Submissions

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Manuscript submission to BIJB

Manuscripts should be submitted through email at bijb@ums.edu.my

Type of journal

Open access

TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS ACCEPTED

Original articles

The Journal accepts original articles in the fields of Biotechnology.

Review articles

Review articles are mainly by invitation only. However, review paper can be submitted for consideration. 

Editorial Policy, Procedures, and Manuscript Specifications

Authorship

The corresponding author submitting a manuscript must ensure that the manuscript has been read and approved by all the co-authors.

Permissions

If previously published tables or figures are used, authors need to obtain written consent from the copyright holder to reuse them. When these tables or figures are reused, they should be indicated clearly in the manuscript. Original copy of the written consent from copyright holder should be submitted by mail to the Editor-in-Chief of BIJB.

Plagiarism check

It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that there is no plagiarism in their manuscript submitted to BIJB.

Language

The language of publication is English. Manuscripts written in poor English will not be accepted.

Ethics statement   

All authors must declare that:

• The work submitted has not been published in other journals.
• The data presented in the manuscripts is not the result of fraud. Authors also understand that, if found to be deceiving, BIJB has the right and authority to withdraw or retract the manuscript.
• Necessary policies, rules, and regulations have been followed when performing clinical trials, animal research, genetically modified organisms, and human samples. An appropriate reference number must also be provided.
• Authors should ensure that experiments conducted and mentioned in the manuscript are performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration revised in 1975.

Cover letter

Manuscripts should be submitted with a cover letter to the editor of BIJB. The cover letter should be in a separate file.

Suggest reviewers

Authors are requested to suggest three potential international reviewers.

Copyright assignment

Authors submitting a paper to BIJB acknowledge that the work reported and its contents have not been published before and are not being submitted for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the authors automatically agree to assign exclusive copyright to the BIJB if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. No material published in the Journal either in full or partially may be published in other formats without the prior written permission of the BIJB.

MANUSCRIPT STYLE AND FORMAT

Manuscript (file) submission format   

The manuscript should be submitted to BIJB in .doc or .docx format. Please ensure that file/files are not locked (password protected) before submission.

Font, layout, and spacing   

Manuscripts should be in Verdana, 12pt. Manuscript text should be double-spaced in single column format.

Manuscript organization    

Authors are allowed to organize their manuscript by introducing headings. BIJB allowed two to three levels of headings. Please ensure heading levels are clearly indicated in the manuscript text.

Page numbers and line numbers   

Page numbers and line numbers should be included in the manuscript files. Line numbers need to be in the continuous format.

Footnotes   

BIJB does not allow footnotes.

Abbreviations   

Please define abbreviations upon first use in the text. Keep abbreviations to a minimum.

MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION

The main body of the manuscript should contain of the following elements, which should be organized as follows:

• TITLE PAGE
  
  

The first page of the manuscript should display the title, authors and affiliations information. It must be presented on a single page and contain these elements:

Title. The title should be concise, accurate, and informative and should be written in sentence case i.e., the first word of the text, proper nouns, and genus names should be capitalized.

Author names and affiliations. Please indicate the first name, middle name, and last names of each author. Each author on the list must indicate his/her affiliation, which must be presented below the names. Authors are asked to provide a full postal address including country name.

Corresponding author. Please indicate which author will handle correspondence throughout the publication process. Please provide name, email, and contact details.

Abstract and keywords.   The manuscript must contain the abstract and keywords and must also be presented on a single page after the title page.

Abstract. The total number of words is recommended to not exceed 300 words. The abstract should highlight the research purpose, main outcomes, the relevance of the study.

Keywords. Keywords must be on the same page as the abstract, placed after the abstract. Please provide six keywords. It is advisable to list words that are not in the title. The first letter of each keyword should be capitalized. Each keyword should be separated by a comma.

• MAIN TEXT
  
  

The main text of the manuscript should include these elements, presented in the following order:

1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
4. Discussion (or Results and Discussion)
5. Conclusion (Optional)
6. Acknowledgments
7. References
8. Figure legends
9. Tables
10. Figures

 
Results and Discussion may be combined if deemed suitable.

References

The author is required to follow the reference format listed here.

References’ year should be cited in the text in chronological order, for example: (Chin et al., 2015; Shamawati et al., 2016; Smith & Johnson, 2016; Lone, 2018). When the same author(s) published more than one paper in the same year, they are differentiated by the letters a, b, and c placed after the year of publication. The reference list should be arranged alphabetically in descending order according to the first named author. Examples of references style are shown below:

Book

Rahman, R.A., Simon, D.A., and Paris, E.E. (2010). Biotechnology and you.  (K. C. Lim, ed.). UMS Publisher, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. p 320

Book chapter

Murray, A.M., Bruke, L.L. and Scott, J.L. (2015). Chromatin structure. In: Current advances in Biotechnology (J. Alice & T. Curtis, eds.), pp 44-95. UMS Publisher, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Journal article

Shapawi, R., Ebi, I., Kian, A.Y.S.K. et al. (2014). Optimizing the growth performance of brown-marbled grouper, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus (Forskal) by varying the proportion of dietary protein and lipid levels. Animal Feed Science and Technology 191, 98-105.

Technical report

Chee, K.A., Lim, S.S. and Raman, A.S. (2014). Isolation and Characterization of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in raw meat. Short Communication in Biotechnology. Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Authors are responsible to ensure the accuracy of references listed in the manuscript.

Figure captions    

Figure titles and legends should be provided in this section.

Figure

Figure cannot be in the main manuscript, but it should be submitted in a separate file. The author is required to follow the format listed here for figures:

• Figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals system (e.g., Figure 1). Please ensure figures are arranged and cited sequentially and not redundant.
• General format. Authors are encouraged to use Times New Roman for the font. Figures should be numbered according to their sequence in the text.
• Individual figures should not exceed 10 MB. Figures must be JPG or TIFF format with a minimum of 500 dpi.
• Multi-panel figures. These are figures with parts a, b, c, etc. These figures should be submitted as a single file. Please ensure all parts are clearly indicated.

 Table   

Tables should be included in the main text and placed in this section. The author is required to follow the format listed here for tables.

• Table should be numbered using Arabic numerals system (e.g., Table 1). Please ensure tables are arranged and cited sequentially and not redundant.
• General format. BIJB accepts files in all formats, providing that the size is smaller than 10 MB. Supporting documents should be separated from the main manuscript file.

Colour and shading may not be used.