GUIDE FOR AUTHORS/ INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

East African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation (EAJSTI)

Thank you for choosing to submit your paper to us. These instructions will ensure that we have everything required so that your paper, if deemed fit, can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly. Please take the time to read and follow them as closely as possible, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal's requirements. For general guidance on the publication process of the EAJSTI please visit our http://www.eajsti.org/index.php/EAJSTI/information/authors

Aim and Scope of the EAJSTI

The aim of EAJSTI is to enhance, advance and disseminate scientific, technological and innovative knowledge that supports East African regional development. 

The thematic areas encompassed by the Journal include: Agriculture, Food Security and Rural Development; Natural Resources and Environmental Management; Health and Wellbeing Science; Infrastructure; Energy and Industrialization Development; Information and Communication technology; and, Science, technology, Engineering and mathematics. The Journal accepts original submissions throughout the year; the submissions packaged based on guidelines of the journal could be original research, review articles, opinion papers, editorials, mini-reviews, book reviews, short communications, scientific notes/ memoirs, new patents, announcements and reports of meetings, as well as tributes of prominent scientists.  Regular issues of the Journal will often contain a review article on a critical or rapidly developing area of STI, which is normally submitted at the invitation by the Editor-in-Chief on behalf of the Editorial Board. Handling Editors review all manuscripts prior to publication; however, the Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editor reserves the right of final decision. The Journal is published quarterly online; and uses the Open Online Journal System to receive submissions, and manage all editorial office processes including peer review, and correspondence to potentials authors and reviewers. 

 While East African Science and Technology Commission (https://easteco.org/) is the proprietor of East African Journal of Science, Technology & Innovation, the journal pursues its own independent editorial policy.

EAJSTI considers all types of manuscripts on the strict condition that:

• The manuscript is your own original work, and does not duplicate any other previously published results, including your own previously published work.
• The manuscript has been submitted only to East African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation; it is not under consideration or peer review or accepted for publication or in press or published elsewhere.

By submitting your manuscript to East African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation you are agreeing to any necessary originality checks your manuscript may have to undergo during the preliminary assessment, peer-review and production processes. Any manuscript which fails to adhere to the above conditions shall not be considered.

All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the Editorial Office, and, are only subjected to peer-review by independent, anonymous expert referees if found suitable. EAJSTI follows the policy of double blind review system. However, single blind review might be used in exceptional cases.

 Citations
Please note that all papers accepted for this journal are subject to originality checking, including use of the Plagiarism Checker. To avoid potential problems, please ensure that your submission has a Similarity Index of less than 25% and that all citations are fully disclosed at the point of submission. 

Submitting an article

Papers for consideration should be submitted via the Online Journal System (OJS) available from www.eajsti.org submission site once you have read the preparation guidelines below. New users should first create an account. Once logged on to the site, submissions should be made via the Author Main Menu. Click here for information on submission procedures.

The manuscript to be submitted should be prepared as double-spaced in Times New Roman 12.  It should be between 4,000-8,000 words in length (excluding notes, figures, tables and references). Tables and Figures should also go at the end of the text.

The submission on the online platform should be guided by the instruction in the submission window. Within the journal homepage, click on ‘Make a new submission’ and follow through the 5-step process (1.Start; 2. Upload Submission; 3. Enter Metadata; 4. Confirmation; and 5. Next Steps).

Authors will be required to pay a publication fee of $100 upon acceptance of their manuscript for publication. This fee will be increased to $200 effective from 1st January 2023 for new submissions.

Manuscript preparation

When submitting a paper to EAJSTI, the senior author must ensure that the work has not been previously published, is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and has been approved for submission by all its listed co-authors and the institution(s) in which the work was conducted. If the paper is accepted for publication, all authors will transfer copyright of their article to the publisher, after which the publication becomes the property of the EAJSTI. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain copyright permission to reproduce tables or figures published elsewhere and to ensure the correctness of all references.

Technical and Nomenclature Standards

• All measurements must be stated in SI units.
• Nomenclature. All organisms should be identified by their Latin names, with taxonomic affiliation and authority indicated at first mention in the abstract and text. Common names should be stated where appropriate (Consult the Entomological Society of America's list.) Chemical substances should be described by their generic or common names and defined at least once in the paper by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) name. For editorial guidelines, consult a recent issue of the journal or the Council of Biology Editors’ Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 6th Edition, 1994.

Language

Papers (including abstracts) are published in English. We suggest that authors whose first language is not English should have their manuscripts checked by a proficient English speaker before submission or by a third party editorial service. This is optional but will help to ensure that any submissions that reach peer review can be judged on academic merit alone. Please note that the use of language editing services is voluntary and at the author’s own expense.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is unacceptable. If detected, the EAJSTI will decline to process the submission. The similarity index acceptable should be below 25%.

Data Treatment

Means should be reported in the same, or not more than one extra, number of digits as the original individual values. A measure of variability (standard deviation or standard error) should always be presented along with mean values in tabular or graphical forms. When the expression X ± A is used, always indicate whether A is variance, standard deviation, or standard error. It is essential to indicate the sample size or a number of replications in tables of means, correlations, and other statistical test results. Whenever the value of a test statistic (e.g. F, T, or Chi-square) is presented, the associated degrees of freedom and probability value should be indicated. Standard error values should accompany the estimates of model parameters (e.g. regression slope). Mathematical expressions should be carefully written, algebraic symbols should be written in italics, while suffixes and operators [e.g. f(x), log, exp] should be written in the roman typeface. If there are many equations, a number in parentheses should identify each, flush to the right. Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) is NOT acceptable for the separation of means.  References for the method used should be included under Materials and Methods.

