Online Submission

Scientia Agricola is a journal of the University of São Paulo edited at the Luiz de Queiroz campus in Piracicaba, a city in São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. Scientia Agricola publishes original articles which contribute to the advancement of the agricultural, environmental and biological sciences.

The journal covers a broad spectrum of topics, including Crop and Animal Production, Agricultural Engineering, Agroindustrial Technology, Forestry, and Applications in Agricultural, Environmental, Soil, and Biological Sciences.

Four categories of manuscript can be submitted: original research articles, reviews, notes and points of view.

Original research articles are grouped by subject matter into the following categories: Agricultural Engineering; Agricultural Microbiology; Agrometeorology; Animal Science and Pastures; Biometry, Modeling, and Statistics; Crop Science; Ecology; Entomology; Food Science and Technology; Forestry Science; Genetics and Plant Breeding; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology and Biochemistry; Soils and Plant Nutrition; and Zoology.

Articles published in Scientia Agricola are indexed or abstracted by Current Contents ^®/Agriculture, Biology, and Environmental Sciences, Science Citation Index Expanded (SciSearch ^®), Scopus, DOAJ, CAB Abstracts, SciELO, AGRIS, AGROBASE, Chemical Abstracts, INIS and Tropag & Rural.

Original manuscripts evaluated by the Editorial Board may be submitted to peer review or rejected without further review.

Copyright

Once the manuscript is approved, the authors grant an exclusive license to publish the submitted article in printed and electronic format including photographs that may be selected as a cover image.

The copyright law also requires that the authors must provide to the Scientia Agricola the permissions to use copyrights material that was published by others journals or publishers, which include figures, tables and images. The permissions must be uploaded in the system as a supplemental file.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

• Start the submission process by reviewing the Instructions for Authors to ensure that the article is in agreement with Scientia Agricola standards. To submit reviews the authors should check the specific instructions. As these pages are updated periodically, it is strongly recommended that you read them even if you have done so previously.
• Please read the checklist carefully before submitting your manuscript.
• Authors should submit manuscripts through the online system at, http://www.scielo.br/sa, by clicking on "submissão online".
• A manuscript submission file in Microsoft Word (or a compatible format) is required. Avoid the use of word processing features such as automated bulleting and numbering, head and subhead formatting, internal linking, or styles.
• When submitting a manuscript, authors must recommend five qualified reviewers who are experts in the subject area, and provide their emails and affiliation. At least two of these reviewers must be of another nationality than the corresponding author. Reviewers from the corresponding author’s institution should be avoided.
• Publication of a short or extended abstract in a scientific event is not considered previous publication of the research. However, results of researches published previously as a full manuscript in scientific events will not be accepted.
• There is no submission or manuscript evaluation charges. The authors will be required to pay a publication fee just after the manuscript acceptance.

COVER LETTER (must be written in English)

• The content of the cover letter must present the warranty that the manuscript is original, has not been published before, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere in its final form neither in printed nor in electronic format. The corresponding author must sign the cover letter on behalf of all authors. Upload your cover letter in a separated file in the designated area in the submission page.
• Authors should insert five highlights (maximum 100 characters including spaces for each highlight) explaining the importance of their work and how and why their major findings relate to the scope of the journal.

MANUSCRIPT STYLE

• Define all abbreviations at their first mention in the abstract and text, and again in the tables and figures. Once an abbreviation is used, it should be used throughout the entire article, except at the beginning of a sentence.
• The Latin name or binomial (or trinomial) nomenclature and authority must be used at the first mention of all plants, insects, pathogens, and animals.
• Both the active ingredient and chemical name of pesticides must be given when first mentioned.
• Identify soils using the USDA soil taxonomy (http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/osd/index.html) up to the second level (suborder) or if possible up to the fourth level (subgroup). FAO classification may be used up to the second level. Free translations of soil classifications or names are not allowed.
• The International Units System must be used in all manuscripts.
• Check any Greek characters and figures carefully.
• Spell out numbers one through nine, except when used with units. For decimal quantities <1, place a zero before the decimal point.
• For the decimal marker use a period.
• Percentages must be expressed as whole numbers, e.g.: 35 % rather than 35.4 %; 48% rather than 47.5 %; 79% rather than 78.9 %.
• Denote and interrelate units as positive or negative powers, not with slashes, e.g.: kg ha^-1, not kg/ha.
• Leave a single space between units, e.g.: g L^-1, not g.L ^-1, or gL ^-1.
• Use the 24-h time system, with four digits for hours and minutes: 09h00; 18h30.
• Dates should be written with the day first, then the month, and the year last: 18 Mar 2000; 01 Feb 1987.
• Abbreviate months with more than four letters, e.g.: Jan, July, Sept, etc.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

