Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology
Journal / Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology / About the Journal

 

The Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology (Ethiop. J. Sci. Technol.) is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal of interdisciplinary scientific research, theories, and observations on a wide range of subjects, which has been published by Bahir Dar University (2002-2012) and later by College of the Science of Bahir Dar University (2013-present). Ethiop. J. Sci. Technol. is a tri- annual publication covering experimental and theoretical studies in all basic science and engineering fields. The mission of this journal is to provide a platform for disseminating scientific research and theory across academic disciplines. The journal seeks to facilitate greater communication between the scientific community. To this end, it provides a platform for research communication worldwide.

Journal Nomenclature

Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology: abbreviated as Ethiop. J. Sci. Technol.

Publisher

The Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology (Ethiop. J. Sci. Technol.) is a triannual publication of the College of the Science of Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. The journal is an open access and peer reviewed journal.

Accepted final versions or published articles are published on African Journals website.

Aim and Scope of the Journal

Ethiop. J. Sci. Technol. is envisioned as a key forum for researchers, academicians, industry, and students of physical science, life science, and engineering to communicate breakthroughs and developments in basic and applied science and technology-based findings. In the future, depending on the anticipated increase in the volume of research, manuscript submissions and staff composition and quality, the journal will have specialized journals still within the discipline of science and technology.

The Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology publishes high-quality original research articles, reviews, short communications, and feature articles on basic and applied aspects of science, technology, engineering, agriculture, energy, telecommunication, health, and other related fields.

Language of the Journal

Ethiop. J. Sci. Technol. will only publish manuscripts written in English. For editors and reviewers to accurately assess the work presented in your manuscript, you need to ensure the English language is of sufficient quality to be understood. If your manuscript is accepted, it will be checked for spelling, grammar and formal style before publication. Like other academic areas in Ethiopia, while the publication is in English, other administrative roles are performed in English and Amharic.

Organizational Structure of the Office of the Journal

The Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology (EJST) is an official publication of Bahir Dar University, currently run by College of Science. EJST has a typical editorial staff (Editorial    team) comprised of an editor-in-chief, a troupe of associate editors, editorial assistant and Advisory board. The roles and responsibilities of the editorial team are indicated in detail in the editorial and publication process. Science College is responsible for assigning human, financial and other resources required for running the journal. The office of vice president for Research and Community Services also supports and oversees the journal.

Advisory Board and Editorial Team of the Journal

Advisory board

National and international advisors may reside anywhere, in Ethiopia or abroad. They shall be experienced professionals in research and publication and volunteer in helping the editorial office by advising and consulting whenever requested by the editorial team. International and local advisors are invited from accredited local and international universities, research institutes, research-oriented NGOs and professional and scientific societies. The advisory board constitutes as many as 30 members drawn from various disciplines allied with the journal’s scope. A member of the board shall serve for a term of five years, who might be re-appointed to serve a new term.

The Advisory Board will provide expert advice on the content of an article, attracting new authors, connecting the journal with reputable publishers, and encouraging submissions. The Advisory Board, is a team of experts in the journal’s field. Advisory Board members:

• Advise on journal policy and
• Connect the journal to conferences (for conference proceedings publication)
• Identify topics for special issues, which they may guest
• Promote the journal to their link, e.g., their colleagues and friends across the
• Assist the editorial team in decision-making on issues in relation to copyright claims and controversial issues on submissions (when reviewers can’t decide).
• The Advisory Board members shall have the following qualifications:
  • More than 20 years of work experience in accredited higher education and/ or research institution and extensively published articles on reputable research journals and participated in reviews/editorial processes
  • PhD in specific academic field (mainly full Professor)

Electing the advisory board members

Advisory Board members are proposed by the journal’s editorial team and approved by the Academic Council of Science College. The Advisory Board members are proposed considering the tasks (listed above) and their potential for the activities mentioned. Change of board members can be made when the board member has work load (did not work as expected) and he/she resigns or request for service termination.

