Malaya Journal of Biosciences GUIDE FOR AUTHORS 1. DESCRIPTIO N Malaya Journal of Biosciences (MJB) is a quarterly, peer reviewed international electronic journal launched in January 2014. ISSN : 2348-3075 (Online); 2348-6236 (Print). The aim of this journal is to become the premier source of high quality research from all over the world. Its scope is broad, covers all fields of biology and is dedicated to the exchange of information and understandings in life science research. MJB considers original research articles, review articles and short communications (mini-reviews) in all areas of basic and applied research in Life sciences. Issues from MJB encompasses different themes in all aspects of biology include Applied Genetics and Molecular Biology Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology Pharmacology and Toxicology Genomics and Proteomics Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology Bioanalytical chemistry and Biomedical sciences Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology, Food biotechnology Natural products drug discovery Evolution, Ecology, Environmental sciences Forestry research and more Malaya Journal of Biosciences (MJB) is pleased to announce the launch of its new online manuscript submission and tracking system. This new system makes it possible for authors to submit manuscripts via the Internet, provides online peer review services, and tracks manuscripts through the review process. 2. EDITO RIAL POLICY MJB journal welcomes submission of review articles in the above mentioned fields. Authors intending to submit such a review should contact the Reviews Editor before and to ensure its suitability for inclusion. The aim of the MJB editors is to publish useful and informative results that will be of value to other workers in related fields. All papers are subject to a strict peer review. All articles published by Malaya Journal of Biosciences are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately up on publication. Data sets published in the journal will be made searchable and easy to harvest for reuse. 3. ADDRESSEES Biologists, Toxicologists, Medical Researchers, Pharmacologists, Biotechnologists, Microbiologists, Technical Biochemists, Immunologists, Molecular Biologists, Genetic Engineers, Botanists, Zoologists, Ecologists, Environmental Engineers, Physiologists, Food Scientists and Technologists, Agriculturalists, Chemists, Research Scientists/workers in Forestry and related fields. 4. IMPACT FACTO R The Impact factor is determined by dividing the number of current citation to papers published in the two previous years by the total number of paper published in these two years. Page1
5. INFO RMATO N FO R AUTHO RS Manuscripts submitted to Malaya Journal of Biosciences (MJB) should not have been published earlier or be under simultaneous consideration for publication by any other journal. Violation may lead to a retraction of the published article by the journal and other actions as deemed necessary by the editor. All articles (including invited ones) will be peer-reviewed, followed by editing of the accepted articles according to the guidelines of the style-sheet approved for the journal. Accepted manuscripts become the permanent property of the journal and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the editor. Manuscripts must confirm to the instructions given below: Submission Process Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone on their behalf. The submitting author takes responsibility for the article during submission and peer review. To facilitate rapid publication and to minimize administrative costs, Malaya Journal of Biosciences prefers online submission (Microsoft Word format: DOC, DOCX). During submission you will be asked to provide a cover letter. Use this to explain why your manuscript should be published in the journal, to elaborate on any issues relating to our editorial policies mentioned above, and to declare any potential competing interests. Type of Papers 1. Original Research Papers (Regular Papers) 2. Review Articles 3. Short Communications (Mini reviews) Original Research Papers should report the results of original research. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form. Review Articles can be divided into two types: Regular reviews covering subjects falling within the scope of the journal which are of active current interest. Mini-reviews. These will be short reviews or overviews on topics of above mentioned fields. Note: Malaya Journal of Biosciences gives authors the freedom and flexibility to publish more extensive accounts of their novel research without page restrictions. Ethical standards Human experiments should be performed only in accordance with the ethical standards provided by the responsible committee of the institution and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Edinburgh 2000), available at http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm. Animal experiments should be in accordance with the instructions for the care and use provided by the institution at which the research was carried out. All investigations on human subjects must include a statement that the subject gave informed consent. Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects being recognized. For animal experiments, authors should follow the experimental animal guidelines of their institution as well as the appropriate government guidelines. Authors must also indicate in the manuscript that the experimental procedures were approved by the appropriate committee (e.g., Experimental Animal Research Committee) at their institute or university. Conflict of Interest All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Page2
Submission Declaration Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder. Changes to Authorship Before the accepted manuscript is published in an online issue: Requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the author names, must be sent to the Editorial office/journal Manager from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript and must include: (a) the reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and (b) written confirmation (e-mail or letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. Copyright Policy Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a Copyright Licensing Agreement form. Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a Copyright Licensing Agreement form. The Article cannot be published until the signed Agreement is received by Malaya Journal of Biosciences after acceptance of article. Funding Source Authors are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit th e article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Language services Manuscripts should be written in English. Authors who are unsure of correct English usage should have their manuscript checked by someone proficient in the language. Manuscripts in which the English is difficult to understand may be returned to the author for revision before scientific review. Referees Authors will be also asked to provide the contact details (including email addresses) of three (minimum - one compulsory) potential peer reviewers for your manuscript. These should be experts in their field, who will be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Any suggested peer reviewers should not have published with any of the authors of the manuscript within the past five years, should not be current collaborators, and should not be members of the same research institution. Suggested reviewers will be considered alongside potential reviewers recommended by the Editor-in-Chief and/or Editorial Board members. Note that the editor-in-chief retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used. O pen access All articles published Open Access will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. Page3
