Instruction For Authors

For ease of understanding, we are assuming that you are going to write a full article, however, you can also submit review articles, editorial articles, letters, and short communications. We would also appreciate your efforts if you would like to send your comments as a reader of our journal and help us improve.
Before submission, kindly go through the following checkpoints:

1. Go through the Focus and Scope to make sure you‘re on the right page.
2. Ensure the Article Processing Charge details.
3. Thoroughly read the copyright agreement and get it signed by all the co-authors.
4. Make sure your manuscript is accurate and readable - Language editing
5. Submitted manuscript should be in Microsoft Word.
6. Get complete knowledge about publication ethics, copyright violation, figure formats, data, and reference format before submission and prepare the manuscript accordingly.
7. Authors are encouraged to update their biography and other information on APID.

Terms of submission

• Manuscripts submitted should neither be published previously nor be under consideration for publication in another journal.
• The submitting author is responsible for ensuring that the article’s publication has been approved by all the other coauthors and that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list.
• It is a condition of submission that the authors permit editing of the manuscript for readability. 
• It is also the submitting author’s responsibility to ensure that the article has all necessary institutional approvals. 
• Only an acknowledgment from the editorial office officially establishes the date of receipt. Further correspondence and proofs will be sent to the author(s) before publication unless indicated otherwise. 
• We do not have strict formatting requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the required sections: Author Information, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Conclusions, Figures and Tables with Captions, Funding Information, Author Contributions, Conflict of Interest, and other Ethics Statements. 
• Check the Journal Instructions for Authors for more details.

For any further queries, please write us at: [email protected] or submit your query on the Query Portal.

All submissions are bound by IJABA’s terms of service.

Manuscript Submission Process (MSP)

Type of Articles Accepted

Before proceeding to write your research findings, it is important to have an idea about the types of research articles you can submit to a journal and which type of research article works best for your research work.

IJABA mainly accepted five types of a research manuscripts.

• Full-length research article: These articles report research work or original research findings that have not been published and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. A research article consists of a standard format that includes an abstract, description of research, findings, and conclusions that a researcher has reached. Usually, a research article is less than 7000 words, and the abstract is not more than 250 words.
• Review Articles- These contributions are usually commissioned by the Journal. However, high- quality unsolicited review articles are also considered. These articles review and discuss the developments in each domain. These are expected to be well-focused and organized and refrain from adopting a general ‘textbook’ style. The length of the review article should not exceed 6000 words. An abstract of fewer than 250 words is preferred. The number of references should be limited to about 100 in number.
• Letters and Short Communications: - Brief communications are another name for these papers. It is a concise summary of your scientific work for quick dissemination to the research community. Short Communications are brief articles that indicate or present new and significant information.
• Case analysis- It can be related to a summary of any case, or in any particular domain related to cyber cases, criminal cases, civil disputes, or others.
• Editorial Articles:- Editorial articles are generally written by the honorable members of the editorial board of the journal; however unsolicited editorial articles are also considered depending upon the topic and issue it deals with. Usually it is not more than 1500 words.

Manuscript Structure

Writing a scientific communication be it a research article or any other form of communication follows a rigid pattern or format that an author should follow. The format that you will follow with us is a result of the tedious process that focuses transfer of information between you and the scientific community. Here some changes you may notice in the heading or the typography of the article are made to suit the reading style of different readers and to ease the process of online publication of your article. We expect you to follow this guideline with caution, although we do know that you will take utmost care while writing the article but we still check for mistakes in formatting on our end and we would appreciate your effort if you have already followed the format. Here is a general format that an article follows:

Title page & Format

• Title:-The main objective of your title is to enable the reader to decide in an instant whether they want to read your article or not and whether the article is relevant to their field of research. The title of your article should be simple, and enticing, and it should state the content of the article clearly and in a precise manner. You should restrict your title to a maximum limit of 50 words. We would advise you to omit any ambiguous words and avoid unnecessary punctuation.

