Instructions for Contributors

Manuscripts should be typed in A4 paper, 12 font sizes, Time New Roman, double line spacing, and all pages numbered starting from the title page. The order of appearance of materials in the articles should be: Name and address, Title, Abstract (not more than 300 words), Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Result, Discussion and References (APA format).

The Title should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the paper. Where possible the title should not be longer than 18 words. The Title Page should include the following: authors’ full names and affiliations; the name of the corresponding author along with phone number, e-mail information and current address.

The Abstract should concisely indicate the purpose and method of research, the results and the conclusion. The abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited. 3 to 5 keywords should be provided.

The Introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of disciplines.

Materials and methods should be complete enough to allow experiments to be reproduced. However, only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Sub-headings should be used. Methods in general use need not be described in detail.

Results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in the authors’ experiments. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the results but should be put into the Discussion section.

The Discussion should interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies on this topic. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.

Tables should be kept to a minimum and be designed to be as simple as possible. Tables are to be typed singlespaced throughout, including headings. Each table should be fixed in appropriate section within the text.

Figure legends should be typed in numerical order on a separate sheet. Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG or PowerPoint before posting in the Microsoft Word manuscript file. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts (Figure 1). Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.

References: In the text, a reference identified by means of an author‘s name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. When there are more than two authors, only the first author‘s name should be mentioned, followed by ’et al‘ in subsequent citation. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like ‘a’ and ‘b’ after the date to distinguish the works.

Three types of manuscripts may be submitted:

Research papers: These should describe new and carefully confirmed findings, and experimental procedures should be given in sufficient detail for others to verify the work. The length of a full paper should contain about 10 pages; the minimum required to describe and interpret the work clearly (this excludes wording related to an abstract, a full set of references, tables and diagrams).Papers can either be theoretical or empirical based.

Review articles: Submission of reviews and perspectives covering topics of current interest are welcome and encouraged. Reviews should be concise and about 7-8 printed pages. Reviews/opinion manuscripts are also peerreviewed.

Short Communications: A Short Communication is suitable for recording the results of complete small investigations or giving details of new models or hypotheses, innovative methods, techniques or apparatus. The style of main sections need not conform to that of full-length papers. Short communications are 4 to 6 printed pages in length.