Submissions

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). A well-written cover letter to EiC (Editor in Chief) is preferable but not mandatory.
The submission file is in Word (DOC or DOCX) or Rich Text Format (RTF) or OpenDocument Text (ODT). Any other file format will NOT be accepted.
Full names, email address and affiliation (use superscript Arabic numerals after the name to annotate later) of all the author(s) are clearly mentioned and the corresponding author is indicated by a superscript Asterisk (after the name to annotate later) in the manuscript.
Where available, DOI or URLs for the references should also be provided.
The main text is double spaced, text justified, uses a plain 12 point Times New Roman as the font; Scientific names are formatted as per international guidelines; URLs are italicized; The Title is in Bold 16 point Times New Roman; Headings are in Bold 14 point Times New Roman; Sub-headings are in Bold 12 point Times New Roman; all the tables including table/figure captions are placed within the text at the appropriate points and all the illustrations/figures are attached within separate files (DOC, DOCX or ODT file format) as mention in author guideline.
Abbreviations and measurements follow SI units and symbols as recommended by the IUPAC. The text and references adhere 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 Double-Blind Review have been followed.

Author Guidelines

For all article submission and enquiries: njb.bsn@gmail.com

Author can Register or Login to submit the article by using our online software at https://www.nepjb.com/index.php/NJB/login

Publication Fees:
Publication in NJB is FREE which means there are no Article Processing and Submission Charges for the articles to get published, as one of the main goals of the journal is to provide global researchers with a free and open-source publishing platform. However, NJB is not liable to provide the print version or hard copy for free and may charges for the hard copy or print version if the hard copy or print version is requested by the author(s) or any other third party.

Currently, Nepal Journal of Biotechnology (NJB) publishes Research Articles, Reviews, Method Articles and Editorials. Authors are strictly advised to read "About the Journal" page of the Nepal Journal of Biotechnology (NJB), which includes other relevant information not covered here including Publication Fees. Author(s) are expected to write a cover letter before submitting the manuscript and fill necessary forms as provided by NJB. Currently, NJB can only accept manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be in US English or British English, but not a mixture. NJB will not necessarily edit submitted manuscripts for style or language. We aim to make it easy for authors and, where possible, offer some flexibility in terms of formats and structure. Specific requirements do apply to some article types as per ICMJE recommendations, however; please refer the summary of type-specific instructions below:

Research Articles:
Research Articles should present originality in findings and insights and offer theoretical, experimental and/or methodological advances to their respective fields of research. Null and negative findings and reanalysis of previous studies leading to new results, as well as confirmatory results, are also encouraged.

For all biomedical & epidemiological studies should follow the Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) checklists given in STROBE statement.

NJB covers all original research within its scope regardless of the perceived interest and the extent of novelty. The peer review focuses on whether the paper is fully scientifically sound. Original research papers should be above 4000 words (excluding table/figure captions and references). The main sequential sections/headings of the original research articles are:

Title, Authors, Abstract (250-300 words), Keywords (5-7), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Author’s Contribution, Competing Interests, Funding, Acknowledgements, Ethical Approval and Consent, Data Availability (if applicable), References.

The Figures and Tables along with legend should be submitted as a separate file mentioning Figure/Table Number (E.g. Figure 1) as the file name. Figure/Table Number should be mentioned in the main manuscript. Figure and Table guidelines of NJB should be strictly followed.

The raw data including any extended data for the research articles MAY BE deposited in an approved open-access repository and include the title, the name of the repository, the DOI or accession number, and license in the manuscript under the heading "Data Availability" with CC-BY 4.0 license. NJB recommends using Open Science Framework (OSF), a free to use open-access repository under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC-BY 4.0). In the case of health research involving clinical trials, NJB recommends using reporting guidelines from EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network.

Reviews:
NJB welcome reviews that provide a balanced and comprehensive overview of the latest discoveries in a particular field, and summarize topics that have not yet been covered in the same way in the existing published literature. Reviews should be based on peer-reviewed literature, and should not include new research, data or, propose new hypotheses. The decision on whether a review is suitable for publication and subsequent peer review ultimately lies with the Editor in Chief (EiC). Review articles should be more than 8,000 words (including table/figure captions and references). NJB does not publish Mini-Review. The main sequential sections/headings of Review articles are:

Title, Authors, Abstract (250-300 words), Keywords (5-7), Introduction, Main Text(s), Conclusion, Author’s Contribution, Competing Interests, Acknowledgements, References.

