Nigerian Journal of Nutritional Sciences
Journal / Nigerian Journal of Nutritional Sciences / Submissions

The Nigerian Journal of Nutritional Sciences (NJNS) welcomes contributions relating to food
and nutrition in the developing world especially in Nigeria.

The following types of manuscript are considered: original research articles, review articles, issues and opinions, letters to the Editor and book reviews. Field and programme reports from development partners, civil society and industry are also welcome. Manuscripts must be original, in whole or in part must not have been, nor being currently considered for publication elsewhere. However, submission of an article does not guarantee publication; acceptance depends on the judgment of the reviewers and editorial team as to its relevance, scientific merit and quality.

PROCEDURE FOR SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
All manuscripts must be written in clear and grammatically correct English. The text of the manuscript must be provided in Microsoft Word format. Authors are also requested to send electronic copy of their manuscript as an email attachment to editornjns@gmail.com OR njns2013@gmail.com. Hard copy submissions are not accepted. Each manuscript must be accompanied by letter stating that the author(s) wish to have it evaluated for publication in the Nigerian Journal of Nutritional Sciences. Authors may suggest the names and addresses of at least 3 appropriate reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief however reserves the right to determine the final reviewers.

ORGANISATION AND STYLE OF MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscripts must be written in concise and correct English. They should be corrected for errors of typing, spelling and grammar before being submitted. Manuscript should be arranged in the following order: title page, abstracts and keywords, text and acknowledgments and references. Use separate sheets for each of these items. Figures, tables and illustrations should be embedded within the manuscript after the prose of first mention. All pages should be numbered starting with abstract as page 1.

Title Page
It should include: (a) title of paper, (b) an abbreviated version of the title not exceeding 40 letters and space; (c) name of authors include first name(s); (d) name of Department(s), institution(s) or organizations in which the work was done, including full postal address; (e) a list of 3 – 5 keywords for indexing purpose and (f) name and email address of the corresponding author to whom the galley proofs and requests for reprints should be sent. 

Abstract
An abstract of not more than 250 words should be included in the following format:

 Background: Relevant background information and the context of the problem that was
investigated.
 Objective: A one-or two-sentence description of the purpose of the study
 Methods: Outline of study design, study population, subject/participant selection, analytical methods, and data analysis.
 Results: What was found based on the data analysed. Give specific data and their statistical significance if possible.
 Conclusion: Provide a one-or two-sentence description of the conclusions, based on the results.
 Keywords: Authors should provide a maximum of five key words for the article.

Text
Original articles should conform to the following format.

Introduction
This should start on a fresh page and should provide a brief review of the literature related to the objective of the paper. A short statement on the aim of the work should be presented.

Materials and Methods
This should be sufficiently detailed (with references where possible) to permit other researchers to replicate the study. Sources of materials used must be given and statistical methods must be specified by reference unless non-standard ones are used. For investigations of human subjects, authors should state in the methods section the manner in which informed consent was obtained from the study participants, and describe how the study investigators protected the right of participants as described in the Declaration of Helsinki. Also the IRB and/or institution(s) that gave the ethical approval from must be mentioned.

Results
These must be clearly and concisely provided, with the help of appropriate illustrative material Tables and/or figures. Do not use Table and figure to present the same data.

Discussion
This section should relate the findings with existing relevant studies. It should cover the implication of the findings and limitations of study. Recommendations may be given, but unjustified speculation should be avoided.

Acknowledgment
This should be brief and presented on a separate page. Financial support, technical assistance and advice may be acknowledged.

Publication ethics and publication malpractice statement
Nigerian Journal of Nutritional Sciences (NJNS) follow the COPE Best Practice guidelines and this statement is based on the guidelines and standards developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

DUTIES OF EDITORS
Decision on the Publication of Articles: The Editor-in-chief (EIC) of Nigerian Journal of Nutritional Sciences is responsible to make the decision regarding publication of submitted articles. The EIC may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and subjected to such legal requirements. The Editor is authorized to carry out the decision in consultation with reviewers and editorial board members.
Fair play: The manuscripts should be evaluated solely on their intellectual merit without
regard to authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship,
or political philosophy.
Confidentiality: The Editor and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a manuscript which is submitted to the journal to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate. The editor must ensure the integrity of double-blind peer-review and should not disclose the identity of the reviewers to the authors of that manuscript, and vice versa.
Disclosure and conflicts of interest: Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by editor or reviewer or anyone else who has a view of the manuscript, while handling it in his or her own research without the express written consent of the author.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS
Contribution of Peer Review: Peer review assists the Editor in making editorial decisions and editorial communications helps the author to improve his paper.
Promptness: If a selected reviewer feels unqualified to review an article he/she should notify the Editor-in-Chief and should not take part in review process. Reviews will be expected to be professional, honest, courteous, prompt, and constructive, their judgment should be objective.
Confidentiality: Manuscripts assigned to a reviewer must be treated as confidential documents. The manuscript(s) must not be shown to, or discussed with, others except as authorized by the Editor in Chief.
Standards of Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively. There shall be no personal criticism of the author. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Acknowledgement of Sources: Reviewers should mark the uncited work that is published previously. Authors are expected to provide the proper citation for each statement that is quoted from a previously published work. A reviewer should inform the EIC for any substantial similarity between the manuscript assigned him for review and the other previously published paper of which they have personal knowledge or they have found the similarity during the review process.
Confidentiality: Information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage.
Conflict of Interest: Reviewers should not review manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

