Authors wishing to submit manuscripts to Cameroon Journal of Biological and Biochemical Sciences should read these instructions carefully before preparing their manuscripts.
Scope
Cameroon Journal of Biological and Biochemical Sciences is committed to the publication of high quality original papers and reviews in various aspects of biological sciences, including life science, agriculture and environment, medical and allied science, as well as research spanning across multiple disciplines of biosciences.
Language
Manuscripts in English or French are welcome. Authors, particularly those willing to publish in a language different from their first language may wish to have their English/French-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and the reviewers. Contact the Editorial Office is you need language editing of your manuscript.
Conditions of publication
All manuscripts submitted shall be independently refereed by at least two referees. Manuscripts are received with the explicit understanding that they are not under simultaneous consideration by any other journal. Submission of a paper for publication implies the transfer of the copyright from the author to the publisher upon acceptance. Accepted papers become the permanent property of the Cameroon Biosciences Society (CBS) and may not be reproduced by any means in whole or in part without the written consent of the Society. Manuscripts accepted for publication are subject to page charges at current cost of publication (See page charge below).
Types of Articles
Research articles: Research papers should be the product of original scientific research, and are classed as either short or long communications.
Short Communications: Manuscripts that concisely describe the results of studies that are completed but limited in scope will be published as short communications. These manuscripts will have a three-page limit.
Reviews: Reviews of striking developments in the biological and biochemical sciences will be published. They may be invited or suggested by the authors to the editorial board.
Conference proceedings/Books of abstracts.
Manuscript preparation
Manuscripts submitted for publication in the Cameroon Journal of Biological and Biochemical Sciences should be laid out according to the following format: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and/or Conclusion and References. Some variation from this basic format is acceptable. For example, the Materials and methods section may be separated into two sections if this enhances the reading quality. The results and discussion sections may be combined into a single results and discussion section if necessary. Papers are published in English and French. Papers submitted for publication should be typed and double spaced (including abstracts, tables and figure legends) with 2.5 cm margins on right and left sides and printed in Times New Roman, front size 12. All pages of the manuscript should be numbered. Tables and figures should be typed or drawn on separate sheets of paper to follow the references and not interspersed (embedded) in the text. Each line of the manuscript should be numbered throughout the whole document.
Free format style
The Journal now offers free format style for a fast and simple submission process. Submit your manuscript in whichever format you choose, as long as it is a Microsoft Word file, readable and understandable by editors and reviewers. Once accepted pending revisions, the authors can then format the revised manuscripts.
Authors will use the style guide described below, to adapt your text to ensure that the manuscript will be at publication standard and that all information required for a final decision is provided.
Title page
For the title page, the following information should be given typed double-spaced:
- Complete title of the manuscript in bold upper and lower-case letters.
- First names, middle initials and last names of all authors in Upper and Lower-case letters.
- Institutions, including departments, where research was performed. Give the address of each author. Indicate clearly which authors are affiliated with which institutions using the following symbols 1, 2, 3….For the corresponding author add the ‘*’ symbol.
- The complete mailing address of the corresponding author including, its telephone number and email address.
- Running title of maximum of 48 characters including spaces.
- A translation of the full title in French if the manuscript is in English and vice versa
Abstract
The abstracts, in French and English, must be a single paragraph of not more than 250 words summarising: (a) the problem addressed by the study, (b) the objective of the study, (c) the design / methodology including measures used and (e) a clear statement of the results and conclusion. Abbreviations and citations should be avoided.
Keywords
For indexing purposes, a list of 3-5 key words in English and French is essential.
Materials and methods
Documentation of methods and materials used should be sufficient to permit replication of the research. Describe the control and experimental subjects, giving age, weight, sex race and, for animals, breed or strain. Give the name, city and state or country of the suppliers of experimental animals. State the source of specialised materials, diets, chemicals and instruments and other equipment, with model or catalogue numbers where appropriate. Specify kits, analysers and commercial laboratories used. Describe standardization, quality control and modification of the assays.
Usage: Use not more than one slash for “per” in a symbol expression. For example to abbreviate “0.6g Ca per kg per day” use one of the following forms: 0.6 g Ca/kg. d) or 0.6 g Ca.kg-1.d-1.
