Instruction for authors

CBAB – CROP BREEDING AND APPLIED BIOTECHNOLOGY

Since 2001 

Authors of articles in the journal CBAB profit from the following benefits:

• CBAB is an diamond open access journal
• All articles are published free of charge
• Submission and review of manuscripts via ScholarOne platform
• Quick publication: average time of 91 days, in 2023
• PDF articles freely available online
• Evaluation by renowned national and international reviewers of the Web of Science
• Application of iThenticate software against plagiarism
• All articles are published with DOI, e-location and QR code
• Broad visibility, with publication of articles exclusively in English since 2001 

 Thank you for choosing the CBAB 

Instructions for Authors

Submission Process

1.      Access the Submission Platform:

https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/cbab-scielo

2.     Create an account

3.     Create an ORCID ID

4.     Log in

5.     Start submission:

a.     Select your manuscript type, enter your title and abstract

b.     Upload the files

c.     Enter your manuscript keywords

d.    Enter your co-author’s information

e.     Enter the reviewer’s information

f.       Enter or paste your cover letter

g. Review the information and submit the manuscript according the instructions bellow

 

Publication Fee

There are no submission fees or Article Processing Charges (APCs) for authors submitting to CBAB.

Ethical Responsibilities

Authors should avoid presenting inaccurate research findings, as this could undermine the credibility of the journal and the author’s competence. The manuscript should not be submitted to multiple journals for simultaneous consideration. Results should not be fabricated, falsified, or used inappropriately. Authors are responsible for the opinions and ideas expressed, which may not reflect the view of the Editorial Board. However, the Editorial Board reserves the right to suggest or ask for any modifications.

 

Plagiarism

The journal adopts the iThenticate software for the identification of plagiarism. The submitted manuscript must be original and not previously published elsewhere in any form or language, whether partially or completely unless the new manuscript is a continuation of the previous one. Please provide transparency regarding the material reuse to avoid concerns about text-recycling (self-plagiarism). No data, text, or theories from other sources should be presented as if they were the author’s (plagiarism). Other papers must be given proper credit, including material that is closely copied, summarized, and/or paraphrased.

 

Acceptance of preprints

We welcome preprint submissions at CBAB. A preprint refers to a manuscript prepared for submission and deposited on reputable preprint servers either before or concurrently with submission to a journal. We only accept submissions of papers previously deposited on these servers, each of which undergoes thorough evaluation for recognition and quality by CBAB. Upon acceptance and publication of the article in CBAB, authors are required to update the registration status on the preprint server, providing the full reference of the publication in the journal.

Data Availability and Supplementary Information

To ensure the quality and recognition of generated data, CBAB Journal recommends and follows the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). Authors are strongly encouraged to furnish an optional statement concerning the availability of data within their article. Research data encompass any information observed, collected, generated, or created to validate original research findings. This includes raw and processed data, code, software, algorithms, protocols, and methods. Authors are responsible for ensuring that confidential data is not shared to maintain ethical, legal, and privacy standards. The preferred method for sharing research data is through a data repository, which allows authors/contributors to archive and share organized original and processed research data, with or without supplemental material.

Various data repositories are available for depositing research data, accessible at https://repositoryfinder.datacite.org/. Among the recommended data repositories by CBAB is the SciELO Data repository (https://data.scielo.org/dataverse/brcbab), a tax-free and open system enabling contributors to deposit research data associated with a specific manuscript. Authors using SciELO Data should present the data only after manuscript acceptance.

 

These Data Availability Statements ought to encompass details regarding the location where the data supporting the findings presented in the article are accessible, such as hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study. Moreover, they may specify if the data are obtainable upon request from the authors. A model to follow is as follows:

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current research are accessible in the [Name] repository, available at [Link to datasets].

We advocate for adherence to Open Science practices to ensure safety and transparency. To comply with SciELO’s policies, authors must complete the Open Science Compliance form.

If the manuscript contains supplementary files, authors must remove them from the main document and specify in the Acknowledgments that these files are accessible through the corresponding author, adhering to the model:

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current research are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Authorship

Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group and the order of the authors are correct at submission. Adding or removing authors during revision stages is usually not allowed. However, in some cases, it may be permitted. It is not possible to change the authorship of a manuscript after acceptance.  

All authors whose names appear on the submission should have:

1. contributed significantly to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data

2.     drafted the work or revised it carefully for important intellectual content

3.     approved the final version

4.     consented to be accountable for all aspects of the work, ensuring that questions related to accuracy or integrity are looked into and solved.

