Call For Publication

SCOPE

The Rice-based Biosystems Journal encourages publication of original research and review articles that have impact on applied and integrated rice and rice-based cropping systems in a particular ecosystem. The Journal provides information on rice-based researches on soil and crop management, crop protection, crop improvement, grain quality, farm machinery, resource use efficiency, plant biology, nutraceuticals, food value- adding systems, biofertilizers, biopesticides, biomaterials, and system analysis and simulation. It also covers the economics, social, and communication systems that influence the landscape of rice and rice-based cropping systems.

AUTHOR’S GUIDELINES

1. Submission and Acceptance of Manuscripts
   • Manuscripts are submitted to Rice-based Biosystems Journal: rbbj.philrice@gmail.com. Manuscripts should be formatted as described in the Rice-based Biosystems Journal Author Guidelines and follow the PhilRice style guide. When preparing your file, please use Times New Roman as font type, and 12 as font size for the text. Please do not use Japanese or other Asian fonts. Do not use automated or manual hyphenation. With your submission, you will have to complete, sign, and send the Copyright Transfer Agreement. Authors may provide names of potential reviewers for their manuscript. Authors must inform the editorial assistant of any possible conflict of interest capable of influencing their judgement, and if necessary, a disclaimer will be included. Revised manuscripts must be submitted two weeks after the authors are notified of conditional acceptance pending satisfactory revision. Authors resubmitting manuscripts should follow the same procedures as for submission of new manuscripts. If accepted, papers become the copyright of the journal. Photos and tables must be high resolution scans (JPEG at 300 dpi).
     
2. Requirements for Manuscripts
   1. Language
      • The language of publication is English.
   2. Format
      • The first page should contain the name and address of the institute where the work has been done, the title of the paper, name(s) and initial(s) of the author(s), the e-mail address of the corresponding author, and the number of figures and tables.
        
      • The main text shall be preceded by an abstract, which is always in English and contains the background for the research undertaken, reference to the material and methods used, as well as main results and conclusions. It should not exceed 220 words. Up to seven ‘keywords’ should be added. A short version of the title (running title) should also be given.
        
      • The main text should be divided into the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Recommendation, Acknowledgment, and Literature Cited. Facts explained by tables or figures need no lengthy explanation in the text. Numerical material should be submitted only after statistical processing.
        
      • The manuscript comprises a printout of the text and a list of all figures and tables with their captions and titles on a separate piece of paper. In anticipation of the online edition, we ask that you convey the essential information within the first 60 characters of the captions. Each figure, table, and bibliographic entry must have a reference in the text. The preferred position for the insertion of figures and tables should be marked on the margin of the text of the manuscript. Any corrections requested by the reviewer should already be integrated into the file. The text should be prepared using standard software (Microsoft Word). Please do not include footnotes.
   3. Length
      • The manuscript should be typed double spaced with a 4 cm left margin. Manuscripts, including figures and tables, should not exceed 25 printed pages. The publication of shorter papers may be given priority.
        
   4. Units, Abbreviations, and Nomenclature
      • All units and measures must conform to the international standard-system (SI). Botanical genus and species names should be set in italics.
   5. Illustrations and Tables
      • The number of tables and figures should be kept to the minimum necessary, and have a maximum of 13 cm in height and 17 cm in width. All figures should include reproducible copies marked with the author’s name, short title, and figure number. Figures submitted as electronic file should be saved in PNG instead of JPEG for better quality. Powerpoint and Word graphics are unsuitable for reproduction.
      • Submit high-contrast photographic materials suitable for reproduction. Images should be of high quality with respect to detail, contrast, and fineness of grain to withstand the inevitable loss of contrast and detail during the printing process.
        
      • Scanned figures (usually in JPEG format) should have a resolution of 300 dpi (halftone) or 600 to 1200 dpi (line drawings) in relation to the reproduction size. You may submit figures in color or black and white. Graphs with an x and y axis should not be enclosed in frames; only 2-dimensional representations. Place labels and units.
        
      • Captions for the figures should give a precise description of the content and should not be repeated within the figure. Tables should be created with the table function of a word processing program. Spreadsheets are not acceptable.
        
   6. References
      • The literature cited should be arranged alphabetically and contain: the author’s surname, first name and middle initial, year of publication, title of paper, name of journal, volume number, and first and last page number of the publication.
        
      • Bibliographic references to books or other established publications should contain: author’s surname, first name and middle initial, year of publication, and edition, publishing house and place of publication. The name of the author and the date of publication should be included within the text. If more than one publication of the same author appeared in one year, these should be marked by small letters after the year, e.g., 2015a; 2015b. References to publications by more than two authors should be cited as follows: Luna et al. (2015) or (Luna et al., 2015).
        
3. Copyright
   • If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email.
     
4. Proof Corrections and Offprints
   • The corresponding author will receive an e-mail with the laid out publication. A working e-mail address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. We will charge for excessive changes made by the author in the proofs, excluding typesetting errors.
     
5. Submission and Acceptance of Research Notes
   • A research note is a short discussion on key research findings and advances on a particular theory, study, or methodology that does not sum up to a full research article. The format and guidelines of a research note resembles that of a full-length manuscript except for the number of words, figures and/or tables. A 3000 to 4000-word paper with an abstract and a maximum of 2 figures and/or 2 tables may be submitted as a research note.
     