Human and animal Research: Manuscripts describing research on humans must include a statement testifying that the protocol was reviewed and proved by the appropriate institutional committee or that it complied with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 1983. Research on animals should include a statement that the protocol was reviewed and proved by the appropriate committee or complied with Guide for the care and use of laboratory animals. If animals were killed, include a statement describing the method. Do not use such euphemisms as “sacrificed” and “euphonised”.
Numbers: use Arabic rather than roman numerals and cardinal rather than ordinal numbers throughout, including references to table and figures. e.g. Group 4 not the fourth group or Group IV. Table 2 and not Table II. For values less than 1, include a zero before the decimal point.
Units of measure: Most measurements must conform to Système International (SI). The metric and the Celsius Scales (°C) must be used. Concentration should be expressed on molar basis. No prefix other than mili-, micro, nano or pico- should be used with litre, e.g. 100 ml not 1 dl.
Voucher specimens. Voucher specimens of animals serve as future reference for published names used in scientific publications. Authors are encouraged to deposit specimens in an established permanent collection and to note in the published article that the expected deposition has been made and its location.
Results
Results should be presented with clarity and precision, and should be explained without referring to the literature.
Discussion
It should interpret the results obtained in the study and in reference to past studies on this topic in the literature.
Acknowledgements
Technical assistance and advice may be acknowledged in a section at the end of the text. Acknowledgement of financial support can also be stated in this section.
Conflict of interest
The authors must declare any interest that may conflict with their publication. In case of absence of conflict of interest, they can state: the authors declare no conflict of interest.
Author contributions
The submission must include a statement of the credit of each author in the manuscript, as advised by Brand et al. (2015), Learned Publishing 28(2). These include:
Conceptualization: ideas; formulation or evolution of overarching research goals and aims.
Methodology: development or design of methodology; creation of models.
Software: programming, software development; designing computer programs; implementation of the computer code and supporting algorithms; testing of existing code components.
Validation: verification, whether as a part of the activity or separate, of the overall replication/ reproducibility of results/experiments and other research outputs.
Formal analysis: application of statistical, mathematical, computational, or other formal techniques to analyze or synthesize study data.
Investigation: conducting a research and investigation process, specifically performing the experiments, or data/evidence collection.
Resources: provision of study materials, reagents, materials, patients, laboratory samples, animals, instrumentation, computing resources, or other analysis tools.
Data Curation: management activities to annotate (produce metadata), scrub data and maintain research data (including software code, where it is necessary for interpreting the data itself) for initial use and later reuse.
Writing – Original Draft: preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically writing the initial draft (including substantive translation).
Writing – Review & Editing: preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work by those from the original research group, specifically critical review, commentary or revision – including pre-or post-publication stages.
Visualization: preparation, creation and/or presentation of the published work, specifically visualization/ data presentation.
Supervision: oversight and leadership responsibility for the research activity planning and execution, including mentorship external to the core team.
Project administration: management and coordination responsibility for the research activity planning and execution.
Funding acquisition: acquisition of the financial support for the project leading to this publication.
An example of author credit: Abada Andre: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software. Boli Bidal.: Data curation, Writing- Original draft preparation. Cancun Calvin: Visualization, Investigation. Dan Dorken: Supervision. Ekoule Elie: Software, Validation. Fam Florence: Methodology, Writing- Reviewing and Editing.
References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all literature citations. Personal communications, articles that have not yet been accepted and unpublished data cannot be included in the literature cited section but should appear parenthetically in the text. Personal communication must be written and permission to use them obtained in writing. Avoid using abstracts as references when possible. Articles accepted for publication but not published may be cited as “in press”; Such papers must been accepted when final revisions are completed on the current article. References to oral reports, bulletins, thesis and other materials should be included in the Literature cited Sections. Do not abbreviate Journal names.
In the text, give the author’s name followed by the year in parentheses: Omokolo (2000). If there are two authors, use “&”: and give the names of all the authors Messi & Nguefang (1993) or (Tombi & Bilong-Bilong 2004). When reference is made to a work by three or more authors, the first name followed by et al. should be used: Kekeunou et al. (2010). When citing multiple references, include them in chronological rather than alphabetical order. “Other investigators (Fomena & Bouix 1997, Boudjeko et al. 2005, Kekeunou 2007) found that … “ Use a comma between multiple citation in the text and a space only between authors and dates. For multiple citation in years from the same authors, use 2010a, 2010b (Kekeunou et al. 2010a, 2010b) etc. including them in the order they appear in the Literature Cited Section. If two or more references from one year have different authors with the same last name, use initials as well.
