Guide for Authors

 

Author’s Guide

Iranian Journal of Veterinary Research (IJVR)

 

Objectives of the journal

The Iranian Journal of Veterinary Research (IJVR) is a blind peer-reviewed OPEN ACCESS  which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access. The journal is published quarterly. The aims of this journal are to improve and expand knowledge in all veterinary fields. It is an international journal indexed by Clarivate Analytics (Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Thomson Reuters); PubMed; Scopus, Scimago; CAB Abstracts; Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC); Scientific Information Database (SID); Magiran; NAMAYE of the Library of Islamic Republic of Iran; Veterinary Bulletin; Index Veterinarius; Index Medicus for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (IMEMR). Research papers and reports on a wide range of veterinary topics are published in the journal after being evaluated by expert reviewers. This journal follows all ethical guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Types of contribution

1- Full paper (original article): A full paper covers a full report of the results of original research required for the precise description and clear interpretation of the work.

2- Review article: Review article is written by scholar(s) and expert(s) in the field who has (have) already published proper number of research papers on the same subject. In the review article, the results of published research are closely evaluated, the strong and weak points are stated, and suggestions for further improvement are provided. The editor of IJVR welcomes review articles; however, preliminary discussion with the editor regarding the subject and length of the article is advisable before submission.

3- Short paper: Short papers are intended to rapidly communicate novel ideas and results in new and developing areas of veterinary sciences, but are limited in the level of performed investigations, and are thus insufficient to fill the requirements of a full paper. Short papers may be submitted to the journal as such, or may result from a request to condense a regular paper during the review process.

4- Scientific report: These articles deal with important issues to clinicians and biomedical researchers in all areas of veterinary sciences. These types of articles include a title page, abstract, introduction, case description, results, discussion and references sections.

5- Letter to editor: Letters on all topics related to the science and practice of veterinary medicine would be considered for publication. The length should not usually exceed 400 words and may be shortened for publication. References should be given when necessary. Up to two photographs can be accommodated if appropriate and tables will occasionally be allowed. Full address details of all authors as well as an e-mail address for the corresponding author should be supplied and will be published.

Submission of manuscripts

Submission to the Iranian Journal of Veterinary Research (IJVR) now proceeds online via the following link: http://ijvr.shirazu.ac.ir. Authors will be guided step-by-step through uploading files directly from their computers. Electronic DOC proofs will be automatically generated from uploaded files, and used for subsequent reviewing.

Authors are invited to suggest the names of 2 referees (with their e-mail addresses) whom they feel are qualified to evaluate their submission. Submission of such names does not, however, imply that they will definitely be used as referees.

Authors should send queries concerning the submission process or journal procedures to: ijvr@shirazu.ac.ir, and can check the status of their manuscript within the review procedure using the Editorial System.

Hard copy submissions will be asked to be resubmitted using the online system. Submission of an article is understood to imply that the article should be original and not already published in or simultaneously sent to be published elsewhere. Submission also implies that all authors have approved the paper for release and are in agreement with its content.

In the case that a major scientific or ethical issue has been identified by journal authorities which is not satisfactorily resolved by authors, the journal reserves the right to refuse continued processing of the manuscript even after its acceptance.

Ethics

Manuscripts describing any experimental research on animals should include a statement of approval by the Ethical Committee of the institute where the work was done, mentioning that the study was carried out according to the legal requirements of the relevant local or national authority. Before papers describing animal studies are accepted for publication in the Iranian Journal of Veterinary Research, the authors must convince the editors that the work conformed to appropriate ethical standards. The care and use of experimental animals should comply with Shiraz University animal welfare guidelines and policies.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is globally recognized as a serious academic offence. As part of our commitment to the protection and enhancement of the peer review process, editors assist the scientific community in all aspects of publishing ethics, especially in cases of (suspected) duplicate submission or plagiarism. Manuscripts will be checked with the iThenticate Logo to ensure content originality. Manuscripts with remarkable similarity will be returned to the authors.