Method Articles:
Method articles describe a new experimental method, test or procedure. A method article should include a write-up of the clear steps taken to validate the method, with results to support this validation. It should have been well tested with sufficient statistical analysis. This includes new study methods, substantive modifications to existing methods or innovative applications of existing methods to new models or scientific questions. The peer review focuses on whether the paper is scientifically sound and whether adequate detail has been provided to enable others to reproduce and use the method. Method articles should be above 3000 words (excluding table/figure captions and references). The main sequential sections/headings of the method articles are:

The raw data including any extended data for the method articles MUST be deposited with CC-BY 4.0 license in an approved open-access repository and include the title, the name of the repository, the DOI or accession number, and license in the manuscript under the heading "Data Availability". NJB recommends using Open Science Framework (OSF) the free to use open-access repository under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC-BY 4.0). In the case of health research involving clinical trials, NJB recommends using reporting guidelines from EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network.

Editorials:
In NJB, Editorials are short personal perspectives, usually written by EiC or, Senior Editorial staff or, the publisher or, the editorial board member or, the advisory board member or, the invited personals. Editorials are not formally peer-reviewed and must not include new research and data. Editorials may cover topics/perspectives relevant to NJB’s aims and scope and specific processes or communication policies or other developments that are directly relevant to the research community and readership that NJB targets or based on the article(s) published in the NJB. A maximum of one Editorial per issue is allowed. Although there are flexibilities in the formats but, Editorials should generally have fewer than 1000 words (Excluding References) in total, NO abstract, a minimal number of references (less than 5), and NO figures or tables.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT

Currently, manuscripts submitted as Word (DOC/DOCX) or Rich Text Format (RTF) or OpenDocument Text (ODT) are only acceptable and no other file formats will be entertained. Use the SI unit for any measurements and abbreviations should follow SI symbols and those recommended by the IUPAC. If any special characters have been used then embed them in a text as sometime a few special characters may be lost during PDF conversion of RTF or Doc/Docx or ODT format.

The main text in the manuscript should be written in double line spacing, plain, Times New Roman 12 point, texts justified, pages should be properly numbered (body font for final publication is Book Antiqua, font size 10 point). Line numbers should be used as a continuous one throughout the manuscript. Names must be properly capitalized, gene names or scientific names must be as written and formatted as per international guidelines and nomenclature. Font size for headings must be 14 point, Bold in Times New Roman and subheading must be 12 point, Bold in Times New Roman. URLs within the main text should be avoided as much as possible but if needed like in denoting the source then italicize URLs.

Citation of the references in the main text should be done using Arabic Number in a square bracket [ ], the numbering should be done in ascending order starting from number '1' for the first appearance of the reference in the main text (Eg: [1], [2, 3], [4, 5, 6]) and the number should clearly correspond to the number in the Reference section. Fail to format references correctly will automatically result in a return of the submitted manuscript back to the author for further corrections before proceeding to peer review.

Title:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews, method articles and editorials that NJB publishes. It must be concise and must directly reflect your study. The title must not be very long, and must be a maximum of 85 characters. Font size must be 16 point and Bold in Times New Roman. Below the title, authors name must be fully disclosed (First name <space> Middle name<space> Surname).

Below author names, affiliation(s) of the author(s) must be mentioned and if authors are from different institutions then mention the author's affiliations using superscript Arabic numerals (e.g: ^{1, 2}) in both AFTER their name and BEFORE affiliations. Individual email address and contact information are MANDATORY to be mentioned for all the author(s) during submission. Make sure the corresponding author is indicated by superscript Asterisk (^*) AFTER their name and BEFORE the email address mentioning "Corresponding Author:" We highly recommend mentioning ORCID iD associated with every author at the front page of the manuscript and if the author doesn't have ORCID iD then we highly recommend registering an ORCID iD since it acts as a unique digital identifier for the author and the registrations for creating and maintaining ORCID iD are free of any charges.

Note: only the corresponding author’s email will be displayed in the final publication and ORCID iD will be displayed for all those authors whose ORCID iD were provided.