As journal’s Advisory Board can affect the journal’s quality, so the editorial team should consider the following:

• Board members’ expertise should be in line with the scope of the journal
• They need to be appointed from key Universities or research institutes
• Existing board members may have suggestions for new members
• Board members shall be from national and international (abroad)

The editorial team

Ethiop. J. Sci. Techno. has a typical editorial staff (Editorial team) comprised of an editor-in- chief, associate editors, and editorial assistant.

• The editorial team facilitates the publication and has the full authority to decide about the publication of manuscripts in the journal
• It is responsible for the overall policy of the journal, including changes in the general layout, the guideline for contributors and peer reviewers as well as for decisions on special issues and the organization of the workflow as well as guideline for the editorial office
• A member of the editorial team shall serve for a term of three years (associate editor) and four years (editor-in-chief), with a possibility to be re-elected to serve an additional term
• The editor-in-chief may consult the local and international advisory board members in case some special expertise is required
• The editor-in-chief, who will be accountable for all decisions made, in exceptional cases, may use his right of veto
• An individual editorial team member might be contacted directly by the editor-in-chief for preliminary evaluation of submitted manuscript (Appendix 2). However, there might be times where submitted manuscripts tend to be multidisciplinary in nature. In such cases, the editor in chief may find it difficult to choose the relevant associate editor to Therefore, considering the diversity of the manuscript submitted to the journal, the editor-in-chief may establish an ad-hoc editorial committee consisting of members (associate editors) invited from different fields based on their proximity of expertise to the submitted manuscripts to conduct the preliminary assessment and subsequently the full review.
• During the preliminary evaluation of the manuscripts, the editorial committee evaluates manuscripts against the criteria shown in Appendix 1.

Editor-in-chief

The Editor-in-Chief, serving as chair of the editorial team, is responsible for the overall management of the journal including the modification of the journal’s content and quality.

The editor-in-chief shall exercise the following roles:

• Directs the journal editorial office
• Chairs meetings of the Editorial Team
• Supervises and ensures the proper execution of the decisions made by the Editorial Team
• Prepares annual budget of the Journal in collaboration with the assistant, when present
• Prepares annual reports of the Editorial Team
• Organizes a regular inflow of manuscripts and other contributions in order to ensure the regular publication and issuance of the Journal. This includes the dissemination of information about the Journal on the university website, national and international level as well as personally inviting highly experienced authors to contribute
• Decides the publication of reviewed manuscripts and writes notification letters
• Supervises the overall activities of editorial office and the editorial team in collaboration
• Identifies new peer reviewers and new members of the consulting editorial  team members
• The editor-in-chief’s term of office shall be four years, subject for extension based on performance
• The editor-in-chief may be assisted by an assistant or Editorial Manger (if assigned)
• The editor-in-chief shall have the following qualifications:
  • More than 15 years of teaching experience in accredited higher education and/ or research institution and participated in peer review process/referee for reputable journals
  • More than 30 publications on reputable research journals
  • PhD with a rank of Associate Professor and above in the area of science and technology

Associate editors

The Associate Editors of EJST are assigned by the Academic Council of the   College of Science of BDU to specific research areas and are responsible for the scientific and rational contents of the journal in their fields.

As much as possible, each major discipline shall be represented by one or two associate editors,  depending on the volume of submission.

Associate editors shall have the following roles:

• Represent their discipline in meetings of the Editorial team contributing for multi- and interdisciplinary collaboration
• Identify and reach for peer reviewers
• Edit contents of manuscripts and ensure readability in terms of clear content and organization
• Check manuscripts for correct styles and formats
• The associate editors shall have the following qualifications:
  • More than 15 years of work experience in accredited higher education and/ or research institution and preferably with experience as reviewer
  • At least 10 publications on reputable research journals
  • PhD in specific academic field
  • With academic rank of Associate Professor and above (except in some rare cases)

Managing editor

The managing editor is responsible for receiving manuscripts, replying to authors on the status of the manuscripts, following up of review and publication processes, following up publication production process, and promoting the journal. He/ she also prepares budget proposal and submit it to the Editorial team and Academic Council of College of Science for approval.