For Example:-

“Comparative model of protein structure designed using atomic resolution model as a template for beta arrest in protein.” Such title written above can be misleading instead avoid unnecessary words and make the title more self-explanatory like: “Homology model or beta-arrest in protein “

• Author Details:- All the authors who have contributed to your research deserve to be credited for the work and the names should be listed in the same line separated by a comma. The corresponding author doesn't need to always be the first author, and the order of name may vary at your convenience. But it is advised to highlight the name of the corresponding author with a star (Example: Abhishek Prasad*) to make it easy for the readers to identify the corresponding author. Correspondence should include an Email address, Telephone, and Postal address of which email and postal address are mandatory.
  Authors are encouraged to add a profile (maximum 200 words) to the submission and publish it. This should be a single paragraph and contain:.
  • Authors’ full names are followed by current positions.
  • Education background including institution information and type and level of degree received.
  • Work experience
  • Memberships of professional societies and awards received if available,
  • If the address information is provided with the affiliation(s) it will also be published. or authors that are (temporarily) unaffiliated we will only capture their city and country of residence, not their email address unless specifically requested.
  • Contact Details

For Example:

Homology model or beta-arrestin protein

Dr. Name used For example* Prof. (Dr.) Second name Used as Example

Bioinformatics example laboratory, University of Science and example study

• Abstract:- Abstract is one of the major components of your article and it should be able to define your research and should also give a brief account of your methodology adopted, results findings and conclusion that you came upon in your research. In short, the abstract describes your research in fewer words. Usually we would advise you to restrict your abstract to 250 words and avoid the use of tables, figures or any other type of illustrations. References need not be mentioned in the abstract and make sure that it gives sufficient details to the reader.
• Keywords:- Choosing the right keyword is very important as it will increase the chances of your article to be found, also the keywords should reflect your research and it would be an advantage if your keywords are already used in the title. Restrict your keywords to a minimum or 3 and a maximum or 7.
• Background:- Background should be brief and should provide background of the research or study; it should also highlight the aim of the study or research. You should also state the relevant findings and results of others that you found challenging and the issues that you are extending in your article.
• Materials and methods:- The methods section should provide enough detail for others to be able to replicate the study and build on published results. If you have more than one method, use subsections with relevant headings, IJABA have no space restriction on methods. Detailed descriptions of the methods (including protocols or project descriptions) and algorithms may also be uploaded as supplementary information or a previous publication that gives more details may be cited. If the method from a previous article or any tool introduced in the study including software, questionnaires, and scales is used, if wording is reused, then this article must be cited and discussed. If an existing method or tool is used in the research, the authors are responsible for checking the license and obtaining any necessary permission. If permission was required, a statement confirming permission was granted should be included in the materials and methods section.
• Presentation:-
  • Section Headings or typography:- Typography is one major component of the written form of communication and it is very important that you follow the prescribed format that is mentioned under this section.
  • Headings:-  There can be three levels of headings
    • Level 1: Main heading
      • Main heading should be Bold and all caps
      • Heading should be numbered
      • Font used should be Times New Roman (bold) and 12 points
    • Level 2: Subheading:
      • Sub heading should be italics and should have a space between the main heading and content
      • It should also be numbered under the main heading
      • Font used should be Times New Roman(italics) with 10 point
    • Level 3: Sub-sub heading:
      • It should be italics and should not have space between the content paragraph, but should have a space between the sub heading if the sub-sub heading is given directly under the sub heading.
      • Font used should be Times New Roman(italics) with 10 points
  • Bullets:- Bullets can be used anywhere in the content, taking into consideration that the bullet size should be small.
  • Line spacing:- Line spacing in the content should be 1.0.
  • Colors and highlight:- Font and text color should be black (Hex#000000) and highlights should not be used anywhere in the article.
  • Publishing etiquette:- This is an open access website that allows researchers to record their methods in a structured way, obtain a DOI to allow easy citation of the protocol, collaborate with selected colleagues, share their protocol privately for journal peer review, and choose to make it publicly available. Once published, the protocol can be updated and cited in other articles. You can make your protocol public before publication of your article if you choose, which will not harm the peer review process of your article and may allow you to get comments about your methods to adapt or improve them before you submit your article.
  • Images, tables and graphs:- Images, tables and graphs should be numbered and should always be mentioned whenever referencing them in the article.
  • Reference list:- You should list the references as it appears in the text. The number of references should be limited to 60.
  • Citation:- It is important to give the citation of the previously published work as it appears in the content of the article. It should be mentioned in Vancouver or numbered format. The references cited should always be in square brackets and should always appear before the punctuation.
  • Statements and Declarations:- The following statements should be included under the heading "Statements and Declarations" for inclusion in the published paper. Please note that submissions which do not include relevant declarations will be returned as incomplete.
  • Funding statement:- Authors must state how the research and publication of their article was funded, by naming a financially supporting body(s) (written out in full) followed by associated grant number(s) in square brackets (if applicable). Note that some funders will not refund article processing charges (APC) if the funder and grant number are not clearly and correctly identified in the paper. If the research did not receive specific funding, but was performed as part of the employment of the authors, please name this employer. If the funder was involved in the manuscript writing, editing, approval, or decision to publish, please declare this.
  • Note: Please see the  submission guidelines for further information
  • Results:- This section of your article should include a detailed account of the findings that have been recorded and the author should provide a clear explanation of the findings, their significance and relevance. Raw data is rarely included in any scientific article so it is advised that you should analyze the data beforehand and should represent it in the form of graphs, charts or table.
  • Discussion and Conclusion:- In simple words this section describes what your research finding means. You should also interpret your results and give an account on its significance. You should also try to answer the hypothesis that led you to do the research on the first basis. Lastly your conclusions should be based on the findings and should have a logical explanation instead of making biased judgments.