Example (Note: Name, affiliations, email addresses and ORCID iD represented here are fictitious and should be replaced appropriately by original Name, affiliations, email addresses and ORCID iD):

TITLE
John¹, Hari², Paul^1*¹ABC University, Address
²XYZ University, Address
*Corresponding Author: abc@xyz.com
Author Email: John=123@xyz.com; Hari=345@xyz.com; Paul=678@xyz.com
ORCID iD : John: 1234; Hari: 3456; Paul: 6789

Abstract:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews and method articles that NJB publishes. The abstract section is written as a single paragraph after the title and should not contain any subheadings. The abstract must be non-structural, and must not be more than 250-300 words. It should summarization all the sections of the article in a single paragraph. Abbreviations and citations must be avoided and the full forms of abbreviations should be written if used.

Keywords:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews and method articles that NJB publishes. Keywords should be included after the abstract as a separate heading. The keywords should be in sequential order with-respect-to their position/first appearance in the body of the manuscript. The authors should supply up to 5-7 relevant keywords that describe the subject of their article. These will improve the visibility of your article.

Introduction:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews and method articles that NJB publishes. The introduction section of the manuscript should contain sufficient references that should clearly reflect factors like the background of the study, summaries of the existing pieces of literature, consideration(s) for the study (rationale for study), previous key studies relevant to current studies, nature/hypothesis of the study along with sufficient references. A clear and concise introduction will help the reader to know better about the article.

Materials and Methods:
This section is applicable for research articles and method articles that NJB publishes. This section is mentioned after the introduction. Most researchers follow the methodology seriously for their works, thus methodology must be clear, complete, well explained, properly cited with high repeatability and reproducibility when conducted in different settings with the same parameters. Detail of vectors, PCR settings, biological materials, manufacturer of chemical & instruments, experimental setting and parameters must be clearly mentioned, if applicable. In the case of method articles, the references of all the previous protocols must be cited and mentioned properly. Materials and Methods section should also have aim, design and setting of study along with processes, intervention and statistical analysis along with empirical or numerical formulas must also be clearly mentioned. The formula used must be typed using the Insert Equation tool of the word processing software so that there won't be any format errors while processing the file during publication.

Main Text(s):
This section is only applicable for review articles that NJB publishes. It is to be noted that the main text section is not a separate heading rather it's the representation for the group of headings in the review article. This section is mentioned after the Introduction section. This section is the body of the article, and usually contains several headings that are broken into subsections with short, informative subheadings. Tables and figures must be cited and have authorization obtained from its original author.

Results:
This section is applicable for research articles and method articles that NJB publishes. This section must include all the main findings and outcomes of the study. For the explanation and visualization, author(s) can include (But not limited to) tables and figures like pictorial illustrations, bar graphs, histograms or graphs. Tables and figures should be well captioned with a concise explanatory statement as far as possible and must be numbered serially using Arabic Numerals (eg. Table 1 or Figure 1).

Discussion:
This section is applicable for research articles and method articles that NJB publishes. There should be clear discussions showing the relevance of the results obtained with current trends and research publications worldwide. For method articles, this section should also include a discussion of any practical or operational issues involved in performing the study and any issues not covered in other sections. Referencing and comparing with articles more than 10 years old are not recommended, and NJB encourages to cite the latest and peer-reviewed articles in this section.

Conclusion:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews and method articles that NJB publishes. The conclusion must highlight the overall significance of the work/review, may conclude how close was the hypothesis with the result, may display any corrections/additional pieces of information that may be lacking or needed to improve further and may also relate the result obtained concerning future aspects.

Author’s Contribution:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews and method articles that NJB publishes. The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. Guidance and criteria for authorship can be found in "About the Journal" Section of NJB. Please use initials (eg. JW for John White) and NOT the full names to refer to each author's contribution. Author contributions can be divided into aspects like "Project Administration/Project in-charge/Project coordinator", "Conceptualization" (i.e. Ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims), "Writing – Original Draft Preparation", "Writing – Review & Editing" and so on. Follow ICJME and COPE guidelines to determine roles need to perform to get authorship. Also, it's compulsory to declare in this section that if "All authors read and approved the final manuscript."

