Guide for Authors
An International Journal
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture provides international coverage of advances in the
development and application of computer hardware, software and electronic instrumentation and control systems for solving problems in
agriculture and related industries. These include agronomy, horticulture (in both its food and amenity aspects), forestry, aquaculture,
animal/livestock science, veterinary medicine, and food processing.
The journal publishes original papers, reviews, applications
notes and book reviews on topics including computerized decision-support aids (e.g., expert systems and simulation models) pertaining
to any aspect of the aforementioned industries; electronic monitoring or control of any aspect of livestock/crop production (e.g. soil
and water, environment, growth, health, waste products) and post-harvest operations (such as drying, storage, production assessment,
trimming and dissection of plant and animal material). Relevant areas of technology include artificial intelligence, sensors, machine
vision, robotics and simulation modelling.
Types of paper
1. Original research
papers
2. Review articles
3. Application notes
4. Book reviews
Original research papers should report the results
of original research. The material should not have been previously published elsewhere, except in a preliminary form.
Review articles
should cover subjects falling within the scope of the journal which are of active current interest. They may be submitted or invited.
An Application note is a short but complete description of a specific application, which will not be included in a later paper. It should
not occupy more than 4 printed pages (about 8 manuscript pages, including figures, tables and references).
Book reviews will be included
in the journal on a range of relevant books which are no more than 2 years old.
Unsolicited reviews will not usually be accepted,
but suggestions for appropriate books for review may be sent to one of the Editors-in-Chief.
Ethics in Publishing
For information on Ethics
in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see
http://www.elsevier.com/publishingethics and
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Policy and ethics
The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance
with
The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans http://www.wma.net/e/policy/b3.htm;
EC Directive 86/609/EEC for animal experiments http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm;
Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals http://www.icmje.org. This must be stated
at an appropriate point in the article.
Conflict of interest
All authors
are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with
other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived
to influence, their work. See also
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Submission declaration
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except
in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication
elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was
carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without
the written consent of the copyright-holder.
Copyright
Upon acceptance
of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright).
Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding
author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this
agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation
within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other
derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions). If excerpts
from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s)
in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Retained author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details
you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Role of the
funding source
You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation
of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation
of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such
involvement then this should be stated. Please see
http://www.elsevier.com/funding.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose
articles appear in journals published by Elsevier, to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions
of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Language and language services
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted,
but not a mixture of these). Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission
please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/languagepolishing or our customer support site at
http://epsupport.elsevier.com
for more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside
vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms & Conditions:
http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions.
Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online and you will be guided stepwise
through the creation and uploading of your files. The system automatically converts source files to a single PDF file of the article,
which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF files at submission
for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. Authors can upload their article as a
LaTex, Microsoft (MS) Word, WordPerfect, PostScript or Adobe Acrobat PDF document. All correspondence, including notification of the
Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail.
Referees
Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, addresses and e-mail addresses of 4 potential
referees. Note that the editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.
Additional Information
Manuscripts should be prepared with numbered lines, with wide margins and
double-spacing throughout, i.e. also for abstracts, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page,
references, tables, etc. should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may
refer to sections. Avoid excessive use of italics to emphasize part of the text.
Use of wordprocessing software
It is important
that the file be saved in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of
the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use
the wordprocessor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc.
Do not embed "graphically designed" equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables,
if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs,
not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also
the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier:
http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). Do not import the figures into the text
file but, instead, indicate their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. See also the section on
Electronic illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions
of your wordprocessor.
However, note that these do not guarantee correct use of English (e.g. "there" versus "their"; "principal"
versus "principle").If you are uncertain seek professional help. Please see section on 'Language and Language Services'
Article structure
Subdivision - numbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2,
etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to
"the text". Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed
literature survey or a summary of the results.
Additional sections Background and/or Literature may be necessary, but only if
these aspects of the work cannot be adequately covered in the Introduction.
materials
and methods
This section is necessary if your paper involves experimentation. Provide sufficient detail to allow the work
to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. However,
work published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture will often not comprise a straightforward experimental investigation or testing
of a hypothesis. Therefore, rather than Materials and Methods, other section headings may be appropriate.
e.g. one or more of:
Design Requirement
Measurement Requirement
Control Requirement
Specification of . . .
