Online Submissions
Already have a Username/Password for Himalayan Journal of Sciences?
Go to Login
Need a Username/Password?
Go to Registration
Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.
Author Guidelines
-------------------------------
Technical issues pertinent to manuscript submission and revision
We have uploaded two documents to help authors with manuscript submission and revision, and communicating with editors. We are assuming you have already registered online to Himalayan Journal of Sciences.
- Please go over page 25 to 34 in the "Editorial manual" (4.46 MB) for a detailed guide on article submission for the first time.
- This document (481 kB) will guide you through the process of revision of a submission and communication with editors.
-------------------------------
Contribution categories: HJS publishes works pertinent to the scope of the journal in the following categories:
- Research papers: Report on original research
- Review papers: Thorough account of current developments and trajectories in a given field
- Articles: Narrowly-focused account of current development in a given field
- Editorial: Opinionated essay on an issue of public interest
- Essay: Similar to editorial but longer and more comprehensive; may include tables and figures
- Commentary and Correspondence: Persuasive and informed commentary on any topical issues or on articles published in prior issues of the journal
- Policy and development: Usually a hybrid of opinion and review papers covering a broad topic with rigorous analysis of the issue and bearing on policies relating to science and/or development. The focus may be rather specific, and it may contain primary data or new model of substantial significance.
- Resource review: Evaluation of books, websites, CD-ROMs, and other resources
- Publication preview: Description of forthcoming books
- Calendar: Notice of forthcoming conferences, seminars, workshops, and other events.
NOTICE ON SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT
We strongly discourage plagiarism and any other scientific misconduct in papers submitted to HJS. Please read our editorial (Plagiarism: Ke Garne?). We will publish our policy on all types of publication ethics shortly. Breaches of scientific ethics will not be tolerated: If we find that an author has committed plagiarism or any other form of intellectual fraud, we will report it to the author’s supervisor and/or publish notice of the misconduct.
1. General terms of publication
- Submission of a manuscript will be taken to imply that it has not been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
- Author(s) must be accurately identified. No pseudonyms are permitted.
- Illustrations and text reproduced from other sources must be properly credited; it is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for the use of such material.
- Work submitted in hard copy (printed format) should be strictly identical to its electronic version except for elements that cannot be represented; the editor must be notified in writing of the presence of such elements.
- All submitted works are subject to peer review and revision at the discretion of the editors.
- When a work is accepted for publication, copyright becomes the property of the Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science (HimAAS) whose permission must be obtained prior to publication in other venues. Please see Permission for guidelines regarding the reproduction or reuse of HJS articles.
2. Selection process
Many submissions are immediately returned by the editors without formal peer review, largely on the basis of inappropriate format, contents or analysis. A contribution suitable to the scope of the journal and meeting the preconditions set forth in this document is forwarded to specialists in the appropriate field for review. Strict anonymity is maintained between authors and reviewers. In addition to in-house reviews by HJS editors, each research paper, review paper and article is normally reviewed by four experts: Two peers of the author, who must evaluate the piece for originality and validity; an expert in an unrelated field, who evaluates the piece on coherence and general interest; and a language expert. Opinion-based papers are normally reviewed by two editors. If appropriate, editors may consult with outside experts. Two rounds of major review are normal for all contributions. After the review process, authors are supplied with galley proofs and then a PDF version of page proofs. If the authors prefer to receive page proofs in print, they should visit the office.
3. Procedure for submission
NOTE: We no longer accept manuscript in print. Please send your manuscript as email attachment to himjsci@gmail.com. If you cannot send your manuscript as email attachment, please inform us in advance. We will soon switch to online submission.
Authors should submit an electronic version in MS Word (PC, not Macintosh) via e-mail to himjsci@gmail.com. Each manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter. The cover letter must be the one downloaded from this page. Authors are welcome to suggest reviewers for their manuscripts; they may also request the exclusion of one or two individuals or institutions if there is a conflict of interest. HJS considers such requests sympathetically, but reserves the right to make a final selection.
The first page of the paper itself should give the title of the paper, the full name of all authors, full institutional addresses for each author, and full postal and email addresses of the corresponding author. At the top of the second page, the title of the paper should again appear, followed directly by text. Information about the authors should NOT be included on the second or subsequent pages. To ensure anonymity, the acknowledgements section should be appended to the end of the paper on a separate page. Whenever necessary, numerical digits (from 1) are used to relate authors to their institutions and an asterisk (*) will be used to distinguish the corresponding author. Other symbols (†, ‡, §, ¶, #, and ||, in that order) are used to relate authors to their present address if necessary. If it is essential to indicate that two or more co-authors are equal in status, they may be identified by an additional symbol with the notation ‘these authors contributed equally to the work’ immediately beneath the address list.