Copy editor

Once the manuscript is accepted for publication, the copy editor will perform detailed proofreading, checking spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and terminology. The copy editor shall also perform layout and overall design of the journal articles and issues. The copy editor is also expected to be qualified on InDesign and LaTeX software applications using which the layout of papers and issues are designed.

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)

COPE, a forum for editors of the journal, discusses issues related to the integrity of the scientific record. It supports and encourages editors to report, catalogue and instigate investigations into ethical problems in the publication process.

Publication misconduct includes plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate authorship, duplicate submission/multiple submissions, overlapping publication, and salami publication.

Privileges

Benefit packages encourage the editorial staff assigned for a limited term to better sustain the journal for many years to come. Therefore, the editor-in-chief and the associate editors shall earn the existing monthly payment for the position and shall be exempted for 5 and 3 credit hours, respectively; other support staff such as technical assistants and the secretary shall work with their salary being full time members of the office of the journal. Credit exemptions help editors act proactively rather than passively because they will have extra time for the journal.

Rules and Regulations of the Journal

Rules and regulations the journal abides by:

• The journal is accountable to the dean office of the college of sciences
• The editor-in-chief is accountable to the dean office of the college
• The associate editors are accountable to the editor-in-chief
• The academic commission of the college nominates and assigns the editorial team chosen from among the academic staff members of the respective colleges based on the criteria stated under the subtitle of 2.5 above
• Colleges involved in contributing an editor will be entitled to choose one of their own according to the set criteria; colleges/Schools/Institutes contributing associate editors include: Science, Medical and Health Science, Agriculture, BiT, Earth Science,
• The academic commission is responsible for nominating The Editor-in-Chief, The Associate Editors, The Managing Editor and Language Editor, among the members of the team of editors
• The official term for the positions of the board of editors shall be renewed every three years; as such, a member has the right for another term
• The editor-in-chief and the associate editors have the right to resign from their position on their own accord, but they shall announce it in a letter to the dean office and to the editor- in-chief, respectively, in advance
• The academic commission in consultation with the office of the president through vice president for research and community services is responsible for establishing the board of international advisors
• The team of editors shall write a half year report on the progress of the journal to be addressed to the academic commission of science college
• The academic commission of Science college is responsible for establishing the office of the journal
• The academic commission is also responsible for getting budget allocated for the office of the journal

Features of the Journal

The journal possesses these features:

• The journal could be produced in print and/or electronic form
• The journal shall be tri-annual (issues 1 to 3 per volume) which would be issued every January, June and October with the corresponding volume numbers. In this case, the page numbering of the volumes could be consecutive per issue and this will apply for the issues published consecutively in a volume per year
• The journal shall contain a minimum of 5 articles per issue, 15 per volume
• An article in the journal shall have a maximum of 20 pages
• The articles in the journal shall have abstracts with a maximum of 6 key words
• The journal shall have a page cover design bearing only on the front-side such that it bears essential information as the title of the journal, the issue and volume numbers, and the year

of publication, and the logo of the university, which shall be used consistently across publications

• The journal shall have a design of inner page outline which shall be applied to the articles across publications
• The journal shall have a preface that introduces the general themes of the articles published and the preface shall be written by the editor-in-chief
• The journal shall have a table of contents showing the titles of the articles and the names of their authors, which should also be duplicated to be seen on the back-side of the cover page
• The journal shall introduce the authors or the contributors on the foot of the first page of their articles with an asterisk and the introduction shall contain the name of the academic rank, the institution and the e-mail address of the corresponding author
• The journal shall contain the articles in a back-to-front page outline
• The journal shall contain the names of the managing  editor, the editor-in-chief, the associate editors, and the international advisors with their academic ranks and institutions in the inner page of the cover page
• The journal shall show the names of the authors on the top-right-side of the even page numbers of the articles, and the name of the journal in abbreviation J. Sci. Technol., the issue number, and the volume number (EJST, Vol 1, No 1), and page number on the top-left-side of the odd page numbers of the articles
• The journal shall have the last page reserved for listing author’s guideline or notes to contributors
• Each volume of the journal shall contain the articles in order of the primary alphabets of the names of their authors or in order of date of acceptance
• The journal shall have ISSN for its Print and Electronic forms
• The page cover and the internal pages of the journal shall be water proof hard papers
• The journal would have a volume of “Special Edition” based on circumstances, which would be done up on the request of the editor-in-chief and the approval of the academic commission of the college.