6. Submission of Invited Papers
   • The Editorial Team can invite a member of the Advisory Board and Editorial Board of the Rice-based Biosystems Journal or an expert to submit a paper in line with the theme of the volume to be published. Invited papers may be in the form of a full paper, research note or a review article. A review article gives information on a particular field of study, recent major advances and discoveries, significant gap in the research, current debates, and ideas or recommendations for future advances.
   • At least one expert on the subject matter will review the invited paper. Instructions for submitting a full paper and research note are in numbers 1-5 of the author guidelines.
     
     1. Format
        • The Abstract consists of 220 words or less that summarizes the topic of the review. The current challenges and perspective on the topic are addressed, with significant conclusion and recommendations.
          
        • The Introduction states the purpose of the review. It presents a short background of the nature of the problem and its aspects of being resolved. The limitations of current solution or studies are included.
          
        • The Body presents the current studies and major advances or discoveries and impact on the present situation of the problem. Evaluation of studies such as applicability and availability of the methods used to certain areas and situation or statistical significance are elaborated.
        • The Conclusion summarizes the overall or major impacts and main points of the current studies, Recommendations for future advances of the research on the subject matter are presented.
        • The Literature Cited follows the instructions in number 2.6 of the author guidelines.

EDITORIAL POLICY

Authors should:

• designate a corresponding author who will be responsible in coordinating issues related to submission and review, including ensuring that all authorship disagreements are resolved appropriately;
• submit original work that has been honestly carried out according to rigorous experimental standards;
• give credit to the work and ideas of others that led to their work or influenced it in some way;
• declare all sources of research funding and support;
• submit manuscripts that are within the scope of the journal by ensuring that they abide by the journal’s policies and follow its presentation and submission requirements;
• explain in a cover letter if there are special circumstances when the manuscript deviates in any way from a journal’s requirements or if anything is missing and ensure that the manuscripts do not contain plagiarized material or anything that is libelous, defamatory, indecent, obscene or otherwise unlawful, and that nothing infringes the rights of others;
• ensure they have permission from others to cite personal communications and that the extent, content, and context have been approved;
• provide details of related manuscripts they have submitted or have in press elsewhere; and
• check the references cited to ensure that the details are correct.

Authors should not:

• submit the same or a very similar manuscript to more than one journal at the same time, present their work, or use language, in a way that detracts from the work or ideas of others;
• be influenced by the sponsors of their research regarding the analysis and interpretation of their data or in their decision on what to, or not to publish and when to publish;
• divide up the papers inappropriately into smaller ones in an attempt to increase their list of publications;
• be involved in ‘ghost’ or ‘gift’ authorship;
• use information privately obtained without direct permission from the individuals from whom it was obtained;
• make exaggerated claims about the novelty or significance of their findings;
• misrepresent or inappropriately enhance their results by any means;
• make significant changes to their manuscript after acceptance without the approval of the editor or journal editorial office; and
• submit a manuscript that has been rejected by one journal to another journal without considering the reviewers’ comments, revising the manuscript, and correcting presentational errors.

Reviewers should:

• Maintain the confidentiality of all manuscript content throughout the review process Provide an unbiased evaluation of the scientific papers; and
• Contribute to improving the quality of submitted manuscripts by reviewing them carefully, thoughtfully, and objectively Submit their evaluations on or before the stated deadline. If a delay is unavoidable, they must inform the managing editor promptly.

Reviewers should not:

• Share or copy information from the manuscripts for any purpose;
• Accept an invitation to review a manuscript if the intention is only to gain insights without submitting a completed evaluation form Use any information from the evaluated manuscript for their own research if the manuscript is still under review; and
• Suggest that authors cite their own research papers unless it is genuinely relevant to the work being reviewed.

Plagiarism Policy

• The journal not only promotes and advocates for the original works of its authors but also supports the protection of intellectual property rights. The use of plagiarized content in papers is a violation of research and originality standards. All authors submitting manuscripts to the journal are required to declare the originality of their work, avoid all forms of plagiarism, and adhere to ethical guidelines. If plagiarism is identified during the peer review process, the manuscript will be rejected.

Post-publication and Malpractice Statement

• In the event that plagiarism or misconduct is discovered after publication, the journal reserves the right to take appropriate action to correct any inaccuracies or retract the paper. Requests for corrections by authors to address errors that impact the interpretation of the manuscript after publication are subject to approval by the editor. If a reader identifies a serious error, they are encouraged to contact the authors of the paper directly.

Ethical Guidelines for Authors

• Ensure that the manuscript submitted for review is original, based on research, written by the listed authors, has not been published elsewhere, and is not being submitted simultaneously to other journals.
• Obtain approval from all authors and the research institutions where the study was conducted before submitting the manuscript.
• Ensure that individuals who contributed to the research receive appropriate acknowledgment. Avoid plagiarism and the use of fabricated data. Declare any conflicts of interest. Do not cite unpublished work.

Ethical Guidelines for Authors

• The journal employs a double-blind peer review process, ensuring that both reviewers and authors remain anonymous to one another. Under this process, the journal invites two experts to evaluate each manuscript. The manuscript will be returned to the authors for revisions based on the referees’ comments and suggestions. Revisions will continue until the referees approve the manuscript.
• The editorial board reserves the right to close the review process if authors fail to respond to necessary revisions or if the referees do not recommend the manuscript for publication. The final recommendation of the referees will be considered by the editor in chief when making the decision to publish.