Submissions

Author Guidelines

User Registration in the Journal 

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1. Files to be Uploaded

1. Title page: Title, Author names in order, Affiliations with full address and country name. Funding and Acknowledgement (if any). 
2. Manuscript: Manuscript Title, Abstract, Keywords, 1. Introduction, 2. Material and methods 3. Results 4. Discussion, 5.Conclusions, References, Funding, Acknowledgments, Conflict of interest, Availability of Data, Appendix. Results and Discussion are acceptable in one section. 
3. Cover Letter (Mandatory): Authors must upload a cover letter with the statement: “The manuscript is not currently under consideration and has not been published in another journal.
4. Suggested Reviewers (Optional): A separate Word file should be added, which includes three suggested reviewers, their emails and affiliations.
5. Supplementary Files (if applicable): Include any additional files, such as datasets, tables, or figures, that support the manuscript.

2. Manuscript Preparation

2.1. Cover Letter

A precise cover letter is mandatory with the submission of a new manuscript. A cover letter has to give details as to why the submitted manuscript is appropriate for publication in the Journal of Soil, Plant, and Environment and to explain the significance of the work done. Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order: cover letter; title page; abstract; main text; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement (if applicable); appendices (as suitable); references; tables with captions and figures; figure captions (as a list).

2.2. Manuscript style

The manuscripts must be typed in double space with Arial font size 12 and all margins≥ 2.5 cm. Consecutive line numbering needs to be given throughout the manuscript.

2.2.1. Introductory material

The second page of the manuscript, after the cover letter, should contain the following items in the order given below:

• The title of the paper that clearly defines the area of research.
• Names of all authors with the given name following surname in full for every author and their affiliations, including complete postal addresses and email address of the corresponding author;
• 4–6 keywords (in alphabetical order), which reflect the key area of research (do not repeat words in the title);
• If the paper is based on a presentation at a meeting or similar, a footnote must be given with the date (name of the month spelled out), place, and title of the meeting;
• A footnote must also be given if the contribution is based on another publication.

2.2.2. Abstract

For Research Articles, the third page of the manuscript should start with the abstract not exceeding 300 words, and clearly explain the research background, aims, methodology, results and conclusion. For Review Articles, Game Changers, and Viewpoints abstracts may vary, but should not exceed 350 words. Although for Short Communications, Opinions, Perspectives, Commentaries or Letters to the Editor, an abstract is limited to 200 words, including spaces. Moreover, authors are also encouraged to submit a graphical abstract, consisting of a figure or file identified to highlight your article. The graphical abstract will be posted on social media to enhance the readership.

3. Main Text

3.1. Original articles

The body of the article should contain the following sections: introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusions.

Introduction: This section should state the relevance and background to the study, and its rationale and purpose.

Methods: This section should contain all the information that was available at the time the plan or protocol for the study was being written. You should describe your selection of the observational or experimental participants, identify the methods, apparatus and procedures in sufficient detail to allow others to reproduce the results, and describe statistical methods with enough detail to enable acknowledgeable readers with access to the original data to verify the reported results.

Results: Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures. Where a new parameter is reported, the results should include a proper heading as appropriate.

Discussion: This should include inferences/consequences of the findings and their limitations/justifications, with reference to all other relevant studies conducted previously or ongoing published results and the possibilities these suggestions for future research.

Conclusions: This must summarize the main paper. Ensure that extrapolations are reasonable and that conclusions are justified by the data presented, and indicate if the study design can be generalized to a broader study population.

3.2. Review article

Review articles should provide a comprehensive, critical, and balanced analysis of existing literature in a specific field. They should include:

• Context / Background: Introduce the topic, its importance, and rationale.
• Objectives / Scope: Define the focus and goals of the review.
• Main Sections: Organize the discussion around themes, recent developments, or challenges.
• Critical Analysis: Highlight strengths, weaknesses, controversies, and gaps in current knowledge.
• Conclusion / Future Directions: Summarize key insights and suggest directions for future research.
  Reviews should not include unpublished data, original experiments, or meta-analyses.

