EDITORIAL POLICY
Articles for publication should be sent to the Editor – in – Chief, SJBAS, Faculty of Science, Federal University Birnin Kebbi through the Journal e-mail address: editor.sjbas@fubk.edu.ng or editor.sjbas@gmail.com
Aim/Scope
Savanna Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences (SJBAS) is a biannual journal published by the Faculty of Science, Federal University Birnin Kebbi. The journal is devoted to disseminating results of original research in broad areas of Biological Sciences, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Statistics, Geography, Geology and Earth Sciences, Laboratory Science and Technology, Mathematical Sciences, Microbiology, Physics, Medical Sciences, Demography and Social Statistics. The journal was conceived by the University in 2015, and the first volume was released online in June 2019.
The Policies described here are intended to promote standards in scientific writing, strengthen the mission and vision of the University, and encourage strict adherence to international requirements on publication ethics as provided in the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.
Authorship
An author means a person who has made a substantial, direct, intellectual contribution to the development of a submitted manuscript. ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following four criteria: Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND Final approval of the version to be published; AND Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Honorary or guest authorship is not acceptable.
Whenever there is a need to make changes in the authorship of a manuscript or a published article, the changes will be implemented according to COPE specifications. Only corresponding authors can make requests for a change in authorship. The request should be made to the editor using the Changes in Authorship Form.
Conflict of interest:
The corresponding author must declare that there is no conflict of interest among the authors in whatever form. A statement form for the declaration of COI is to be filled during manuscript submission. Divergent views between authors, funding bodies, and other interested parties shall be disclosed by the authors.
Misconduct:
This constitutes a violation of this editorial policy, journal policies, publication ethics, or any applicable guidelines/policies specified by COPE, WAME, ICMJE, and STM. Any other activities that threaten/compromise the integrity of the research/publication process are potential misconduct. Suspected cases of misconduct will be investigated according to COPE guidelines
Plagiarism
The manuscript, upon receipt, is evaluated to compare the level of similarity with other published works. The Journal uses the Turnitin plagiarism detection system to achieve this goal. Manuscripts that have a high level of similarity with other works (including the author's previous works) are rejected at this stage. Authors are provided with the similarity report together with the decision to reject the manuscript.
Language
Reviewers Guidelines
Review Process
The journal employs a three-stage review process – editorial office, external review, and editors’ decision. The first stage of the review process takes place in the editorial office. On submission, a manuscript is reviewed to ensure that it meets the minimum requirements of the journal before it is sent to external reviewers. At this stage, the manuscript is reviewed for the following: Originality, suitability of the title, clarity of presentation, data/statistical analysis, adequacy of figures, tables, etc. in quantity and quality, reference to previous work, and adequacy and concise conclusion. The Board’s decision on publishing a paper will be guided strictly by the reviewer’s comments.
Ethics and Guidelines for Peer Review
Introduction
Compliance with publication ethics ensures the integrity of scientific publishing and confidence in published articles. Therefore, authors are expected to adhere to ethical requirements in the preparation of their manuscripts.
Plagiarism
The Merriam Webster Online dictionary defines plagiarizing as stealing and passing off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own, using (another's production) without crediting the source, to commit literary theft and present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. This act is considered to be a serious offense, and the Journal is committed to eliminating manuscripts with possible cases of plagiarism from its review and publication process. The Journal uses the Turnitin plagiarism detection application to check each manuscript for possible cases of plagiarism.
A plagiarism check is the first step in the manuscript review process. Manuscripts that are found to contain an unacceptable level of similarity with other published works are immediately rejected. Submitted manuscripts should be the original works of the author(s). SJBAS will follow COPE guidelines in suspected cases of plagiarism.
Duplicate submissions
Duplicate submission is a situation whereby an author submits the same or similar manuscripts to two different journals at the same time. This includes the submission of manuscripts derived from the same data in such a manner that there are no substantial differences in the manuscripts. Duplicate submission also includes the submission of the same/similar manuscript in different languages to different journals.
