Author Guidelines

Paper preparation template/Instructions to authors

At TOJAR, a structured abstract of not more than 300 words is employed, and the following template shall guide prospective contributors:

Title: The title of a manuscript should not be longer than 50 words. The title should be in lower case, except in cases where the upper case is best suited, like for proper nouns. The title of a manuscript should bear the state where the research was carried out, and titles should be as clear and precise as possible.

Background of the study/ Introduction: Contributors are discouraged from citing in the background. The background should simply set the stage for the study. It should also give insight into the work, why the topic is important, and why the study is worth conducting.

The study's objective: The study's objective should clearly state the problem to be solved.

Methodology: This should indicate how the research was carried out and the designs adopted to achieve the study objectives. The sample size, sampling procedure for selecting respondents, and instruments for data collection should be clearly stated as well. The method(s) of data analysis utilised and the mode of data presentation should be indicated. Issues like validity and reliability should be addressed.

Results: Results should be presented in clear, simple and straightforward language.

Unique Contribution: The researcher should state the distinctive contribution of his/her manuscript to past or existing knowledge by highlighting its practical, theoretical, or scholarly contributions.

Conclusion: The conclusion should be handled with seriousness. The contributors should concisely sum up the study.

Key Recommendation: Here, recommendations for further studies on the research topic should be stated.

Keywords: The keywords that serve as the yardstick for referring to and identifying the paper should be indicated with semicolon (;) separations.

References: At TOJAR, we adopt the APA 7th edition referencing style. Contributors are also encouraged to cite reputable impact factor journals.

Plagiarism

At TOJAR, we use Turnitin to screen all manuscripts submitted. Using another author’s language, ideas, expressions, and thoughts as one’s original work is unacceptable. By percentage, the maximum range of acceptability for the originality of a manuscript is ≤20%. Self-plagiarism is also considered an offence. It occurs when an author uses a considerable part of his/her work that has been previously published without referencing or citing correctly. It can range from modifying a previously published manuscript to publishing the same one in more than one journal. To solve this problem, authors are advised to do the following:

Avoid exact repetition of another person’s work if proper acknowledgement of the author or source cannot be done;
Avoid rearranging, rewording, or rephrasing another person’s ideas or work if proper citation of the source cannot be done;
Avoid using works or ideas of people from the Internet to make an imitation of online sources;
Using the work of other authors as part of one’s own when proper acknowledgement of the author cannot be made should be avoided.

The average number of weeks between article submission & publication

It takes an average of 6 months from submission to publication.

Research with animals or humans

Research involving animals or humans must be well-evaluated and approved by a research ethics committee (IRB) before starting the study. The rights of study subjects and participants to privacy must be respected. In addition, the informed consent of subjects consented to participate in research must be obtained. Authors should be reminded that informed consent is not just a signed form but a process in which the subjects or participants are made to understand their roles, the objectives, and the risks that the research poses.

Research involving vulnerable groups

At TOJAR, the following must be considered in studies that involve vulnerable groups:

For studies involving children (those below 18 years), their parents or guardians must sign a consent form for them to take part in any study.
The vulnerable group and their parents/guardians must be made to understand the full implications of participating in their study.
They must also consent to the publication of the study.
Authors must provide evidence that the above ethical requirements were met.

Conflicts of Interest (COI) and funding

At TOJAR, one of our esteemed aims is to ensure our issues are free from immoderate influence. As such, we expect that our authors must make the following declarations:

All financial COI with no time limits.
Relevant non-financial potential COIs.

Libel, defamation, and freedom of expression

We discourage any form of false publication or statements that threaten the reputation of individuals, groups, and organisations. If such a situation arises, our legal team will act appropriately.

Retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern

At TOJAR, we encourage retraction, correction, and expression of concern for papers published in our journal. A retraction may be initiated by our editors, the author(s) of the papers, or their institution. In rare cases, retraction is accompanied by apologies for the previous error and/or expressions of gratitude to persons who disclosed the error to the author. An expression of concern is also recommended in the same manner as the case with retraction or correction.

