Overcoming Challenges to Developing Sustainable Agri-food systems in the Tropics

Themes | Submission | Editorial Guidelines | Format

 

Call for papers

 

Themes

The UWI invites papers on any topic under the general theme of the Conference within the following sub themes:

Innovation in Production and Post Production Technologies

  1. to investigate technological responses to the challenges facing tropical Agriculture – addressing specifically the production and post-production issues.

Innovation in Marketing and Globalization Issues

  1. to investigate a socio-economic response to globalization challenges facing tropical Agriculture.
  2. to explore innovations in global marketing systems and opportunities for tropical countries to expand markets.

Innovation in Research Education and Extension

  1. to investigate innovations in education and extension globally and lessons that can be applied for tropical agriculture.

Submission of Abstracts and Papers

Those interested in presenting papers at the Conference should forward an Abstract, for review by the Programme Committee, no later than September 30th 2008.  Abstracts should not exceed 200 words. Abstracts must also include additional keywords that are useful in index retrieval systems. These keywords should be placed at the end of the abstract in bold and listed in alphabetical order.

Authors of papers accepted for presentation should submit the following:

  • An electronic copy (name of author, title of paper, software used) of their full paper, no later than October 31st 2008.
  • A brief biography of the author (and of the person presenting the paper, if different from the author)
  • Email : tacongress.uwi60@sta.uwi.edu

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Please note that the first author and the corresponding author are expected to be able to take public responsibility for the entire paper.

Editorial Guidelines for papers are as follow:

 

Organisation of text:

All papers must adhere to the form and style required by many journals in the life sciences.

This includes the following headings in the paper: Abstract; Introduction; Materials and methods; Results; Discussion and Literature cited.

Abstract -First time writers are reminded that an abstract is a concise single paragraph summary of the completed work. In a minute or less a reader should learn the rationale behind the study, general approach to the problem, pertinent results, and important conclusions.

Introduction -The purpose of an introduction is to acquaint the reader with the rationale behind the work, with the intention of defending it. It places the work in a theoretical context, and enables the reader to understand and appreciate the objectives. In the introduction the author should,

  • Describe the importance (significance) of the study - why was this worth doing in the first place? Provide a broad context.
  • Defend the model - why was this particular organism or system used? What are its advantages?
  • Provide a rationale. State the specific hypothesis(es) or objective(s), and describe the reasoning that led to their selection.
  • Very briefly describe the experimental design and how it accomplished the stated objectives.

Materials and methods- The objective in this section is to document all specialized materials and general procedures, so that another individual may use some or all of the methods in another study or judge the scientific merit of the work. First time writers are reminded that this is not a step by step description of every action performed, nor is a methods section a set of instructions.
Results- The purpose of a results section is to present and illustrate the findings. This section should be a completely objective report, with all interpretation relegated to the discussion. In the results the author should,

  • Summarize the findings in text and illustrate them, if appropriate, with figures and tables.
  • In the text, describe each result, pointing the reader to observations that are most relevant.
  • Describe results of control experiments and include observations that are not presented in a formal figure or table, if appropriate.
  • Analyze the data, then prepare the analyzed (converted) data in the form of a figure (graph), table, or in text form.
  • Never include raw data or intermediate calculations in a research paper.

Discussion- The objective here is to provide an interpretation of the results and support for all of the conclusions, using evidence from the experiment and generally accepted knowledge, if appropriate. The significance of findings should also be clearly described.
Literature cited- All references cited in the text must be included in the bibliography. Please use the "author date" system when citing references in the text. First time writers are reminded that in a proper research paper, only primary literature is used (original research articles authored by the original investigators). Caution is also advised about using web sites as references.

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Format

  • Papers must be written in English.
  • The paper should not exceed 15-20 pages double space. Font: Times New Roman, 11 point. Software: Microsoft Word.
  • Acronyms and abbreviations must be defined at first mention in the text
  • Author name(s) are listed under the title.
  • Acknowledgments are at the end of the text. Disclaimers should be a footnote to the first page.
  • Corresponding author’s name and e-mail address are given before the abstract.

Figures and tables

  • Figures and tables must be sent on a separate file. These pages must be numbered.
  • The captions of each figure and table must also be sent on a separate file.
  • If the original figure is a hard copy, it must be scanned and converted into a PDF file.
  • The figures should be boxed.
  • Captions should describe the contents so each illustration is understandable when considered apart from the text.
  • Tables should be intelligible without reference to the text or another table.
  • All figures and tables must be cited in numeric order in the manuscript.
  • Numbers and lettering should be in a 10-point sans serif type and bold; capitalize only the first word and proper nouns in each label. Panel designations—A, B, C, etc.—should be uppercase letters in an 18-point sans serif type that matches the font used for the rest of the labeling. Keep font sizes consistent among figures and tables
  • Figures should be sized to fit one (88 mm) or two columns (183 mm); maximum height is 250 mm, including caption.
  • The minimum number of columns in a table is two.
  • Numbers should be rounded to significant digits. Ditto marks should not be used.
  • Abbreviations are acceptable; explain any nonstandard abbreviations in footnotes. Footnotes are designated with superscript lowercase letters.
  • Vertical and horizontal rules and bold type are not allowed in the data fields of tables.

Please consult the following text for more general editorial style information:
University of Chicago Press. 1993. The Chicago Manual of Style. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Papers received in any other format will not be accepted.

Both abstracts and papers should be sent to the following email address:

tacongress.uwi60@sta.uwi.edu

 

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