Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors should adhere to the following recommendations to speed up publication. All manuscripts are submitted to the referees for assessment. Authors can also study a recent volume of the journal and follow the current style in use.

FORMAT

All headings are flush left. The beginning of every paragraph must flush to the left margin. All paragraphs must be blocked and separated with an extra line space between them. All pages must be numbered. For short communications, there is no abstract and division into sections is not necessary

ARRANGEMENTS

The contents of the articles must be presented in the following sequence: Title, Name(s) of author(s), Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussions, Acknowledgements, and References.

TITLE

This should be a separate page and contain the name(s) of the author(s), their addresses and e-mail addresses. In case of more than one author, indicate who correspondences should be addressed to. The title of the paper should, if possible, be short, but must contain enough information to reflect what is contained in the text.

ABSTRACT

This should be in a separate page. The abstract should convey the essential account concisely, in not more than 200 words all in one paragraph, using one sentence each to describe the aim(s), methods, results, and final conclusions within the limited space. The end should contain not more than six key words.

INTRODUCTION

Background information should be provided from peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, reference works, and textbooks on the experiment you have conducted. The theory behind the work should be discussed and why you think it is important. State the goals of the research or hypothesis(es). Explain what you are investigating and why you choose to investigate it. The introduction should be a motivation for the work. An extensive literature review is not necessary.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Procedures and materials used should be described in sufficient detail to allow repetition of the work. Protocols already described elsewhere can be quoted.

RESULTS

Describe the data generated from the experiments using statements, tables and figures. Any data already presented in a Table should not be repeated in a Figure and vice versa. Also results described in the text must not be repeated in Tables and Figures again. Present the statistic you calculated, the sample size for the statistical test, and the P-value for the statistic. All Tables and Figures must be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text.

DISCUSSION

Discuss and refer to the results obtained in the experiments and link the results to your original goal or idea. Compare the results obtained to other published studies. Since the objective is to make a contribution to the literature on this particular topic, you are expected to relate your work to the studies already done in this field. If your results are not what you expected, try to explain why they differ.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (optional)

Where applicable, acknowledgement(s) should be concise, e.g. "I thank Dr. M. Lawal for …".

CITATION OF REFERENCES IN THE TEXT

References by different authors should be arranged chronologically, e.g. (Ibrahim, 1965; Jones, 1973; Brown, 1977). References from the same year should be listed alphabetically, e.g. (Ahmed, 1966; Charles, 1966; John, 1966). When the name of the author and the year of publication do not form part of a sentence, they should be written in parentheses and separated only by a single space without comma, e.g. (Gimba, 1931). However, an author's name, and sometimes the year of publication, may form part of a sentence as follows: "Gimba (1931) showed that …" or "In 1931 Gimba published this report…". In the case of two authors the two names should be linked by an ampersand (&)., E.g. Hassan & Umar (2005). For more than two authors, quote only the name of the first author followed by et al., typed in italics, e.g. (Aboh, Smith & Jones (1931) becomes (Aboh et al., 1931). The quotation of multiple papers published by one author in the same year should be distinguished by the suffixes a, b, c, etc., inserted after the year of publication. For a series of papers, their arrangements should obey ascendant chronological order with each paper separated from the next by a semicolon (Garba, 2005; Daniel, 2006). If the papers are published the same year, use alphabetical orders (e.g. Daniel, 2006; Garba, 2006; Haruna, 2006). Quotation of papers that are still in the press should be done only for those papers that have actually gone to the press by inserting the words “in press” in the text instead of the year of publication. When an unseen paper is being quoted from another publication, only the latter should be included in the reference list. The unseen paper should be referred to only in the text, e.g.: "Jonathan (1999), cited by Goje (2000) found that …". In this example only Goje (2000) would be included in the reference list. For Personal communications, permission should be sought from the person(s) concerned before such communications can be quoted in the text only, but not in the reference list (E.g. Moses, personal communication). Authors must checked to ensure accuracy that all references mentioned in the text are listed at the end of the paper and vice versa.

