ARID LAND RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT

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***Note to Authors: please make sure your contact address information is clearly visible on the outside of all packages you are sending to Editors.***

Submission of Manuscripts

It is preferred that initial manuscripts are submitted electronically as an attachment to the Editor-in-Chief, Tibor Tóth, at tibor@rissac.hu. Please make sure that figures are included as separate files and not embedded within the text. The Editor will also accept manuscripts by regular mail at the following address: Research Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, (MTA TAKI-RISSAC), P.O. Box 35, Budapest, 1525, Hungary.

Finalized manuscripts should be submitted on a 9-cm (3½") disk, prepared in MS Word, and accompanied with a hard copy, including hard copies of figures.

Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources and are required to sign an agreement for the transfer of copyright to the publisher. All accepted manuscripts, artwork, and photographs become the property of the publisher.

Further Instructions

Authors are strongly advised to consult "Notes for Preparation of Successful Manuscripts: Instructions to Authors Elaborated" and "Short Guide to the Use of SI Units", both published in this journal, volume 15, issue 3, pages 275-284 (2001) before submitting manuscripts to the editorial office for consideration. The Editorial Board and the Publisher reserve the right to edit all manuscripts linguistically and stylistically.

Manuscript

The manuscript should be typewritten, double-spaced, with margins of 2.5 cm. The preferred order of presentation is as follows: Title page (title, names of authors with their affiliations, acknowledgments, complete address of the corresponding author including e-mail address and/or a fax number, and a running title not exceeding 50 character spaces), Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References, tables, figure legends, and copies of figures (illustrations). Do not underline anything (nor type in italics) unless the material is to be printed in italics, such as scientific binomial names of organisms and publication titles in References. Do not type any titles, headings or captions in capital letters. All headings for sections and subsections should be typed in lowercase letters and placed on separate lines.

The total number of double-spaced pages submitted, including the Abstract, References and tables should not exceed 18. Publication of longer manuscripts will be at the discretion of Editorial Board.

Title

Title must be consistent with clarity and not exceed 15 words. Uninformative initial phrases such as "Effect of …, Influence of …, Examination of…, Studies on…" and similar wording must be avoided.

Abstract

Abstract should not exceed 250 words. An abstract should provide the objective of research, followed by a few sentences describing methods. The main body should describe results and provide important numerical values. It ends with a brief conclusion statement. The Abstract is typed as a single paragraph and there are no references, tables nor abbreviations included.

Keywords

Keywords are placed following the abstract. Authors must provide from three to ten alphabetized keywords or two-word key phrases that are not already listed in the title.

Introduction

Introduction should be short and should describe matters directly pertinent to the subject of the paper. Avoid statements and discussion of generalized knowledge or history. Include a statement specifying why this research was done; include hypotheses addressed.

Materials and Methods

All methods and techniques used must be noted, described and referenced in detail. List sources of organisms used. Describe the experimental design. Soil classification in FAO or USDA taxonomic nomenclature must be provided (include FAO or USDA reference). For field experiments the geographic location (longitude, latitude), elevation and pertinent climatic characteristics must be provided. Description of statistical methods used is required.

Results

Write methods and results in the past tense. The mean values reported should be rounded off to three significant digits. Statistical evaluation of results must be included and documented. Indicate the number of replicates and sample sizes ("n" numbers). It is strongly suggested to describe the interpretation of your findings in a separate Discussion section and not to present a combined "Results and Discussion" section. The text must be written in a scientifically rigorous manner (just like the rest of the paper). Avoid subjective adjectives, adverbs and anthropocentric expressions.

Conclusions

Describe your conclusions that the interpretation of your experimental results have indicated. This section is not a "summary" of the paper.

References

Literature citations in the text should be by the author's surname and year. When references are by three or more authors list the first author's surname and "et al.,": "Smith (1992) has shown… Previous work (Smith & Jones, 1995; Jackson, 1996a, b) has demonstrated… Jackson et al. (2000) have Shown…" The listing of surnames in References should be given in an alphabetical order with all authors and editors listed. Spell out everything in full. Full titles of publications and articles, and full pagination should be given. Follow the examples, note punctuation and placement of initials:

Journal article: Hamilton, M. A., D. T. Westermann, and D. W. James. 1993. Factors affecting zinc uptake in cropping systems. Soil Science Society of America Journal 57:1310-1315.

