Author Guidelines
Guidelines for authors
The Ethiopian Veterinary Journal (Ethiop. Vet. J.) is a multi-disciplinary and peer-reviewed publication intended to promote animal health and production of national/international and regional importance. All submitted manuscripts should be in English, however, under special circumstances, articles written in Amharic might be considered for publication.
Submissions
Three copies of the manuscript with electronic form in Word for Windows should be addressed to the Editor-in-chief. All manuscripts should be accompanied with a letter (or a filled Manuscript Submission and Copyright Transfer Form) signed by all authors, who clearly state that no similar paper, other than oral presentation or abstract, has been or will be submitted for publication prior to the written decision of the Journal. The Editorial Board reserves the right to accept or reject any paper submitted. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned and instead will be destroyed after six months of submission.
Manuscripts
In general, all submitted original manuscripts must conform to the requirements set by the Journal. Review and feature articles, clinical/ case reports, technical notes and non-conventional papers including the editorial may follow other formats. Failure to follow instruction in the preparation of research articles may result in total rejection or delay in publication. Such contributions should not exceed 6000 words or 12 pages including tables and illustrations. Type the manuscript on one side of A4 paper with margins of at least 25mm. Use double spacing throughout the text. To facilitate the review process give left line Arabic numerals. Give also page number in the lower right-hand of each page, starting with the title page.
Title page - The title page should consist of: a) Title of the article, which should be concise and descriptive enough; should be in upper and lower cases, and justified left; avoid abbreviations; b) Name(s) of author (s) and institutional affiliation (s); and c) Name and address of the corresponding author, in case of more than one authors.
Abstract - The second page should provide an abstract of not more than 300 words summarizing the background, objective, materials and methods, major findings and their significance, and conclusions. Avoid the use of undefined abbreviations.
Keywords - Below the abstract, in a separate line, keywords, up to six in number should be given in alphabetical order.
Introduction - Briefly describe the underlying problem and give sufficient information on the associated background. A brief review of pertinent literature followed by statement of objective(s) is in order.
Materials and methods - Under this section, briefly state the materials used, the selection of study animals, subjects, herds or materials, and the design for observational or experimental study and the nature of controls. Briefly describe the methods and procedures followed in sufficient detail and give reference; if new or modified methods are used, give justification for using them. Precisely specify apparatus, instrument or chemicals used in terms of manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses. Similarly, drugs, biologicals, medicinal plants or others used should be sufficiently described in terms of generic name(s) or scientifically accepted identifications, dose(s), and route(s) of administration. Describe sufficiently the statistical methods used and as to how the magnitude or precision of analysis results reached.
Results - Quantify qualitative findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement of error or uncertainty, such as by using confidence intervals. Likewise, when reporting quantitative data, authors must indicate the extent of variability by either using standard deviation or standard error. Present the results in logical sequence in the text, tables, or illustrations. In clinical or therapeutic trials, report complications or losses or even dropouts of such observations giving numbers. Support all findings by using appropriate statistical analysis. Tables should be complete enough to be informative. They should be presented in separate pages, numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals and provided with captions. Avoid using vertical lines to separate columns in tables. Details essential to further explain specific aspects of the table should be given as a footnote below the table, by using appropriate symbols or lower case letters as superscripts. Figures and the captions should also be placed in separate sheets, numbered in Arabic numerals according to the sequence of their appearance in the text. Lengthy and complicated tables and figures are discouraged. When data are reported, avoid also duplications in presenting them. In other words, the same data should either be presented in a table or figure or text but not more than one of these options. For all tables and illustrations, reference must be made in the text. Photographs of only good quality are accepted. Colored illustrations are considered if the costs are covered by the author.
Discussion - Under this heading you should explain the findings and the associated interpretations. Relate the results with the objective of the study and with previously published work. Here emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and not repeat the results. In the discussion, clearly indicate the significance of the work and implications of the findings for future research. Give some concluding statements with supporting evidences and also recommendations, when appropriate
Conclusions - This section may be separately presented if there are substantive justifications to do so.
Acknowledgements - This section is optional. When included, should be briefly stated after the Conclusions. Under this, technical, financial and material support can be mentioned.
References - All citations of publications in the text, tables and illustrations must follow the requirements. Show such references by author’s name (without initials) followed by year of publication in Arabic numerals and all that in parentheses. When reference is made to a publication written by more than two authors, then indicate the first author’s name (without initials) followed by “et al.”. More than one references cited together should follow a chronological order. Ethiopian names should be given according to their national usage in the text sections (e.g., Tafese Mesfin) but treated just like non-Ethiopian names in the reference list (e.g., Mesfin, T.). Personal communications and unpublished work must not be included in the reference list. They should be mentioned in the text only. Examples: (Zeleke Dagnachew, 2004, personal communication). (Abreham Gopelo, 2004, unpublished). All cited publications must be presented in the list of references. In such a list the authors’ names are presented in alphabetical order and then chronologically by author. All publications by the single author precede those multi-authored publications. Works of the same author should be arranged according to publication dates. Publications by the same author(s) with the same year should be listed, using ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, etc after the year, eg. 2004a, 2004b, etc. If the number of authors is more than six, ‘et al.,’ should be used after the sixth author. Titles of references should be given in the original language, except for instances involving non-Latin alphabets, in which case the title should be transliterated and a notation identifying the language, for example ‘in Amharic’, be added. Abbreviations of the titles of periodicals mentioned in the reference list must be according to the International List of Periodical Title Word abbreviations. Use the following method for presenting references:
A) Article in journals: Ameni, G., Miorner, H., Roger, F. and Tibbo, M., 2000. Comparison between comparative tuberculin and gamma-interferon tests for the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis in Ethiopia. Trop. Anim. Hlth. Prod., 32, 267-267.