Falsification, fabrication, and image manipulation

We concede that the results of data collected or presented as images may be confusing if they are not appropriately modified. Considering this, we advise authors to be more evaluative in making decisions to modify data elicited in this form. We have grounds to believe that a painstaking consideration of modifying such images is crucial to preventing falsification, fabrication, or misrepresentation of their results.

Fraudulent research and research misconduct

If we discover fraudulent research or research misconduct by our author, our feedback will be to collaborate with the relevant editor(s) and other appropriate institutions or organisations for investigation. Any publication that we find to include fraudulent content will be retracted, or an appropriate correction or expression of concern will be issued.

Data and supporting evidence

Authors are encouraged to be transparent concerning data coding and reports of materials used during the research process. Therefore, authors are expected to provide and store accurate data and supporting evidence related to their research in a repository or storage location. The reason for doing this is to enable us to create access for others to make verifications, understand, and probably easily replicate new findings from the data the authors provided.

Copyright and License

By submitting manuscripts to TOJAR, contributors are agreeing to the following agreement:

Copyright on articles published by TOJAR is retained by the author(s).
Authors who submit manuscripts to the journal grant TOJAR a license to publish the articles and identify itself as the original publisher.
Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely provided its integrity is sustained, and its original authors, citation details, and publisher are identified.
Where an author cannot hold the copyright, minor adjustments may be needed to accommodate the peculiarities. It is mandatory for authors who require such variations to inform the TOJAR editorial team after their manuscripts have been accepted.

License agreement

In submitting an article to TOJAR, I certify that;

I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
I warrant, on behalf of myself and my co-authors, that:

the article is original, has not been formally published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration by any other journal, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third-party rights;
I am/we are the sole author(s) of the article and have full authority to enter into this agreement in granting rights to TOJAR are not in breach of any other obligation;
the article contains nothing unlawful, libellous, or which would if published, constitute a breach of contract or of confidence or of commitment given to secrecy;
I/we have taken due care to ensure the article's integrity. To my/our - and currently accepted scientific - knowledge of all statements in it purporting to be facts are true, and any formula or instruction contained in the article will not, if followed accurately, cause any injury, illness, or damage to the user.

I and all co-authors agree that the article if accepted for publication, shall be licensed in line with TOJAR policies.

IMPORTANT

Whether the authors fill out a form or not, the license agreement applies to all articles published by the journal. Therefore, authors need to read the license agreement before submitting their manuscripts.

Licensing

All articles published by TOJAR are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Therefore, through the noncommercial use of works published by TOJAR, readers can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of our published articles, which allows readers to use them for any other lawful purposes. Readers must acknowledge sources accordingly.

Self-Archiving policies

As an open-access journal, TOJAR allows authors to archive the published versions of their articles in databases that are freely available to the general public. The number of databases where authors can archive their works is not limited.

Contributors must adhere to the following:

Referencing style: APA 7^th Edition

Article length: Not more than 20 pages, including references

Focus: Crop Science, Food Science and Technology, Soil Science, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering, Nutrition and Dietetics, Animal Science, and Agricultural Extension.

Originality of Submissions: We take the issue of plagiarism very seriously. Therefore, all submissions will be subjected to originality checks. If the similarity level is more than 20% (without references) it will be returned to the author (s) to correct before proceeding to the next round of review. The journal does not allow artificial intelligence to generate manuscript content.

The journal uses a structured abstract with the following subheadings:

Background: In the background, contributors are discouraged from citations. The background should set the stage for the study. Conceivably, it should give an insight into the work, why the topic is important, and why the study is worth conducting.

The study's objective: The study's objective should clearly state the problem to be solved.

Methodology: This should indicate how the research was carried out and the designs adopted to achieve the study objectives. The sample size, sampling procedure for selecting respondents, and instruments for data collection should also be clearly stated. The method(s) of data analysis utilized and the mode of data presentation should be indicated. Issues like validity and reliability should be addressed.

Results: Results should be presented in clear and straightforward language.