• Text and illustrations intended for publication at Scientia Agricola must be written in concise and grammatically correct English, USA orthographic and grammatical rules apply.
• Manuscripts should be organized as one file containing the main document. MS Word for Windows or compatible software should be used for the main document, with 12-point Times New Roman, 3.0-cm margins, and double spacing. Organize the main document in the following order: Cover Page, Abstract (maximum of 250 words), Keywords (maximum of five), Introduction (30 lines), Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments (optional), References, Figure and Tables with their respective legends.
• A Conclusion section is optional and when used should come after the Discussion section. The Results and Discussion section may be combined, and the Conclusion may be incorporated into the Discussion.
• Keep the manuscript to a maximum of 30 pages (A4 paper), with continuous line numbering and consecutive page numbering, including illustrations and tables.
• Tables and Figures must be included in the end of the main document.

Cover page:

• Each manuscript must have a cover page bearing the title (maximum 15 words), authors’ full names, and institutional affiliations in English.
• A running title of 40 characters or fewer (in addition to the full paper title) should also be provided.
• Authors should select a category from the following: Agricultural Engineering; Agricultural Microbiology; Agrometeorology; Animal Science and Pastures; Biometry, Modeling, and Statistics; Crop Science; Ecology; Entomology; Food Science and Technology; Forestry Science; Genetics and Plant Breeding; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology and Biochemistry; Soils and Plant Nutrition; and Zoology.
• The corresponding author should be identified with an asterisk and an institutional e-mail must be provided.
• Please provide as detailed information as possible regarding author's present institutional affiliation.
• The corresponding author assumes full responsibility for the manuscript, including compliance with journal policies, and will be the primary contact with the journal office. The submitting author may assume this position if indicated in the cover letter.

Cover image submissions:

The cover of, Scientia Agricola may feature an image representative of an article published in that issue. Authors are invited to submit scientifically interesting and visually appealing cover images. Images should be high-resolution (300 dpi) and should measure 17 x 17 cm. Cover images can be photographs of organisms, habitats, montages of photographs, diagrams, maps or data. Illustrations need not be reprinted in the article but should be representative of the work. Images should be original, and authors grant Scientia Agricola the exclusive license to publish. Upload the image as an additional supplemental file along with a separate text file that includes a brief one-paragraph description of the image  describing its relevance to the published manuscript. If an author does not hold the copyright for a submitted image, they are responsible for obtaining the necessary permission to use it.

Tables and figures 
Tables:

• Number tables sequentially using Arabic numerals; tables should be created with the "Tables" function of MS Word or in MS Excel (manuscripts showing tables pasted as figures will be returned to authors).
• The title of the table should appear immediately above the body of the table.
• Number figures and graphs sequentially using Arabic numerals.

Figures/Graphs:

• Graphs should be created using MS Excel.
• Supply photographs as tagged image format files [TIFF], 300 DPI.
• Number figures consecutively in the order they appear in the text.
• Figures should provide enough information that the reader can understand them without referring to the text.
• For figures that contain more than one panel, designate the panels with capital letters (no parentheses and no periods following letters) in the upper left-hand corner of each panel, if possible.
• Wording in figures must match the rest of the manuscript with regard to capitalization, italics, and the use of symbols.

COMPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

• Manuscripts that evaluate the bioactivity of chemical and/or biological products, including growth regulators of insects, spiders, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and weeds, will not be considered for publication in Scientia Agricola.
• Manuscripts that evaluate tissue culture improvements or protocols based on tests of additives, explants, or growth conditions, or that fail to demonstrate a substantial improvement that could not be deduced from the existent literature, will no longer be considered for publication in Scientia Agricola.
• Manuscripts based on a single field experiment will not be considered as suitable for publication in Scientia Agricola, except when the authors can prove the high relevance and novelty of the study. Even manuscripts with more than one field experiment will be subjected to immediate rejection if the data collected do not have enough variability to achieve conclusive results.
• Manuscripts that report first occurrences or are simple descriptions of pests, pathogens, and diseases will generally not be considered for publication in Scientia Agricola. Exceptionally, these manuscripts could be considered in the NOTE format when: 1) reported organisms are of high relevance to agriculture; 2) the data are originated from a broad survey; and 3) organisms/problems are characterized extensively by means of several methods and aspects under investigation.
• Manuscripts that involve experimentation with living animals (including humans beings) must provide evidences that they were performed in accordance with local ethical guidelines. Authors are expected to adhere to established ethical best practices. These evidences must be officially stated in the “Materials and Methods” section, describing that the study was evaluated and approved by an appropriate ethical committee (including the process number).
• Manuscripts must follow the criteria established by the International Codes of each area.
• Opinions and concepts expressed in the articles are the authors' exclusive responsibility.
• All submitted manuscripts will be subjected to the journal’s policy of screening for plagiarism and self-plagiarism.