B) Articles accepted but not yet published: Yilma, J. M., Malone, J. B., McCarroll, J. C., Erko, B., Mukaratirwa, S. and Xinyu, Z., 2001. Satellite climatology and the environmental risk of Schistosoma mansoni in Ethiopia and east Africa. Acta Tropia (In press).
C) Papers in proceedings: Tegegne, A., Wirtu, G., Mukasa-Mugerwa, E. and Kassa, T., 1994. Oestrus phenomenon and oestrus detection efficiency using androgenized cows and entire bulls in Boran and Boran x Friesian crossbred cows. In: Proceedings, Advances in Tropical Agriculture in the 20th Century and Prospectus for the 21st: TA 2000, 4-9 September 1994, Port-of- Spain, Trinidad.
D) Books or chapters in books: Thrusfield, M., 1995. Veterinary Epidemiology, 2nd edition, Blackwell Science Ltd, Oxford, UK. Malone, J. B and Yilma, J. M., 1999. Predicting outbreaks of fasciolosis from Ollernshaw to satellites. In: Dalton, J.P. (Ed.), Fasciolosis. CBA International Publications, Cambridge, pp. 151-183.
E) Organizations as author: OIE, 1992. Bovine tuberculosis. OIE manual for diagnostic techniques of livestock diseases. Office International des Epizooties (OIE), Paris, France. pp. 287-296.
Nomenclature - Authors, reviewers as well as editors should follow the rules governing biological nomenclature, as indicated in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the Standardized Nomenclature of animal Parasitic Diseases. All biotica (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.), with the exception of common domestic animals, must be identified by scientific names when such terms are used first. All biocides and other organic compounds should be identified by their Generic names when first used in the text; likewise, the active ingredients of all formulations should be identified. For chemical nomenclature, the conventions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the official recom mendations of the IUPAC-IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be observed.
Ethics - When reporting experiments involving animals, authors are expected to have observed all ethical standards on the care and use of animals or any pertinent national law. The Editorial Board reserve the right to reject papers that have been judged to have subjected animals to unnecessary handling or exposure to unacceptable pain or detention.
Units of measurement - All measurements should be reported in SI units; examples are meter, kilogram, liter and degree Celsius. All dates in manuscripts should be based on the Gregorian Calendar. When reporting financial matters on data collected within Ethiopia, the preferred currency to use is Birr, with exchange rates indicated in US Dollar.
Abbreviations - Use standard abbreviations only. The full terms for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text. Abbreviations of the titles of periodicals mentioned in the reference list must be according to the International List of Periodical Title Word Abbreviations. Such a list can be available from the Editorial Office upon request. E.g ‘Veterinary Pathology’ as ‘Vet. Pathol.,’, ‘Veterinary Parasitology’ as ‘Vet. Parasitol.,’, ‘Tropical Animal Health and Production’ as ‘Trop. Anim. Hlth. Prod.,’, ‘Preventive Veterinary Medicine’ as ‘Prev. Vet. Med.,’, ‘Revue Medecine Veterinaire’ as ‘Revue Med. Vet.,’, ‘Acta Tropica’ as ‘Acta Trop.,’, ‘Journal of Helminthology’ as ‘J. Helminthol.,’ ‘East African Medical Journal’ as ‘E. Afr. Med. J.,’, etc…
NB: All journal citations in reference list must be written in ITALICS.
Copyright
Authors are expected to observe all copyright related matters. It has to be noted that opinions expressed by the author(s) are not necessarily the views of the Journal or the Association. Authors assume full responsibility for the contents of the manuscript and for any claim or disclaim therein. All submissions are also with the understanding, knowledge and consent of copyright transfer to the Association.
Proofs and reprints
Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. They should be corrected and returned within a week of reception. If this is not done in the specified period, for timely publication of the Journal, the editorial staff will have it proofed and published without the author’s correction. Twenty five offprints will be supplied free of charge to the corresponding author. Additional reprints may be ordered and paid for in advance.
Mailing address
All contributions must be addressed to:
The Editorial Office Ethiopian Veterinary Journal (Ethiop.Vet. J.) P. O. Box 2462 Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
Authors are expected to retain copies of all original materials submitted and the Editorial Board does not assume any responsibility for claims of loss of documents. Please request a copy of the "Manuscript submission and copyright transfer form" from the editor