Manuscript Content

Manuscripts should be prepared according to the following guidelines:

• The title should be comprehensive and between 10-20 words.
• The abstract should be 250 – 300 words and include a brief statement of the objectives of the study, the methodology used, and the overall results and conclusions.
• Keywords: List 5-7 keywords covered in the paper, including the scientific names of the major organisms studied and any important chemical compounds.
• Main text: The main text should be divided into the following distinct sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Recommendation, Acknowledgement, and References. 
• The Journal uses the latest version of the American Psychological Association (APA) reference style. Only articles that have been published or are ‘in press’ (accepted for publication) should be referenced.

Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively (Maximum 7) and typed in double-spacing and included at the end of the paper. Table titles should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. Non-standard units of measurement should be defined in the footnotes to the Tables and at first mention in the text. The authors are requested to use ‘insert option’ while creating tables to allow editing.

Indicate in the text where the tables should appear, for example by inserting [Table 1 near here]. A maximum of 7 Tables are allowed.

Figures and illustrations

• Figures and illustrations used should be as small as possible, to ensure that users can download the papers quickly.
• The maximum number of Figures allowed per paper is 5 (five).
• EAJSTI recommends the figures presented should follow the latest APA format

Manuscript submission

All manuscripts should be submitted via the OJS online manuscript submission system, at http://www.eajsti.org. Authors can upload their file and check on the status of their manuscripts during the review process.

Manuscripts. Papers should be submitted for publication, preferably in Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), typed and double spaced (including abstracts, tables, and figure legends) with 3 cm margins on right and left sides and printed in a legible font such as Times New Romans font size 12. All pages of the manuscript should be numbered in bottom centre format. The manuscripts should have continuous line numbering. The initial submission (manuscript) shall exclude authors and their affiliations. The authors and their

Ethical approval and consent

It is mandatory to get approval from a relevant registered ethics committee from the country where the study is being undertaken before the commencement of the study.

The authors need to obtain and document signed informed consent from all the study participants where the research involves obtaining data or samples from human subjects or animals. For studies involving either human patients, the consent must commit on protection of patients' personal identity. For all other human-related data, the consent must commit to maintain confidentiality of the individual data (e.g., socioeconomic status). In addition, the consent forms must include peoples’ rights to a language they clearly understand. Where applicable, The Editorial Board may request for documented proof of the consent form used by the researchers.

Declaration of interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors must disclose any interests in a declaration of interest statement in the manuscript. If there are no interests to declare then please state this: 'Declarations of interest: none'.

Manuscript production

Proofs. Once typeset, you will receive page proofs by email as a Word file.

Author checklist

Authors submitting manuscripts for publication should tick the checklist availed at the OJS before they submit their manuscripts.

General

• Files exclusively submitted via Journal’s homepage, with copies backed up by the author
• Pages numbered throughout
• Continuous line numbering
• Manuscript is double spaced all through

Text

• Title of paper
• The abstract is in English and includes keywords
• Citation of references in text conforms to specifications in Guide/Instructions to Authors
• Joint authors quoted as Macharia and Mueke, i.e. not Macharia & Mueke
• Journal titles are given in full and in italics at the reference list
• References cited in the text must appear in reference list
• Measurements are in the (SI) metric system.

Figures

• The size of figures conforms to specifications in Guide/Instructions for Authors
• Magnifications indicated by scale bars, not in the captions.
• Legends for figures are on a separate page.
• Abbreviations for figures fully listed and explained.

References

Journal's reference style:
The Journal uses the latest version of the American Psychological Association (APA) reference style. Ensure that 40% of the references should be within the last 5 years.

Please submit your manuscripts with completed reference lists. They should include all the necessary information: author names, titles of publication, place of publication, date of publication, and page extents. 

Data Sharing Policy

Authors are encouraged to share or make open the data supporting the results of analyses presented in their paper where this does not violate the protection of human subjects or other valid privacy or security concerns.

It is the author’s responsibility to ensure the soundness of data. Any errors in the data rest solely with the producers of the data set(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data set associated with the paper should be made available upon request by the Editor-in-chief if the need arises.

Data Deposition

If you choose to share or make the data underlying the study open, please deposit your data in a recognized data repository. 

Reproduction of copyright material

If you wish to include any material in your manuscript in which you do not hold copyright, you must obtain written permission from the copyright owner, prior to submission. Such material may be in the form of text, data, table, illustration, photograph, line drawing, and screenshot, and any supplemental material you propose to include.

You must ensure appropriate acknowledgment is given to the permission granted to you for reuse by the copyright holder in each figure or table caption. You are solely responsible for any fees which the copyright holder may charge for reuse.

Copyright and authors' rights

To assure the integrity, dissemination, and protection against copyright infringement of published articles, you will be asked to assign us, via a Publishing Agreement, the copyright in your article. Your Article is defined as the final, definitive, and citable Version of Record, and includes the accepted manuscript in its final form, including the abstract, text, bibliography, and all accompanying tables, illustrations and data. Our Publishing Agreement with you will constitute the entire agreement and the sole understanding between you and us; no amendment, addendum, or other communication will be taken into account when interpreting your and our rights and obligations under this Agreement.