4. Presentation
i. Format
Text should be formatted with 1.5 line spacing on one side of A4 paper in 12 pt font (Times New Roman) with one-inch margin on sides, top and bottom. All pages should be securely fastened together. For ease of reference, text lines should be numbered automatically at an interval of 5 lines.
ii. Style
(NOTE: Beginning with Vol. 2, Issue No. 5, HJS has switched from British to American English.) Use American conventions of spelling, punctuation, and grammar throughout, except in non-American quotations and references. Use active voice whenever feasible. Write in first person. Never use footnotes: Important information which would severely disrupt the flow of the text should appear at the end of the paper under the heading “References and notes.” However, such notes are deprecated in research papers, review papers and articles. Do not use initial capitals for the common names and local names of plant or animal species.
iii. Conventions
The metric system with SI units should be used throughout. There should be a single space between the number and the unit. Units should be abbreviated without period: g, mg, km, and so on. Use ‘%’ not ‘per cent.’ Dates should be given in this format: 7 Sept 2000. Do not use zero (0) for degree (°), hyphen symbol for minus, lower case ‘l’ (el) for the number ‘1’ (one), or the letter ‘O’ for ‘0’ (zero). One-digit numbers (from one to nine) should be spelled out; numbers of more than one digit (10 onwards) should be given in numerals. Exception: Do not start a sentence with a number. If a sentence contains a series of numbers, at least one of which has more than one digit, all of the numbers should be given in numerals. (Example: The leaves were treated for 8 hrs and dried for 12 hrs.) In the ‘Material and methods’ section all numbers should be in numerals. The complete scientific name (genus, species and authority), and cultivar or strain where appropriate, must be cited for every organism on first mention.
5. Illustrations
These may be line drawings (e.g., graph, freehand drawing) or photographs. They should fit perfectly in either one (85 mm) or two (176 mm) column, preferably the former. In opinion-based papers, the column width is 56 mm, three columns being there.
Photographs and other types of drawings are numbered in separate sequence and referred as ‘Plate 1, Plate 2’ and ‘Figure 1, Figure 2,’ and so on, in both caption and text. Each figure and plate must be on a separate page and attached at the end of the text. Each illustration must have a self-explanatory caption. If there is more than one citation, all citations should be noted. Regardless of the final size of the illustration, the copies submitted should be printed on or attached to sheets of the same size (A4) as the rest of the manuscripts because small sheets or single photographs can be lost and large ones damaged. Units and abbreviations should conform to the Systeme Internationale d’Unités. Please visit our website for abbreviations that can be used without definition in figures and tables.
i. Citation of illustration
Citations of illustration in the text should be conspicuous. They should be in boldface with capital initial letters: Figure 1. This format applies whether an illustration is cited once or more than once.
ii. Line drawings
All line drawings should be in black-and-white (B/W) print unless the author is prepared to pay for the cost of multiple colors. The drawings should be as simple as possible. Avoid 3-D graphs if the three dimensions are not essential. Typically, lines are 0.5 points thick. Graph backgrounds should be white. A pattern fill should be used on bar diagrams, rather than shades of gray. Preferred symbols are open square, solid square, open circle, solid circle, open triangle and solid triangle in 4 pt size. Lettering in the figure should be in lower case type (Arial font, 8 point), with the first letter capitalized and no period. For graphs, only the names of axes should be in boldface type.
iii. Photographs Photographs should be in B/W print unless they are to be considered for cover display or unless the author is prepared to pay for the cost of multiple colors. If they are sent in digital form, photographs should be supplied by means of CD (not floppy diskette) as TIF or JPEG files with resolution of 300 dpi or more. They should be in final size, or sufficiently large so that there is no need of enlargement and consequent degradation of quality.
6. Tables
Tables must fit on the journal page (176 x 245 mm) when set in HJS format. The citation of tables within the text should be in boldface initial capitals: Table 1. This applies whether a table is cited once or more than once.
7. References
All sources actually cited within a research paper should be included in the reference list. Opinion-based papers, articles, and review papers may include other entries in the reference list if those works contributed to your writing and thinking. If you wish to list them as suggestions for further reading, they should be under a different heading such as ‘Further Reading.’ Accuracy of references is the authors’ responsibility.
References must be checked against their citation in the text to ensure that names are spelled correctly, that dates are correct and consistent, and that all works cited within the text appear in the reference list and vice versa.