Authors are encouraged to include a statement that specifies the contribution of every author to the research and preparation of the manuscript. Example statement:

“All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. [full name], [full name], and [full name] prepared the material, collected, and analyzed the data. The initial draft was written by [full name], and all authors provided feedback on the following versions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”

 

Corresponding Author

A corresponding author is assigned to act on behalf of all co-authors and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of the article are appropriately addressed. This author is responsible for ensuring that all authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including their names and order; coordinating all communication between the journal and co-authors, before and after publication; and making sure declarations and transparency statements from all authors are included.

 

Manuscripts Instructions

CBAB publishes exclusively in English, so authors must submit their articles in English. It is mandatory that the manuscript, after approval, be reviewed in linguistic terms, which must be made exclusively by the journal’s official[LD1]  translators, being the author’s responsibility for the arrangement of this service. 

Delete all author and correspondence information from the manuscript file. Since the journal has an anonymous review policy (double blind peer review), authors should not reveal their identities in the manuscript. The author will be asked to enter this information in a separate form during the submission process before uploading the manuscript file.

 

Types of Manuscripts

Article

The complete manuscript should comply with the following sequence: TITLE, ABSTRACT, KEYWORDS, INTRODUCTION, MATERIAL AND METHODS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, REFERENCES, TABLES and FIGURES. The INTRODUCTION should include a brief literature review on the subject and aims of the study. MATERIAL AND METHODS must enable other researchers to repeat the experience. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION should be presented together for easiness of reading. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS should be concise and limited to effective co-workers and financing agencies.

 

Cultivar Release

New cultivars deserve special attention for their key role in plant breeding and, consequently, for agriculture. A contribution to this section should comprise an abstract, keywords, an introduction, mention of the applied improvement methods, performance characteristics (with presentation comparative tests of means), foundation seed production, and contain a minimum of References, Tables, and Figures.

 

Notes

Notes are designated to inform about new studies or observations, wherefore the analytical tools are not required. They may focus on a matter of broad interest, briefly describe an original study, report on participatory research, express observations of special interest in research, teaching, and applied sciences fields, or comment on the release of new software in a plant breeding-related area.

 

Software/Device Release

New softwares and devices are important for the current improvement and, therefore, for agriculture. This new section must contain an abstract, keywords, introduction, methods, history used for the manuscript development, performance characteristics, applications, forms of access, and a minimum of References, Tables, and Figures.

 

Review Paper

Leading authors of certain topics will be asked for a Review by the Editorial Board, which should shed light specifically on stirring subject matters that deserve a deeper analysis of their stage of development.

 

Plant Breeding Program

Outstanding breeding programs regarding innovation, efficiency, impact, and/or continuity can be portrayed in CBAB.

 

Text of the Manuscript 

The manuscript must be submitted in Word. The font should be Times New Roman, size 12, double-spacing, with 20 mm margins and consecutive top-right numbering.

The text must not exceed 18 pages for articles, reviews, and plant breeding programs and 12 for cultivars, notes, and software/device releases. That includes separately placed TABLES and FIGURES (one on each page) at the end of the text.

All the equations, models, and symbols should be written using the equation tool.

The TITLE should be clear, concise, and express the gist of the article. It should not surpass 15 words and should be in bold, left, with initial upper-case letters. The ABSTRACT should not contain more than 150 words for articles, reviews, notes, and plant breeding programs and 50 for cultivars and software/device releases. A maximum of five KEYWORDS, different from the title, are allowed.

Coordinates must follow the example: lat 34° 36′ 40.20” S, long 56° 26′ 33.15” W, and alt 14 m asl.

Denote and interrelate units as positive or negative powers, not with slashes, e.g.: 

kg ha^-1, not kg/ha.

 

Tables

Each Table must be in a separate page after the References. Tables should be created with the “Tables” function of MS Word. Footnotes should be in Times New Roman, size 10. The title of the table should appear immediately above it and follow the model: Table 1. Insert title here

 

Figures

Each Figure must be in a separate page after the References and Tables. The Figure must be in color and with a good quality. Give preference to tagged image format files [TIFF], 300 dpi minimum resolution. If it’s not possible to add it in color, make sure that the main information will still be visible. Footnotes should be in Times New Roman, size 10. The title of the Figure should appear under it and follow the model: Figure 1. Insert title here.

