AL-HIKMAH JOURNAL OF PURE AND APPLIED SCIENCES (AJPAS)
Instructions and guidelines to authors
Please read the instructions and guidelines carefully and adhere strictly to them to ensure efficient review process and publication of your paper.
Journal Policy
AJPAS will only publish research articles that have not been published or submitted to any other journal. Additionally, AJPAS will not publish any article that has already been reported fully or in parts or accepted for publication either in a journal or conference proceeding in any form, in print or electronic media. It is the sole responsibility of the author(s) at the point of submission to ensure that articles are new, original and have not been published in any form, fully or partly in any media. Such article to be submitted must not violate any or infringe upon copyrights of others and must not contain plagiarized or wrongfully attributed materials. Author(s) will be solely responsible for violation of this policy or ethics of academic publications.
Scope of the Journal
Al-Hikmah Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences (AJPAS) is dedicated to and covers all areas of fundamental and applied sciences including the followings:
Physical Sciences – Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry and Physics
Geological Sciences – Geology and Mineral Science
Biological Sciences – Biochemistry, Microbiology, Zoology, Plant Biology and Botany
Mathematical Sciences – Mathematics, History of Mathematics, Mathematics Education and Popularization of Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics
Environmental Science and relevant areas of Agricultural Science
Style and organization of Manuscript
Manuscript must be written in clear English and prepared on A4 paper with appropriate margins at the top, bottom, left and right. The manuscript must be prepared in Microsoft Word doc format using Times New Roman (font size of 12), typed double-spaced and page numbered (bottom centre) starting from the title page. Paragraphs should be separated using indented format. Sections and subsections should be numbered and titled as 1.0, 2.0, etc. and 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2.1, etc. respectively. Sections and subsections should be in title case in which the first letter of each word should be in capital letters, followed by small letters. Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:
Title page
Title page should contain the title, full name(s) of the author(s) and their affiliation(s). The corresponding author should be clearly indicated with mobile phone number and email address (preferably official email addresses) provided. The title should be as brief as possible describing the content of the paper and abbreviation must be avoided.
Abstract
The abstract should not exceed 250 words and must be a concise summary of the content of the paper. It should be informative and self-explanatory explaining the significant findings and conclusion. The abstract should be devoid of abbreviations and literature citing.
Keywords
No less than four keywords should be provided immediately after the abstract. Author(s) should note that words already in the title must not be used as keywords.
Introduction
The introduction should contain background on the research topic providing a clear statement of problem. The relevant literature on the subject should be stated. The rationale and aims of the study must clearly be identified in the introduction and the content should be understandable to readers in related fields. Please do not include any results or conclusions of the study.
Materials and methods
This section should provide technical information about the study. It should provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be replicated.Methods already published should be indicated by a reference but relevant modifications should be highlighted. There is no need to describe methodological details except for newly developed methods.Specifications (including the manufacturer, city, and the country) should be given for the main drugs, chemicals and instruments. Indicate the statistical methods used to analyze the data generated. All procedures involving experimental animals or human subjects must be accompanied by a statement on ethical approval and clearance number obtained from appropriate ethics committee.
Results
Results refers to findings generated from the study and must be reported using appropriate standard units. Data may be presented using figures (Charts, graphs) and tables as appropriate. All tables or figures must be referenced in the text and should be on the same page. Otherwise it may be placed on the immediate following page. A figure or photo should be labeled with “Fig.” and a table with “Table”. They must be numbered continuously using Arabic numerals as Figure or Table number. Figure number and caption should be placed below the figure while table number and caption should be placed on top of the table. The first letter of the caption should be in capital letter. Reference to the figure in the text should use “Fig.” instead of “Figure”.
Discussion
This section deals with interpretation of the results and their comparison with those of other studies. It should relate the results obtained to current understanding of the scientific problems being investigated. Exceptions and unsettled points should be identified while discussing the significance of the results. There is no need to re-state the results, review literature, textbook knowledge or cite references that do not have direct relationship with the present result. It should end with a brief conclusion linking back to the aim of the study.
Acknowledgement
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgment section. Financial and technical assistance provided by any agency, body or individual may be acknowledged.
