JASSA: Journal of Applied Science in Southern Africa
Journal / JASSA: Journal of Applied Science in Southern Africa / Submissions

The Journal of Applied Science in Southern Africa (JASSA) is a multi-disciplinary biannual science journal. It specialises in applied research that is important to and/or deals with matters specific to Southern Africa. Each issue contains one fairly long article of a review nature on recent developments in any field(s) supported by between six and ten shorter articles on complete or continuing research projects in the region. There is a certain degree of flexibility in the choice of articles, in particular pure natural science articles are considered. The journal publishes reviews of science books written by regional authors and of books whose subject matter is particularly relevant to the main focus of the journal. The Editors must be informed if any of the material submitted has been published elsewhere. If a paper is accepted, it must not be published elsewhere in the same form. Work based on limited experimentation will not generally be accepted. Work of local interest only is not considered appropriate for an international journal. Three copies must be supplied, typed, double-spaced, on one side of A4 paper only. It is mandatory for authors to submit an electronic copy of their article(s) in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect preferably saved as version 5.0 or 5.1. LAYOUT AND STYLE A simple direct style of writing is preferred. Spelling should conform to the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Title page The title should be informative but concise and should not contain abbreviations. It should contain at most five keywords for indexing purposes and it should name the organism studied, where relevant. Authorities for Latin names should not be given in the title but may be given at first mention in the text. Authors should give their full names. The full name and address of the institution where the research was done should be stated. Change of address may be given as a footnote. Indicate at the foot of the page the name and address to which proofs should be sent. A summary/abstract placed at the beginning of the text, should briefly indicate the experiments described (including year and place, as appropriate), the main results and most important conclusions. It should not repeat the wording of the title. Text It is usually convenient to divide the paper into sections, for example, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, and finally, References. Too many headings and subheadings should be avoided. The Introduction should set the work in context, present only essential background, and include a concise statement of the objectives. A detailed review of the literature is not necessary. Relevant details of the experimental materials and design should be given in the section on Materials and Methods, together with the techniques and statistical methods used. Numerical results should be tabulated and not repeated in the text. Metric and SI units should be used. Experimental details and results should be recorded in the past tense with an indication of their significance. The Discussion should briefly relate the author's conclusions. Footnotes should not be used. All abbreviations used should be fully explained at first mention. Tables must be typed on separate sheets, numbered consecutively in the same order as they are mentioned in the text. Numerical results should be displayed as means with their relevant standard error and the standard error given to one place of decimal more than the mean. The title should fully describe the contents of the table and explain any abbreviations used in it. Figures should be restricted to the display of results where a large number of values are presented and interpretation would be more difficult in a table. Figures may not reproduce the same data as tables. The originals of the figures should preferably be A4 size of good quality camera-ready copy, drawn or printed clearly in black on plain white paper, graph paper with faint blue lines or tracing paper. There should be no numbering or lettering on the originals. Numbering and lettering which must be kept to an absolute minimum, should be legibly inserted on the copies. Vertical axes should be labelled vertically. A full legend, describing the figure and giving a key to all the symbols on it, should be typed on a separate sheet. Plates: may be accepted, but only if they make a definite contribution to the value of the paper. They should be good quality, unmounted glossy prints and be lightly numbered in pencil on the reverse side. They should be numbered as part of the sequence of the figures. If several plates or coloured photographs are submitted, the authors may be asked to contribute to the cost of reproducing them. References: In the text, a reference should be quoted by the author's name and date in parentheses, in date order, for example, (Smith, 1983; Jones and Jones, 1985; Smith, 1986a, b). Where there are three or more authors, the first name should be given, followed by et al. A list of references should be given at the end of the text, listing, in alphabetical order, surname of authors and initials (in small capitals), year of publication, title of paper, name of journal in full (underlined to denote italics) as in CAB International Serials Checklist, volume, and first and last pages of the reference; the place of publication and publisher (and Editor(s) if appropriate) for books and conferences should be included. Authors should check that all references in the text appear at the end of the paper and vice versa, and that the names and dates correspond in the two places. Series The Editors do not wish to publish continuing series and will accept work divided into parts only if they consider it of advantage to the readers. The whole work must be submitted at the same time. In general, the first part must include in the introduction the reasons for carrying out the whole work and the final part must end with a discussion of all the findings to show the progress made. Mathematical models: Authors preparing papers involving complex mathematical models are advised to obtain, from the Editorial Office, notes setting out the Editors' policy on these models. Proofs will be sent to authors to enable them to check the correctness of the typesetting. Excessive alterations due to amendments of the author's original agreed copy may be charged to the author. SUBMIT TO: Books for review and articles for publication should be sent to: The Editor: JASSA University of Zimbabwe Publications P. O. Box MP 203 Mount Pleasant Harare