The full title of the paper must be given together with the first and last pages. Book titles should be followed by the place of publication and the publisher. Titles of articles and books should be in ‘sentence case,’ not in ‘Title Case.’ If one cites a book as a whole (rather than a specific chapter), the total number of pages should be mentioned. In all references, small ‘p’ is used before the page number to indicate the page range and after the page number to indicate total number of pages. End punctuation is not normally used to close a reference entry. Mention all authors in a reference regardless of their number.
In the list, references must be arranged first alphabetically under author(s) name(s) and then in chronological order if several papers by the same author(s) are cited.
Starting with HJS Volume 2, Issue No. 5, journal titles will not be abbreviated in reference lists. Many of the reference examples below were taken from the website of “Council of Science Editors” and modified to our convention. Examples for review papers, research papers and articles:
BOOK
Book with author
Voet D and JG Voet. 1990. Biochemistry. New York: J Wiley. 1223 p
Book with editors
Coovadia HM and SR Benatar (eds). 1991. A century of tuberculosis: South African perspectives. Cape Town: Oxford University press. 319 p
Book with author, editor, translator, and note Ferrand J. 1990. A treatise on lovesickness. Beecher A and M Ciavolella (trans and eds). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. 709 p. Translation of the 1623 ed
Volume within a multivolume work (separate title)
Howard J and A Strauss. 1975. Humanizing Health Care, Vol 1: Health, medicine, and society. New York: Wiley. 562 p
Book chapter (or other part) with author different than that of the book as a whole
Kuret JA and F Murad. 1990. Adenohypophyseal hormones and related substances. In: Gilman AG, TW Rall, AS Nies and P Taylor (eds), The pharmacological basis of therapeutics, 8th ed. New York: Pergamon. p 1334-1360
JOURNAL
Journal article
Bajracharya RM, S Sharma and R Clemente. 2004. Discharge and sediment loads of two streams in the mid-hills of central Nepal. Himalayan Journal of Sciences 2(3): 51-54
Entry in which type of article is specified
Khanal SN. 2003. Renovation and reconstruction of universities [editorial]. Himalayan Journal of Sciences 1(2): 69
Article on discontinuous pages
Weisse AB. 1992. A plague in Philadelphia: The story of Legionnaires’ disease. Hospital Practices (off ed) 27(6): 151-154, 157, 161-168
Electronic journal articles
Loker WM. 1996. “Campesinos” and the crisis of modernization in Latin America. Journal of Political Ecology [serial online] 3(1). Available: http://www.library.arizona.edu/ej/jpe/volume_3/ascii-lokeriso.txt via the Internet. Accessed 1996 Aug 11
CONFERENCE PAPERS
Paper from a proceedings with separate title
Meyer B and K Hermanns. 1985. Formaldehyde release from pressed wood products. In: Turoski V (ed), Formaldehyde: Analytical chemistry and toxicology. Proceedings of the symposium at the 187th meeting of the American Chemical Society; 1984 Apr 8-13; St Louis, MO. Washington: American Chemical Society. p 101-116
Paper from a proceedings without separate title Gingerich DA. 1984. Pharmacokinetics of drugs used for therapy of the mammary gland. In: Kalter RJ (ed), Proceedings of the 10th Annual Food Animal Medicine Conference; 1984 Sep 25-26; Columbus, OH. Columbus: The Ohio State University. p 117-135
CONFERENCE ABSTRACT
Mendez MF, R Manon-Espaillat, DJ Lanska and TH Burstine. 1989. Epilepsy and suicide attempts [abstract]. In: American Academy of Neurology 41st annual meeting program; 1989 Apr 13-19; Chicago. Cleveland (OH): Edgell Communications. Abstract no PP369. p 295
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL REPORT
Cowardin LM, V Carter, FC Golet and ET LaRoe. 1979. Classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States. Washington: Fish and Wildlife Service. Report no. FWS/OBS-79/31. 103 p
DISSERTATIONS AND THESES
Dettmers JM. 1995. Assessing the trophic cascade in reservoirs: The role of an introduced predator [PhD dissertation]. Columbus (OH): Ohio State University. 188 p Adhikari A. 2001. Status of Taxus wallichiana (Zucc.) Pilger in Dhungkharka VDC of Kabhrepalanchowk district, central Nepal [MSc thesis]. Kathmandu: Central Dept Botany, Tribhuvan University. 49 p
PUBLICATION IN PRESS
Specify ‘[in press]’ where year of publication would ordinarily appear. For example Kiss A. [in press]. Making biodiversity conservation a land use priority. In: T McShane and M Wells (eds), Getting biodiversity projects to work: Towards more effective conservation and development. New York: Columbia University Press
SPECIAL PUBLICATION
Abramovitz JN. 1998. Taking a stand: Cultivating a new relationship with the world’s forests [Worldwatch paper 140]. Washington DC: World Watch Institute. 74 p
The reference format for opinion papers is similar to the above except that the author’s surname does not precede given name initials (except in languages, such as Chinese, where the surname is ordinarily written first). Examples:
1) E Mayr. 1997. This is biology. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press. 352 p
2) SL Pimm, GJ Russell, JL Gittleman and TM Brooks. 1995. The future of biodiversity. Science 269(5229): 347-350
8. Reference citation