References
The Journal encourages citation of recent papers; old references are better replaced with updated ones. References must be cited in the text using consecutive numbers in square brackets [1], [2], [3] and should appear before the full stop or comma at the end of the sentence or clause. Reference to unpublished data, personal communications, abstracts at meetings and manuscripts submitted for publication are not acceptable. References should be listed in numerical order in the Reference section.
Reference to articles in periodicals should take the form: name(s)andinitial(s) of authors(s), year published (in parentheses), title, journal name, volume number, issue number and page numbers.
Reference to conference proceedings/reports should take the form: name(s)andinitial(s) of authors(s), year published (in parentheses), title, name of conference in full, venue, volume number (if any)/report number and page numbers.
Reference to books should take the form: name(s)andinitial(s) of authors(s), year published (in parentheses), title of book, edition (if any), place of publication, publisher. Indicate chapters/page numbers where relevant.
Use Vol., No., ed. and pp to indicate volume number, issue number, edition and page numbers respectively.
All references cited must be listed and authors are responsible for the correctness of references.
Examples are given below:
- Reference to articles in periodicals:
[1] Bernstein,L. (1993). Get The Design Right. IFEE Software, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp. 61- 63.
[2] Uba, N. and Ndogi, P.B. (2008). Sorption Energy Estimation Using Dubinin-Radushkevic Adsorption Isotherm. Life Science Journal, Vol.31, No. 4, pp. 31-45.
[3] Ajiboye, A.M., Adekunle, Z. and Gbenga, T.T. (2011). Environmental Monitoring Assessment of a Lake. Journal of Water Analysis, Vol. 67 No. 1-2, pp. 111-123.
For articles with more than six authors, list first six and add et al.
[4] Aremu, A.O., Masondo, N.A., Sunmonu, T.O., Kulkarni, M.G., Zatloukal, M., Spichal, L. et al. (2014). A Novel Inhibitor of Cytokinin Degradation (INCYDE) Influences the Biochemical Parameters and Photosynthetic Apparatus in NaCl-stressed Tomato Plants. Planta,Vol. 240, pp. 877–889.
- Reference to conference proceedings/reports
[5] Halpem,J.Y. (1984). Fault-Tolerant Clock Synchronisation, In: Proceedings of the Third Annual ACM Symposium: Principles of Distributed Computing, New York, pp. 89-102.
- Reference to books/Chapter in a book
[6] Pressman,R.S. (1987). Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, New York, McGraw-Hill Inc.
[7] Carlson, B.M. (2004). Human Embryology and Developmental Biology, 3rd ed. St. Louis: Mosby.
[8] Laxter, P.S. and Farnsworth, T.P. (1976). Social Health and Class Inequalities, In: Carter, C. and Peel, J.R. (eds) Equalities and Inequalities in Health, 2nd ed. London, Academic Press, pp.165-178.
Submission of manuscript
Manuscript(s) prepared in the required format must be submitted electronically to [email protected] as an attachment saved with the first author’s surname. Receipt of manuscript will be acknowledged by e-mail within 72 hours of submission.
Review Process
Submitted manuscripts will be evaluated by at least two reviewers to ascertain their accuracy, originality, quality and relevance. A manuscript may be accepted, returned for revision or rejected. The corresponding author of each paper will be notified of the result within eight (8) weeks from the date of first submission. Following acceptance, a paper will normally be published in the next issue of the journal.
Copyright transfer agreement
It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to the journal have not been published, accepted for publication, nor simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) agree that copyright for the article is transferred to the publisher, if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication.
Processing fee and page charges
A non-refundable processing fee of N5,000.00 shall accompany each manuscript at the point of submission. Following acceptance, a minimum of N15,000.00 page charges apply depending on the size and content of manuscripts. A complimentary copy of the published journal will be sent to the corresponding author whose article(s) appear in the journal.
Subscription information:
The following subscription rates apply for the journal, inclusive of postage charges.
Subscription |
Individual |
Institution |
Nigeria |
N4,000.00 |
N5,000.00 |
All other countries |
US $100 |
US $200.00 |