Author Guidelines

JOURNAL OF FORESTRY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Abbreviation J. for. nat. resour.

 ISSN 3005-4036

Editorial policy and Author’s Guidelines

 1. Introduction

Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources (WGCFNR) was established in 1978 and became part of Hawassa University in 2000. WGCFNR has made considerable contributions in forestry and natural resources education and training over the past 45 years whereby training and research programs have been remarkably improved, curricula diversified and academic staff capacity increased.

The academic structure of WGCFNR consists of twelve departments and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Coordinates and oversees all academic issues in the regular and continuing education programs. The College has twelve undergraduate programs in Agroforestry; Forest Products Management and Utilization; General Forestry; Geographic Information Science; Natural Resource Economics and Policy; Natural Resource Management; Soil Resource & Watershed Management; Ecotourism & Cultural Heritage Management; Wildlife and Protected Area Management; Urban Forestry and Greening; Environmental Science; and Land Administration and Surveying. Furthermore, the college currently runs  12 M.Sc. programs namely; Agroforestry and Soil Management; Production Forestry; Urban Forestry and Greening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KkKuTCFvzI; Watershed Management; Natural Resource Economics and Policy; Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; Biodiversity Conservation and Management; Climate Change in Development; Climate Smart Agricultural Landscape Assessment; Forest Resource Assessment and Monitoring; Renewable Energy Utilization and Management; and Geographic Information Science. The College has also five Ph.D. programs namely; Bio-energy Development and Climate Change, Agroforestry, Forest Ecology and Silviculture, Wildlife Ecology, and, Forest Resources Management.  

The number of the academic staff of the College has grown steadily and currently, there are a total of 132 academic staff of which 30 Ph.D. (2 Professors,10 Associate Professors, 22 Assistant Professors); 92 MSc (16 Assistant Professors); and 7 BSc. degree holders, who are actively engaged in teaching and research activities.

In conjunction with the diversification of the training and research programs, the College is in the process of starting a new scholarly or scientific journal named “Journal of Forestry and Natural Resources” (J. for. nat. resour.)/ JFNR. The rationales of the JFNR are to create, share new ideas, and foster knowledge among scientific communities in forestry, natural resources, and other related fields; to gain the scholarly recognition the journal brings to WGCFNR and demonstrate the ability of the college in the production of knowledge; to accrue valuable experience and speed up individual career development.

2. Name of the publisher: Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources, Hawassa University

3. JOURNAL NAME: Journal of Forestry and Natural Resources (JFNR)

4. PUBLISHING FREQUENCY/SCHEDULE: Annual (December)5

5. PHYSICAL ADDRESS: Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources,

 P.O. Box 128, Shashemene, Ethiopia,

6. JOURNAL E-MAIL: jfnr@hu.edu.et

6.1 PUBLICATION POLICY and GUIDELINES

The Journal of Forestry and Natural Resources (JFNR) is a peer-reviewed online open-access published annually by the Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources, Hawassa University.  JFNR publishes original research findings in all subject-matter areas of forestry and natural resources. It seeks disciplinary and interdisciplinary research articles, review articles, featured articles, and short communication.

7. Aims and Scope

7.1 Aims:

• serve as a communication medium among scientific communities in forestry, natural resources research, and other related fields
• publish original and innovative scientific works relevant to forestry and natural resources situation of Ethiopian as well as global problems
• encourage Ethiopian researchers, graduates, and postgraduate students to align their disciplinary and interdisciplinary researches in the direction of solving major problems in the areas of forestry and natural resources and conservation needs of the country, and
• serve as a platform to foster scientific knowledge sharing among researchers, scientists, policymakers, and practitioners working on sustainable forestry, green economy transition, issues of sustainable development goals, desertification, and dryland agriculture and forestry, combating desertification and drought, natural resource management, and conservation and other related topics.

7.2 Scope of the journal

The journal publishes scientific articles related to social, economic, policy, and environmental aspects: forestry, agroforestry, wildlife, soil, water and land resources, renewable energy, tourism, GIS, and remote sensing.

8. Board of the Journal

Editor-in-chief:         Dr. Mesele Negash

Editorial Manager:   Prof. Tsegaye Bekele

Associate editors:     Professor Fantaw Yimer

                                    Dr. Zerihun Girma

                                    Dr. Zebene Asfaw

                                    Dr. Motuma Tolera 

                                   Dr. Mikias Biazen 

                                   Dr. Kebede Wolka

                                   Dr. Menfese Tadesse

                                   Dr. Muluken Mekuyie

Editorial Board Members

Professor Demel Teketay       Botswana University  

Dr. Teshale Woldeamanuel    South Ethiopia REDD+ coordination office

Prof. Feyera Senbeta              Addis Ababa University

Dr. Zelalem Tefera                Council Member of ICCA Consortium, Horn of Africa