Preparation of Manuscript Manuscript Preparation Prepare the manuscript in Times New Roman font using a font size of 12. Articles should be typed in double line spacing with the following font pattern. There shall not be any decorative borders anywhere in the text including the title page. Formatting order: Manuscript should be divided into Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion or Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, References. File format Currently, Malaya Journal of Biosciences will accept only Microsoft Word format (DOC, DOCX) for the main manuscript documents AND Figures in Microsoft PowerPoint file (.ppt) format. Article Structure Subdivision - numbered sections Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2,...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Each heading should appear on its own separate line. Title Page Title: Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. Author names and affiliations: Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Running head should be provided on the title page. Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Abstract A concise and factual abstract is required of no more than 400 words. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. Keywords Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). These keywords will be used for indexing purposes. Introduction State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. Material and methods Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. Results Results should be clear and concise. Discussion This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of general published literature. Conclusions The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section. References Citation in text Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and viceversa).references should be placed consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text at the end of the manuscript. Page4
Web references As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Reference style Text: Indicate references by number(s) in square brackets in line with the text. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given. Example: '... as demonstrated [3,5]. Abraham and Jones [7] obtained a different result...' List: Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text. Please Note: The authors are responsible for the correctness of the references in the submitted manuscript. Examples: Reference to a journal [1] Toufik G and Iqbal H (2013). Relative controllability of fractional stochastic dynamical systems with multiple delays in control. Malaya Journal of Matematik; 1(1):86-97. Reference to a book [2] Stacey GL and Keen NT (1996). Plant-microbe interactions, Chapman and Hall, New York. Reference to a chapter in a book Mandell GL and Petri WA (1996). Antimicrobial agents: penicillins, cephalosporins, and other ß-lactam antibiotics. In Goodman and Gilman`s. The pharmacological basis of therapeutics, Edited by Hardman JG and Limbird LE. McGraw- Hill, New York; 9th ed: pp.1073-1101. Web references Daharwal SJ, Grag G, Saudagar RB, Saraf Swarnlata and Saraf S. Methods of estimation of multi-component formulations: A review. Available from: URL: http://www.pharmainfo.net/ volumes-and-issues/2006/vol-4-issue-3. Appendices If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc. Abbreviations Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the respective page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article. Units of Measurements Authors should express all measurements in conventional units, with System International (SI) units given in parentheses throughout the text. Permissions Materials taken from other sources must be accompanied by a written statement from both author and publisher giving permission to the journal for reproduction. Acknowledgements Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. Figures Figures (Photographs, drawings, charts, diagrams) should be professionally designed. All figures should be submitted as single file in a Microsoft PowerPoint file (.ppt) and should not be integrated within the text (Note: Authors can indicate the place where the figure to be inserted by giving text as [Insert Figure.1. Here ] in the main manuscript). The figure number should be mentioned clearly in the Microsoft Power point file. The preferred figure formats are JPEG or TIFF. It should be clear and supply 1.5 to 2 times the size at which they will be finally reproduced to obtain highest quality. If a figure comprises more than one glossy photograph, these should be marked as A, B, C etc. Figure legends should be given clearly with the corresponding letter. Legends should contain sufficient details to permit Page5
figure interpretation without reference to the text. Duplication of results given in the tables in to figures must be avoided. Note: The publisher reserves the right to reduce or enlarge illustrations (Tables and Figures). Tables Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate them with superscript lowercase letters Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Each of the tables and illustrations should be on a separate page, must have a title and be on a double space. After acceptance 1. Copyright form Upon acceptance of your article authors will be asked to sign the Copyright form, where all the authors has to sign and return to the editorial office. After signing of all authors, corresponding author should send the scann ed copy through e-mail. Once the Copyright Transfer Statement has been completed, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs. 2. Proof reading Authors are informed by e-mail where they can obtain their proofs. Proofreading is the responsibility of the author. The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title, and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the responsible editor. In such a case the Editorial Office should be contacted before the proofs are returned to the publisher. 3. Issue Malaya Journal of Biosciences (MJB) articles will be published quarterly (four times a year: January, April, July, and October). 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. Page6