Submissions

Author Guidelines

Editorial Policies

For full details of JTCS editorial policies, please see Publication Ethics.

• Peer Review
  This journal uses double blind peer review.
• Conflict of Interest
  When submitting a paper, the authors and their co-authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest by providing the relevant details on our online submission site and by including a Conflict-of-Interest statement in the authors' submitted manuscript. Declaring a conflict of interest will normally have no impact on the manuscript review process or on the assessment of whether the paper should be published.
• ORCID IDs
  The Journal of Tropical Crop Science requires all authors to have an ORCID ID prior to production of the article. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes authors from other researchers and, through integration into key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submissions, supports automated linkages between authors and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
  

Submission

The manuscripts that will be considered:

• It is the author's own original work and does not duplicate any previously published work, including the author's own.
• It is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any journal other than The Journal of Tropical Crop Science
• It has not been published in any other journal; and
• It contains nothing abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

Authors should observe high ethical standards and obey publication best practices. The following are all unacceptable:

• data falsification or fabrication, including image manipulation
• plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author's own work without proper citation
• misappropriation of work

We treat any case of ethical or publication malpractice in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines

• Pre-submission Language Editing
  For non-English speakers, the authors may wish to use a language-editing application or service to ensure that editors and reviewers understand the authors' paper. Language editing does not guarantee the manuscript will be accepted; edited manuscripts will still undergo peer review by the journal.
• Documents to Submit
  1. A cover letter that contains
   - The significance of the work to the area of study
   - How the study will advance the current knowledge of the area
   - A statement on the use of AI to edit the manuscript text, help generate content or images, process data, or translate.
   - Nomination of potential reviewers.
  AI tools cannot be listed as an author of a paper. Please see the COPE position statement on AI and authorship for more details.
  2. The author's declaration states that the order of authors and the corresponding author must be agreed upon in advance of submission by all authors.
• Article Types
  Journal of Tropical Crop Science accepts the following types of papers
  - Original Research paper: Each full-length research paper must not exceed 8000 words, including tables, illustrations, and references.
  - Review paper: The review article can be submitted via invitation or regular submission based on merit. It should be comprehensive, up to date, and include a critical review of a recent important topic. The maximum limit is 8000 words, including tables and figures. It should cite the literature from the last 5 years and identify gaps for future research.
  - Short Communications: report of preliminary research results, newly developed protocol, methodology, or modification of existing methodology, and results of the application of an earlier published research methodology on other crops or under different conditions.
  Short communications should be as completely documented, both by reference to the literature and description of the experimental procedures employed, as a regular research paper with a maximum of 2000 words, with a maximum of three tables or figures, and up to 20 references.
• Manuscript Preparation
  General Page Layout
  • Margins: 1 inch (2.54 cm) on all sides.
  • Font: 12-pt Times New Roman, 11-pt Arial, or 11-pt Calibri.
  • Line Spacing: Double-space the entire document (except for tables).
  • Line numbering should be done for easy reviewing.
  • Alignment: Flush-left (ragged right edge).
  • Paragraphs: Indent the first line of every paragraph by 0.5 inches.
  • Page Numbers: Top-right corner, starting from the title page.
  • The journal follows APA Style (7th Edition).

The manuscript should be organized in the following order:

Title
Running Title

Name(s) of author(s)
Complete postal address (es) of affiliations
Full telephone and email of the corresponding author
Corresponding address to which the proofs should be sent
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Material and Methods
Results and Discussion (can be separated into Results and Discussion sections)
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References
Tables
Figures

Title

The title should be clear, concise, and informative, as Titles are used in information-retrieval systems. Latin names in italics. 

Running Title

The running title must not exceed 50 characters.

Author’s Name and Address

Names of the author(s) to be typed in first letters capitalized. Changes of authorship or in the order of the authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript. The manuscript should be approved by the co-authors. The corresponding author should be indicated by an asterisk (*).

The address of the institution(s) where the work was carried out should be given. The address should include the institution name, city, state, and country.

Abstract

The abstract should be concise, clear, descriptive, and contain about 250 words, and must not contain reference citations or abbreviations. An abstract should include a summary of the entire work, the justification for the study, the results, the main highlights of the findings, and a concluding statement.

