About the Journal

Sudan Journal of Desertification Research is a peer – reviewed scientific journal to be issued biannually. Almost all research concerned with desertification, i.e. land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub- humid lands is relevant for publication in this Journal. Thus, the Journal will include all studies concerning original investigations pertaining to all aspects of land degradation/desertification in these dry lands, i.e. causes, processes, impacts, monitoring, control, as well as sustainable use of these lands for agriculture, forestry and range. Consequently, papers related to desertification from various disciplines are publishable e.g., Agriculture, Forestry, Range, Geography, Meteorology, Climatology, Socio- economics, Soil science etc. Articles being considered for publication elsewhere or published previously shall not be considered.

Occasionally, invitation may be extended to outstanding research workers in specific areas to write review articles for the journal.

Material submitted for publication shall be scrutinized by peer- reviewers and edited to meet the journal's guidelines.

 Manuscript

Manuscripts should be written in English with an Arabic abstract. They should be word-processed, single–spaced, (font-12) on one side of an A4 white paper, with the following page set up:

 Margins

Top 

4.50 cm

Bottom   

6.54 cm

Left

4.58 cm

Right      

3.81 cm

Gutter  

0      cm

Gutter position

Left

Paper

Width

21.0

Height

29.7

 Layout

Header

1.25 cm

Footer

5.50 cm

Three copies of the manuscript, at least one should be original, and one set of the original illustrations should be submitted.

The main components of a paper, apart from reviews and notes should include: Title, Author(s) name (s), Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References and an Arabic Abstract, on a separate sheet of paper, which should include, title of paper, author(s) name and Institution where the research was conducted. The Results and Discussion Sections may be combined. The title of each section should be in upper – case and bold. Apart from the Abstract and key words, the titles of each section should be centered. The key words should be written below the Abstract leaving one space in-between.

The notes should combine the introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion in the main text. The other parts should be written similar to that of the paper.

Title

 The title of the article must be concise, specific and reflects contents of the article. All title word should be started by capital letters except for title components such as (the, of, and … etc). The title should be followed by the full name(s) of the author (s), and the institution in which the work has been conducted. Academic Status and specialization of the author(s) should be given in a footnote placed at the bottom of the first page. Former graduate students should be identified as such, together with their present location if known. If the address of one or more authors is different from that of the above institution, it should be supplied in the footnote.

 Abstract

The abstract should state the objectives of the study, methods, results and main conclusions. Abbreviations should not be used except for measurements (e.g. mg, cm, etc). Latin names should be written in full and in Italics.

 Key words

Key words should not exceed 3-6 words.

Introduction

The introduction should attempt to review relevant literature, particularly recent publication, relating to the work to be published. This is followed by stating the justifications for conducting present investigations, and concluded by clearly stating the objectives of the study.

Materials and Methods

In this part, the author(s) should describe in details the methods followed in carrying out the work. Where relevant, experimental layout and statistical methods employed should be presented. 

 Illustrations, Figures and Tables

A table should be self- explanatory, labeled on the top with number and title, Units of measure should be metric. Tables and figures should be number and placed where relevant within the text. Captions for figures should be placed underneath. Only standard abbreviations should be used. The same material should not be presented in table and figures simultaneously.

References

References should be listed in alphabetical order of surnames. They should include the author's surnames first, followed by initials, year of publication, title of the paper, full name of the journal or its official abbreviation, volume number and first and last page numbers of the article. 

Examples for various references are given below:

 Single author

Emerson, W.W. 1959. The structure of soil crumbs. Journal of Soil Science 10:  235-244.

 Two authors

Young, R.A., and Muchler, C.K. 1977. Erodibility of some Minnesota soils.  Journal of   Soil and Water Conservation 32:180-182.

 More than two authors

Romken, M.J.M., Roth, C.B., and Nelson, D. W. 1977. Erodibility of selected clay sub-soils in relation to physical and chemical properties. Soil Science Society of America Journal 41: 954-960

 A Thesis

 Kheir ElSeid, A.R.1998. Wind Erosion Study in North Kordufan, El-Obeid. A Ph.D. Thesis, University of Khartoum, Sudan.

  Article in a book         

Wilson, S.J., and Cooke, R.U.1980. Wind erosion. In: Soil Erosion, M.J.Kirby and R.P.C. Morgan (eds.), John Wiley & Sons Ltd., New York.

 A Book

Morgan, R.P.C.1995. Soil Erosion and Conservation. 2nd Edition, Longman Group Ltd., UK.Essex, England.

In the text, a reference should be quoted by the author's surname and date (in parentheses), e.g. Wilson (1998) and when more than two authors are participating in the citation, the surname of the first author is followed by et al., e.g. Harris et al (1976). All references in the text should appear in the reference list and vice versa; names and dates should be the same in both sites. However, when one or more references appear at the end of a citation, both the author(s) surnames and year should be shown inside a bracket e.g. similar results were obtained by many workers (Cook, 1995; Abdalla, 2003; Black eta1, 985; Hassan and Younis, 2001).

Failure to comply with above instructions may delay publication

Manuscripts may be returned for revision, before peer- review, if they deviate substantially from Sudan J.Des.Res. format and style, and/or are poorly written, difficult to interpret or unnecessarily long. Manuscripts considered for publication shall be forwarded to two consulting editors or selected technical reviewers for evaluation of the suitability of the paper for publication in the Journal.

Comments and specific points of criticism from the reviewers or the Editor-in-Chief or both will be forwarded to the corresponding author, who will be asked to consider inclusion into  b with the revised manuscript, which shall them be returned to the Editor. The manuscript which is not recommended for publication will be returned to the corresponding author.

Following notification of manuscript acceptance, both printed and electronic copies, which must match exactly in all parts of revised manuscript, should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief.

Twenty five reprints of each article shall be supplied to the corresponding author free of charge. Additional reprints may be purchased at cost price, and may be ordered when the page proofs are returned.

 Proof Reading

 Authors will receive page proofs, which they should read carefully and return to the Editor-in-Chief within seven days of receiving them. 

Corrections shall be limited to typographical errors. If the corrected proofs are not received in time, they will be read and corrected by the Editor-in-Chief.

 The Editorial Board assumes no responsibility for the opinions expressed in the published papers.

 Subscriptions 

US$75 for institutions and US$ 30 for individuals. All rates inclusive of air mail charges.

 Correspondence

Three copies of the manuscripts should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief. All other correspondence should be addressed to the Managing Editor, Sudan Journal of Desertification Research, UNESCO Chair of Desertification Studies, University of Khartoum, Shambat, 13314, Sudan.

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