Fabrication and falsification of data
It is unethical to fabricate, manipulate, or falsify data in a manuscript, and the Journal will adhere to COPE guidelines in dealing with suspected cases of data fabrication and falsification.
Citations manipulation
A manuscript should contain only relevant citations. The inclusion of citations that are not relevant to the work is strongly discouraged. Similarly, irrelevant self-citation to increase one’s citation is unethical.
Reviewer’s guidelines
Reviewers are required to evaluate the manuscripts and provide useful comments to enable the author(s) to improve the quality of the manuscript. Reviewers also score the manuscript in terms of originality, contribution to the field, technical quality, clarity of presentation, and depth of research. Finally, reviewers make one of the following suggestions about the manuscript; requires minor corrections; requires moderate revision; requires major revision, and is Not suitable for further processing. In this case, the reviewer provides the specific reason(s) why the manuscript is not further processed. It should be noted that though a reviewer may give a positive report on a particular manuscript, if another reviewer raises concerns that may fundamentally undermine the study and results, the manuscript may be rejected.
Copyright of Published Articles
Open Access License Agreement
Savanna Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences is an open-access journal that implies that all contents are free and available to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking for prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is following the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.
The articles in the Savanna Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences are open-access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited
General Instructions
Authors are to submit manuscript that contains results from original researches that are not being considered for publication elsewhere or previously published. Manuscripts submitted to the journal are peer reviewed to ensure high standard.
Manuscripts should be clear and concise typed double spaced in MS Word format throughout with 1" wide margin on both sides. Manuscripts should be written in English language and should not exceed 12 pages. Any additional page attracts extra charge.
S.I. units and metric systems of measurement are acceptable and Latin words should be in italics.
Text: The text of the manuscript should appear in the following order. Title, authors name(s) and address (es), abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, tables, figures, and plates, discussions, conclusion, recommendation(s), acknowledgement, references, (authors should please comply strictly to this format).
Title page: The title of the paper should be concise, informative and reflect the content and the main theme of the paper. The full names and addresses of authors (including names of institutions, country, email address and telephone numbers) should be stated. In the case of joint authorship or multiple authorship, the name and mailing address of the author to whom further correspondence would be referred should be indicated, otherwise, the name of the first author on the list is assumed to be the correspondence author, not corresponding author. Authors' names should start with surnames then initials of other names.
Introduction: This should contain mainly essential background information and important relevant references. The objectives of the work and its relevance or contribution must be clearly stated. The literature cited must be discussed to show the relationships between the published and the research study.
Materials and Methods: New methods and modifications of established ones should be described in detail to enable repetition by other workers. For the established and published methods, references should be made to the relevant publicationsGenerally acceptable, scientific terms should be used. Discuss the factors, problems encountered and the solutions as they apply to your study. Due attention should be given to experimental design and statistical analysis of data where applicable. In addition research involving animal use should follow the ARRIVE guidelines strictly. If the research involves human subjects, including collection of human blood or other tissue, an Institutional ethical clearance 10 document should be submitted with the manuscript. Alternatively, a clear statement should be made in the materials and methods section indicating that informed consent of the experimental subjects had been obtained. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Repetition of details of procedures, which have been published elsewhere, should be avoided. The details of statistical tests used and the level of significance should be stated. If more than one test is used, it is important to indicate which groups and parameters have been subjected to which test.
Results: Table and figures should be kept to minimum. Type each table on a separate sheet of paper. Each table must be numbered in Arabic numerals and should contain brief title on top. Figures and plates should be of scanned reproducible quality.
Discussion: This section may be combined with results. Avoid repetition of methodology and results in your discussion. Discussion should indicate clearly the significance and implications of the results obtained. Relate your work to published studies. References should be cited, e.g. Aliero (2008), Shehu and Aliero (2010), or Aliero et al. (2017) if there are more than two authors.
