GUIDE TO AUTHORS – Extended Abstract

The intention of the LOC is to produce the Proceedings of each Annual Conference of the ASACSES ready for the Conference. Hopefully, this will drastically reduce or completely eliminate undue delay of the authors publishing their papers. To achieve this onerous task the LOC solicits the full cooperation of all stakeholders. One area needing the cooperation is the preparation of the papers for the Proceedings and this has been tagged Extended Abstract for this purpose. We provide here the Guide to the Authors in the preparation of their manuscripts. Authors are encouraged to adhere strictly to the Guide when preparing their manuscripts.

Title – Must be brief and self explanatory, containing no more than 15 words. Only the first letter of the first word and of proper nouns need to be capitalized; all other words should be in low case completely.

Author(s) – The name of each author should be initials followed by surname in caps, all in italics. When three or more authors are involved, their names should be separated by comma and the last named author connected with others using &. The addresses of the authors must follow the author line, clearly indicated by numbers as superscripts where the authors have different addresses. The email of the corresponding author must be provided.

Abstract – The abstract, which should not exceed 150 words maximum, should contain a brief statement of the justification for the study, the objectives, methodology, quantitative results, conclusion and, where possible, recommended application of the findings. The authors should supply 3 or 4 key words other than those already contained in the title and or abstract. 

The substantive part of the manuscript should be divided into sections as normally done for scientific writing; that is, Introduction, Materials and Methods or Methodology, Results, Discussion (or Results and Discussion), Conclusion, Recommended Application of Findings, and References.

Introduction – Provide short background information, justification for the study, and statement of research problem, research objective (s) and possibly research question(s) and research hypothesis(es) or logistics.

Materials and Methods or Methodology – Specify whether field, Greenhouse/screen house or Lab experiment; where, when, what and how it was done, experimental design; maintenance of the experiment; data collected and how; statistical analysis.

Results – Tables, figures and plates are numbered sequentially as they are presented in the text. Each table, figure or plate is complete; that is, they are numbered, with self-explanatory titles and units of measure as necessary. For tables, the entries are well aligned, each column has a heading and unit of measure as necessary, no vertical or horizontal lines (that is, no grids), footnotes are indicated with symbols such as *, #, †, ‡, §, and ¶, with the explanation supplied at the bottom of the table. Statistical test of hypothesis should be clearly indicated. The Table, figure or plate is not just put in the paper, but is presented to the reader by the author calling attention of the reader to some specific points on the table, figure, or plate. The author(s) must clearly apply statistical tests, such as LSD, DMRT, SE, SEM, t-test, F-test, Chi square test. In figures, error bars are included as appropriate for hypothesis testing. Tables, figures and manner of presentation of Results must tally well with the objectives of the study.

Discussion – The Discussion must link the results to the existing literature related to the subject of the research. It identifies the flaws in the research; explains results that seem to differ from what is generally believed as the state of knowledge in the subject-matter area, and proposes possible reasons for such deviations.

Results and Discussion – Rather than presenting the Results and Discussion in separate sections, they may be combined as only one section, but must contain the issues raised above.

Conclusion – The paper must provide a summary of the major findings and a definite concluding statement in line with the objectives of the study. This MUST be stated differently from the Abstract.

Recommended Application of Findings – Implication or practical application of the results is presented at the end of the paper.

References – References are listed in alphabetical order, or are numbered as they occur in the text, if number system is used. Citation in the text and in the reference list should be as contained in the sample paper which is attached.

Manuscripts should be written in MS Word with 12-point Times New Roman font, and should not exceed four double-column A4 pages including, as applicable, figures, tables, plates and references. Provide all measurements in metric units; use abbreviations accepted in most scientific journals.

Click the download now button to access the sample papers as a proper guide