DUTIES OF AUTHORS
Reporting standards: Authors of the original research article must present the accurate data of work performed during their research. Authors are also expected to discuss the objective of their work and the significance of their results. An article should contain the sufficient information and references to ensure the reproducibility of the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements are considered as unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.
Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide the raw/supplementary data for a paper that is under editorial review. The authors should be prepared to provide the public access to these data (if practicable) and to retain such data for a reasonable time after the publication.
Originality and Plagiarism: Authors should ensure the originality of their contents, while preparing a manuscript draft. In case the authors have used the work and/or words of others this must be appropriately cited or quoted. Articles submitted to NJNS may be screened for plagiarism using plagiarism detection software. In case, plagiarism is detected during review/editorial process, such manuscript(s) will be rejected immediately. If the plagiarism is proven after publication, such manuscript(s) will be retracted from the journal and appropriate announcement will be placed in this regards.
We can also consider appropriate action against authors depending upon the seriousness of the case which includes;

1. Debarring the authors from publication in future.
2. Such incidents shall be bring to the notice of author's funding agencies, author's institutions (place of works) and to the original authors whose work has been plagiarized.

COPE flow charts will also be considered while dealing with plagiarism complaints.

 Suspected plagiarism in a submitted manuscript
 Suspected plagiarism in a published manuscript

Redundant or duplicate submission/publication

Duplicate or redundant submission is the same manuscript (or the same data) that is submitted to different journals at the same time. International copyright laws, ethical conduct, and cost effective use of resources require that readers can be assured that what they are reading is original. An author should not publish manuscripts that describe the same concept or present the similar data, in more than one journal. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable and all such articles will be rejected immediately. In case the editor was not aware of the violation and the article has been published, a notice of duplicate submission and the ethical violation will be published.

Acknowledgement of Sources: Authors should provide the proper acknowledgment for the work of others. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper and corresponding author: Authorship of an article should be
based only on substantial contributions to each of the four components mentioned below:

1. Concept and design of study or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data;
2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content and Final approval of the version to be published.
3. Each contributor should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content of the manuscript.
4. The order of naming the contributors should be based on the relative contribution of the contributor towards the study and writing the manuscript and/or as agreed by the authors.

Corresponding author is the author responsible for communicating with the journal for publication. The corresponding author should ensure that no inappropriate contributors are listed as co-authors in the paper. All the co-authors should check the final draft of the manuscript before submitting it to the journal.

Acknowledgment of Funding Sources: All the funding sources must be properly acknowledged.
Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: All the authors should disclose the possible financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.
Fundamental errors in published works: When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, he should promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

DUTIES OF THE PUBLISHER
The publisher is supposed to protect the intellectual property and copyright of the contents submitted by the authors. We respect the privacy and personal data, especially for authors and peer reviewers. We works in close co-operation with the editors and peer reviewers in to maintain the editorial independence, and to guarantee transparency and integrity in peer-review process.

In cases of alleged or proven scientific misconduct, fraudulent publication or plagiarism the publisher, in close collaboration with the editors, will take all appropriate measures to clarify the situation and to amend the article in question.

PUBLISHING ETHICS ISSUES
Monitoring: The EIC must ensure to establish the mechanism for monitoring and safeguarding of publishing ethics. All the complaint received from the reviewers or the authors or anybody else should be taken into the proper consideration and an appropriate action should be taken promptly for such complaints.

Retraction & Corrections: The published articles will be retracted if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable. The retraction can be a result of scientific misconduct or honest error. To maintain the integrity of the scientific record, the retracted article will not be removed from the journal's website, however a notice of retraction will be posted and is made freely available to all readers. Retraction can be published by the authors or the editor or the publisher. In rare cases involving legal infringement, the Publisher may remove an article. Bibliographic information about the article will be retained to ensure the integrity of the scientific record. We follow the COPE guidelines in such case. Sometimes it may be necessary to publish corrections/erratum in an article published in the Journal to maintain the integrity of the academic record. An appropriate notice regarding the correction will be placed and made freely available to the readers. We are always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.