In the Reference Section, cite references alphabetically, without numbering. Do not use “et al.”, but include all authors’ names for every title. Styles for different types of citations are as follows:
1. Journals
Online Journal without page number
Kekeunou S, Weise S, Messi J and Tamo M (2006). Farmers’ perception on the importance of Zonocerus variegatus (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae) in Humid Forest Zone of Southern Cameroon. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2 (17), March, www.ethnobiomed.com.
Journal with page number
Boudjeko T, Rihouey C, Omokolo N D, El Hadrami I, Lerouge P and Driouich A (2009). Characterisation of cell wall polysaccharides, arabinogalactans-proteins (AGPs) and phenolics of Cola nitida, Cola acuminata and Garcinia kola seeds. Carbohydrates Polymers 78 , 820–827.
Abstracts published
Kekeunou S, Messi J, Foahom B and Weise S (2005). Impact of forest cover degradation on diversity and pest status of grasshoppers in Africa. International Forestry Review 7 (5), 391 (abstract).
In press articles
Djocgoue P F, Mbouobda H D, Boudjeko T, Effa O P and Omokolo N D (2011). Amino acids, carbohydrates and heritability of resistance in Theobroma cacao/ Phythophthora megakarya interaction. Phytopathology Mediteranean. (In press).
2. Books
Entire book
Gangoue-Pieboji J (2010). Caractérisation et inhibition des β-lactamase par les plantes. Editions universitaires europeennes (Ed.), Serrebruck, Allemagne, 106 p.
Chapter in a book
Sonwa D J, Nkongmeneck A, Weise S F, Tchatat M and Janssens M J J (2009). Tree diversity of the cocoa agroforest around Yaoundé (southern Cameroon). In: Van der Burgt X, Van der Maesen J & Onana J M (Eds), Systematics and Conservation of African Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, pp 691–699.
Conference Proceeding
Ambang Z, Ndongo Bekolo, Petga E, Ngoh Dooh J P and Asanga A (2007). Effect of crude extracts of Thevetia peruviana seeds on development of leaf spt desease of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) caused by Cercosporea sp. In: Kasem Zaki A, Abdel-Hazim M, Shalabi S I, Morsi E I, Hamady A M I (Eds). African Crop Science Conference Proceedings, El-Minia, Egypt, 27-31 October 2007, pp 797-800.
3. Thesis
PhD / MSc / DEA / Maîtrise theses
Bougnom B P (2009). Physical, chemical and microbiological implications of organic orcharding and use of compost with wood ash as an additive. PhD Thesis, University of Innsbruck, Austria, 146p.
HDR thesis
Njintang Yanou N (2008). Production et fonctionnalités des poudres de taro, niébé et voandzou pour la préparation d’aliments tropicaux. Habilitation à Diriger la Recherche, Université de Nancy, France, 117p.
4. Electronic material
Gbongboui G, Müller D, De Groote H and Douro-Kpindou O K (1997). Diagnostique participatif sur le criquet puant (Zonocerus variegatus) dans quelques villages du Département du Mono. LUBILOSA, IITA. http://www.lubilosa.org/wp9806.PDF, 16 p.
5. Website citation
http://www.bembix-newsletter.de/Original contributions/key_sceliphron.htm. Date of consultation (dd/mm/yyyy).
Tables and Figures
Tables and figures should be typed on separate sheets, numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, and have a short descriptive caption at the top. Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the table captions. Do not present the same materials in both tabular and graphic form. Tables must be placed in the typescript immediately following the page of text with which they should be printed. Each table should be mentioned in the text.
Computer generated charts/graphs should be of high quality such that it can be reproduced clearly. Laser produced illustrations are generally good. Photocopies are generally not acceptable. Legend should be incorporate in each table and figure.
Proofs and corrections
Read proofs and edited manuscript carefully and answer all queries. After the proof have been accepted, authors shall be charged for any changes.
Submission
Manuscripts (in Microsoft Word file) are submitted in Cameroon Journal of Biological and Biochemical Sciences (CJBBS) only through the submission form: SUBMIT A MANUSCRIPT