Research Article

GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH ARTICLE

Structure of the manuscript

The research manuscript should have the following sections: Title, Authors’ names and Institutional affiliation(s), Corresponding author’s email, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations, Acknowledgement, References.

Main section headings in the manuscript should be in bold, left aligned and of sentence case. Minimize use of scientific names in the title. Subsections (also in bold) may be included and only the first letter of the subsection should be capitalized. All sections in the manuscript should be written in a narrative, and the use of bullets is extremely discouraged.

Title

The title should be brief and no more than 15 words. It should clearly describe the overall content of the manuscript. A clear link should be evident between the title, objective, findings and conclusions.

Authors’ names

Author list: Use author full legal name in the order the names should be published; do not use initials.

Corresponding author: Include full name and email address

Abstract

  • The abstract should not be more than 250 words, and should summarize the problem investigated, objective(s), materials and methods, results, conclusions and recommendations. The results should be supported by empirical data.
  • The abstract should not contain any citations and undefined abbreviations.

Key words

Select up to a maximum of 6 important words from the abstract, excluding those in the title. Separate the words using commas and arrange them alphabetically. Do not use abbreviations, species names or combined key words.

Introduction

The introduction should describe the background of the study, the problem, significance or rationale, current status of knowledge on the subject, the specific gaps, the scope of the work and the objective of study.

Materials and methods

The section should be written as a narrative and be informative enough to enable readers to interpret the results objectively without requiring further clarifications. This section describes when, where and how the research was done; details of the procedures, techniques, experimental designs, measurements, equipment, data/information collected; description of analytical methods, including reference to any specialized statistical software. It should include citations of credible sources where more complete descriptions of the procedures can be found. The section may be broken down into sub-sections where appropriate.

Results

The results should be presented clearly and precisely. Do not include interpretation of results or interpretation of statistical analysis. Cite all tables and figures.

  • Describe the nature of the findings; do not just say whether or not they were significant.
  • Where applicable, indicate the level of significance
  • Show measurement of error, standard errors or least significant difference (LSD) on the graphs and tables.
  • Show error bars on the figures

Discussion

The discussion should clearly describe the significance and implications of the results obtained, and subsequently, how they auger with the existing literature on the subject.

  • Start by highlighting the most important results – the major patterns in the observations.
  • Describe the likely causes underlying these patterns as backed up by information from literature
  • Describe how the results compare with previous work in same or related topic
  • The discussion should be rich in references to similar work and background needed to interpret the results; include up-to-date (most recent) references

Conclusions and recommendations

Summarize the key findings, new interpretations, new insights that have resulted from the present work. Describe how the results obtained could be put into practical use. Include suggestions for future investigation on the work where necessary. Avoid conclusions that are not supported by the data provided.

Acknowledgements

Organize acknowledgments in paragraph form in the following order: persons, groups, granting institutions, grant numbers and serial publication number where applicable.

Referencing

  • Authors should use the APA (American Psychological Association) referencing style.
  • All references cited in the text must be listed and all references listed must be cited in text.
  • References to the literature cited in the manuscript should be organized alphabetically by name of first author.
  • If there are multiple works by the same author, order them by date, if the works are in the same year, order them alphabetically by the title and allocate a letter (a, b, c etc) after the date.
  • Cite single-author references by the surname of the author followed by date of the publication in parenthesis, e.g “. ... according to Hays (1994)” or “ ... population growth is one of the greatest environmental concerns facing future generations (Hays, 1994)”.
  • Cite double-author references by the surnames of both authors followed by date of the publication in parenthesis, e.g. “.... Simpson and Hays (1994)”.
  • Cite more than double-author references by the surname of the first author followed by et al. and then the date of the publication, e.g. “Pfirman et al. (1994)“.
  • The surname is stated once followed by the dates in order chronologically if works are by the same author. For instance, Mitchell (2007, 2013, 2017) Or (Mitchell, 2007, 2013, 2017).
  • If these works are by multiple authors then the references are ordered alphabetically by the first author separated by a semicolon as follows: (Mitchell & Smith 2017; Thomson, Coyne, & Davis, 2015).

