Author Guidelines
The Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal publishes original papers of interest to veterinarians in Zimbabwe and other countries of Southern Africa; work published or offered for publication elsewhere will not be accepted. Papers will be scrutinised by the Editorial Board and, where necessary, submitted to review by an appropriate scientist, before they are accepted, to ensure that they meet an internationally acceptable standard.
Contributions will normally be accepted in one of six formats:
Reports of original research.
Reviews, covering a topic of which the author has specialist knowledge.
Congress papers, as presented at Congresses held by the Zimbabwe Veterinary Association
Research reports, summarizing original research that has been published elsewhere.
Case reports, provided that they are sufficiently documented to be of scientific merit.
Scientific letters, providing preliminary information or opinion on a topic by an author with specialist knowledge or experience.
Manuscripts should be submitted via email to the editor. Authors can directly send manuscript at: zvj.editor@gmail.com
Manuscripts should be written in clear concise English and should be double-spaced typescript throughout, with generous margins and continuous line numbers inserted on the left margin. Numbers up to nine should be written in full unless followed by an abbreviated unit of measurement. Numbers above nine should be given in figures unless to begin a sentence. All measurements should be in the SI metric system and abbreviations should conform to common usage. Abbreviated names may be used in the text when the original name followed by the abbreviation in parentheses has been used once. Drugs should be referred to by their pharmacological names, as found in the British Veterinary Codex or other pharmacopoeias. Where the trade name is more commonly known this should be given in parentheses with the name of the manufacturer. The editors reserve the right to make minor alterations in layout and phraseology without reference to the author, but where major changes are required the paper will be returned to the author for amendment.
Arrangement
Reports of original research should be headed with a short informative title followed by the name(s) of the author(s). This should be followed by the address of the authors at which the work was performed. If the present address of any author has changed it may appear as a footnote to the first page of the article.
Summary, not exceeding 150 words, giving a clear indication of the findings presented and definite conclusions from the work.
Introduction, stating the background to the work and its purpose.
Materials and methods. Where the method of a previous author is quoted some indication of the principle of the method must be given.
Results. Wherever possible data should be presented in the form of tables and graphs numbered serially and referred to in the text. Tables and graphs should be designed to fit the shape of the printed page.
Discussion of results and conclusions drawn.
Acknowledgements of assistance.
References. The reference list should begin on a separate page. The Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal uses the Harvard referencing style. Note: No other style will be permitted. References should be confined to those cited in the text, arranged in alphabetical order of first author. Where a book is cited, the title of the book, the edition, the place of publication, the publishers and the number of pages in the book should be stated. If the reference is a chapter in a book the editor of the book and the first and last page numbers of the chapter should be stated in addition to the information specified above. References in the text to published papers should be given as the author's surname only and the year in brackets. If two authors are quoted both should be named, while if three or more authors are quoted the reference should name the first author only followed by the words et al. References "in press" should be cited in the list of references with the title of the journal which has accepted the paper.
The arrangement of contributions in other formats should be appropriate to the logical presentation of the content. References should be cited and listed as described above. Contributors are encouraged to study the layout of similar papers in previous issues as a guide to the arrangement of their paper.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- The submission file is in Microsoft Word (.doc) or Rich text format (.rtf)
- Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
- The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
- If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in ensuring a blind review have been followed.
