Author Guidelines
Manuscript submission
Submission of an article implies that it has not been previously published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; and further, that if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere. Manuscripts of all categories are to be submitted online (http://nyjxxb.net/index.php/journal/pages/view/papersubmission) with a letter of transmittal, giving (i) names and complete addresses (including telephone numbers, e-mail id, etc.) of all the authors and (ii) title of the contribution.
You can also submit an article directly to the Editor-in-Chief by e-mail: editorialoffice@nyjxxb.net
Nongye Jixie Xuebao/Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery is an academic multidisciplinary journal and therefore research and review papers of general significance that are written clearly and well organized will be given preference. All papers, solicited and unsolicited, will be first assessed by a Reviewing Editor. Papers found unsuitable in terms of the overall requirements of the journal will be returned to the authors. The others will be sent for detailed review. Authors of these papers will be notified of acceptance, need for revision or rejection of the paper. It may be noted that papers once rejected cannot be resubmitted. Manuscripts are selected for publication according to the editorial assessment of their suitability and evaluation from independent reviewers. Papers are usually sent to two or more reviewers. Editorial staff will edit accepted papers to improve accuracy and clarity and shorten, if necessary.
Illustrations and other materials to be reproduced from other publications must be properly credited; it is the authors’ responsibility to obtain permission for reproduction of figures, tables, etc., from published sources (copies of letters of permission should be sent to the editor).
Declarations to be made regarding ethical issues
Manuscripts that deal with clinical findings should be enclosed with a statement on informed consent of the patients under study.
If humans and animals are the subject of a clinical study, it is essential for the study to have been carried out in accordance with the ethical standards of the country/countries where the research described in the article has been conducted. A declaration to that effect must accompany the manuscript.
Supplementary material
Detailed tables can be submitted as supplementary material, which will be published online. If tables with huge data are not submitted as supplementary material and are found suitable for online publishing only, the discretion to use these as supplementary material lies with the journal. The authors will be informed about this during the processing of their manuscripts.
Any details and queries regarding supplementary material should be addressed to the corresponding author of the paper. The published material cannot be reproduced without permission from the author.
Authors’ conflict of interest statement
Authors must acknowledge the organizations that have provided financial support for their work. Any other conflict of interest must be declared while submitting the manuscripts.
Categories of Manuscripts
General articles [not exceeding 4000 words, 6 display items (tables and figures)] discuss current trends in research in a field that would be of interest to readers outside the field. These include interdisciplinary topics, science policy and science administration, some aspects of the application of science and technology to human needs or the impact of science and technology on society/ecosystems/life. The articles should include an abstract, introductory paragraph, brief subheads at appropriate places, illustrations that will help a general reader, and references.
Review articles (not exceeding 8000 words, cited references to be limited to about 50 in number) are expected to survey and discuss current developments in a field. They should be well focused and organized, and avoid a general ‘textbook’ style.
Research accounts (not exceeding 8000 words, cited references to be limited to about 35 in number) are articles intended to be personalized reviews of research from the author(s)’ laboratory, based on a body of published work. The articles must provide appropriate background to the area in a concise introduction, which should also serve to place the author(s)’ work in a proper perspective.
Research articles (ranging from 3000 to 8000 words) report research results of major significance. They should include an abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgment (if necessary), and References.
Research communications (2000 words) contain important new findings that are novel and of fairly broad interest. They should include a brief abstract and an introductory paragraph. Text should NOT be broken up under subheads.
Scientific correspondence items (less than 1500 words and 2 display items) serve to rapidly communicate important new findings. Contributions dealing with technical advances or advances in instrumentation may be published as Technical notes.
News (not exceeding 1000 words) can cover important scientific events or any other news of interest to scientists in general.
Meeting reports (less than 1500 words) deal with highlights/technical contents of a conference/ symposium/discussion-meeting, etc. conveying the significance of important advances to readers. Reports must avoid merely listing brief accounts of topics discussed.
Research News articles (not exceeding 2000 words and 3 display items) are intended to inform non-specialists about recently published advances or important findings.
Manuscript Preparation
All papers are to be written in English. Nongye Jixie Xuebao/Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery is an internationally refereed journal designed to expand the frontiers of knowledge of scientific and technological research.
