Focus and Scope

Nepal Journal of Science and Technology (NJST) is a peer reviewed open access journal that aims to serve as a forum for scholarly and professional communication among scientists, policy makers and general people. NJST publishes papers from the broad academic disciplines of science and technology. Preference will be given to multidisciplinary research that has national and global scope. Manuscripts submitted to this journal must not have been published or accepted for publication, or be under consideration elsewhere. The journal includes all major subject areas of S& T. The major areas include but not limited to natural sciences and applied sciences. Papers covering social sciences will be considered for publication provided that they have strong elements of basic and applied sciences as mentioned above. In addition to standard research papers, NJST publishes Reviews that offer a detailed and up to-date discussion. NJST also publishes Short Communication that provides important research findings. Perspective articles provide a platform for authors to present their personal views on the direction of applied research that has broader policy implications.

Peer Review Process

The NJST Editors first evaluate all manuscripts based on the different criteria (e.g., originality of work, suitability of manuscript to the ‘aims and scope of the journal’, compliance to the journal formatting requirements, scientific quality, English language etc.). Manuscripts that do not meet criteria are rejected without peer review. Those that meet the minimum criteria are usually passed on to at least 2 experts for review. NJST employs a single blind reviewing method, where the referee (reviewer) remains anonymous throughout the process.

Publication Frequency

The Nepal Journal of Science and Technology is a biannual peer reviewed academic journal published by the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). All accepted papers will be published immediately online.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check their 'submission's
compliance with all of the following items:

• The manuscript neither is previously published nor is it under consideration for another journal
• The text must adhere to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Guidelines for Author(s)
• Ensure that the Declaration/Conflict of Interest and Letter to the Editor have been submitted along with the manuscript
• A list of 3-5 recommended or opposed reviewers (name, email, affiliation) has been provided in Letter to Editor
• Prepare title page as per the Title Page
• High-resolution vector pictures and figures must be submitted separately and placing their low-resolution copies with captions in the manuscript
• Author(s) should provide the responsibilities performed by each author as per the Author(s)’ Contributions
• List the highlights of your manuscript (not more than five in bullets)
• Submit your final manuscript as per the Manuscript Structure with all grammatical and plagiarism checked. Unedited manuscripts are rejected from further consideration

Guidelines for Author(s)

Author (s) are required to prepare their manuscript stringently following the instructions for authors given below. Failure to follow instructions, manuscripts may be returned to authors without a scientific assessment. Online submission and review of the manuscript are mandatory for all Types of Manuscript. During online submission, the author must declare compliance with the Submission Preparation Checklist. The submitted manuscript will be subjected to pre-review by reviewers and editors. The manuscript deemed inappropriate will be rejected without a review. Full instruction for online submission can be found here. If you have any queries, please contact the editorial office at njst@nast.org.np.

Type of Manuscript: NJST publishes only the manuscripts related to the following type: Original Research: They are the manuscripts that present the results of original research by the Author(s). The manuscript should not be more than 6000 words. The word count includes all parts of the manuscript except figures, tables, and captions. The manuscript should be organized as per the Manuscript Structure: The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 250 words. A list of not more than five Keywords (if phrases used then not more than three), excluding words used in the title should be arranged in alphabetical order and separated by a comma and placed beneath the abstract.

Reviews: Reviews are detailed and up-to-date syntheses of topical themes. They often describe previous works and offer new insights to guide future research works. Review articles are usually up to 8000 words. There is no specific format for review articles, but sections should be broken up in sub-headings at Author(s)’s discretion. However, the manuscript organized as per the Manuscript Structure for original research is preferable. The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 200 words. A list of not more than five Keywords (if phrases used then not more than three), excluding words used in the title should be arranged in alphabetical order and separated by a comma and placed beneath the abstract.

Short communication: Short communication provides a forum to disseminate crucial scientific findings that are not enough for the research/original works. Short communication should be a brief contribution up to 3000 words. The manuscript should also be organized as per the structure for original research except for the conclusion. The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 100 words. A list of not more than five Keywords (if phrases used then not more than three), excluding words used in the title should be arranged in alphabetical order and separated by a comma and placed beneath the abstract.

Perspectives: It provides a forum to present a viewpoint on an emerging issue of science and technology. They should be of broad interest to general people. Perspectives should be less than 2000 words. There is no specific format for perspective articles, but sections should be broken up in sub-headings at 'author's discretion. The manuscript should be organized as follows: Title, Author(s), their affiliation, and contact address of corresponding author(s), Abstract, Keywords or phrases, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgment, and References. The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 200 words. A list of not more than five Keywords (if phrases used then not more than three), excluding words used in the title should be arranged in alphabetical order and separated by a comma and placed beneath the abstract.

Language: Both American and British English are accepted but not of a combination of these. Authors for whom English is a second language should have their manuscript corrected carefully before the submission.

Manuscript Structure: The manuscript should be prepared meticulously in the journal style (e.g., citation, language, etc.). The manuscript should be arranged as follows: Title, Author(s), their affiliation, and contact address of corresponding author(s), Abstract, Keywords or phrases, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion, Acknowledgment, and References. Tables and low-resolution figures should be embedded in the text and high resolution vector pictures and figures provided in a separate page of the manuscript. The entire manuscript must be double-spaced with 12-point font, Times New Roman. Leave a 1 inch (2.54-cm) margin on all sides of each page. All pages of the manuscript should be numbered, and all pages of text should have line numbers.