References

Scientia Agricola does not allow authors to cite congress or workshop abstracts, technical articles, dissertations and theses. References in Portuguese or any language other than English should be limited to those essentially important to the study. Up to four references written in languages other than English will be allowed without justifications. More than that will only be allowed if the authors explain the reasons for keeping them in the text. If allowed by the Editor-in-Chief, these extra references must be cited in English with the text in the original language provided at the end of the reference, in the following format: (in Portuguese, with abstract in English)

Scientia Agricola does not recommend that authors cite statistical analyses or software packages as references. These tools should be mentioned in the text (Materials and Methods) by including the specific procedure and the name of the software with its version and/or year, e.g., “…statistical procedures were conducted using PROC NLIN in SAS (Statistical Analysis System, version 9.2)”.

References and citations in Scientia Agricola articles should be formatted in the 'author, year' or 'name (year)' style. Remember to ensure that text citations match the list of references. Examples:

1. Single author: Reichardt (2000) or (Reichardt, 2000).

2. Two authors: Fiorio and Demattê (2009) or (Fiorio and Demattê, 2009).

3. Three or more authors: Rosso et al. (2009) or (Rosso et al., 2009).

4. Arrange references alphabetically and chronologically within brackets, and use semicolons (;) to separate multiple citations within brackets, e.g.: (Boleli, 2003; Boerjan, 2006; Muraroli and Mendes, 2003).

5. Order multiple citations 'same author-same date' with the aid of lower case letters, e.g.: (Cyrino, 2004a, b).

6. Use the "author-year" style to format the list of references, and: (i) do not abbreviate any other words apart from the first and middle names of authors; (ii) use all capitals only for acronyms, i.e., when the author is an organization; (iii) name all authors and capitalize authors' last name and initials, which should be separated by a period (.); (iv) separate authors by semicolon; (v) do not use ampersands (&) in the citations nor in the reference list; (vi) do not use bold characters to highlight any part of the reference; (vii) capitalize books and periodical titles; (viii) do not use a comma (,) to separate the title and volume of a periodical; (ix) separate the periodical volume from the page numbers with a colon (:); (x) use full page numbering; (xi) separate page numbers with a dash (-); (xii) separate page groups by a comma if the article was published in discontinuous pages; (xiii) indicate the number of a given edition of a book or manual, e.g., "2ed"; (xiv) for books and manuals, indicate the publisher or editorial office before the main locality of the publisher or editorial office; (xv) separate publishers or editorial offices from locality with a comma; and (xvi) in such cases, name city, state and/or province and country.

6.1 Scientific journals 
Guillard, R.R.L.; Wangersky, P. 1958. The production of extracellular  carbohydrates by somemarine flagellates. Limnology and Oceanography 3: 449-454.

6.2 Books

6.2.1 Books with authors
Pais, I.; Jones Jr., J.R. 1998. The Handbook of Trace Elements. St. Lucie Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA.

6.2.2 Books with editors/organizers
Day, W.; Atkin, R.K., eds. 1985. Wheat Growth and Modelling. Plenum Press, New York, NY, USA.

6.2.3 Books (and manuals) with an organization as author or editor/organizer
Association of Official Analytical Chemists - International [AOAC]. 2005. Official Methods of Analysis. 18ed. AOAC, Gaithersburg, MD, USA.

6.3 Book chapters

Sharpley, A.N.; Rekolainen, S. 1997. Phosphorus in agriculture and its environmental implications. p. 1-53. In: Tunney, H.; Carton, O.T.; Brookes, P.C.; Johnston, A.E., eds. Phosphorus loss from soil to water. CAB International, New York, NY, USA.

6.4 Electronic media sources

6.4.1 Required elements for listing website citations are:
Authorship, author or source. Year. Title of Web Document or Web Page (i.e., page’s main heading). [Medium] (date of update). Available at: full Uniform Resource Locator (i.e. URL / address) [Accessed Sept 14, 1992]

6.4.2 Required elements for listing publications available online are:
Authorship, author or source. Year. Title of Document or Web Page. [Medium] Producer/Publisher. Available at: full Uniform Resource Locator [Accessed Sept 14, 1992]

6.5 Listing references not written in English

Provide the English title and indicate the original publishing language of the journal at the end of the citation, as below:

Baretta, D.; Santos, J.C.P.; Figueiredo, S.R.; Klauberg-Filho, O. 2005. Effects of native pasture burning and Pinus monoculture on changes in soil biological attributes on the Southern Plateau of Santa Catarina - Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo 29: 715-724 (in Portuguese, with abstract in English).

US$  70.00 per page for up to six printed pages;