Articles should be prepared strictly according to the template; please check the link http://nyjxxb.net/paper_template.docx. Each article should have no more than 8 authors.
Structure of the Article
Please follow this logic in writing the paper: first, briefly highlight the idea, then describe the methods for achieving the goal and the planned results, and only after that proceed to the detailed presentation. When reviewing the literature, you should not simply list the sources, but analyze them. You should explain with specific examples what has already been done by other scholars, what tasks are ahead, and in which direction you plan to move, that is, you have to introduce the reader to the research background and explain the place of your study in it.
The pages should be numbered consecutively, starting with the title page and through the text, and reference list. The page number should not be indicated on the title page (see the template).
The structure of the manuscript should be organized as follows: manuscript type, subject area, title (in English and Chinese), author(s), departments, affiliation(s) (institutions), city, postal code, country (in English and Chinese), Abstract (in English and Chinese), Keywords (in English and Chinese), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements (if necessary), References (in English and Chinese). As for the article title, authors’ details, abstract, keywords, and references in Chinese, the authors do not have to translate them. The editorial board will do that.
Title should be brief and informative, specific and amenable to indexing. The title should contain less than 15 words, each starting with a capital letter, and be centered, typeset the title in bold, Times New Roman (TNR) 16 pt, single line spacing.
Names, departments, and affiliations (institutions) of the authors, city, postal code, country should be listed. This information should be centered and single-spaced. The authors’ names should be typeset in TNR 14 pt, their departments, affiliations, city, postal code, country – in 12 pt.
At the foot of the title page, the authors should provide their full names (years of birth in brackets), gender, position, main engagement field, e-mail addresses, and indicate the corresponding author (see the template).
Abstract should be limited to 1 paragraph (250 words maximum) and convey the background of the paper, outline the methods, results, and conclusions, and explain the significance of the results. Any inessential abbreviations (those personally invented, in particular), any formulas, references to bibliography, figures and/or tables are inadmissible in the abstract. Typeset your Abstract in TNR 11 pt, alignment: justify; line spacing: single.
The editors recommend the authors to adhere to the following abstract template
Abstract template for a research article
This research aims to…. The article describes a new method/idea (etc.) ..., based on ..., enabling to .... Using (describe the methods), the authors (describe the obtained results)..... As an example, we illustrate the proposed method/technique... Our method/proposal allows to improve (any quantitative indicators by XX, X%)... The new method effectiveness evaluation is confirmed by the calculation .... New research results develop/supplement/improve ... and can be used for…. This paper is novel because….
Abstract template for a review article
The article offers a comprehensive analysis of the extant literature within a field of (subject area)…. Herein, the author surveyed the latest research on …. Our literature search yielded 21 references for years …. Based on the literature review, the author concludes that …. The current gaps and problems remaining uncovered are ... For future research, the authors recommend …
Abstract template for a research communication
This study aims to … / developed …/ presents preliminary results/significant findings of study on … over … last years. The methods used are … Our results show that … The proposed development would be useful in …. / for ….
Keywords: Three to ten pertinent keywords, separated by semicolons, need to be added after the abstract. We recommend that the keywords are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline. Typeset your keywords in TNR 11 pt, alignment: justify; line spacing: single. These keywords will be used for indexing.
The main text: Typeset the main text TNR 11 pt in 2 columns with an interval between columns of 1 cm, alignment: justify, indentation: 5 mm, line spacing: single.
Introduction: All papers should have a brief introduction (1.5-2 pages). The text should be intelligible to readers in different disciplines and technical terms should be defined. This is the reader’s first impression of your paper, so it should be clear and concise. Include relevant background information on your topic, using in-text citations as necessary. Report new developments in the field, and state how your study fills gaps in the existing research. Focus on the specific problem you are addressing, along with its possible solutions, and outline the limitations of your study. You can also include a research question, hypothesis, and/or objectives at the end of this section.
FORMATTING TIPS:
• Organize your information from broad to narrow (general to particular). However, do not start too broad; keep the information relevant.
• You can use in-the-text citations in this section to situate your research within the body of literature. These citations should be numbered sequentially in the order they appear in the text [1], [2], etc., and are organized accordingly in the References section.