Review before submission process

Once your manuscript is ready for submission, we would suggest you take a moment, read our manuscript thoroughly and ensure that you haven’t missed something important either a finding or something in the method that you have followed. Reading your manuscript will help you in structuring your article better and will also help the reviewer to accept your manuscript without any problem or delay. We suggest you to make a checklist like given below and follow:

• Is your manuscript complete in all aspects?
• Have you followed the format carefully?
• Is the quality of artwork satisfactory and properly placed?
• Are the references mentioned complete and lead to the journal directly?
• We would also suggest you to communicate with your co-authors, supervisors and colleagues and ask for help if you are writing a manuscript for the first time.

Author Responsibilities

While determining the authorship, the prime principle is to look for the person(s) who is the creator of the thought/embodied idea (conception, design, execution, or analysis and interpretation of data). Authors should ensure that all those who have made significant contributions are allowed to be graded as authors. Authors should be practically involved in drafting the article, its revision, and appraisal. Other individuals who have also contributed to the study should be duly acknowledged. Manuscripts should include a full list of the current institutional affiliations of all authors, both academic and corporate. The order in the authorship has to be a joint decision of all the participating authors. Some co-authors will be accountable for the entire article, for instance, those who provide critical data, write the manuscript, or provide leadership to the junior fellows. Other co-authors may be responsible for some specific contributions to a paper. It is unethical to publish articles describing essentially the same studies or results in more than one primary research journal. Submitting the same article in more than one journal in parallel is unethical and unacceptable. Submission of a manuscript to the Journal for its consideration of publication implies that the manuscript is free from any kind of conflicts/irregularities including those discussed above. Manuscripts depicting studies in which animal trials have been conducted must document that the study was approved by an ethical review board before it was done. Few authors who are unable to submit manuscripts in a decent written format with grammatical and language errors and who request assistance for the same will be charged.

• Only two papers from one university will be accepted in one journal (per ISSUE).
• In the ISSUE, an author can only submit one paper.

Ethical Policy

IJABA  fully adhere to  Code of Conduct of Publication Ethics (COPE) and to its Best Practice Guidelines.

The Editorial Team enforces rigorous peer-review process with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure the addition of high-quality scientific studies to the field of scholarly publication. In cases where IJABA becomes aware of ethical issues, it is committed to investigating and taking necessary actions to maintain the integrity of the literature and ensure the safety of research participants.

Research and Publication Ethics

• Research Involving Human Subjects: - Human subjects are subject to regulation in research. No procedure or study that is not specifically exempted or a part of an approved protocol should be carried out. Regulations that apply cover things like maintaining documentation and records, adhering to study protocols that have received IRB clearance, getting permission before making changes, and reporting adverse events. The task of locating and observing all applicable laws falls to the investigators.
• Research Involving Human Subjects: - Human subjects are subject to regulation in research. No procedure or study that is not specifically exempted or a part of an approved protocol should be carried out. Regulations that apply cover things like maintaining documentation and records, adhering to study protocols that have received IRB clearance, getting permission before making changes, and reporting adverse events. The task of locating and observing all applicable laws falls to the investigators.
  When discussing research involving human subjects, human materials, human tissues, or human data, authors must acknowledge that the studies complied with the requirements of the 1975 Helsinki Declaration (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/), revised in 2013.
  Point 23 of this declaration states that an institutional review board (IRB) or other appropriate ethical committee approval is required before researching to ensure that the study complies with local, national, and international standards. The section's Institutional Review Board Statement of the the article must at the very least include a statement containing the project identification code, the date of approval, and the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board.