Dissemination and Documentation

• Current and future issues shall be disseminated online and through announcement by email and other means such as Facebook. All data and communications of each article shall be documented in the editorial office. Paper-printed issues shall be stored in libraries and the
• Archives – EJST maintains electronic backup and preservation of access to published articles on African Journals Online (AJOL) and on Bahir Dar University’s website. 

Ensuring Sustainability of the Journal

• Enhance the existing good sense of belongingness by the academic staff
• Accredit by local and international indexers
• Value academic contributions of the academic staff
• Discuss with academic staff about the content and scope of the journal
• Assign qualified and committed editor in chief, associate editors and other contributors
• Encourage reviewers by some form of benefit (the least that can be done is issuing a reviewer certificate)
• Assign qualified officers who run the office
• Create networks among relevant stakeholders to promote the journal so that academics of various institutions submit manuscripts.

Publication Fee

• The Journal does not charge fees for article processing except for special issues that might be agreed upon between the Journal and other agencies. The Journal may publish special edition from Science College Annual Conference
• Business models or revenue sources such as author fees, subscriptions, advertising, reprints, institutional support, and organizational support are not operating at present, though there is a tendency to begin that in future because the government may not continue free publications indefinitely.

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.

Plagiarism

• Details given under the “Editorial Process.”

Editorial Process

• Principles
  • Referees (reviewers) chosen to review articles shall be kept anonymous
  • The author should be kept anonymous
• Editorial procedures
  • The editor-in-chief calls for manuscripts
  • Authors shall submit their manuscripts to the editorial office (editor-in-chief)
  • The editor-in-chief in consultation with the relevant associate editor(s) shall make a preliminary assessment on the relevance and quality of the manuscript and decide either to receive for review or reject it right away (Appendix 2)
  • If the manuscript is received for review, the editorial office will code the submitted manuscript and prepare it for blind review ensuring anonymity of the authors
  • The associate editor sends coded papers to three Reviewers have to be chosen to review articles that should be kept anonymous
  • The reviewers evaluate the manuscript formally (using the Reviewer form – 007, see Appendix 3) and informally (additional sheets and track changes).
  • Based on the review result, the Associate editor in consultation with the editor- in-chief will decide on the manuscript’s acceptance or rejection. The accepted manuscripts may be sent back to authors by the editor-in-chief for either minor or major revisions or acceptance as is
  • The accepted or rejected manuscripts will be communicated to the authors
  • The accepted manuscripts will be further edited by associate editors and, technical and language editors
  • The accepted papers will also be further processed for publications ensuring that the authors duly revise the paper as suggested by reviewers or editors
  • The editor-in-chief or the managing editor (when present) will check whether the revised and edited manuscript meets the editorial standard and submission guideline of the journal
  • At the end, the accepted and edited papers will be sent to production/publication (currently online)
• Manuscript Review Process
  • Manuscript submission follows ‘instructions to ’ After submission, initial decisions are made by the editorial team. Editorial team firstly considers whether the paper has a likely potential for the journal. If the paper is completely outside the scope of the journal or its quality and does not meet a basic threshold required for consideration, it will be directly rejected. In this case, the paper will not be reviewed by peers. The editorial office will notify authors on rejected articles as soon as possible after their final decision.
  • Each anonymously coded manuscript which could pass the first stage will be forwarded to three expert reviewers in Ethiopia and/or abroad. The authorized reviewers will ensure the academic standards, the correctness, clarity, and wholeness of manuscripts and help editors to decide whether the manuscript will be published or not. In cases of contradicting opinions among the reviewers, the respective editor might request another external reviewer. The reviewers advise the editorial team on the manuscripts’ suitability for publication, how it could be improved, and on its priority for Then, decision will be made whether or not an article is accepted.
