Author Guidelines

Agronomy Society of Nepal (ASoN) is going to publish the Agronomy Journal of Nepal (Agron JN) for the fifth time in Nepal. Agron JN shall publish original (not published or submitted for publication elsewhere) research and review or feature articles written in English from members of the ASoN , Nepal and other interested scientists or technicians in the field of agronomy, crop science, and related subjects. Besides main research articles or critical review papers, research notes may also be published in the journal. Research findings from a single season or location may be accepted as Research Note if the findings are of exceptional interest. All materials should be sent to ASoN, Lalitpur (agronomysocietyofnepal@gmail.com) Nepal not later than 15^th October 2020.

Authors interested to publish their article/s in the journal are requested to submit with electronic copy (MS word, font size 12, times new roman) of the article in the prescribed address. Each manuscript submitted to the editorial committee is registered and reviewed by peer reviewers. Manuscripts that need improvement as suggested by reviewers and editorial committee will be returned to the respective author/s for correction and incorporation of the comments made and the corrected version of the manuscript along with an electronic copy of the manuscript that should be submitted promptly to the ASoN after the correction made as suggested by the reviewers. A blank review for the particular article will be done and name of the reviewers shall be kept confidential. Each reviewer makes a specific recommendation for the manuscript that should be incorporated by the author/s in question or the editorial board can make relevant edition of the manuscript deemed necessary. Following are the basis for the review:

• Importance of the research problem/statement
• Originality of the work
• Appropriateness of the approach and experimental design
• Adequacy of experimental techniques
• Soundness of conclusions and interpretations
• Relevance of discussion
• Clarity of presentation and organization of the article
• English composition

All opinions about the papers published in the journal reflect the views of author/s and are not necessarily the views of ASoN and its editorial board. The editorial board reserves the right to reject or accept the article/s for publication in the journal.

Format for main research articles

Title and author

The title should be informative and unique started with key word but concise and clear and should reflect the content of the paper. It should be in title case less than 20 words. Abbreviated and shortcut word/s should not be used in the title. Below the title, name/s and the address/es of author/s should be given. Indicate current or postal addresses as a footnote on the first page of the paper, if the address is different from workplace. The initials of the middle names and full form of first and family name/s, full address of each author should be written and indicate the corresponding author using symbol *.

Abstract
Every manuscript (article) must have a short abstract (not more than 250 words), which should be complete itself but it should be concise and clear without any cited references. Abstract should highlight rationale, objectives, materials and methods, important results and conclusion written in a manner so that it is suitable for direct reproduction in some abstracting journals. Key words (not more than 5 words) should be written below the abstract in alphabetical order.

Introduction
It should give appropriate background and explain the things that are proposed. It should include short introduction to justify the research and relevant reviews and state the objectives clearly (not more than 150 words).

Methodology
This should include description of experimental materials, procedures, and statistical design used as well as method/s to analyze results. New methods should be described in detail and for methods developed by earlier researcher/s, only reference may be cited. However, we prefer detail methodology. Report the location, georeference (altitude, latitude and longitude etc. and date of experiment conducted. Write scientific name with authority, common and local name of organism.

Results and discussion

Results and discussion will be either under separate or under combined headings (around 500 words). Results should be presented in a concise manner avoiding data that are already given in tables. Discussion part should not repeat the results but should explain and interpret the data based on the published relevant studies. Insert graph/s and table/s wherever necessary and number them sequentially within each paper (article). The conclusion, recommendation and possible impact (if any) should be based on the supporting data.

Units of measurements and statistical analysis

All units and measures should be in the metric system or in the International System Units (SI) and should be abbreviated for technical values. Currency exchange rates should be in US $ along with the local currency for the appropriate date for any prices cited.

Acknowledgments
Acknowledge the person/s and/or institution/s, if necessary, who actually help achieve the objectives of the research.

References
Only the papers closely related to the authors' work should be referred in the text by author's family name and the year of publication and be cited in an alphabetical order. The style of the reference citation should be as below:

Journal
Jensen, NF.1965. Multiple superiority in cereals. Crop Sci. 5:566-568.

Book
Cochran WG and GM Cox. 1968. Experimental designs. 2nd ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. 490pp.

Lewis WH, ed. 1980. Polyploidy: Biological relevance. Plenum Press, New Yrok.

Contribution to books/proceedings

Yuan LP, ZY Yang and JB Yang. 1994. Hybrid rice in China. In: Hybrid rice technology: New development and future prospects (SS Virmani, ed). IRRI, the Philippines. Pp.143-147. Nepal Agric. Res. J., Vol. 6, 2005 p124.

Annual report

NWRP. 1980. Rice-wheat system: Opportunities and constraints. In: Annual report-1980. National Wheat Research Program (NWRP) - Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Bhairahawa – Rupandehi - Nepal. Pp.60-65.

Web materials

Pretty J. 2003. Genetic modification: Overview of benefits and risks. Accessed in 5 June 2005 from http://www2.essex.ac.uk/ces/. Downloaded on 20th Nov 2009.

Table
Each table with a number and proper title heading should be prepared and sorted appropriately. Use simple grid table without complex formatting structures. Use single (*) and double asterisks (**) to indicate statistical significance and have priority in this order to show 5 and 1% levels of significance, respectively. Do not repeat information in the text presented in charts or graph. Use 10 font size and bold table heading.

Figure
Do not repeat data both in table and figures. Either use table, or graph or figure. Each Figure and/or graph with a number and the proper title heading should be drawn or prepared below the graph/figure.

Page limit

The page limit for the main research article is not more than 10 typed pages in single space including tables, figures and references.

Format for review or feature article

The review or feature article is much different from the main research articles in that it contains detailed description of certain topics researched or investigated earlier by concerned scientists or technicians. As in the main research article, it should contain abstract not exceeding 250 to 300 words. Each topic should have an appropriate heading and/or sub-headings with relevant tables and figures numbered separately but sequentially for each review article. At the end of each article, all discussed items should be summarized and the conclusion should be drawn. All the relevant references should be cited. Authors are requested to choose modern topics of interests to the readers. The review or feature articles should not be of more than 10 pages.

Format for research note

It is same as that of full research paper expect the duration of study for research note could be of one-year study.

Special attention

• Use standard abbreviation such as g for gram and cm for centimeter and so on
• Use realistic formatting not the artistic formatting without giving any jargons and complexity
• For table, graph, and figures use title case such as Figure 1. Grain yield affected by fertilizer response
• Do not merge unnecessary rows and column in the table to make more complex formatting
• Try to be realistic and straight forward to describe findings
• Do scientifically whatever you want to do
• Follow the rules of standard journal such as Agronomy Journal of America etc. to write scientific paper

Deadline for submission: 2077 Ashoj 29 (15th October 2020)

Copyright Notice

©Agronomy Society of Nepal (ASoN), Lalitpur/Center for Crop Development and Agro-biodiversity Conservation, Harihar Bhawan, Lalitpur, Nepal