Materials and Methods: This is the part of your paper that explains how the research was done and specifies the tools used in no more than 2-3 pages. You should relate your research procedures in a clear, logical order so that other researchers can reproduce your results. Simply refer to the established methods you used, but describe any procedures that are original to your study in more detail.
FORMATTING TIPS:
• Identify the specific instruments you used in your research by including the manufacturer’s name and location in parentheses.
• Stay consistent with the order in which information is presented (e.g., quantity, temperature, stirring speed, refrigeration period).
Results: Now that you have explained how you gathered your research, you are to report what you actually found. In this section, taking no more than 6-8 pages, outline the main findings of your research. You need not include too many details, particularly if you are using tables and figures. While writing this section use the smallest number of words necessary to convey your statistics.
FORMATTING TIPS:
• Use appendices or supplementary materials if you have too much data.
• Use headings to help the reader follow along, particularly if your data are repetitive.
• Section headings should be numbered sequentially as 1, 2, 3, etc., except Acknowledgment and References sections; subsections should be numbered as 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, etc.; subsubsections should be numbered as 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 2.1.1, 2.1.2, etc. There should be no point after the section, subsection, and subsubsection numbers.
• Section headings should be typeset in TNR 14 pt, bold; subsection headings - TNR 11 pt, bold; subsubsection headings - TNR 11 pt, only the subsubsection number in bold.
Discussion: In this section, taking no more than 4-6 pages, you should interpret your findings for the reader in relation to previous research and the literature as a whole. Present your general conclusions, including an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the research and the implications of your findings. Resolve the hypothesis and/or research question you identified in the introduction.
Remember, you must be prepared to justify your findings and conclusions, and one of the best ways to do this is through factual accuracy and the acknowledgment of opposing interpretations, data, and/or points of view.
FORMATTING TIPS:
• Use in-text citations to support your discussion.
• Do not repeat the information you presented in the results or the introduction unless it is necessary for a discussion of the overall implications of the research.
Conclusions: Explain how your research fits within your field of study, and identify areas for future research. Even though you may not look forward to the process of formatting your research paper, it is important to present your findings clearly, consistently, and professionally. With the right paper format, your chances of publication increase, and your research will be more likely to make an impact in your field. Do not underestimate the details. They are the backbone of scientific writing and research. Explain how your research fits within your field of study, and identify areas for future research. Even though you may not look forward to the process of formatting your research paper, it is important to present your findings clearly, consistently, and professionally. With the right paper format, your chances of publication increase, and your research will be more likely to make an impact in your field. Do not underestimate the details. They are the backbone of scientific writing and research. Describe your research limitations. Clearly state the theoretical and practical novelty of your results. Specify who are the users of your research results? For whom will these results be useful? How can they be used for scientific purposes?
Acknowledgments: Write this paragraph as brief as possible giving credit to any institution responsible for funding the study (e.g., through a fellowship or grant) and any person (e.g., technical advisors or editors).
References: Here you list citation information for each source you used. The list of references should be arranged in the order in which the sources are presented in the paper (numbered citations). References should be taken over the past 3-5 years. The recommended number of references is 25-35 entries. Before submitting the manuscript, please check each citation in the text against the References and vice-versa to ensure that they match exactly. It is important to format the references properly because all references will be linked electronically as completely as possible to the papers cited.
References should not include unpublished source materials.
References should be formatted as follows:
- Journal Articles:
[1] Author 1 A B, Author 2 C D, Author 3 E F, et al. Title of the article. Journal Name, Year, Volume(Issue), page range. (If there are more than 3 authors, put “et al.” after the first 3 authors.) - Books and Book Chapters:
[2] Author 1 A, Author 2 B. Book title. 3rd ed. Publisher Location: Publisher, Year.
[3] Author 1 A, Author 2 B. Title of the chapter. In: Book title. 2nd ed. Editor 1 A, Editor 2 B. (eds.) Publisher Location: Publisher, Year, Volume 3: 154–196. - Conference Proceedings:
[4] Author 1 A B, Author 2 C D, Author 3 E F. Title of presentation. In: Proceedings of the Name of the Conference, Date of Conference; City: Publisher, Year: Pagination. - Websites:
[5] Title of Site. Year. URL (If the year is not known, put “n.d.” instead.)