For a short article including Short Communications, Opinions, Perspectives, Commentaries and Letters to the Editors, please check the types of contributions

4. Declarations

4.1. Conflict of Interest: JSPAE requires authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must accompany ‘Conflict of Interests’ statement listing all competing interests. Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests.

4.2. Author Contributions: Please, insert author contributions according with CRedit (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). RediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) is a high-level taxonomy, including 14 roles, that can be used to represent the roles typically played by contributors to research outputs. More about Redit can be found at https://credit.niso.org/
Example of author contributions:

Conceptualization, G.E.D., S.E.G. and T.E.C.; methodology, G.E.D.; software, S.E.G.; formal analysis, G.E.D. and S.E.G.; writing—original draft preparation, G.E.D. and S.E.G.; writing—review and editing, T.E.C. and S.E.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

4.3. Funding: All the funding sources of the study should be mentioned after the conclusions.

4.4. Data Availability Statement: Authors should provide details regarding where data supporting reported results can be found, including links to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study. You might choose to exclude this statement if the study did not report any data.

4.5. Acknowledgments:  Collate acknowledgments in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.).

4.6. Ethical Approval: If the study involves humans, animals, or sensitive data, authors must provide the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board that approved the study, along with the approval number. Include a statement confirming that the study was conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Example:
"The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of [Institution Name] (Approval No. XXXX) and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki."

If the study does not involve humans, animals, or sensitive data, simply state:
"Not applicable."

5. Appendices

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

5. Footnotes and abbreviations

Footnotes should be avoided. Abbreviations should also be avoided, except from exceptionally usual. If used, footnotes should only contain additional text (comment), and not information about sources used. The abbreviations stated in tables and pictures should be explained.

6. Supplementary material 

Supplementary material as appropriate, can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online).

7. References

Since our journal aims to reach a broad international audience, it is highly encouraged to use references from well-known, highly ranked journals, preferably in the English language. We recommend that you do not include unpublished results and personal communications in your reference list, though you may mention them in the text of your article.

In the main text, references are to be quoted as name and year of publication such as: . . . by John (1952), Ali and Kaleem (1977), and Ali et al. (1980; 1984); or: (Cena, 1982; Sara and Tom, 1977; Rosov et al., 1980; Fateh et al., 1978) in chronological order within the text. 

All references should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the manuscript under the heading "References." While there is no strict formatting style required, consistency in formatting is essential. Below is an example of a properly formatted journal article reference:

Journal articles

Ullah, S. Biochar coupled with contrasting nitrogen sources mediated changes in carbon and nitrogen pools, microbial and enzymatic activity in paddy soil. Journal of Saudi Chemical Society. (2020). 24(11), 835-849.

Ullah, S. and Jiang, L. Biochar coupled with contrasting nitrogen sources mediated changes in carbon and nitrogen pools, microbial and enzymatic activity in paddy soil. Journal of Saudi Chemical Society. (2020). 24(11).835-849.

Ullah, S. Liang, H. Ali, I. Zhao, Q. Iqbal, A. Wei, S. Shah, T. Yan, B. and Jiang, L. Biochar coupled with contrasting nitrogen sources mediated changes in carbon and nitrogen pools, microbial and enzymatic activity in paddy soil. Journal of Saudi Chemical Society. (2020). 24(11).835-849.

Books

Finck, A. (1982): Fertilizers and Fertilization. VerlagChemie, Weinheim, Germany.

Chapters from multi-author books

Wold, S., Sjöström, M. (1977): Chemometrics, Theory and Application, in Kowalski, B. R. (ed.):

ACS Symposium Series. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, USA, pp. 243–282.

Dissertation

Sabel-Koschella, U. (1988): Field studies on soil erosion in the southern Guinea Savanna of West Nigeria. PhD thesis, University of Munich, Germany.

Patents

Miller, B. O. (1952): U.S. Pat. 2542356, Dow Chemical Comp.; Chem. Abstr.51 (1961) 2870.

Recommendation for Language Editing 

The Journal of Soil, Plant, and Environment has partnered with LetPub to recommend language editing support for authors prior to submission. For authors whose native language is not English, editorial support from LetPub is a useful pre-submission resource.