Keywords

Provide a maximum of six (6) keywords indicating the contents of the paper. Keywords should not repeat words in the title. Avoid using ‘and’ and ‘of’.  These keywords will be used for indexing purposes. Appropriate keyword selection is very important for improving paper citations.

Introduction

The introduction should be brief and highlight the importance of the topic under study, justify the need for the research work, and identify the critical research gaps relative to prior research in the specific area. State the reasons for the work, a clear background, and the objectives of the work.  A brief review of the literature, citing the latest research in the field, should be given.

Materials and Methods

Methods should include sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods that are already published should be indicated by a reference. It should describe the experimental materials, the year of experimentation, the experimental design, and the statistical methods used. 

Per the editorial team's decision, manuscripts containing experimental data more than ten years old are generally not considered for publication.

The software used for statistical analysis should be quoted. The methods used to collect data should be described, along with the statistical details.

Results and Discussion

Results should be presented clearly and concisely. The discussion section should highlight the significance of the work's results. Do not repeat the Results section.  Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

The Results and Discussion section should focus on the fulfillment of the stated objectives outlined in the introduction and should contain the findings presented in the form of tables, figures, and photographs.

Highlight the significance of the findings in contrast to existing work. 

Instead of general statements such as "other authors have also reported similar findings," authors should explain their findings using their own data and recorded observations. As far as possible, the data should be statistically analyzed following a suitable experimental design. The same data should not be presented in the table and figure forms. Mention only pooled data in Tables, if recorded for more than one year, except in rare cases where authors are willing to show some specific trend for the given seasons/ years.

Use the SI units only to express the data. Similarly, proper symbols for degree (°), plus-minus sign (±), percent (%), more than (≥), less than (≤), alpha (α ), beta (ß), gamma ( γ), etc., should be used. The name of the variety/ hybrid/ individual genotype should be used with inverted single quotes, e.g., ‘IPB-3S’.

References

Please format references in APA style at submission. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of reference information.

Starting June 2024, at least 50% of references must be from indexed journals published in the last five years.

DOI: Include a functional DOI link for all applicable references (e.g., https://doi.org/10.29244/jtcs.11.01.33-38).

In-Text Citations: * Single author: (Name, Year); Name (Year)

• Two authors: (Name1 & Name2, Year); Name1 and Name2 (Year)
• Three or more: (FirstAuthor et al., Year); FirstAuthor et al. (Year)

Reference List: Arrange alphabetically. Follow APA 7^th Edition for all entry types (Journals, Books, and Chapters). Examples are provided below:

Reference to a journal:

Hipi, A., Surahman, M., Ilyas, S., & Giyanto. (2013). Seed genetic purity assessment of maize hybrid using microsatellite markers (SSR). International Journal of Applied Science and Technology, 3, 66–70.

Reference to a book:

Mather, J. P., & Roberts, P. E. (2020). Introduction to cell and tissue culture: Theory and techniques (1^st ed., 264 pp.). Plenum Press.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book: 

Bonga, J. (2012). Clonal propagation of mature trees, problems, and possible solutions. In J. Bonga & D. Durzan (Eds.), Cell and tissue culture in forestry: General principles and biotechnology (pp. 249–271). Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

A sample of the manuscript can be downloaded here

Acknowledgments and Funding

Acknowledgments and funding information should be included at the end of the manuscript. Please fully cite any relevant funding information, including specific grant numbers. If no funding was provided, state: "This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors."

Author Contributions

Contribution to a manuscript must be substantive to justify authorship. An author is responsible for major aspects of the research presented. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have made bona fide, substantive contributions to the research and have seen and approved the manuscript in final form prior to submission.

We recommend the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) for authorship and contributorship, which stipulate that all those designated as authors should meet all four of the following criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
3. Final approval of the version to be published; AND
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All other contributors should instead be acknowledged appropriately in the Acknowledgments section, and authors should seek written permission to include any individuals mentioned in the Acknowledgments.

Style

The Journal follows APA style. 

Abbreviations

Please define nonstandard abbreviations at the first occurrence.