Development of . . .
Software
Development
A section headed Performance Evaluation or Validation or Assessment may then be appropriate.
results
is expected for all experimental work. Results should be clear and concise; and report only
your work, i.e. comparisons with other work from cited literature should be set out in the subsequent section Discussion.
Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined
Results and Discussion section may be appropriate, but if this is adopted it is essential to maintain clarity as regards which
results/achievements are your work and which are the work of others. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section.
Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and
equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on.
Essential title page information
•
Title.
Concise and informative. Titles are often
used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
•
Author names and affiliations.
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 e-mail address and the complete postal address.
•
Present/permanent
address.
If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address"
(or "Permanent address") may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work
must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
Abstract
A concise and factual abstract is required which should not be longer than 400 words. The
abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented
separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then
cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined
at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Keywords
Immediately after
the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid,
for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords
will be used for indexing purposes.
Abbreviations
Define abbreviations
that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable
in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout
the article.
Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements 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, etc.).
Nomenclature and units
1. Authors and
Editor(s) are, by general agreement, obliged to accept the rules governing biological nomenclature, as laid down in the
International
Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the
International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria, and the
International Code of Zoological
Nomenclature.
2. All biotica (crops, plants, insects, birds, mammals, etc.) should be identified by their scientific names when
the English term is first used, with the exception of common domestic animals.
3. All biocides and other organic compounds must be
identified by their Geneva names when first used in the text. Active ingredients of all formulations should be likewise identified.
4. For chemical nomenclature, the conventions of the
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the official recommendations
of the
IUPAC-IUB Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature should be followed.
Formulae
1. All formulae should be presented consistently and clearly with regard to the meaning of each symbol
and its correct location. Formulae must be typed throughout.
2. All unusual symbols must be collected in a separate list in the appendix,
giving a clear explanation of each symbol.
3. Please try to keep the notation as simple as possible, and avoid ambiguities. Do not
use special typefonts if there is no urgent need to do so.
4. Different formulae should be clearly separated in the manuscript, at
least by punctuation marks, if not by words. Avoid breaking formulae if breaking is not strictly necessary (i.e., if the equation is
less than one typed line). Never let a sentence consist of formulae alone (i.e., without any connection with the preceding text).
5.
Do not use complicated juxtapositions of symbols. Also, try to avoid complicated subscripts and superscripts; third-order indices especially
present difficulties as to their size and position, and fourth-order indices are taboo.
6. The manuscript must show a clear distinction
between similar symbols, (e.g., between zero (0) and the letter O, between one (1) and the letter l, and between multiplication (×)
and the letter x).
7. Important formulae (e.g.definitions) must be displayed. All formulae which are to be referred to later on
must be displayed and numbered consecutively throughout the paper; the number should appear on the right-hand side of the page.
8.
In chemical formulae the valence of ions must be given as, for example, Ca
2+ and CO
3
2 rather than
as Ca
++ and CO
3
--.
9. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols (e.g.,
18O).
Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript
Arabic numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate
the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes
in the Reference list.
Table footnotes
Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.
Artwork
Electronic artwork
General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as "graphics"
or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Times, Symbol.
• Number
the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
•
Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
• Submit
each figure as a separate file.
A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions
You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless
of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats
(note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):
EPS: Vector drawings.
Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale): a
minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications
please supply "as is".
Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation)
document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
•
Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Color artwork
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office
files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable color figures then Elsevier will ensure,
at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether
or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version.
For color reproduction in print, you will receive information
regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for color in print or on
the Web only. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version
should you not opt for color in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the color illustrations.
Figure captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached
to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (
not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep
text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Tables
1. Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and lay-out of the journal. Large tables
should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table.
2. If many data are to be presented,
an attempt should be made to divide them over two or more tables.
3. Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the
text. The text should include references to all tables.
4. Each table should be typewritten on a separate page of the manuscript.
Tables should never be included in the text.
5. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.
6. Column headings
should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses.
7. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.
8. Any explanation
essential to the understanding of the table should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table.
References
References 1. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of
references following the text of the manuscript. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of author's names
and dates are exactly the same in the text as in the reference list.