Dr. Dong-Gill Kim                 Hawassa University  

Dr. Abdella Gure                    Hawassa University

Dr. Girma Mengesha              Hawssa University

Dr. Agena Anjulo                   Ethiopian Forest Deevelopment 

Dr. Abeje Eshete                  Ethiopian Forest Deevelopment 

Dr. Tesfaye Awas                   EBI

Dr. Yosef Melka                     Hawassa University

Dr. Wubalem Tadesse          Ethiopian Forest Deevelopment 

Prof. Emiru Birhane               Mekele University

Dr. Asmamaw Alemu             Gonder University

Dr. Habtemariam Kassa         CIFOR

Dr. Melaku Bekele                 Freelancer/ Forest policy expert

Dr. Getachew Eshete              Freelancer/Forest management and yield prediction

Advisory Board members

Prof. Jürgen Pretzsch Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Prof. Belay Kassa       Pan African University

Prof. Adugna Tolera   Hawassa University

Prof. Nigatu Regassa  University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Prof. Tesfaye Abebe   Hawassa University   

Dr. Badege Bishaw     Oregon State University

Dr. Azene Bekele       Addis Ababa University

Dr. Zeleke Ewnetu      Addis Ababa Science & Technology University

Dr. Mulualem Tigabu Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

9. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

PUBLISHING MEDIUM: Online

General contents of the journal

JFNR uses the following format:

9.1 Research articles

These papers treat both disciplinary and interdisciplinary (thematic) types of researches encompassing basic and applied researches, graduate and postgraduate studies researches related to forestry and natural resources. JFNR will consider for publication articles from the regional and international forest and natural sources covering tropical and subtropical regions.

9.2 Review articles

Encompass critically reviewed scientific papers covering the state of the art knowledge in various aspects of forestry and natural resources. Review articles will be submitted by experts in the fields of forestry and natural resources with their expertise and experiences or invited by the editor-in-chief, associate editors, or editorial board.

9.3 Featured articles

These include topics in forestry and natural resources management, conservation, utilization, education, and non-conventional research articles. Technical papers in the areas of forestry and natural resources development encompassing different aspects of socio-economics, policy issues, wildlife, environment, rehabilitation efforts and forestry and natural resources inventory and surveys, biodiversity conservation, processing and value addition of forest products, agroforestry, non-timber forest products, medicinal plants and their domestication and commercialization, integrated watershed management, green economy transition, green initiative related studies, climate change and development, land degradation and drought, aquatic ecosystem management, fisheries, etc.

9.4 Short communications

This includes articles of brief scientific notes on preliminary results, scientific observations, experimental techniques, and recent technological advances in forestry and natural resources. It also included information on specific cases and limited applications.  Manuscripts for this column should not be more than six typed pages. They should have a brief abstract and not contain more than two figures and/or two tables.

9.5 Book Reviews

A critical evaluation of recently published books in any discipline of forestry and natural resource sciences will be published under this column.

9.6 Manuscript evaluation process

The manuscript must be written and prepared in English. Grammar and language quality are the responsibilities of the authors to submit the manuscripts in clear and communicable language quality. Once manuscripts are submitted the editor-in-chief or associate editors will check the manuscript for possible plagiarism results, originality of the work and contents of editorial policy and scope, and authors’ guidelines of JFNR. Submission of a manuscript to the Journal must be accompanied by a cover letter stating that no similar paper, other than an abstract or an oral presentation, has been or will be submitted for publication elsewhere. The manuscript should be submitted online or by email to the editorial manager, who gives the manuscript number and notifies the author of receipt of the manuscript. The manuscript number will be used in all correspondence regarding the manuscript. The editor-in-chief will consult associate editors to decide whether the manuscript is within the scope of JFNR and whether the contents are worthy of further review. Manuscripts that do not meet the minimum criteria will be returned back to the author within two weeks’ time. Those that meet the minimum criteria will be passed to associate editors for quick check-ups and suggestions of potential reviewers. The associate editor is an expert selected in certain disciplinary areas and who has a wide network among professionals in their field of specialization.

9.7 Peer review process       

The peer-review process will follow double-blind where the manuscript will first be evaluated by the editor-in-chief or associate editors, followed by at least two reviewers. The names of the authors will be kept anonymous while sending them to the reviewers. At least one of the reviewers will be out of the staff of the publisher institute. If the reviewers recommend publication without any change(s) and the associate editors agree(s), the manuscript and the reviewer’s comments are sent to the editor-in-chief who will notify the author accordingly. If the reviewer and the associate editor recommend that the manuscript could be published after revision, the editor-in-chief will return the manuscript to the author for minor or major revision. If the reviewer and the associate editor recommend that the manuscript be rejected, the associate editor sends the manuscript and the reviewers’ comments to the editor-in-chief, and the editor-in-chief will check the comments forwarded by reviewers and associate editor to make a decision and return to the authors. If very different comments and decisions are observed between or among reviewers, a third or fourth reviewer will be invited to resolve the issue. The author whose manuscript is released has the option of appealing to the editorial board. The first review process will take 6-8 weeks. 