Conclusion: The conclusion should be handled with seriousness. The contributors should concisely sum up the study.

Key Recommendation: Here, recommendations for further studies on the research topic should be stated.

How to Submit: Register as a user and follow the instructions to submit your manuscript.

Publication Frequency

The journal is published annually. For 2025, the journal's issues will be published in September. From 2026 onward, the journal will be published in June. Authors are encouraged to bear in mind our publication schedules when revising manuscripts or checking galley proofs. If an article misses a particular issue, the author (s) must wait for the next issue. It is essential to add here that the two issues in a year exclude any special issue. The highest number of special issues that can be published in a year is two. The theme of our special issue can be limited to a geographical area or open to international participation.

Refund policy

The Article Processing Charge (APC), which authors pay, is non-refundable and is to take care of the cost of production and overall management of the journal. Only in exceptional cases will a refund application be considered. Below are some of the conditions:

The application is made 24 hours after payment.
The basis for the application is due to overpayment.
Authors made payment for manuscripts that have not been accepted.

Aims and Scope

TOJAR aims to publish well-researched manuscripts across different agricultural fields: Crop Science, Food Science and Technology, Soil Science, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering, Nutrition and Dietetics, Animal Science, and Agricultural Extension. The journal considers articles from Nigerian and non-Nigerian authors. TOJAR aims to become an internationally-ranked open-access journal for ground-breaking academic research in order to meet the academic needs of the international community. For this reason, unlike traditional journals, TOJAR does not limit content as a result of thematic importance, rather, it assesses each article's scientific and research methods for validity and accepts articles majorly on the basis of the research. Adopting this approach, readers are offered greater access and the power to determine the significance of each article through TOJAR’s interactive comments feature and article-level usage metrics. Correspondingly, by not limiting papers to a narrow discipline, TOJAR facilitates the discovery of the connections between papers, whether within or between disciplines. It focuses on Crop Science, Food Science and Technology, Soil Science, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Engineering, Nutrition and Dietetics, Animal Science, and Agricultural Extension. In Crop Science, the journal covers crop protection, horticulture, environmental sciences, plant breeding and genetics, agronomy, agribusiness, and advanced crop production. In the area of Food Science and Technology, it focuses on food science, food analysis, food policy, nutrition, food safety, sensory evaluation and food marketing. In the area of Soil Science, it focuses attention on soil survey, soil chemistry, soil physics, pedology, soil fertility, soil quality and water, and soil conservation. In the area of Agricultural Economics, it publishes manuscripts on environmental economics, agricultural policy, livestock economics, agricultural finance, farm management, and agricultural marketing. In the area of Agricultural Engineering, it publishes manuscripts on agricultural structures, agricultural machinery and machinery design, soil and water engineering, process engineering, environmental engineering, postharvest technology, and bio-engineering. In Nutrition and Dietetics, the journal is interested in articles on community nutrition, paediatric nutrition, public health nutrition, food service management, and nutrition education. In Animal Science, the journal accepts manuscripts focusing on animal behaviour and welfare, animal nutrition and livestock production. In Agricultural Extension, the journal accepts manuscripts focusing on agricultural practices, sustainability, agribusiness, human resource empowerment, and innovative agricultural awareness programmes.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Introduction

At Torkwase Journal of Agricultural Research, our commitment to the integrity of our academic content and publishing process is an assurance. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to conduct their research in line with appropriate practices and a good code of conduct of professional relevance or internationally regulated bodies.

Research integrity

We uphold a high standard at Torkwase Journal of Agricultural Research. As such, our esteemed contributors from different agricultural disciplines/institutions are encouraged to abide by the following principles considerably:

Mental honesty in all aspects of research;
Thoroughgoing review, accuracy, and excellence in research practice;
Research report communication with heightened transparency and integrity;
Respect, care, and protection of all participants in the subject(s) of research.