Book: Tate III, R. L., and D. A. Klein. 1985. Soil reclamation processes. Marcel Dekker. New York, USA.

Chapter from a book and from proceedings of a meeting: Bremner, J. M., and C. S. Mulvaney. 1982. Nitrogen - total, pp. 595 - 624, in A. L. Page, R. H. Miller, and D. R. Keeney, eds., Methods of soil analysis, part 2, 2nd edition. American Society of Agronomy, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. [Always cite individual chapters from an edited book, not just solely the book.]

Report:

Parker, J. C., and M. Th. van Genuchten. 1984. Determining transport parameters from laboratory and field tracer experiments. Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 84-3. Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. Supporting Online Material may be listed at the end of the alphabetized References.

Tables

Tables should not be imbedded in the text but each table should be included on a separate page (or files) following the Reference section. A descriptive title should appear above each table. All abbreviations should be described in the footnotes, indicated by superscript letters, beginning with superscript a in each table. The use of explanatory footnotes is encouraged. Tables and figures shall be understood independently without reference to the text.

Do not use vertical lines to separate columns. Delete all computer-generated horizontal lines. Horizontal lines are used to separate table headings only. Tables must be double-spaced.

Figures (illustrations)

Number of figures should be limited to a minimum needed to clarify the text. Double documentation in tables and figures is not acceptable. Micrographs should have an internal magnification marker. Figures submitted with finalized manuscripts should be clean originals or digital files. Digital files are recommended for the highest quality reproduction and should follow these guidelines:

• 300 dpi or higher.
• sized to fit on a journal page.
• EPS, TIFF, or PSD format only.
• submitted as separate files, not imbedded in text files.

Color illustrations will be considered for publication; however, the author will be required to bear the full cost involved in their printing and publication. The charge for the first page with color is $900.00. The next three pages with color are $450.00 each. A custom quote will be provided for color art totaling more than 4 journal pages. Good-quality color prints or files should be provided in their final size. The publisher has the right to refuse publication of color prints deemed unacceptable.

Legends to Figures (illustrations)

Each illustration should be provided with a legend sufficiently clear so that the meaning of data is understandable without reference to the text. A legend of symbols should be included in a graph. Legends should be typed, double-spaced on a separate page, placed following the tables.

Units of Measurement and Abbreviations

Use of International System of Units (SI, Système international d'unités) is required. In the text, tables and figures use the minus index instead of a slash and conform to the SI abbreviations (see "The Short Guide to the Use of SI Units", this journal, vol. 15, issue 3, pp. 281-284, 2001). Use chemical designations instead of spelling out chemical names, e.g., CO2 release, C and N cycling. Define each uncommon abbreviation the first time it is used, e.g., "modified universal buffer (MUB) was used."

The conventional designation of a binomial scientific name for an organism must be noted the first time it is introduced in the main text (except in the Title and Abstract). Fertilized values should be expressed in terms of elemental P, K, etc., not as oxides.

Specific Suggestions

Type everything double-spaced, including title page, references, tables, titles for tables and legends to figures, footnotes. Always place zeros before decimal fractions: write 0.05, not .05. Do not use dashes in the tables: distinguish and specify ND (not determined), NA (not applicable), or 0 (not found). Do not use "levels" when you mean concentrations ("wt. per wt.") or amounts (total, or per area, per volume). Avoid the use of "rates" for concentrations and amounts used. Never use "ppm". Express concentrations in SI units. Use SI designations for units, e.g., Mg (not ton), mL (not ml), MPa (not bars), J (not cal.), kat (not U), cmolc kg-1 (not meq./100 g), etc. Do not use % values where the concentrations may be expressed in SI units, e.g., C, N, and water presence in soils. When using a word processor for typing the manuscript do not use the "right margin justification."

Notes

Notes, not exceeding 1500 words, are intended for the presentation of research reports that do not warrant full-length papers. Notes are peer-reviewed and are not considered as preliminary communications. A Note has an Abstract of no more than 100 words and Keywords. Section headings are not used in the body of Note. The number of tables and figures should not exceed three. The Reference section is similar to a full-length paper.

Page Charges

Part of the publication cost is covered by a page charge of $ 40 per printed page. If these charges are paid, the corresponding author will receive 50 offprints of the article. The acceptance and publication of articles are not dependent to the payment of these charges.