If a manuscript, sent to an author for revision, is not returned within the period specified by the editor-in-chief (normally a maximum of two months), the editor-in-chief will release it. Once released, the author must resubmit a manuscript as a new manuscript for reconsideration.

Authors whose manuscript has been accepted for publication will receive a letter of acceptance. The authors will also receive the proofreading to send their opinion in five days. The pdf version of the published manuscript will be sent to the author and co-authors via their email addresses and also will be available online on the website of the college and university. The hard copy of published articles will be dispatched to various institutions upon request free of charge.

9.8 Reviewers’ Report

Reviewers are requested to evaluate the manuscript on originality of the work, state of the art and nobility of the study topic, relevant objectives, soundness, latest and appropriate methodology, results in quality to address the objectives, adequate discussion, and relevant conclusion made. And also, the way references are presented both in the text and reference lists. Reviewers are expected to give their comments and suggestions clearly (referring to the line numbers in the paper) to the authors to assist the author (s) to address all comments and suggestions given. Language correction is not part of the review process but suggestions can be made by reviewers.

9.9 Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review.

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

• E-mail address
• Full postal address

All necessary files have been uploaded:

• Manuscript:
• Include keywords
• All figures (include relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided

Further considerations

• The manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa

9.10 Authorship requirements

Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.

Corresponding author: Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the

the e-mail address and the complete postal address.

9.10.1 Changes in Authorship

Change in authorship requests is only made by the corresponding author to editor-in-chief.

9.11 Format for mansucripts

The manuscript should be prepared in Times New Roman with 11 font sizes, double space, and 2.5 cm marginal indentions on all sides. The maximum number of words should be 8000. The first page should contain the full title of the manuscript, the name(s) of the author(s) including address (es), and the institution(s) in which the research was carried out. For ease of communication, authors are requested to include their email addresses. For manuscripts with multiple authors, an asterisk should indicate the author to whom all correspondence is to be addressed.

Second and consecutive paragraphs after a heading should be indented while the first paragraph after a heading should start flush left.  No space should be left between two consecutive paragraphs. Scientific names should be written in full when mentioned for the first time in the text. They should be italicized. Subsequent citations should abbreviate the genus name.

9.11.1 Title: The title of the manuscript should be concise, descriptive, in good order, and carefully chosen. It should clearly reflect the contents of the article.

9.11.2 Abstract: This appears on the second page after the title. The abstract should reflect the concise contents of the paper. It should not exceed 250 words and must include a brief background on the study topic, the rationale for the study, objectives, methods used, results, and a conclusion. References and uncommon abbreviations should be avoided. Keywords should be up to five words, separated by a comma and in alphabetical order.

9.11.3 Introduction: This section of the manuscript should include state of the art of background on the topic being studied, an in-depth description rationale of the study, objectives of the study, hypothesis, and significance of the study. It should provide a brief review of literature, limited to information essential to orient the reader.

9.11.4 Material and methods: sub-headings under this section include specific study site description and selection, sample layout (experimental design) or survey methods, methods of data collection, and data analysis.

9.11.5 Results: The major findings in response to objectives set in the study. Be selective and focus on reporting your results.

9.11.5 Discussion: It should follow your major findings. Interpret the findings, show relationships and implications, and compare with other studies in similar topics and relevant to the study. It should explore the significance of the results of the work and don’t repeat what has been already described in the results. In some cases, results and discussion can be merged.

(Results and discussion part could also be written as a separate chapter optionally)

9.11.6 Conclusions: This can be written in a separate section or can be part of the discussion. It should also be concise, clear, and align to stated objectives and major findings.

10. Funding

Information that explains whether and by whom the research was supported

11. Conflicts of interest/Competing interests

 Include appropriate disclosures

12. Acknowledgments

Collate acknowledgments in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof-reading the article, providing finance, logistics, etc.).

13, Submission system

The manuscript should be prepared by Microsoft Word or an equivalent word-processing program. They should be submitted electronically according to JFNR Author’s instructions.

14. References: This follows author-year style taking the last author’s last name in the text and alphabet refereeing system in the reference lists. As much as possible, recent references should be cited and the numbers kept to a minimum. It is the responsibility of the authors to check the accuracy of references. Papers by one or two authors are given as shown in the examples below:

• In the case of Ethiopian names, the author’s given (first) name precedes that of the father’s name; e.g., Mesfine Bekele and not Bekele, don’t abbreviate Ethiopian names.
• (Kumar and Nair 2012)
• (Dhyani 2014; Kahiluoto et al. 2014; Lasco et al. 2014; Mbow et al. 2014a) - chrono-logically.
• For three or more authors, use et al. (no italics) i.e., Bekele Lemma et al. (2007), in the text (but spell out all authors’ names in the reference list).