2. In the text refer to the author's name (without initial)
and year of publication, followed - if necessary - by a short reference to appropriate pages. Examples: "Since Peterson (1993) has shown
that ...." "This is in agreement with results obtained later (Peterson and Kramer, 1993, pp. 12-16)".
3. If reference is made in
the text to a publication written by more than two authors the name of the first author should be used followed by
"et al."
This indication, however, should never be used in the list of references. In this list names of first author and co-authors should be
mentioned.
4. References cited together in the text should be arranged chronologically. The list of references should be arranged
alphabetically on authors' names, and chronologically per author. If an author's name in the list is also mentioned with co-authors the
following order should be used: publications of the single author, arranged according to publication dates - publications of the same
author with one co-author - publications of the author with more than one co-author. Publications by the same author(s) in the same year
should be listed as 1994a, 1994b, etc.
5. Use the following system for arranging your references:
5.1
For periodicals
Yang, Q., 1993. Classification of apple surface features using machine vision and neural networks. Comput. Electron. Agric. 9, 1-12.
5.2
For entire (special) issue of journal
Glaser, R., Bond, L. (Eds). 1981. Testing: Concepts and Research (special issue).
American Psychologist 36 (10).
5.3
For books
Peart, R.M., Brooks, R.C. (Eds.), 1992. Analysis of Agricultural Energy
Systems. Energy in World agriculture, 5. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
5.4
For multi-author books Price, D.R., Chen, T.H., Peart,
R.M. 1992. Acknowledge-based decision system for control of waste heat for a greenhouse-aquaculture complex. In: Peart, R.M., Brooks,
R.C. (Eds.), Analysis of Agricultural Energy Systems. Energy in World Agriculture, 5. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 33-46.
5.5 For unpublished
reports, departmental notes, etc. Deshazer, J.A., Moran, P., Onyango, C.M., Schofield, C.P., 1988. Imaging systems to improve stockmanship
in pig production. Div. Note 1549, AFRC Institute of Engineering Research, Silsoe, UK.
6. Do not abbreviate the titles of periodicals
mentioned in the list of references; alternatively use the
International List of Periodical Title Word Abbreviations.
7.
In the case of publications in any language other than English, the original title is to be retained. However, the titles of publications
in non-Latin alphabets should be transliterated, and a notation such as "(in Russian)" or "(in Greek with English abstract)" should be
added.
8. Work accepted for publication but not yet published should be referred to as "in press".
9. References concerning
unpublished data and "personal communications" should not be cited in the reference list buy may be mentioned in the text.
Journal abbreviations source
Journal names should be abbreviated according to
Index Medicus journal
abbreviations:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/tsd/serials/lji.html;
List of serial title word abbreviations:
http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php;
CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service):
http://www.cas.org/sent.html.
Supplementary
material
Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary
files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images,
background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of
your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your
submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data are provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit
the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. Video files:
please supply 'stills' with your files: you can choose any frame from the video or make a separate image. These will be used instead
of standard icons and will personalize the link to your supplementary information. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork
instruction pages at
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Submission
checklist
It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's
Editor for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.
Ensure that the following items are
present:
One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone
and fax numbers
All necessary files have been uploaded
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including
title, description, footnotes)
Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked" and "grammar-checked"
•
References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text,
and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Web)
•
Color figures are clearly marked as being intended for color reproduction on the Web (free of charge) and in print or to be reproduced
in color on the Web (free of charge) and in black-and-white in print
• If only color on the Web is required, black and white
versions of the figures are also supplied for printing purposes
For any further information please visit our customer support site
at
http://epsupport.elsevier.com.
Use of the Digital Object Identifier
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to
electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon
the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly
'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown
as follows (example taken from a document in the journal
Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
When
you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.
Proofs
One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do
not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post) or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download
the files themselves. Elsevier now provides authors with PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe
Reader version 7 (or higher) available free from
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how
to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs (also given online). The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and
return them to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then
mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan
the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the
text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission
from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure
that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent
corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of
your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding author,
at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article
and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper
offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission
where available) please visit this journal's homepage. You can track accepted articles at
http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle
and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed. Also accessible from here is information on copyright,
frequently asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating
to proofs, will be provided by the publisher.
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