Manuscript preparation

The manuscript including tables, footnotes and figure legends must be typed in double space on A4 size (21 × 29.7 cm) white paper, with a top margin of 2.5 cm, and left and right margins of 2 cm and a Times New Roman font size of 12 (Microsoft Word 2007). The article should be in English and include abstracts in both English and Persian. For non-Persian language speakers, a Persian language abstract will be written by the editorial staff. The following sections should be included in the manuscript in order: title page, abstract and key words, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, references, tables, and figure legends. All pages should be numbered consecutively starting from the title page. All tables and figures are to be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. The average size of original articles is 4500 words (about eight printed pages) including table(s), figure(s) and references (typescripts: 25 lines, typewritten 14 pages). Short papers and/or scientific reports should be 3000 (4 printed pages) and 2500 (3 printed pages) words long, respectively (including figures, tables and references). The average size for a review article depends on the opinions of the editorial staff.

Cover letter

The corresponding author must give written assurance that the submitted manuscript has not been published previously in full form or partially, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. When more than one related manuscript has been published or is under consideration for publication by this or other journals, authors are required to declare this in their cover letter and to enclose copies of those publications for an editorial perusal. Failure to do so may lead to rejection of the submitted manuscript.

Front page

The title page should include the title of the manuscript, full names of authors, and complete and precise institutional affiliation(s). If several authors and institutions are listed, the department, position and institution of each should be clearly stated. In separate paragraphs, the address for correspondence, including the name of corresponding author, position, address (institutional affiliation, city, zip-code and country), telephone and fax number, and e-mail address, should be given. An abbreviated running headline not exceeding 35 letters and spaces should also be provided.

Abstract

The abstract should be concise, less than 250 words with distinct headings including background, aims, methods, results and conclusion all in an integrated paragraph. In scientific reports the abstract should include background, case description, findings/treatment and outcome, and conclusion. 3 to 5 key words should be listed alphabetically at the bottom of the abstract. Key words SHOULD be selected from Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms.

Introduction

The introduction section should be written in a way that is accessible to researchers without specialist knowledge of the area, and must clearly state the purpose of the study. The section should end with a brief statement of what is being reported in the article. A balance must be obtained between the pure and applied aspects of the subject.

Materials and Methods

The materials and methods section should include the design of the study, the type of materials involved and a clear description of all comparisons. In addition to being concise but sufficient for repetition by other qualified investigators. Procedures that have been published previously should not be described in detail, but merely cited with appropriate references. However, new or significant modifications of previously published procedures need full descriptions. The sources of special chemicals, equipment or preparations should be given along with their company name and country. For all chemicals and reagents used, a generic name should be provided rather than a brand name. For animal experimentation reported in this journal, it is expected that the guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals (approved by Shiraz University animal welfare laws, guidelines and policies in Iran) be observed. The acknowledgement of the ethical guidelines of the animal welfare committee is strongly encouraged.

Results

This part should include a concise textual description of the data presented in tables and figures. Repetition of the same data in different forms should be avoided. Avoid extensive use of graphs to present data, which might be more concisely presented in the text or tables. Well-prepared tables and figures must be a cardinal feature of this section as they convey the major observations to readers. Information provided in tables and figures should not be repeated in the text, but focus attention on the importance of the significance and impact of the principal findings of the study (In original articles, this part should be written separately from discussion section).

Discussion

The discussion section should provide an interpretation of the results in relation to previously published work and to the experimental system at hand. It should consider the results in relation to any hypotheses advanced in the introduction. This may include an evaluation of the methodology and of the relationship of new information to the knowledge in that field. It must not contain extensive repetition of the results section or reiteration of the introduction.

Acknowledgement

All persons who do not qualify as authors should be acknowledged and their particular contribution described. All sources of funding for the reported work, for all the authors, must be acknowledged. Both the research funder and the grant number (if applicable) should be given for each funding source.