Note: Results and discussion could be presented together. In such case, each result should be presented immediately by discussion specific to the result and this should continue until all the results have been presented and discussed.
Conclusion: Conclusion should be drawn from the aim(s) and objectives of the work. It should not carry too much detail of the results.
Recommendations: Should be optional and must be drawn from the study.
Author’s contributions: Contribution by each author must be stated clearly. Contributors must have actively participated in the conduct or supervision of the research. Proof reading or writing the manuscript does not confer one an authorship of a manuscript.
Conflict of interest: There should not be any conflict of interest among the authors in whatever form.
Acknowledgement: Optional and should acknowledge support and assistance rendered by individual(s) or organizations.
References
The reference style should be the latest edition of APA format.
List of References/Bibliography
1. Journal publication:
One author:
Aliero, A. A. (2000). Genetic variability, correlation and pollen studies in Acha (Digitaria exilis) Kipp. Nigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 9:29-39.
Two authors:
Aliero, A. A. and Morakinyo, J. A. (2001). Characterization of Digitaria exilis and D iburua Stapf accessions. Nigerian Journal of Genetics, 16:10-21.
More than two authors
Aliero, A. A., Asekun, O.T., Grierson, D.S. and Afolayan. A. J. (2007). Volatile components from the roots of Solanum pseudocapsicum. Journal of Medicinal Food, 10 (3): 557-558.
Online article in press (no volume or issue number)
Mohammed, M.L., Mbeleck, Patel, D.R., Niyogi, D., Sherrington, D.C. and Saha, B. (2014).Greener and efficient epoxidation process. Chemical Engineering Research and Design, DOI: 10.1016/j.cherd.2014.08.001.
2. Reference to a book:
Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., (2000). The Elements of Style, 4th ed. Longman, New York, Pp. 85
3. Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Grebosz, J., Dandare, S.U., Ibrahim, A.D. and Aliero, A. A. (2017). Volatile organic compounds in food security: the role of neglected and underutilized legumes: In: Volatiles and Food Security: Role of Volatiles in Agro-ecosystems. DEVENDRA KUMAR CHOUDHARY et al., (ed) Published by Springer Verlag, Singapore 6: 81-111
4. ebook:
Johnson, A. (2000). Abstract Computing Machines. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.Retrieved March 30, 2006, from SpringerLink http://springerlink.com/content/w25154. DOI: 10.1007/b138965.
5. Published Conferences, Seminars and Meetings:
Eidenberger, H., Breiteneder, C. and Hitz, M., (2002).'A Framework for Visual Information Retrieval', in S-K. Chang, Z. Chen & S-Y.Lee (Eds.), Recent advances invisual information systems: Proceedings of 5th International conference on Computing Technology, Hsin Chu, Taiwan, March 11-13, 2002, 105-116.
6. Patent:
Moore, M.L., Yamashita, D. (1998). An array of separate reactor cells containing a solid reaction support medium. Smithkline Beecham Corporation, US Patent 5792431.
7. In press:
Citation of a reference as “in press” implies that the manuscript has been accepted for publication. The “in press” must be written after the volume if available.
8. Master’s dissertations or Doctoral theses:
Ajibola, O. (2015). Investigation of the early immune events in African trypanosome infections. PhD Thesis, The University of Glasgow, Available from theses.gla.ac.uk/6776/.
9. Electronic Materials:
Huynen MMTE, Martens P, Hilderlink HBM. The health impacts of globalisation: a conceptual framework. Global Health. 2005;1: 14. Retrieved September 30, from http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/14.
Proofs: Galley-proofs will be sent to the author of correspondence. They should be returned within 48 hours of receipt after correction. Corresponding Author will receive a copy of the journal free of charge, however additional copies may be purchased at 75% of the cost if ordered when the proofs are returned.
Copyright:
Open Access authors retain the copyrights of their papers, and all open access articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, CC BY (or the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License CC BY-NC), which allows users to (noncommercially) copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship.
Privacy Statement: The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.