Formats of writing references in reference list

Journal paper: Mitchell, J.A. (2017). Citation: Why is it so important. Mendeley Journal, 67(2), 81-95

Book: Mitchell, J.A., Thomson, M., & Coyne, R.P. (2017). A guide to citation. London, England: My Publisher

Jones, A.F & Wang, L. (2011). Spectacular creatures: The Amazon rainforest (2nd ed.). San Jose, Costa Rica: My Publisher

Edited Book: Williams, S.T. (Ed.). (2015). Referencing: A guide to citation rules (3rd ed.). New York, NY: My Publisher

Chapter in an edited book: Troy, B.N. (2015). APA citation rules. In S.T, Williams (Ed.). A guide to citation rules (2nd ed., pp. 50-95). New York, NY: Publishers.

E-Book: Mitchell, J.A., Thomson, M., & Coyne, R.P. (2017). A guide to citation. Retrieved from https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager

E-Book chapter: Troy, B.N. (2015). APA citation rules. In S.T, Williams (Ed.). A guide to citation rules (2nd ed., pp. 50-95). Retrieved from https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/ eference-manager

Website: Mitchell, J.A. (2017, May 21). How and when to reference. Retrieved from

https://www.howandwhentoreference.com.

Article in a newspaper: Mitchell, J.A. (2017). Changes to citation formats shake the research world. The Mendeley Telegraph, Research News, pp.9. Retrieved from  https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager.

Magazine article: Mitchell, J.A. (2017). How citation changed the research world. The Mendeley, pp. 26-28

Report by an institution: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (1997).

Worldwide regulations for mycotoxins for 1995: A compendium. Food and Nutrition Paper No. 64. FAO Rome.

Kenya National Bureau of statistics (2007). Economic Survey report: Ministry of Planning and National Development. Pp 159-179.

Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). (2006). Eastern province annual crop report. Ministry of Agriculture, Nairobi, Kenya.

Publication in proceedings: Legesse, B.W., Myburg, A.A., Pixley, K., Twumasi- Afriyie, S. & Botha, A.M. (2007). Genetic diversity of maize inbred lines revealed by AFLP markers. African Crop Science Conference proceedings 8: 649 - 654.

Paper presented in conference: Howler RH, Oates G, Allem A. (2001). An assessment of the impact of cassava production on the environment and biodiversity,3-9. In: Hershey, C (Ed.). Proceedings of Validation Forum on Global Cassava Development Strategy held from 26th to 28th April 2001, Rome, Italy.

Thesis: Mitchell, J.A. (2017). Fungal and aflatoxin contamination in maize from eastern Kenya and evaluation of possible management strategies. MSc. Thesis, University of Nairobi.

Language : Manuscripts should be in English (UK spelling).

Equations : Mathematical equations should be presented using appropriate Microsoft software.

Units and abbreviations

  • Use SI units of measurement and use numerals before standard units of measurements.
  • Use words for numbers one to nine, and numerals for larger numbers, especially in the text.
  • Non-standard abbreviations should be avoided, and where used, should be explained at their first mention.

Fonts

  • Use Tahoma font type size 12.
  • The font must be consistent throughout the document.
  • Italics should only be used when appropriate (scientific text, titles of works).
  • Font colour must be black for all main text; coloured font may be used for charts, graphs, maps etc.

Margins

  • Use normal margin measuring 1 inch (or 2.54 cm).
  • The text should be justified.
  • Tables and figures, including their captions must conform to margin requirements.

 Spacing and indentations

  • The text should be 1.5 spaced.
  • Text for figures and table captions, footnotes, items within tables and lists in appendices are single spaced.
  • The first line of each paragraph should be indented using a standard tab indent

Tables

  • Tables should be placed as close as possible to their first mention in the text.
  • Tables should be editable tables in a Word document. 
  • If a table continues on more than one page, repeat column headings on subsequent page(s).
  • All columns must have headings.
  • Leave no space between lowercase letters and their preceding values (e.g., 731.2ab).
  • Do not footnote the title—use the unlettered first footnote to include general information necessary to understand the title (e.g., define terms, abbreviations, and statistical tests).
  • Use approved abbreviations or abbreviations already defined in the text and define others in the general footnote.

Figures

  • Figures should be at least 300 dpi, or 1200 dpi for line graphs.
  • Photographs should be treated as figures
  • The quality in which figures are submitted is the quality in which they will print—please ensure figures are high quality.
  • The following file types of figures are accepted: tif (preferred), eps (preferred), rtf, ppt/pptx, pdf, ps, psd, ai, gif, png. Figures should be in their native format for best quality.
  • Maximum height: 240 mm.
  • Maximum width (one-column figure): 82 mm.
  • Maximum width (two-column figure): 171 mm.