In the text, references should be arranged chronologically, with the surname(s) of the author(s) followed by the date. Use letters (a, b, etc.) after the year to distinguish papers published by the same author(s) in the same year. For one or two authors, use both names and the year. For more than two authors, give the name of first author followed by et al. and the year. Examples for review papers, research papers and articles:
Tyree et al. (1994b) propose that .................... (IUCN 1988, Wessman 1992, Frank and Inouye 1994, Field et al. 1995)
When two or more authors in the reference list have the same surname, it is necessary to include the initials as well as the last names of both (or all) authors in your text citations. For example, KK Sullivan (1962) and D Sullivan (1996) come to similar conclusions about the effects. For the other categories of submissions, author’s name and date of publication are not mentioned in citations. Instead, numerical denotations are used. Example: Within half a century, tropical forests have shrunk by half, a loss of 9 million km2 (1).
9. Front cover pictures
The authors of research papers, review papers and articles are invited to include a color photograph for possible display on the front cover. The picture should be sharp, with good contrast, and closely related to the content of the submitted paper. It need not be submitted in duplicate form. In print, it should be large enough so that there would be no need of enlargement, which reduces printing quality of image. In digital form, it should be supplied as TIF or JPEG file with resolution of 300 dpi in CD (not by email or floppy diskette). Each photograph should be accompanied by a suitable caption. At the top of the page containing the photograph, please mention that the photograph has been attached for possible cover display.
10. Acknowledgments
Please be brief. We do not publish effusive comments, nor acknowledgments of anonymous reviewers and editors. Authors may mention financial assistance. If the research was undertaken in partial fulfillment of the author’s university degree requirements, that fact should be mentioned.
Specific guidelines
Please note that the above instructions are applicable to all categories of submissions. See below for further instructions related to a specific category.
11. Research papers
Observational, experimental, theoretical or applied papers appropriate to the journal’s scope are welcome. Papers should include headings in this sequence: Abstract (up to 250 words), keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions, references, acknowledgements, appendices, tables, figure legends and figures. Do not use a third level of heading (second sub-heading). Language should be clear and concise. Avoid long sentences. Papers should generally be 2000-4000 words long, including display items (tables and figures). Papers reporting on research carried out ten or more years ago will not be considered for publication.
12. Review papers and Articles
These should include title, subtitle, brief summary (up to 250 words), introductory paragraph, brief heading and sub-heads, illustrations, tables and references. Provide a title (up to 12 words) and, optionally, a subtitle (up to 20 words). One of these should be a precise technical description of the contents of the article, while the other must be worded provocatively so as to attract the general reader’s attention. Language should be clear and concise. Avoid long sentences. The text should be broken into logical units with appropriate headings. Panels are used for highlights, summaries and notes that would disturb the normal flow of reading, but would assist in more understanding and enhance interest in the issue discussed. Articles should generally be 2000-4000 words long; review papers should be 3000-6000 words long.
13. Opinion-based contributions
It is our policy to allocate adequate space for opinion-based contributions – editorial, correspondence, commentary, essay, policy and development, resource review, publication preview, etc. We assume that diverse ideas from different people on important issues of science and society, research and development, science education, technology implementation and philosophy of science are essential for scientific, economic and overall social development. These contributions are not usually peer-reviewed, but editors may seek advice from experts when necessary. Since opinion papers are intended for general readers, they should be written in non-technical language. Opinions should be supported by facts and figures. The argument should be focused and coherent. If uncertain as to category, authors may send their contributions without specification and leave that decision to the editors. Authors are encouraged to send appropriate photographs. The journal may also obtain pictures from other sources.
i. Summary
Accompanying opinion-based papers, we provide a brief summary in order to indicate the content and pique readers’ interest in the story. This is normally the editor’s responsibility; however, authors may include a teaser paragraph with their paper.
ii. Subtitle
We include subtitles in opinion-based papers. When title and subtitle are used together, one of these should be a precise technical description of the contents of the article, while the other must be worded provocatively so as to attract the general reader’s attention. Authors are encouraged to provide a subtitle.