Tables

The authors must number all tables (e.g., table 1, table 2, table 3) and reference them in the text. Tables should be typed with the first letter (T) capitalized. The table function should be used for making a table and should be numbered in Arabic numerals, followed by a period. Use only horizontal lines (no vertical lines). Provide a caption at the top and essential footnotes at the bottom.

The authors must place all tables at the end of the main text. Tables should be in an editable format, not embedded as image files.

Units/Measurements

All measurements should be in SI units. All tables should be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order. Sources of any already published materials included in the table should be provided.

Footnotes to Tables should be indicated by superscript, lowercase letter (or an asterisk (*) for significance value or other statistical data) and included at the bottom of the Table. The standard short forms of units should be used to express the data, e.g., cm, mm, m, t for ton, t/ha, ml/L, mg CO₂/kg/hr, min for minutes, hr for hours.

Figures/Line drawings

Only good-quality figures essential for the manuscript shall be given in JPEG format. The illustrations should not repeat the data presented in tables and vice versa. Text figures should be used in preference to plates. All the figures should be numbered in Arabic numerals and cited in the text in consecutive numerical order. All figures must have descriptive captions and patterns and/or color to enhance clarity.

If the figure has several panels, each panel should be labeled with a letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) in the lower-left corner.

• minimum resolution required for printed images or pictures: 350dpi
• minimum resolution for printed line art: 600dpi (complex or finely drawn line art should be 1200dpi)
• minimum resolution for electronic images (i.e., for on-screen viewing): 72dpi

Prior permission must be taken from the copyright owner(s) for use of figure(s) from already published articles. For such permission, costs involved, if any, are to be borne by the authors.

During peer review, the authors must include the figure titles and legends in both the manuscript text file and the image files.  When preparing files for accepted papers, the authors must include the figure titles and legends within the manuscript text file.

Photographs

The photographs should be high-quality JPEG or TIFF files. All photographs should carry a descriptive caption and an Arabic numeral.

Conclusions 

Provide clear and concise conclusions of the work.

Acknowledgements

Provide acknowledgments to those who have provided significant contributions, including information concerning research grants (if applicable).

Supplementary Data

If the authors have supplementary data, they must submit supplementary data or supplementary material at the same time as the main manuscript.

- Supplementary material must be cited in the text of the main manuscript.
- Supplementary material will be available online only and will not be copyedited or typeset.
- Style and formatting of supplementary material should be consistent with that of the manuscript.
- Supplementary material should be formatted to function on any internet browser.

• Ethical Standards
  Manuscripts that include studies involving human participants, human data, or human tissue must:
  - include a statement on ethics approval and consent to participate, even where the need for approval was waived
  - include the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee's reference number if appropriate
  Manuscripts that include studies involving animals must:
  - Adhere to high ethical and animal welfare standards.
  - Any use of animals must be based on ethological knowledge and respect for species-specific requirements for health and well-being.
  - Include a statement indicating that the protocol and procedures employed were ethically reviewed and approved
  The name of the body giving approval must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript.
• How to Submit
  New Users: Click "Register" on the home page. Provide your name, email, institution, and field of expertise.
  Existing Accounts: If the system recognizes your email, a temporary password will be sent to you.

Acceptance

After provisional acceptance by the reviewing editor, all manuscripts are assigned to the chief editor for final editing. Manuscripts are evaluated with respect to scientific content, presentation, the appearance of figures, tables, and supplementary data, compliance with journal policies, and suitability for a broad readership.

Science editors communicate directly with corresponding authors and provide instructions for further editing and uploading of final files, and issue final acceptance. To facilitate rapid publication, accepted manuscripts will be published as PDFs immediately upon final acceptance by the chief editor and then sent to our compositor. The official publication date is the date the article first appears online.

• Galley Proof
  Page or galley proof will be made available to the corresponding author. Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. Changes are restricted to typographical or minor clerical errors. Authors will receive proofs after final acceptance of the manuscript and should relay all additions and corrections within five working days of receipt of proofs.
• Publishing Charges
  The article processing charge of IDR 2,500,000 applies to a maximum of 15 published pages per article.