Competing Interests:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews and method articles that NJB publishes. Articles published in NJB must clearly disclose any financial, personal, or professional competing interests for any of the authors that could be interpreted to unduly influence the content(s)/section(s) of the article. Any competing Interest will be displayed alongside the article. If there are not any competing interests then the text "No competing interests were disclosed" must be added in this section.

Funding:
This section is applicable for research articles and method articles that NJB publishes. Please state who funded the work, whether it is your employer, a grant funder, etc. Please do not list funding that you have that is not relevant to this specific piece of research. For each funder, please state the funder’s name, the grant number where applicable, and the individual to whom the grant was assigned. If your work was not funded by any grants, then state: ‘The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work’.

Acknowledgments:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews and method articles that NJB publishes. All the concerned parties, like members, institutions, funding agency or any other involvement worth mentioning but do not meet authorship criteria must be clearly acknowledged in this section. ICJME and COPE guidelines should be taken into considerations to determine authorship in detail. If there are no concerned parties for the acknowledgment, then “Not applicable” must be mention.

Ethical Approval and Consent:
This section is applicable for research articles and method articles that NJB publishes. For articles reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must include a statement on ethics approval and consent (even where the need for approval was waived) and must include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee’s reference number if appropriate. Studies involving animals must include a statement on ethical approval and for experimental studies involving client-owned animals, authors must also include a statement on informed consent from the client or owner. For articles involving patient/participant data or information (e.g. personal genomics articles, case reports, clinical trials, questionnaires, and observations), authors must ensure that they have written informed consent from all the subjects involved (or their legal guardian for a minor, or next of kin if the participant is deceased). Please be ready to provide copies of such consent forms, if requested by the NJB team. If your manuscript does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue, please state “Not applicable” in this section.

Data Availability:
This section is exclusively applicable for method articles that NJB publishes and if the author wish may include this section in the original research article type. The raw data including any extended data for the method articles MUST be deposited with CC-BY 4.0 license in an approved open-access repository and include the title, the name of the repository, the DOI or accession number, and license in the manuscript under the heading "Data Availability". NJB recommends using Open Science Framework (OSF) the free to use open-access repository under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC-BY 4.0).

References:
This section is applicable for research articles, reviews, method articles and editorials that NJB publishes. NJB recommends using Vancouver reference style for the references based on the National Information Standards Organization ANSI/NISO Z39.29-2005 (R2010) Bibliographic References as adapted by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for its databases and the references should be as per the standards summarized in the NLM’s International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References webpage and further NLM style guide can be found at NLM’s Citing Medicine, 2nd edition. The use of DOI/link is highly encouraged for each reference and should be placed after each reference with the link underlined.

NJB recommends authors using free-to-use Reference Management Software (RMS) that support Citation Style Language (CSL) styles, such as Mendeley for formatting their references. Journal names should be abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations or as displayed in NLM Catalog.

Examples:

Some examples of references adopted from NLM’s Citing Medicine, 2nd edition are:

1. Standard Journal article with less than or equal to 6 authors:

Pandey BR, Ghimire S, Bhattarai S, Shrestha E, Thapa P, Shrestha BG. Isolation, growth, enzyme assay and identification via 16S rRNA full sequencing of cellulolytic microbes from Nepal for biofuel production. Renew Energy. 2019 Mar 1;132:515-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.07.120

2. Standard journal article with many authors will get an optional limit to first 6 authors followed by et al.:

Shrestha P, Bista M, Sharma P, Shrestha S, Lamichhane B, Adhikari S, et al. Phytochemical screening, antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity of Nepalese medicinal plants Swertia chirayita and Dendrobium amoenum. Nepal J Biotechnol. 2015 Dec 30;3(1):48-57. https://doi.org/10.3126/njb.v3i1.14231

3. Journal article with organization as author

Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group. Hypertension, insulin, and proinsulin in participants with impaired glucose tolerance. Hypertension. 2002;40(5):67986. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.HYP.0000035706.28494.09

4. Journal article with multiple organizations as author

Polish Neurologic Society; Polish Neurosurgical Society. [Recommendation of the Polish Neurologic Society and the Polish Neurosurgical Society regarding stroke prevention and therapy]. Neurol Neurochir Pol. 2003;37 Suppl 6:3-41. Polish.