• Ethical Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research: - For research involving animals, the authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were under the standards outlined in the the eighth edition of “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals” (grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals_prepub.pdf published by the National Academy of Sciences,
  The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.).
• Research work on animals should be carried out under the NC3Rs ARRIVE Guidelines. For In Vivo Experiments, please visit https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines. 
• Authors should clearly state the name of the approval committee, highlighting that legal and ethical approvals were obtained before initiation of the research work carried out on animals, and the experiments were performed under the relevant guidelines and regulations stated below.
• US authors should cite compliance with the US National Research Council&; Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals;
• The US Public Health Services; Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals; and  Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"
• UK authors should conform to UK legislation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations (SI 2012/3039).
• European authors outside the UK should conform to Directive 2010/63/EU
• Research in animals must adhere to ethical guidelines of The Basel Declaration and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) has also published ethical guidelines.
• The manuscript must include a declaration of compliance with relevant guidelines (e.g., the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained by the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
• Research Involving Cell Lines: - The origin of any cell lines should be mentioned in the methods section of submissions that describe research involving cell lines. For well-established cell lines, the provenance must be mentioned, and references must be made to either an academic publication or a for-profit source. Details of institutional review board or ethics committee approval, as well as verification of written informed consent, must be provided if previously unpublished de novo cell lines, including those gifted from another laboratory, were used. If the line is of human origin, details of written informed consent must be provided.

An example of Ethical Statements:
The HCT116 cell line was obtained from XXXX. The MLH1+ cell line was provided by XXXXX, Ltd.
The DLD-1 cell line was obtained from Dr. XXXX. The DR-GFP and SA-GFP reporter plasmids were
obtained from Dr. XXX and the Rad51K133A expression vector was obtained from Dr. XXXX..

• Research Involving Plants: - All experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild), should comply with international guidelines. The manuscript should include a declaration of compliance of field studies with relevant guidelines and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained by the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

An example of Ethical Statements:
Torenia fournieri plants were used in this study. White-flowered Crown White (CrW) and violet-flowered
Crown Violet (CrV) cultivars selected from ‘Crown Mix’ (XXX Company, City, Country) were kindly
provided by Dr. XXX (XXX Institute, City, Country).
Arabidopis mutant lines (SALKxxxx, SAILxxxx…) were kindly provided by Dr. XXX, institute, city,
country).

Publication Ethics

• Transfer of Copyright: - To facilitate the transfer of Copyright, a Declaration and Copyright Transfer Form is provided on the website of the journal and a sample form is also available in annexure I and II respectively. From authors, the copy of duly signed form (scanned copy or image) should reach the publication management team within 48 hours of the final accepted copy of the manuscript for proofreading, the hard copy of the document should follow. If the publication management team does not receive the copy of your form timely the journal will hold the article publication in the target issue. The article submitted here has not been published anywhere else and is not under consideration in any other journal, if selected the article will be published with journal and will not be published anywhere else.
• Plagiarism and copyright violations: - Plagiarism is copying of an idea, thought, and text of someone else without proper citation and presenting it as one’s own idea or thought work. It is the responsibility of the author to obtain the permission of the previous author to reuse or republish his work. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their works are original and that any content that is not wholly their own is fully acknowledged. IJABA uses software such as Viper, Plagiarism checker, and copy escape to ensure that copy-free content is accepted and published. (i.e., replicating any content without acknowledgement and permission) and considers the authors' inclusion of plagiarized content to be misconduct. Authors should ensure that the manuscript that they are submitting is plagiarism-free and all the citations are properly provided at the right place. It should also be noted that citations do not justify mass copying of content to which the owner has the rights.
• Copyright and permissions: -Authors are responsible for ensuring that their works are original and that any content that is not wholly their own is fully acknowledged. The journal will use various software to check manuscripts for plagiarism (i.e., replicating any content without acknowledgement and permission) and considers the authors' inclusion of plagiarized content to be misconduct. The Authors may retain the copyright of their manuscripts, and all open access articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.

Editorial Independence

Without the influence of the publisher or any external bodies, the editors have the power to choose which pieces to consider for publishing and which to accept or reject.

Editors reserve the rights to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.

Handling Cases of Misconduct

• No journal is competent to police such cases. We at STM believe it the primary responsibility of the employer to check and train the researchers for the code of conduct
• Journal do not have any legal intimacy to investigate in any matter related to scientific misconduct
• However, the Publication Management Team of the Journal may seek advice from the members of the editorial board, in case it comes or brought to its notice, that the evidence of trust has been significantly compromised by the actions of the author or reviewer.