[6] Title of Site. Title of the article, Year. URL
[7] Author 1 A B, Author 2 C D, Author 3 E F. Title of the article, Year. URL
FORMATTING TIPS:
• While doing your final proofread, ensure that the reference list entries are consistent with the in-text citations (i.e., no missing or conflicting information).
• At least 70% of sources in References should contain DOI indices, e.g. DOI: https://doi.org/10.35741/issn.0258-2724.54.3.4 . If a DOI is lacking, it is recommended to add a link to any online source of an article. All links have to be active.
• Be sure to verify the correctness of the names of authors, pages and titles of journals in the paper lists at http://www.crossref.org/ (there is a search engine box in the center on the page – copy the source title into it and verify the correctness of the References).
Tables should be black and white, figures may be colored as well. They should be referred to as Fig. 1, Tab.1, etc. Number the tables and figures sequentially, according to their appearance in the text. Specify the corresponding source at the end of the table/figure title.
All symbols and abbreviations must be defined, and used only when necessary. Superscripts, subscripts and ambiguous characters should be clearly indicated. Units of measure should be metric or, preferably, SI.
Figures: Line drawings should be roughly twice the final printed size. Photomicrographs and other photographs that require it must have a scale bar, which should be defined clearly in the legend. Primary data should be submitted as far as possible (e.g. actual photographs of electrophoretic gels rather than idealized diagrams). The map of China, if forming a part of the article, must conform to official maps released by the Survey of China, giving reference to the source map. Lettering should be sufficiently large to be clear after reduction to print size.
Letters in the figure should be well readable and proportionally commensurable, and in the final, printed size, the font should be 7pt for normal text and not less than 6 pt for captions and symbols in the captions. Figures should follow their short description in the main text.
Tables: Place footnotes to the tables below the body of the tables and make the captions to them in superior small letters. Avoid using vertical rulers. As for the horizontal rulers, they should be at the table header and foot (see the template). Be careful when using the tables and once again make sure that the data given in the table do not duplicate the results described somewhere in the article.
FORMATTING TIPS:
• Table and figure titles should be centered, typeset in TNR 9, line spacing: single.
• Table title should be over the table body, figure title – under the figure itself.
• Table title should be typeset in bold.
• Tables with their content and figures should be centered.
Mathematical material: The text should make clear distinctions between physical variables, mathematical symbols, units of measurement, abbreviations, chemical formulas, etc. Authors should use italic and boldface to identify physical or mathematical variables. Variables are to be set in normal italic, and vectors, tensors, and matrixes in boldface.
Mathematical equations should be written clearly and accompanied by the necessary information. Each equation should be referred to as Eq. 1, Eq. 2, etc.
FORMATTING TIPS:
• Number each equation you present in the text, inserting the number in parentheses.
• Try using MathType or Equation Editor in Microsoft Word to type your equations, but use Unicode characters when typing single variables or mathematical operators (e.g., x, ≥, or ±) in running text. This makes it easier to edit your text and format your equations before publication.
• Remember to save your math equations as editable text and not as images in case changes need to be made before publication.
Terminology: Stay consistent with the terms you use. Generally, short forms can be used once the full term has been introduced:
• Full terms versus acronyms (e.g., deoxyribonucleic acid versus DNA);
• English names versus Greek letters (e.g., alpha versus α); and
• Species names versus short forms (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus versus S. aureus).
• One way to ensure consistency is to use standard scientific terminology. You can refer to the following resources:
- For gene classification, use GeneCards, The Mouse Genome Informatics Database, and/or genenames.org;
- For chemical nomenclature, refer to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the Gold Book) and the IUPAC–IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature;
- For marine species names, use the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) or the European Register of Marine Species (ERMS).
• Italics must be used correctly for scientific terminology.
• Species names, which are usually in Greek or Latin, are italicized (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus).
• Genes are italicized, but proteins are not.
Jurisdiction: The jurisdiction for all disputes concerning submitted articles, published material, advertisement, subscription and sale will be at courts/tribunals situated in China only.
The authors are asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review.
The authors should ensure they have written entirely original works, and if they have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Proper acknowledgement of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.
Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors or you can cite them, cite their work. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication. All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed. When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author´s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.