Examples of acceptable formats for listing references in the reference section are shown below.

14.1 Journal article

Kuyah S, Dietz J, Muthuri C et al (2012a) Allometric equations for estimating biomass in agricultural landscapes: I. Aboveground biomass. Agric Ecosyst Environ 158:216–224.

Assegid Assefa and Tesfaye Abebe (2014). Ethnobotanical study of wild medicinal trees and shrubs in Benna Tsemay district, Southern Ethiopia. J. Sci. Dev. 2, 17–33.

14.2 Book

Chapman DH and Pratt PF (1961) Methods of Analysis for Soils, Plants, and Waters. University of California, Riverside, California.

(N.B. initials appear before the last author’s family name).

14.3 Chapter in book

Cunningham AB, Shanley P, Laird S (2008). Health, habitats, and medicinal plant use. In: Pierce CJ (Ed.), Human Health and Forests: A Global Overview of Issues, Practice, and Policy. Earthscan, London, pp. 35–62.

14.4 Paper in proceedings

Tesfaye Awas, Sebsebe Demissew (2009) Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in Kafficho people, Southwestern Ethiopia. In: Svein Ege, Harald Aspen, Birhanu Teferra and Shiferaw Bekele, Trondheim (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Provide full names of periodicals in the reference list. Do not abbreviate.

14.5 Unpublished materials

Citation of unpublished and other source materials not readily available in libraries should not be included in the reference list but should be mentioned in parentheses in the text or as a footnote.

14.6 Headings

Main headings and sub-heading should be numbered  consecutively 1, 1.1, 1.1.1…, 2, 2.1, 2.1.1…. Main headings should be bold, capitalize the first letter, followed by lowercase letters. Sub-headings should be lower case letters. Minor sub-headings should be light font italics.

14.7 Tables and figures

Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Each table and figure must be typed on a separate sheet and should be placed at the end of the manuscript. Footnotes should contain information relevant to specific entries or parts of the table. The approximate position of each table and figure should be indicated in the text.

14.8 Photographs and illustrations

Illustrations may be submitted in the form of black and white photographs or computer drawings or both.

14.9 Units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI.

15. Editorial policies

15.1 Research Ethics

Research involving human subjects should be carried out as per the international assertions and should be endorsed by an appropriate ethics committee. A statement detailing ethical approval procedures should be included in the manuscript during submission. The editor-in-chief or the associate editors deserves the right to reject manuscripts that are not carried out as per the ethical framework.

Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild), including the collection of plant material vertebrates or any regulated invertebrates, must be carried out in accordance with institutional, national, or international guidelines, and where possible should have been endorsed by an appropriate ethics committee. Plant voucher specimens must be deposited in the national herbarium or other public collection providing access to deposited material considering all the herbarium protocols and identification techniques. Written informed consent for the publication should be obtained for manuscripts that comprise details, images, or videos relating to an individual person.

In cases of proven research misconduct involving published articles, or where the scientific integrity of the article is significantly undermined, articles may be retracted.

Data falsification (manipulating data to give a fake impression) and data fabrication (making up research results) are considered serious research misconducts and will lead to automatic rejection of the manuscript. The research misconducts may be reported to the author/s institutions.  

Plants, animals, algae, and fungi should be written following the latest International Code of Nomenclature for plants, animals, algae, and fungi, respectively.

Any manuscript submitted to this journal should be original and not its substantial parts are submitted elsewhere and are under consideration. The journal applies Cross Check’s plagiarism detection procedures and takes seriously all cases of publication misconduct. Any suspected cases of plagiarism will be considered carefully and the editor-in-chief may contact the author institution. Text recycling (self-plagiarism) is also considered an attempt of plagiarism and is unacceptable.

15.2 Article Publication Charges

All articles published by the Journal of Forestry and Natural Resources are fully open access: immediately freely available to read, download and share. The JFNR does not charge a publication fee.

15.3 Appeals and complaints

Appeal to reconsider a rejected paper should be directed to editor-in-chief.  Authors who wish to appeal an editorial decision should submit a formal letter of appeal to the journal by contacting the journal editorial office. The appeal will be assessed based on potential error demonstrated during the peer review process or the editor assessment, important additional data provided or any convincing bias demonstrated in the process. Final decisions on appeals will be made by the Editorial Board Member handling the paper or the Editorial Manager.

15.4 Competing Interest

Authors are required to declare any competing financial or other interest in relation to their work. All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will be ignored meaning the author do not have any competing interest.

15.6 Copyright

Authors of articles published in the Journal of Forestry and Natural Resources retain the copyright of their articles and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work.

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