Title Page

1. A concise title
2. A list of author names, affiliation(s), and email addresses (do not provide position) in the order, First name, Middle name, and Last name. If more than one author, separate with a comma then " and" "before the last author
3. Affiliation of the authors numbering 123 after the name in superscript form
4. Astrix (*) after the superscript number to distinguish the corresponding author
5. Name of the affiliated institutions as per the number
6. The name, complete mailing address (including email address, mobile ) of the corresponding author
7. A word count of the entire paper, excluding tables and figure legends
8. The number of tables and figures
9. Abstract
10. Keywords
11. Submitted date

Section number: The authors are advised to number the sections up to five levels. The section should be clearly defined and logically ordered. Subsections should be numbered as 1.1, 1.2…similarly, 1.1.1, 1.1.2. Section numbers can be used for cross-referencing in the manuscript. The heading and sub-heading of the manuscript vary according to the Type of Manuscript (e.g., original articles, review, etc.). The tentative structure of the manuscript is given below:

Section number: The authors are advised to number the sections up to five levels. The section should be clearly defined and logically ordered. Subsections should be numbered as 1.1, 1.2…similarly, 1.1.1, 1.1.2. Section numbers can be used for cross-referencing in the manuscript. The heading and sub-heading of the manuscript vary according to the Type of Manuscript (e.g., original articles, review, etc.). The tentative structure of the manuscript is given below:

Introduction: Provide a detailed background of your research.

Materials and Methods: A sufficient detailed description of methods should be provided to allow the work to be reproduced. When work is followed from the previously published work, it must be referred to as proper/original citation.

Results: The results should be clear and concise.

Discussion: The discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work without repeating them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate.

Conclusions: State main conclusions of the study. The conclusion may be standalone or form a subsection of a Discussion section.

Table and Figure: Each table, artwork, and figure should have a clear and succinct caption (<30 words). Maps and artworks should be numbered as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, and Fig. 3 followed by a caption (e.g., Fig. 1 Hazard maps of Kathmandu valley).

Table: Tables should be submitted as editable text without vertical and horizontal rules. Number tables consecutively following their position in the manuscript. Put footnote in the last row of the table if required.

Figures: Make sure that figure files are in an acceptable format (e.g., TIFF, JPEG, EPS, MS Office files) and with the excellent resolution (>150 dpi). Texts in figures should be of uniform lettering and sizing.

References: please ensure that all references cited in the text are included in the reference list. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the work has been accepted for publication. Unpublished works and personal communications can be mentioned in the text, but should not be listed in the reference list. References should be listed in alphabetical order.

Citation in text

1. If there is one author, include the author's last name and date of publication.
2. If there are two authors, include both authors' last names and date of publication.
3. If there are three or more authors, include the last name of the first author followed by et al. and date of publication
4. If cited in the sentence put the date of publication within a bracket after the last name
5. If cited at the end of the sentence put the last name and date within the bracket Examples Paudel and Heinen (2015) have argued that increasing heterogeneity in reserve may amplify biodiversity because of an increment in habitats. Heterogeneity-based reserve selection is a novel approach that could assist in making a rapid conservation decision (Paudel and Heinen 2015).

Examples:

Paudel and Heinen (2015) have argued that increasing heterogeneity in reserve may amplify biodiversity because of an increment in habitats. Heterogeneity-based reserve selection is a novel approach that could assist in making a rapid conservation decision (Paudel and Heinen 2015).

Citations in the references

Journal articles
Crowley, T. J., 2000. Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years. Science 289:270–277.

Liczner, A. R., and C. J. Lortie, 2014. A global meta-analytic contrast of cushion-plant effects on plants and arthropods. Peer J 2:e265.

Paudel, P. K., and J. T. Heinen, 2015. Conservation planning in the Nepal Himalayas: Effectively (re)designing reserves for heterogeneous landscapes. Applied Geography 56:127–134.

Rozema, J., L. O. Björn, J. F. Bornman, A. Gaberščik, D.-P. Häder, T. Trošt, M. Germ, M.Klisch, A. Gröniger, R. P. Sinha, M. Lebert, Y.-Y. He, R. Buffoni-Hall, N. V. J. de Bakker, J.van de Staaij, and B. B. Meij kamp, 2002. The role of UV-B radiation in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems-an experimental and functional analysis of the evolution of UV absorbing compounds. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology 66:2–12.

Book
Sokal, R. R., and F. J. Rohlf, 1995. Biometry: the principles and practice of statistics in biological research. Third edition. W. H. Freeman, New York, New York, USA.

Book Chapter
Feeny, P., 1975. Biochemical coevolution between plants and their insect herbivores. Pages3–19 in L. E. Gilbert and P. H. Raven, editors. Coevolution of animals and plants. University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, USA.

Proceeding
Maiya, A. S., and T. Y. Berger-Wolf, 2010. An online sampling of high centrality individuals in social networks. Pages 91–98 in M. J. Zaki, J. X. Yu, B. Ravindran, and V. Pudi, editors. Proceedings, Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Part I. 14th Pacific-Asia Conference, 21–24 June 2010, Hyderabad, India. Springer, Berlin, Germany.

Thesis
LeCraw, R., 2014. The causes and consequences of functional diversity in a tropical aquatic insect community. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Copyright
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Conflict of Interest
Requires submitting the Authors to file a conflict of interest statement with their submission.

Author(s)’ Contributions
State the responsibilities performed by each author of the manuscript as follows: Conceived and designed the experiments: GB, PKP, RCP. Performed the experiments: PKP. Analyzed the data: PKP, CCP. Wrote the paper: GB, PKP, RCP.

Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.