14. Editorial and Essay
These include a 3-6 word title and 7-20 word subtitle (optional) but usually no headings. The text of an editorial should be about 600 words, without figures and tables; essays should be 1000-2000 words, including figures and tables. For references and citations, see sections 7 and 8.
15. Commentary and Correspondence
These are persuasive and stimulating comments on topical and/or controversial issues of general interest written in journalistic language. Correspondence can also be written as a response to material published in HJS. Commentary and correspondence should include a 4-10 word title and, optionally, a 7-20 word subtitle. Headings are not used. Commentary texts should be 1000-2000 words; 500 words or less is typical for correspondence. For references and their citation, see sections 7 and 8.
16. Policy and development
This is a critical review of some topic of high public interest. It should be based on highly reliable facts and figures. In a way, a policy paper is a hybrid of the essay and the review article, intended to provide information useful to policy-makers in the field of science and development, rather than discussion on science policy itself. This category may also accommodate a review paper (with or without primary data and models) covering a more specific topic.
17. Resource review
Only analytical reviews (of a book, periodical, Website, CD-ROM, etc.) are published. Effusive praise is discouraged. The review must be more than 800 words long and preferably in the neighborhood of 1200 words. The review must include the following:
- one paragraph (~300 words) to describe what we already knew on the topic
- one paragraph (~300 words) to describe what the book under review adds to our state of knowledge
- features of the book (or Website or CD-ROM or periodical) which are strengths and weaknesses (e.g., title-content matching, non-relevant inclusions, or social significance).
In addition, anecdotal and other relevant materials may be included. A review should not merely describe the content of the book. It should discuss the significance of the contribution made by the book and/or validity of the ideas presented in the book. Authors or publishers should send two copies of new publications along with a cover letter indicating three potential reviewers. The author and other parties involved in the writing or publication of the article are not eligible for review. In most cases, the editors will solicit reviewers for specific publications.
18. Calendar
Professional societies, institutions, and program organizers may send announcements of forthcoming events to the editor.
Publication charge, offprints etc Author’s copy
Could authors please contact the Editor for information about these issues.
PDF A PDF format version of the article is supplied to corresponding author free of charge.
Permission
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of any article published in HJS for personal use or educational use within one’s home institution is hereby granted without fee, provided that the first page or initial screen of a display includes the notice “Copyright © 2004 by the Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science,” along with the full citation, including name of author(s).
We assert the authors’ moral right to post their papers on their personal or home institution’s Web pages and to make and distribute unlimited photocopies of their papers. In all of the above cases, HimAAS expects to be informed of such use, in advance or as soon as possible. To copy or transmit otherwise, to republish, to post on the public servers, to use any component of a paper in other works, or to use such an article for commercial or promotional purposes requires prior specific permission. HimAAS does not grant permission to copy articles (or parts of articles) that are owned by others.
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.
Submission of a manuscript will be taken to imply that it has not been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
All submitted works are subject to peer review and revision at the discretion of the editors.
Author(s) must be accurately identified. No pseudonyms are permitted.
The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
Illustrations and text reproduced from other sources must be properly credited; it is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for the use of such material.
- If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed. List of authors and their affiliation has been removed from the manuscript to be uploaded.
I will copy and paste abstract/summary (if there is any) from manuscript to the appropriate space in the submission form. This will remove formatting (e.g., bold, italics, superscript) in the abstract. This abstract is just a preview and will not be used while reviewing and editing manuscript.
There will be appropriate charges associated with publication in the Himalayan Journal of Sciences (see “Author Guidelines” for details).
HJS makes aesthetic graphs for your data. Once your paper is finalized, authors will have to submit the data used to make figures.
Often HJS seeks expert advice on statistical and research design issues. In such situations, authors may have to submit original data in required format.
When a work is accepted for publication, copyright becomes the property of the Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science (HimAAS) whose permission must be obtained prior to publication in other venues. Please see Permission for guidelines regarding the reproduction or reuse of HJS articles.
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- When a work is accepted for publication, copyright becomes the property of the Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science (HimAAS) whose permission must be obtained prior to publication in other venues.
- Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of any article published in HJS for personal use or educational use within one's home institution is hereby granted without fee, provided that the first page or initial screen of a display includes the notice "Copyright © [YEAR] by the Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science," along with the full citation, including name of author(s).
We assert the authors' moral right to post their papers on their personal or home institution's Web pages and to make and distribute unlimited photocopies of their papers. In all of the above cases, HimAAS expects to be informed of such use, in advance or as soon as possible.
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.
Himalayan Journal of Sciences ISSN: 1727 5210 (Print) and 1727-5229 (Online)
NepJOL is supported by INASP