Conflict of interest

At the end of the text, under a subheading “Conflict of interest statement” all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that might inappropriately influence or bias their work.

References

The references section must include all relevant published works cited in the text in alphabetical order, starting with the first author’s surname and numbered consecutively. Journal title should be abbreviated. If the article is written by one author, it is cited as (Ghazi, 2003) in the text. If written by two or more authors, it must be cited as (Ghazi and Gholami, 2003) and (Ghazi et al., 2003), respectively.

Here are four examples of the referencing style:

Ghazi, SR and Gholami, S (1994). Allometric growth of the spinal cord in relation to the vertebral column during prenatal and postnatal life in sheep (Ovis aries). J. Anat., 185: 427-431.

Bangash, A; Khan, N and Sadiq, M (2012). Composite polypropylene mesh versus light weight polypropylene mesh: the TAPP repair for laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair. J. Sci. Soc., 39: 64-69.

Cavanagh, D and Naqi, SA (1997). Infectious bronchitis. In: Calnek, BW; Barns, JH; Beard, CW; McDougald, LR and Saif, YM (Eds.), Disease of poultry. (10th Edn.), Ames, Iowa, Iowa State University Press. PP: 511-526.

Mills, DS and Nankervis, KJ (1999). Equine behaviour: principles and practice. 1st Edn., Oxford, UK, Blackwell Science. PP: 50-52.

Tables

Tables should be in portrait layout and typewritten separately from the text, double spaced. Vertical rulings in tables are unadvisable. Each table should include a title (above the table) that summarizes it in 20 words at most. Tables should be numbered and cited in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.) and cited in text in consecutive numerical order. Table footnotes should be typed in superscripts (a, b) below the table. Duplication of data in tables, figures and text must be avoided. Tables should be kept to a minimum and created in Word format and left-to-right direction.

Figures

Figures should be referred sequentially in the text as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Figs. 3a, b and Fig. 4, etc. Figures should ordinarily be original drawings. However, glossy photographs of line-drawings are usually satisfactory. Authors should place explanatory matters in footnotes rather than headings. Figures along with legends should be included at the end of the manuscript in the order of their appearance in the text and each one in a separate page. All figures should be created with applications capable of generating high resolution EPS (preferred format for diagrams)/or xlsx (preferred format for charts), TIFF (preferred format for photos or images), JPEG, and BMP files at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and image sizes of 8 cm width (halftone) or 600 to 1200 dpi (line drawings) in relation to the reproduction size. EPS files should be saved with embedded fonts (and with a TIFF preview if possible). To ensure desirable reproduction, the resolution for scanned images (at final image size) should be as follows: line art: >600 dpi; halftones (including gel photographs): >300 dpi; figures containing both halftone and line images: >600 dpi. Please note that all figures might be reduced, enlarged or trimmed for publication by the editor. All figures will be published in color on-line; however, color illustrations can only be included in print if the additional costs are remunerated by the author.

Authorship

No changes of the authorship including addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names are possible after acceptance of manuscript. According to our journal policy, students are not accepted to be as a corresponding author.

Copyright

We use Creative Commons license. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License.

Proofs

Electronic proof will be sent in Word/PDF format to the corresponding author to check for typesetting accuracy. Page proofs are considered as the final version of the manuscript. At this stage, except for typographical or minor corrections, no changes or additions are permissible. Corrected proofs should be returned to the publisher within 72 hours of receipt. It is important to ensure that all corrections be sent in one communication.

Publication Charges

IJVR is an open access journal and all published articles are available free of charge. Currently, there is no processing page charge for foreign authors. The publication charges for Iranian authors are as follows and should be paid after acceptance:

10,000,000 Rials per Original Articles,

9,000,000 Rials per Short Communications,

8,000,000 Rials per Case Reports.

Rate of acceptance

Rate of acceptance of manuscripts for publishing in IJVR is currently between 10 to 20%.

Important notice: the guidelines must be strictly followed, otherwise, the MS would be returned to author.