 

References

Be careful about the REFERENCES. Never cite dissertations, theses, or any other unpublished literature. Citations mentioned in the text should be by the author’s last name and the year and in chronological order (for instance, Liu 2021, Chaves et al. 2020, Pereira and Amaral Júnior 2001). References listed in the item REFERENCES must be in alphabetical order, according to the following examples:

 

Articles

Pereira MG and Amaral Júnior AT (2001) Estimation of genetic components in popcorn based on the nested design. Crop Breeding and Applied Biotechnology 1: 3-10.

Chaves MS, Silva GBP, Caierão E, Federizzi LC and Martinelli JA (2020) A century of wheat breeding in Brazil: the origin and inheritance of the Lr34 locus in wheat varieties released from 1922 to 2016. Crop Breeding and Applied Biotechnology 20: e27952027.

Obs.: Do not use abbreviations for the Journal’s name.

 

Book

Hallauer AR, Carena MJ and Miranda Filho JB (2010) Quantitative genetics in maize breeding. Springer, New York, 664p.

 

Book chapter

Morais PPP and Borem A (2017) GM cultivars. In Silva FL, Borem A, Sediyama T and Ludke WH (eds) Soybean breeding. Springer, New York, p. 174-189. 

 

Congress

Frey KJ (1992) Plant breeding perspectives for the 1990s. In Stalker HT and Murphy JP (eds.) Proceedings of the symposium on plant breeding in the 1990s. CAB, Wallingford, p. 1-13.

 

Internet

CONAB – Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (2020) Follow-up of the Brazilian coffee crop in Brazil. Available at <website>. Accessed on February 18, 2019.

 

Information Bulletin

Casela CR and Ferreira AS (2003) A cercosporiose na cultura do milho. Embrapa Milho e Sorgo, Sete Lagoas, 5p. (Information Bulletin, 24).

 

Supplementary Information

If the manuscript has supplementary files, authors can remove them from the main document and write in the acknowledgments that these files are available with the corresponding author.

 

Submission and Evaluation

The editorial review process only starts if the manuscript follows the established norms (instructions for authors); otherwise, it is returned for adequacy. The Editorial Board will decide about it based on the importance, originality, and clarity of the manuscript, as well as its relevance to the journal. Submitted manuscripts  that are not suitable for the Journal scope will be rejected. Manuscripts with issues regarding the textual composition structure will be returned and, if corrected, can be resubmitted.

After being initially approved by the Editorial Board, the manuscripts will proceed to the subsequent phase, wherein the Reviewers will be selected from a pool of researchers with recognized expertise in the specific domain and, preferably, affiliated with distinct institutions from the ones where the manuscript originated.

Before starting the analysis of a manuscript, the Editorial Board asks the Reviewers to consider the possibility of some situations or relationships that may compromise the impartiality of the evaluation process, such as regular collaboration with possible authors in activities of research, advisor-student association, commercial interest in the publication, and family relationships. In such cases, the Reviewer is asked to immediately communicate the impossibility of reviewing it.

 

Peer Review Process

Peer review refers to obtaining technical-scientific advice on manuscripts from experts in the field, named ad hoc Advisors. They will review manuscripts without knowing the authors’ identities. Each ad hoc Reviewer will suggest one of the following options: accept submission, require (minor or major) revision, or reject submission. The Reviewer can suggest changes, add excerpts and sections, point out ambiguous, redundant, and incoherent information, indicate misuse of terminology, and request more detailed explanations. The corresponding Author will receive all opinions without knowing the Reviewers’ identities. If authors disagree with the suggestions, they must provide a justification and send it to the

Editor/Reviewer with the new version.

 

After Approval

After approval, all the following steps are carried out via email. Authors should contact one of CBAB’s translators for the linguistic review and pay for the service. Once they return the reviewed manuscript, the corresponding author must send it to the Journal’s email (cbabjournal@gmail.com). If any modification is needed, the Journal will notify them.

Once the revision and corrections have been completed, a reading proof will be sent. Proof is used to check for typesetting errors and completeness and accuracy of text, Tables, and Figures. The Editor-in-Chief must approve any changes in content, such as new results, corrected values, title, or authorship. Therefore, it’s recommended that the authors carefully read the entire manuscript, making the corrections proposed in it and highlighting possible errors or modifications to be made by the Editor.

Copyright Statement

Authors will not be reimbursed for publishing papers in CBAB and will relinquish their copyright to the Journal. However, the authors retain sole responsibility for the content of their published article. The editors reserve the right to make textual adjustments during the manuscript editing process.