LISTING REFERENCES AT THE END OF THE PAPER

References must be listed out according to the Harvard reference method. When one author has several publications they must be listed out chronologically. When two or more papers have the same author and published in the same year, the letters a, b, c, should be added after the year. When the publication carries the name of an editor and not the author of the article, insert "(Ed.)" between the name and the date of publication. If there is more than one editor, use the abbreviation "(Eds.)". When the reference includes both author/s and editor/s, insert the phrase "edited by" after the title of the book. The title of a journal must be given in full and italicized, using Arabic numerals to indicate the volume number, e.g. Theoretical Chemistry, 9:5-23. When the reference consists of a single page only, just insert a colon before the page number. Papers that are still in press should carry the word "in press" after the name of the journal, the correct volume and page numbers. Titles of books must be italicized. Use the abbreviation "ed." for edition and only an Arabic numeral to indicate the volume(s) cited. No page numbers are given for books, e.g. Goodlay, G. M. (2002). Modern Advances in Physics, 9th ed. London: Churchill. When it is only the abstract of an article that has been read, indicate this as follows: Johnson, Z. M. (2004). Mortality pattern of infants due to malaria. African Journal of Biomedical Research 7:234-245 (Abstract, Biology Bulletin, 30:67). Articles and book chapters should be written as follows: Queen, G. H (1968). Wine making. In: Small scale businesses, edited by K. Fox & Tonia, P. Kaduna: Baraka Press, 2:19-45. List articles that appeared in the proceedings of periodic international conferences as follows: Godiya, M.L. (2003). Chemical contamination of agarose gel in PCR. Proceedings of the 2nd international Congress of Science, Abuja, Nigeria 2006:329-339. Individual articles from Annual Reports should be listed as follows: Eunice, S M. A. (2001). Malaria. Report of the Department of Health, Nigeria 2000:51. Publications without the name of the author or editor should carry the name of the organization issuing the work, e.g. FAO (2002). Animal Disease Yearbook 2001. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Unpublished theses and dissertations should be listed as follows: Hamisu, K.U. (2002). Prevalence of HIV among girls in Kaduna town, Nigeria. B.Sc. Thesis, University of Port Harcourt, 34 pp. Note that the title of an unpublished work is not italicized. For citations of journals from the web, present as follow: Abubakar, M.S. (2006). A new disease of dogs from Kaduna. Science World Journal [on line] 23-39. Available in http://www.scienceworldjournal.com (date retrieved). For articles accessed in the net without authors and date of publication, use the example: High nitrate concentration in urban drinking water. Retrieved 8th September, 2006 from www.cc.gtech.edu.

Other relevant information

Tables

Each table must be typed using table menu for easy retrieval and editing. It should contain a brief heading with enough information to enable the reader to understand the table without consulting the text. The approximate positions of all tables must be indicated in the main text. Duplication in the text of information given in the tables must be avoided. They are to be numbered with Roman numerals.

Figures

Illustrations are referred to as figures (abbreviated as "Fig."). The approximate positions of all figures must be indicated in the main text. Repetition in the text of information given in the figures must be avoided. They are to be numbered with Arabic numerals. Authors are encouraged to supply the original spreadsheet data used to produce the graph to enable us maintain a uniform look for all graphs in the journal.

Photographs and diagrams

Production of colour figures are free. They should be saved in JPEG format

Graphs and drawings

Drawing must be done professionally on a clear white surface.

Biological and chemical nomenclature

The use of taxonomic and chemical names must be in accordance with the relevant rules in the International Codes of Nomenclature for animals, bacteria and plants as well as the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). When an organism is mentioned in the text for the first time, its generic and specific names must be given in full, e.g. Trypanosoma vivax. Subsequent mention should abbreviate the initial generic name e.g. T. vivax. In the case of two organisms that have their generic names starting with same initial letter, and in addition these organisms have identical species names, then always write out their generic names to avoid confusion, e.g. Glossina palpalis and Glossina pallidipes. In a taxonomic article, in addition to the full scientific name of each organism mentioned, the author(s) must be given the first time it is cited. The date on which the original description of the organism was published should be given. The rules governing the ways in which authors and dates are quoted differ somewhat in the three International Codes of Nomenclature. For a zoological organism the generic and specific names are followed by the name(s) of the author(s), a comma and the date, e. g. Babesia bigemina Smith & Kilbourne, 1893. In the case of bacteria, there is no comma between the name(s) of author(s) and the date, e.g. Pasteurella haemolytica Newson & Cross 1932. In the case of plants the name of the author is abbreviated, e.g Grevia robusta Harv. Take into account the uniqueness of the nomenclature of viruses and always begin Family names with a capital letter and end with the suffix” viridae”, e.g. Picornaviridae. Generic names, which also begin with a capital letter, end with the suffix”- virus” and are printed in italics, e.g. Orbivirus. Viral nomenclature is not binomial, and the names are not latin specific.

DATES

Dates in the text should be written as follows 31 Jan 2000.

Abbreviations

These must be defined when mentioned for the first time, both in the abstract and in the text. However, they should be used only if they have to be repeated frequently.

Numerals

Leave a space between numerals and units, e.g. 5 m (not 5m); 2 h (not 2h); 5 % (not 5%); 5 ^oC (not 5^oC). If a number is followed immediately by a unit of measurement, use the numeral, e.g. 5 g, 200 m

Proofs

Final proofs will be sent to the senior author for final corrections which should be done according to the original manuscript, using the appropriate editing symbols. This should be completed and returned within 7 days. No further corrections in the original manuscript should be made at this stage.

Review charges

Five Thousand Nigerian Naira (5,000:00) or US $50.00 will be charged per article for the review process.

Page charges and reprints

Twenty Thousand Nigerian Naira (N20,000:00) or US $100.00 will be charged per article after the paper might have been accepted for publication.

Hard copies of published SWJ issues may be purchased at a fee of Three Thousand Nigerian Naira (N3,000.00) or US $30.00, excluding postage charges.

All the articles published in the SWJ will be available on CD-ROM and can be assessed on-line on the internet. Materials can also be retrieved from the archive.

Manuscripts that do not comply with the editorial requirements will be returned for amendment before they are considered by the editorial committee.