Article withdrawal: We expect our authors to comply with best practice in publication ethics as well as in quality of their articles. To avoid withdrawal of articles we sincerely request the corresponding author to undertake the issues related to authorship, publication ethics and accurateness of data and results at the time of submission of manuscript.

If an article found to violate the ethical publishing guidelines of the journal such as duplicate submission, fraudulent data, plagiarism, false claim of authorship etc. the article will be withdrawn by the journal. In case the article is under ‘Online first’ stage the journal will remove the article from website and an appropriate note for article withdrawal will be posted.

No response from the authors to journal communication after review and provisional acceptance is also considered as withdrawal of article.

Preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards: We believe that the funding agencies and sponsors should not be able to influence the author's findings or the decision making. The editor should maintain the integrity of the academic record, preclude business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards, and always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Ethics approval and consent to participate
Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must: include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived), include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate.

In addition, studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval. If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Conflicts of interest
Authors must declare all sources of support for the research and any association with a product or subject that may constitute conflict of interest.

Consent for publication
If your manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. All presentations of case reports must have consent for publication.

You can use your institutional consent form if you prefer. You should not send the form to us on submission, but we may request to see a copy at any stage (including after publication). 

Availability of data and materials
All manuscripts must include an ‘Availability of data and materials’ statement. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. By data we mean the minimal dataset that would be necessary to interpret, replicate and build upon the findings reported in the article. We recognise it is not always possible to share research data publicly, for instance when individual privacy could be compromised, and in such instances data availability should still be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for access.

Changes to authorship
Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.

Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended.

Archiving
NJNS publications is indexed African Journal Online database. NJNS will be archived on the journal websites as well as a back-up kept in the editorial office computer to ensure its availability. The journal provides immediate free access to the full text of articles in PDF format to authors through the corresponding authors email. Printed complimentary copy will be made available to corresponding authors but they will pay for postage services to their location on demand.

References
Each reference should be cited in numerical order (in parenthesis) in the text and listed in the same numerical order at the end of the paper. Articles in press (accepted for publication), may be included and cited appropriately indicating name, volume and year in which journal would appear. References to unpublished material may be cited in parenthesis in the texts, but not in the bibliography, Avoid the use of abstracts as reference when possible, but if you have to use them; identify them as “(abstract)” in the citation at the end of reference.

1. Journal: Reference to articles in journals should be listed as follows: authors name and initials, year, title of article, name of journal, volume and page (see examples).

Nnam, N.M. (1995). Evaluation of nutritional quality of fermented cowpea (Vignaunguiculata) flours. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 33:273-279.

2. Books: Reference to articles or chapters in books should be listed as follows: author name and initials, year, title of article or chapter, title of book, name and initials of editor(s), edition (other than the first), publisher, city of publication 

Olusanya E. O. and Omololu, A. (1972). Dietary Practices and Nutrition in Nigeria. Lagos,
Macmillian, pp 126 -29

Yuwa S. D, Babasola, F. A and Brai, C.O (2012). Food security in hard-to- reach populations in Nigeria In: Ukegbu W. K and AkinremiZ.O (eds) Food Security: Level and Trends in Nigeria. Ibadan: Rex Charles Books.

3. Other considerations: Citing an Article that has more than four authors, you may use et al ( in Italics) after the fourth author. For multiple citation in one year from the same authors use a, b, c, etc after the year e.g. 2014a, 2014b, 2014c 
iii. Citing abstracts: Atinmo, T., Egun-Elemo, G.N, year, title of the abstract. Journal volume, number and page (abs).
iv. Thesis: Umoh, I. B. 1973, Title of the Thesis, Doctoral Thesis, University of Ibadan Nigeria
v. In Press articles: Abubakar, K. C and Mohammed, R. A. Title of the article Journal (in press 1999).

Foot Notes
All footnotes to the title, author’s names or text should be indicated by Arabic numerical superscripts not by letters or other symbols. The footnotes should be typed at the bottom of the page in which they appear.

Tables and Figures
Tables and figures should be placed within the text after the prose where the figure or text is first mentioned in the manuscripts. Each Table should include a title and be comprehensible without reference to the text. Tables adapted or reproduced verbatim from another source, the source must be acknowledged in a footnote. Each Table, figure and illustrations must be of high resolution/quality: 300 dpi or more, and should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. JPEG AND PNG formats are preferable.

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