  • After the manuscript has been reviewed and the reviews have been evaluated by the editorial team, the author(s) will be informed that the article has been generally accepted for publication, or it was rejected but its publication will be reconsidered for publication if the author carries out certain modifications proposed by reviewers or editors, or it has been rejected. Editors may withhold certain comments by reviewers if they find them inappropriate.
  • The author now is requested to revise the article according to the reviewers’ comments and to submit again the article within the time span defined by the In case this time span is exceeded, the editors have the right to reject an article. The author must answer or rationalize for (not) accepting the reviewers’ comments in an accompanying letter/e-mail to facilitate the review of their revised article. After revision, the article may again be submitted for peer review, usually by the same reviewers.
  • The revision process ends with the final decision by the editorial The author will then be notified immediately. No further re-submission or complain will be accepted in case of rejected articles. Accepted articles then undergo the process of technical layout.
  • The final version will be proof-read by a language expert, and a galley proof will be prepared and sent to the corresponding author for approval before it is sent for printing or uploading onto the website. The authors hand over the transferable copyrights of the accepted manuscript to the Journal (copyright form signed), and that the manuscript or parts thereof will thus not be published elsewhere in any language without the consent of the copyright Copyrights include, without spatial or timely limitation, the mechanical, electronic and visual reproduction and distribution; electronic storage and retrieval; and all other forms of electronic publication or any other types of publication including all subsidiary rights.
• Manuscript Review Timeline
  • Preliminary assessment up to one month
  • The reviewers shall send their feedback within 20 days
  • The outcome of the reviewers’ evaluation shall be reviewed by the editorial team and the decision has to be made on the reviewed paper within 15 days
  • Finally, the result should be notified to the authors Once the acceptance of the paper is notified to the author, the author shall revise the paper within 15 days and resubmit it to the editorial office immediately
  • A complete journal shall be published within six months
• Instructions to Reviewers and Review Criteria
  • Reviewers shall:
    • Remember that all materials submitted for consideration to the Journal are confidential, and should not be distributed, shared, used or otherwise supplied to third parties prior to publication
    • Not be identified by authors
    • Inform the editors if there is any conflict of interest in reviewing of the
    • Refrain from offensive language. If that happens editors may edit them before passing them to the Authors should recognize that criticisms are not necessarily unfair simply because they are expressed in some vulgar language.
    • Shall review a manuscript within 20 days.
  • Review criteria
    • Reviewer’s comments shall be based on the review criteria of the The reviewer shall provide comments in two ways: describing the evaluation in words and rating the quality of the manuscript based on the standard criterion. The criteria for reviewing manuscripts will generally include: Originality of the work, Appropriateness of the manuscript to the Journal, Analytical rigor, clarity of language and presentation
  • The reviewer shall consider the following points for the critical evaluation and reflection:
    • Organization of abstract
    • Clarity and articulation of problem statement, conceptual framework and research questions/objectives
    • Comprehensiveness, relevance and critical appraisal of literature review
    • Relevance of the study: whether the study addresses important problems/whether the study is worth doing
    • Appropriateness of the research design for the research purpose
    • Quality of instrumentation and data collection and quality control
    • Appropriateness of data analysis procedures and its conformity with research design
    • Alignment of results with research methods and research questions, and sufficiency, balance, accuracy of inferences
    • Presentation and documentation: language quality, flow, organization of manuscript, issue of plagiarism
    • Plagiarism is an attempt to consider others’ work as own. Duplicate publication, sometimes called self-plagiarism, occurs when an author reuses a large part of a previously published work without citation. Such manuscripts would not be considered for If a case of

plagiarism comes to light after a paper is published in EJST, the editorial board will conduct a preliminary investigation. If plagiarism is found, the board will contact the author’s institution and funding agencies.