The scientific impact of the papers SNIP in Nongye Jixie Xuebao/Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery is assured by the established connections with the well-known indexing database ELSEVIER Products – SCOPUS (since 2001). When sending a scientific paper, authors should note that we are obliged to review a number of papers and these are considered and judged in hierarchy.
Author Services
The editorial board of the journal offers a range of fast, accurate, and competitively priced options to suit you. We welcome all authors to use our services, whether you intend to publish your work with us or not.
All manuscripts are edited by our fully trained team of native English speakers who will improve the grammar and phrasing of your paper at any stage prior to publication. You can find more information about the full range of services we offer below.
- English Editing Service: The service checks the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and phrasing of your paper.
- Layout Editing: The service prepares your submission for publication in the journal.
- Plagiarism Check: The plagiarism check generates a report that highlights any instances of text similarity, along with the links to the sources to which an article text fragment is similar/identical.
English Corrections
To facilitate proper peer-reviewing of your manuscript, it is essential that it is submitted in grammatically correct English.
If you are not a native English speaker, we recommend that you have your manuscript professionally edited before submission or read by a native English-speaking colleague. This can be carried out by our English editing service. Professional editing will enable reviewers and future readers to more easily read and assess the content of submitted manuscripts. All accepted manuscripts undergo language editing, however an additional fee will be charged to authors if very extensive English corrections must be made by the Editorial Office.
English Editing Services
Regular: The Regular service checks the grammar, spelling, punctuation and phrasing of your paper. Completed within 10 business days of receipt of payment.
Rapid: The Rapid service offers the same high-quality editing as the Regular service but is completed within 3 business day of receipt of payment.
Specialist: The Specialist service includes all features of the Regular service, followed by a check of the overall structure and clarity of expression in your paper by an editor with knowledge of your subject area. Completed within 10 business days of receipt of payment.
Additional Services
Layout Editing: Layout editing prepares your submission for publication. Completed within 3 business day.
iThenticate Plagiarism Check: The plagiarism check generates a report that highlights any instances of text duplication and potential plagiarism, along with advice on where to modify text or add further citations. Completed within 2 business day.
Reviewers Recommendation
Authors can recommend potential reviewers. Journal editors will check to make sure there are no conflicts of interest before contacting those reviewers, and will not consider those with competing interests. Reviewers are asked to declare any conflicts of interest. Authors can also enter the names of potential peer reviewers they wish to exclude from consideration in the peer review of their manuscript, during the initial submission progress. The editorial team will respect these requests so long as this does not interfere with the objective and thorough assessment of the submission.
Fees and charges
Majority of the cost of publication is funded by Article Publication Charges (APCs) paid by authors or their institutes. APCs allow for articles to be made freely available Open Access (OA) to all readers, anywhere in the world. Nongye Jixie Xuebao/Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery journal is OA.
The APC is Euro 400. This APC has to be paid after submitted paper is reviewed and accepted for publishing.
There are no article submission charges.
The APC should be made only after the decision made by the scientific board and Editor-in-chief using the e-mail address from which the paper was sent in the payment announcement in order to easily identify the study. An invoice might be sent to authors if they send complete information (name, address, country, codes, ID, or what they need to have on an invoice). The APC should be made within seven (7) working days after receiving the invoice from the editorial office.
All manuscripts will be subject to a well-established, fair, unbiased peer review and refereeing procedure, and considered on the basis of their significance, novelty and usefulness to the journal readership. We highly recommend you to send papers containing research, innovation, analyses. The reviewers’ identities remain anonymous to the authors. The review process may take several months.
Manuscripts which do not reflect the journal scope will be excluded.
The review output will be one of the following decisions:
A) Accept;
B) Accept with minor changes (several points regarding bibliographic references or other formal mistakes or lapsus linguae in the text);
C) Reject (the paper does not correspond to the scope of our journal, author’s malpractice, an incorrect methodology procedure, not an original study, not an innovative study, no research done, a study with no relevant citation, a study with an insufficient language terminology and a poor level, a study considered by reviewers as not a scientific one but a popular one, a study with nearly no scientific impact in the research field).
If required, the authors need to revise the paper according to the reviewer’s comments. After publishing, the authors may download the paper from the journal website.
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.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF file format.
- Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
- The text is single-spaced; uses a 11-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
- If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.