 In each issue of UNIOSUN Journal of Science, there shall be signed editorials from the Vice-Chancellor and the Editor-in-Chief.
4. JOURNAL WEBSITE AND OFFICE
4.01 Transactions with UNIOSUN Journal of Science is principally online. The Journal is domiciled within the official website of the Osun State University- www.uniosun.edu.ng All material published on the Journal website remains the property of the Journal. Reproduction of this material without proper citation is not permitted.
4.02 The articles or comments on the Journal’s website do not represent the views or opinions of the Journal, but of the author(s) or comment-writer alone. All submissions must contain the e-mail address of the author(s) or comment-writer.
4.03 The UNIOSUN Journal of Science operates under the Vice-Chancellor’s office of Osun State University. The Contact address is:
The Editor-In-Chief,
Vice-Chancellor’s Office
UNIOSUN Journal of Science
PMB 4494, Osogbo, Nigeria.
Tel: 07032981634
Email:
5. SUBMISSIONS
5.01 In the case of peer-reviewed technical articles, the concepts, approach, findings and support materials must be accessible, transparent and in sufficient depth that the study and findings may be replicated by other researchers to determine the validity (or lack thereof) of the work.
5.02 All authors submitting work for consideration of publication—from letters to the editor, to essays, to technical content—must reveal up front any substantive financial or other conflicts of interest that might affect the objectivity of their work. Such potential conflicts will be taken into consideration when determining suitability for publication and will be appropriately disclosed to the reader if the work is published.
5.03 Submission of articles should be done through e-mail attachment to the Desk Editor at .
5.04 Articles are anonymously peer-reviewed ("double blind") by the UNIOSUN Journal of Science’ Editorial Board or by other professionals with content expertise in the article topic. All submissions must to be firmly based on experience or research and must be relevant to current issues. Articles are reviewed for their quality, length, content, and applicability to an international readership with strict adherence to the UNIOSUN Journal of Science Author’s Guidelines.
5.05 Articles are accepted with the understanding that their content is the author’s original work, not slanderous, libelous, or plagiarized. All statements of opinion and supposed fact in the Journal are published under the authority of the authors. They are not to be accepted as the views of the editors, the publisher, the UNIOSUN Journals Committee, or the Osun State University.
6. OPINIONS AND CHALLENGES OF CONTENT
6.01 Criticism of the Journal content may be published in the form of a letter to the editor or as a follow-up technical paper. The criticism must be of sufficient quality, focused on the presentation and findings of the previously published work and cannot be personal, defamatory, or excessively offensive.
6.02 If the content of a published article in the Journal is found to be or challenged to be materially or factually in error, such that the underlying premise or conclusions of the article are in question, a letter could be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief (to which the original author may respond), the challenger could submit a technical manuscript written as a response to the article being criticized, or convincing evidence may be published as a correction.
6.03 Any challenges submitted as technical manuscripts will go through the Journal's peer-review process. Publication is not guaranteed.
6.04 A challenge to any Journal technical article may, if appropriate, be brought before an ad hoc appeals committee of academics, or other experts in order to assess and resolve the challenge. A report of the committee's findings will be made public. If a retraction is deemed necessary by the committee, a retraction statement will be published in the Journal. Notification of retraction will be posted on the Journal Web site as a link associated with that article.
7. SPONSORSHIP AND PAGE CHARGE
7.01 The UNIOSUN Journal of Science is supported through subscriptions and corporate sponsorships only from the Education Trust Fund (ETF) of the Federal Government of Nigeria and thus does not contain any advertising. Every effort is made to ensure that individual companies and individual authors are not unduly represented. Articles are reviewed to ensure that there is no intent to promote products, services, or specific companies. Such explicit promotion is cause for rejection of an article by the editorial board.
7.01 There are no page charges for articles accepted for publication in UNIOSUN Journal of Science. Additional copies may however be ordered for under conditions as may be spelt out by the UNIOSUN Journals Committee.
8. COPYRIGHT, REPRINT AND LINKING
8.01 Contributing authors assign copyright to the UNIOSUN Journal of Science.
By submitting an article to be published in the UNIOSUN Journal of Science, all authors agree to a “transfer of copyright.” This transfer agreement enables Osun State University to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, but does not relinquish the author’s proprietary rights. The copyright transfer covers Osun State University’s exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations, and includes the rights to adapt the article for use in conjunction with computer systems and programs and online media. Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce information or figures for which copyright exists.