• In the event of true plagiarism, without permission or with insufficient acknowledgment to other’s work, or where the authorship of the article is contested, the Journal reserves the right to take action including, but not limited to publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

• Reviewer’s recommendation about the manuscript
  • Accept as it is
  • Minor revision
  • Major revision
  • Not suitable for further processing (specify the reason) - reject
• Communication of reviewers and editors’ decisions to authors
  • The status of the article, accepted or rejected, will be communicated to the author(s) as specified by reviewers and editors and approved by the office of the editor-in-chief
  • Rejected articles will be returned immediately to the author(s) with comments from the reviewers and editors as to why they have been rejected

Publisher

Publisher contact person: Dr Birhanu Assaye
Email:  birhanu.assaye290113@gmail.com
Phone:   +251-58-226-6597
Fax:       +251-58-226-4066 
URL: http://www.bdu.edu.et/cos/

Mailing address:
PO Box 79
Bahir Dar
Ethiopia.

Sources of Support

Science College is responsible for assigning human, financial and other resources required for running the journal. The office of vice president for Research and Community Services also supports and oversees the journal.

Peer Review

Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editorial Assistant/Editor-in-Chief through e-mail. The Editorial Assistant/Editor-in-Chief acknowledges the corresponding author upon receiving the manuscript. A manuscript ID will be assigned to each submitted manuscript and this will be used in all correspondence regarding the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief assigns the manuscript to Associate Editors.

The Associate Editors perform preliminary screening to check for compliance, aims and scope, styles of the journal, plagiarism issues, the suitability of the manuscript for publication in EJST and could reject it on grounds of scientific contribution. He/she may send back the manuscript to the author for resubmission. Then the manuscript is forwarded to three anonymous reviewers. Reviewers will be given two weeks for review if they do not respond in this time frame a
reminder is sent to them. If they do not reply, the manuscript is sent to other reviewers. The reviewers send their comments to the Associate Editor. Reviewers check not only technical matters but also plagiarism issues. Authors will be given up to one to two weeks to incorporate their comments and send the revised manuscript to the Associate Editor. If a manuscript returned to an author for revision is not resubmitted within two weeks, it will be considered rejected, unless the author requests an extension for reasons beyond control.

The Associate Editors will check and evaluate whether the comments are incorporated or not and send the paper to the corresponding reviewers for confirmation, which the latter will check and give feedback to the Associate Editor.

Then if comments are incorporated the Associate Editor sends the manuscript to the Editor-in-Chief. If the reviewers and the Associate Editors rejected the manuscript for vivid reasons, the Associate Editors send the manuscript and reviewers’ comments to the Editor-in-Chief. If two reviewers recommend acceptance, the paper is accepted directly. The paper will be rejected if only one of the three reviewers accepts it. If the reviewers recommend a manuscript for
publication without change and the Associate Editor agrees, the revised manuscript is sent to the Editor-in-Chief. The author of an accepted manuscript will be notified by the Editor-in-Chief/Associate Editor.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication Scheduling

This journal is a triannual publication.

General

Organization of the Journal

The Ethiopian Journal of Science and Technology (EJST) is an official publication of the College of Science, Bahir Dar University. The editorial office of EJST is located in the main campus of Bahir Dar University. The journal has its own editorial team composed of the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Editorial Assistant and International Advisory Board. The roles and responsibilities of the editorial team are indicated in detail in the editorial and publication process. Science College is responsible for assigning human, financial and other resources required for running the journal. The office of vice president for Research and Community Services also supports and oversees the journal.

Mission: provide a forum for exchange of scientific information, get it disseminated, and ultimately improve the quality of life

Vision: become one of the most reputable and indexed journals in Africa by 2030

Values: Quality, inquisitive, progressive, openness, impartial, academic discourse