5. Book with less than or equal to 3 authors

Eyre HJ, Lange DP, Morris LB. Informed decisions: the complete book of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. 2nd ed. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; c2002. 768 p.

6. Book with many authors will get an optional limit to the first 3 authors

Maclean JL, Dawe DC, Hettel GP, Hardy B, at al. Rice almanac: Source book for the most important economic activity on earth. Int. Rice Res. Inst.; 2002. 253p.

7. Book with organization as author/editor

Advanced Life Support Group. Acute medical emergencies: the practical approach. London: BMJ Books; 2001. 454 p.

8. Standard Citation for a webpage:

Complementary/Integrative Medicine [Internet]. Houston: University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center; c2007 [cited 2007 Feb 21]. Available from: http://www.mdanderson.org/departments/CIMER/.

9. Standard citation for a forthcoming ("In Press") article

Savinainen KJ, Helenius MA, Lehtonen HJ, Visakorpi T. Overexpression of EIF3S3 promotes cancer cell growth. Prostate. Forthcoming 2006.

10. Standard paper presented with a separate name for the conference

Bernhardt A, Weiss C, Breuer J, Kumpf M, Sieverding L. The clinical relevance of an elevated lactate level after surgery for congenital heart disease. Paper presented at: Myocardial cell damage and myocardial protection. 3rd International Symposium on the Pathophysiology of Cardiopulmonary Bypass; 2000 Dec 16; Aachen, Germany.

11. Standard US patent

Cho ST, inventor; Hospira, Inc., assignee. Microneedles for minimally invasive drug delivery. United States patent US 6,980,855. 2005 Dec 27.

12. Patent in which an organization is the inventor

Seiko Ohkubo, inventor; Seiko Ohkubo, assignee. Acupressure appliance for medical treatment. United Kingdom patent GB 2 350 301. 2000 Nov 29. 47 p.

13. Standard dissertation

Jones DL. The role of physical activity on the need for revision total knee arthroplasty in individuals with osteoarthritis of the knee [dissertation]. [Pittsburgh (PA)]: University of Pittsburgh; 2001. 436 p.

Figures and Illustrations:
Figures should be provided as separate files, either in DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, Figures can be uploaded as .tiff, .png, .jpg, .eps or .bmp formats. Figure with high resolution (500 dpi or above) are only accepted as the main objective is to obtain the highest quality images possible for the publication. The preferred format is .tiff with 600 dpi. Figure files should be titled with the number of figures corresponding to the main manuscript (e.g. Figure 1). Each file should comprise only a single figure. If more than one figure are attached in the same figure, then each of them should be described as A, B ... For instance, Figure 1A, Figure 1B, etc.

Please ensure that all figures are referenced in the main text of the manuscript. Because figures are hosted separately to the main text, please do not add placeholders for the figures in the text itself. Figure legends should be included in the main body in the same place where it should exactly be present during the final print. Please do not include the figure legend in the figure file itself.

If reusing a Figure from a previous publication, or any other published source then, the authors are responsible for obtaining permission from the copyright holder and for the payment of any fees (if applicable). Please include a note in the legend like ‘Figure has been reproduced with permission from [include original publication citation]’

Tables:
Each table should be numbered in a sequential order using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.) in the main text of the manuscript. Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table. Detailed and concise legends may then follow. The title and legend should be placed at the top of the table. Tables should be formatted using the ‘insert table’ function in the word processing software. Please ensure that all figures are referenced in the main text of the manuscript

If reusing a table from a previous publication, or any published source then, the authors are responsible for obtaining permission from the copyright holder and for the payment of any fees (if applicable). Please include a note in the legend to state that: ‘This table has been reproduced with permission from [include original publication citation]’.

(Guidelines updated 22 May 2020)

Copyright Notice

Copyright Notice:
The manuscript submitted to NJB must be an original contribution, not previously published and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. When the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to automatically transfer the copyright of the article to the publisher. It should grant permission to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate your article, according to the NJB copyright and license agreement.

Authors transfer copyright to the publisher as part of a journal publishing agreement but have the rights to: Share their article for Personal Use, Internal Institutional Use and Scholarly Sharing purposes, with the NJB applies the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 license to all the works we publish after July 2022. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. More details on CC BY 4.0 refer to its Licence Deed and Legal Code.