Editorial process

At Torkwase Journal of Agricultural Research, we are pledged to guarantee an elevated standard in the process through which contents are created and made independent of simple data or information. Our editorial process is interactively synergistic and subjectively high. Our all-inclusive editorial policies are articulated thus:

We start a preliminary check process after submission, and the submission can be accepted for peer evaluation only when:

The manuscript falls within the scope of the journal requirement(s);
Authorship information is well-grounded;
The presentation meets our standard of selection;
The needful information regarding our research ethics is included in the manuscript;
The manuscript is free from plagiarism.

When a submission is made to the journal, qualified and worthy reviewers will be contacted to assess it critically.

After critical assessment and evaluation of reviewers' comments, editors will decide whether to accept or reject the submitted manuscript or require authors to review their manuscript.
After an author’s revision, reviewers are contacted again for a rerun of the manuscript review. Adopting this procedure, editors will decide whether to accept or reject the revised manuscript.
Nevertheless, if a manuscript is eventually accepted, attention will be paid to layout editing, author proofreading, format conversion, and language structure editing before publication.

Peer review

We use double-blind peer review to assess submitted manuscripts. The journal conducts external peer reviews, and the reviewers are independent of the publisher. At TOJAR, we acknowledge the indispensable role of critical assessment in the integrity of the scholarly record. Our ethical publication policies for peer reviewers set the fundamental principles and standards that all prominent peer reviewers should adhere to during the critical assessment process. Therefore, we have delineated the fundamental principles to which our peer reviewers should adhere as follows:

Reviewers should only agree to assess manuscripts with the subject expertise required to conduct a proper review and which they can assess in a timely manner.
Reviewers should ensure the confidentiality of peer review and not disclose any detail of a manuscript or its review during or after the peer-review process except for those released by the journal.
Reviewers should neither use the details/information obtained during the critical assessment process to the disadvantage of others nor for their own, other persons, or an organisation’s advantage.
Reviewers should state all prospective conflicting interests and solicit advice from the journal if they are unsure whether something adds up to a relevant interest.
Reviewers should not let their reviews be influenced by the origin of a manuscript, its nationality, religious or political beliefs, gender, commercial deliberations, or other characteristics of the authors.
Reviewers should be unprejudiced and positive in their reviews, abstaining from being antagonistic or provocative and making defamatory personal comments.
Reviewers should admit that peer review is mainly a reciprocal effort and hence, should endeavour to accomplish their fair share of reviews in a prompt manner.
Reviewers should provide the journal with precise personal and professional information that truly represents their proficiency.
Reviewers should acknowledge that the impersonation of another individual during the review process is considered serious wrongdoing.

Special issue policies

The journal applies the following for its special issues:

The Editor-in-Chief can serve as the editor, or a Guest Editor or Editors will be appointed.
Where a Guest Editor or Editors are to be appointed, the individuals must be experts on the special issue theme with proven track records of publications.
The Guest editor's role will be to screen submitted manuscripts, invite reviewers, coordinate the review process, and make decisions regarding submitted manuscripts.
When the Guest Editor or Editors share the same institutional affiliations as the authors, the final decision to accept or reject a manuscript will be made by the Editor-in-Chief or another assigned editorial board member.
The review process for the special issue follows the same procedure as the regular issue.
A special issue with authors drawn from a single institution is possible, but the peer-review process must follow the journal's standard. The theme of the special issue must also fall within the journal's scope.

Authorship

Any form of scholarly contribution to the development and conclusion of research work has significant academic implications. This suggests that for published works, authorship comes with liability and accountability. Subsequently, in enlisting authors for research work, potential authors must be acquainted with the following:

All submitted papers must contain contributors’ statements. This must be carried out to keep away from fraudulent authorship attribution.
Individuals with considerable contributions to the conception, design of the work, acquisition, analysis, interpretation of data, and drafting of the work or its revision must be listed as authors.
The position of a corresponding author is not superior to that of other authors or collaborators; instead, the corresponding author assumes primary responsibility for communicating with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process.
For those individuals whose contributions did not justify authorship (e.g., data collectors, data managers, professional writing assistants, etc.), a short acknowledgement section should highlight their contribution(s) during the research process.