8.02 No part of the UNIOSUN Journal of Science may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the Osun State University. Anyone wishing to use UNIOSUN Journal of Science content, whether through reprints or electronic sharing, must seek permission to reprint or permission to link.
The Editor-In-Chief,
UNIOSUN Journal of Science
c/o Professor O.C. Adebooye
Directorate of Research and Linkages
Vice-Chancellor’s Office
PMB 4494, Osogbo, Nigeria.
Tel: 07032981634
Email:
Article arrangement and style:
The text file should be arranged as follows:
1) The title page should contain:
- the full title (bold, lower case, font size 14, aligned central)
- name(s) of (co)author(s) (i.e. Odunayo C. Adebooye)
- address(es) (aligned central),
- corresponding author's e-mail address
- proposed running title
- an abstract of 20 lines (150-250 words) which should summarize the objective(s), major findings and conclusions
- up to six keywords (not repeating the title)
2) The next pages should contain the text file divided into: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables and Figures.
Hierarchy of subsections in the text body must be clear.
First-order headings (e.g., Introduction, Materials and Methods) and second-order headings are in bold (e.g., Sampling procedure); third-order headings bold headers are in italics (Phenolics determination).
Referencing in the text: In the text references should be cited according to the following examples: ADEBOOYE (2006), ADEBOOYE and OLOYEDE (2005), (ADEBOOYE, 1996 a, b), ADEBOOYE et al. (1986), (ADEBOOYE et al., 1986). References cited in group should be arranged from the earliest to the most recent year (e.g.: (ADEBOOYE, 2005; ADEBOOYE and OLOYEDE, 2006; ADEBOOYE et al., 2007)
References List: References should be listed alphabetically with names of journal written in full and italicized with colon and full stop marks as indicated. For example:
ADEBOOYE, O.C. and F.M. OLOYEDE (2005) Chlorophyll contents of leaves. Leaf Chemistry 124: 12-21.
For Books:
STEELE, S.G.D. and J.H. TORRIE (1981) Advanced Statitics. MacMillan Publishers, UK. 483pp.
Chapter in a book:
ADESOJI, S.A. (2008): Extension methods and practice. In: ADEBOOYE, O.C. and K.A. TAIWO (eds.), Food and Health in Africa. Cuvillier Publishers, Göttingen, Germany. 321-422pp.
Published proceedings paper:
GEESEY, G.G. and J.W. COSTERTON (1986) The microphysiology of consortia within adherent bacterial population. Proceedings 4th International Symposium of Microbial Ecology, Ljubljana, 238-242.
Manuscripts should conform to standard rules of English grammar and style. Conciseness in writing and accuracy of grammar are major assets.
Formatting guidelines:
The word processing program should be Microsoft Word. The text should be typed using the font Times New Roman, size 10 points, and organized on A4 format (21 x 29.5 cm). Adjust indentation to 1 cm. Do not use the space bar to make indents. An indent command should be used for this purpose. Input your text continuously, i.e. insert hard returns exclusively at the ends of paragraphs, headings etc. Use the automatic pagination function. Italicize common and standard Latin words, abbreviations or phrases such as «et al.», «e.g.» or «in vivo». Italicize the names of genes (e.g. Arpl gene), genera and species. Insert a space between mathematical symbols and numbers (i.e. 4 + 6 and 6 < 10). Number and units must be separated, e.g. Use 12 °C never 12°C or 12° C. Do not insert a space in these cases: 6X and 12%.
Review Process
Original scientific papers submitted for publication are reviewed by two referees, active in the field the paper belongs to. Authors are requested to provide names and contact information (e-mail address) of two or three experts in the field as possible reviewers of their paper. The subject editor will try to use one reviewer from the list and to comply with any special requests. Only papers with favourable reports are accepted for publication. The acceptance of manuscripts for publication is decided by the Editorial Board.
When the article is published the corresponding author will receive 10 offprints and the electronic reprint of the article (free of charge) in Adobe’s PDF format. Additional offprints may be ordered at such conditions as may be determined by the editorial board.
Rule of good scientific practice and Responsible authorship
It is the policy of Uniosun Journal of Science that authors must conform to standards of good scientific practice and responsible authorship. Submitted articles will be double-checked to ascertain authenticity. All of the authors must accept responsibility for the entire contents of the submitted manuscript, and provide their significant contributions to the work. Honorary authorship is not allowed, i.e., authorship should not be awarded to people who made no intellectual contribution to the work, or who were not physically involved in conducting the research. Individuals who supported the research by providing laboratory space, equipment or financial support should be recognised in the Acknowledgements only.