Authorship Criteria

• Only authors who made a major contribution to the study's conception, design, implementation, or interpretation should be listed as authors.
• An Authorship/copyright Form must be completed and submitted by each of the authors.
• The corresponding author ensures that the author list includes all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved individuals.
• Once the manuscript is submitted, the order cannot be changed without the written consent of all the contributors.

            Rejection of Manuscript

• Once the manuscript is rejected authors can take advice from the commissioning editor on how to make desired corrections in the manuscript.
• After the desired corrections have been made then only the author can resubmit the manuscript again.

Peer- Review

• All manuscripts are initially evaluated by the editors. It's uncommon, but it's possible that excellent work will be accepted at this point. Those who are rejected at this stage have major scientific problems or are outside the journal's purpose and scope. Those that fulfill the basic requirements are sent to at least two specialists for evaluation. Authors of submissions that are rejected at this stage will be notified within two weeks of receipt or will be given recommendations for resubmission from reviewers.
• Without going through the regular peer review process, manuscripts containing plagiarism, significant highly technical errors, or a lack of a relevant message are rejected. Manuscripts that do not fall within the scope of the Journal may also be rejected at this stage.
• After Acceptance:-
  • The author will be notified of the final decision to accept or reject the submission, as well as any recommendations provided by the reviewers, which may include direct remarks from the reviewers.
  • If an author desires to appeal a peer review decision, he or she should write to the Editors-in-Chief and discuss the problem. Appeals will be successful only if the reviews were insufficient or unjust. If this is the case, the document will be submitted to new reviewers who have agreed to re-review it.
  • After receiving comments from reviewers/Referees, members of the Editorial Board teams have the authority to make the final decision on publication. The corresponding author will be notified of the acceptance, rejection, or amendment of the paper.
  • If there are any minor or large changes, the corresponding author should send an orderly response to each of the reviewers' comments and a revised version of the manuscript to the editor.
  • The paper will not be accepted for publication until it has been approved by the editor and reviewers/referees.
  • Articles would be copy-edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format if they were accepted. Page proofs will be given to the appropriate author and must be returned within three days, with or without corrections.
  • During the submission and review process, the corresponding author (or coauthor designated) will act as the primary correspondent with the editorial office on behalf of all co-authors.
  • The journal carefully adheres to the double-blind review method, in which neither the author nor the reviewer is aware of the other's identity.
  • Although authors are invited to recommend reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial office have the right to choose different reviewers. The authors are in the best position to know who is an expert in the topic, thus they are asked to nominate reviewers. Furthermore, the suggested reviewers might be appropriate for other papers on the same subject. As a result, getting these names can assist the editorial office in ensuring that appropriate persons are contacted to examine all articles.
• Proofreading/Galley Proof:-Journal makes available (through the internet) the final camera-ready copy (revised version, if any) of a manuscript to the principal author/author responsible for correspondence, for final proofreading/check. No changes in the accepted thought contents are allowed at this stage. The Authors should note that the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the accuracy, the inclusion of up-to-date suggested revisions rests upon them.
• Camera Ready Format:- Manuscript submitted as per Camera-ready format will be published with discounted publishing charges. Please visit the link below to submit your manuscript as per Camera-ready format.

Conflicts of Interest

Conflicts of interest (COIs, also known as ‘competing interests’) occur when issues outside research could be reasonably perceived to affect the neutrality or objectivity of the work or its assessment. For more information, see our Publication Policy. Authors must declare all potential interests – whether they had an influence – in the conflicts of interest section, which should explain why the interest may be a conflict. If there are none, the authors should state: “The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article”. Submitting authors are responsible for coauthors declaring their interests. Declared conflicts of interest will be considered by the editor and reviewers and included in the published article. Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. Authors should explain why each interest may represent a conflict. If no conflicts exist, the authors should state this. Submitting authors are responsible for coauthors declaring their interests.
Authors must declare current or recent funding (including for article processing charges) and other payments, goods, or services that might influence the work. All funding, whether a conflict or not, must be declared in the funding statement. The involvement of anyone other than the authors who:

• has an interest in the outcome of the work.
• is affiliated with an organization with such an interest.
• was employed or paid by a funder, in the commissioning, conception, planning, design, conduct, or analysis of the work, the preparation or editing of the manuscript, or the decision to publish must be declared.

Complaints

If an author, reviewer, reader, or other individual has a complaint about the journal or its editors, they should first contact the publisher. The complaint will be handled by the appropriate publishing or editorial person whenever possible. If a resolution isn't sufficient, it will be forwarded to a higher-ranking official for resolution.

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