Instructions to authors


Science Vision is a multidisplinaryscience journal covering all branches of science. Science as we generally endorse is an organised knowledge of the natural world gained through systematic methodology and testable evidences. Therefore, all submission should be based on empirical data or concepts based on such principles.

Scope

Science Vision is a forum for all information concerning what are classically known as natural sciences and formal sciences. It therefore covers basic sciences such as biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and their ever-growing sub-disciplines. It relies on information that are verifiable and falsifiable. Even though it is owned by a society, it publishes contributions from all over the world and neither promotes nor objects a particular view based on the institute, ethnicity or organisation. The journal embraces all kinds of information, both solicited and unsolicited, from all fields of science in the form of original research, research review, hypothesis, commentary, report, letters and news.

Manuscripts are considered for publication and accepted on the basis of novelty of the concept and data, credibility of interpretation, and suitability according to the scope and style of the journal.

Reviewing

Research articles including reports, orginial research, and research reviews are subjected to peer reviewing. Each manuscript is assessed by an editor in subject area, and by an external referee. The editor examines the suitability of the manuscript based on the scope and style of the journal. Reviewer is responsible for evaluating the technical soundness of the information in the manuscript.

We employ single-blind review process by which the reviewers receive all the information of the authors as mentioned in the manuscript. Authors may opt for open reviewing by suggesting at least three peers who are from different departments or institutes, and not affiliated to the authors' institute or organisation. Conflict of interest should be declared.

Other articles such as educational essays, commentary, and news are evaluated by editors.

Language

All technical papers should be written in English. As a bilingual journal, scientific topics relevant to the Mizo people in their language are also accepted; however, the title and abstract should be in English. There is no lexical preference of any particular form of English, but it should generally be either American or British style, which are broadly understood by international readers.

Manuscript style

Format

For ease of manuscript preparation a template is available here. Please note that there is difference in formats between the manuscript and published papers.

Manuscript should be prepared in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file. Maintain all fonts, paragraphs, borders, indents and tabs in default. Basically, use A4- or letter-sized page, Calibri in 12 size, and singly spaced line and paragraph. There should not be any decorative borders, fonts, lines, indents and additional tabs anywhere. Do not make any column, underline, footnotes, or watermark in the text. Separate words with a single space. A punctuation (period, comm, semicolon, colon) is followed by a single space. Also give a single space in between a value and its unit, e.g. 1 ml, 1 kg, 1 km, etc.

Italicise words only that are foreign including binomial/binominal, gene, Greek, Latin, etc.

Tables, if required, should be prepared from "Insert Table" or "Add Table" menu. Other than the number and size of rows and columns, nothing should be further formatted. 

Graphs, if required, should be prepared normally in Microsoft Excel and inserted (using "Paste Special" menu) in the manuscript as editable Excel image. Same data in the Table should not be represented in graph.

Symbols and special characters, if required, should be inserted from Symbol menu, and not imported from other programmes, unless they are unique. A common mistake is superscript of o or 0 for degree (angle) and degree Celsius, which should be °.

Equations should be prepared from "Insert Equation”.

Length

There is no fixed length. The manuscript can be elaborated as the topic and research demand. It should neither be excessively verbose that it requires extensive editing, nor too condensed that it distorts the normal flow of the language. Tables should be normally limited to three, unless special data are involved.

Manuscript structure

Title should be concise, plain and descriptive in a continuous line even if it extends beyond one line. It should normally avoid symbols and special characters. Give a single line space (press "Enter" once) after the title.

Author(s) should be listed below the title. In a multi-authored paper, the corresponding author should be marked with asterisk (*) after the name. Names should be separated by commas (,) and a single space. All authors should provide their emails. As an option, the corresponding author is advised to provide ORCID ID.

Affiliation of the author(s) should be clearly stated so as to enable postal contact, i.e. including PIN/ZIP codes.

Abstract should be limited to 100-300 words in a single paragraph. Special characters, graphical notations, or citation should be avoided as these often create problems in indexing databases. The abstract should be followed by 5-8 keywords arranged in alphabetical order and separated by commas.

The text body should be sequentially divided into sections such as Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. If Acknowledgement is required, it comes after the Discussion, before the References. Subdivision of sections should be limited to heading level 3.

Research review shall follow the organisation as that of original research, but sections can be divided into appropriate headings.

Writing guide

Introduction should contain the basis of the work and conception of the study. Discussion is for relating the findings with existing or available literature. These sections should be supported with proper citations for every statement made. Citations should be made after the statement or sentence, specifically after a punctuation mark following the statement. Citation should be marked in superscript Arabic numerals (1,2,3...) and numbered sequentially as they appear in the text.

Materials and Methods should describe all information necessary to examine the research. Study involving biological species should contain information on taxonomic identification and cataloguing, unless they are populational investigations. Experiments involving animals or humans and clinical trials should declare compliance with ethical guidelines, and a permission in this respect should be clearly stated. For detailed ethical practice see the journal's ethics statement. Studies involving data comparison such as drug efficacy, populational analyses, epidemiology, and environmental conditions must be accompanied by statistical analyses. Raw data are not accepted.

Discussion should give interpretation of the findings with respect to known information. Statements should be supported with citations as in the introduction.

References should be listed (using "Insert Numbering", and never in manual numbering) in order of their citations in the text, and entry in the list should be in APA (American Psychological Association) style in analogy to the following examples:

Journal:  Lalremruati, C., Malsawmtluangi, C., Lalhlenmawia, H. (2018). Phytochemical screening and evaluation of antidepressant activity of methanolic extract of the spadix of Colocasia affinis Schott. Science Vision, 18, 104110. https://doi.org/10.33493/scivis.18.04.01

Book: Lalthanzara, H., Kasambe, R. (2015). Popular Birds of Mizoram. Dispur, India: Scienctific Book Centre, pp. 5–10.

Chapter:  Murthy, M.R.N. (2018). Recent twin revolutions in structural biology. In K. Lalchhandama (ed), Advances in Engineering Research: Perspective and Trends in the Development of Science Education and Research. Paris, France: Atlantis Press, pp. 162. https://doi.org/10.2991/msc-18.2018.1

Website: Dennel, R. (2004). Dating of hominin discoveries at Denisova. www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00264-0 (30 January 2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00264-0

Note the use of figure dash (–) for indicating page range. Small dash (-) is a nonbreaking hyphen to be used such as in compound words. Also note the use of capitals and italics in book and journal titles. As an option, digital object identifier (DOI) may be given at the end of the cited publication.

Tables and figures should come in separate pages after the Reference section, and numbered sequentially in order of their citation in the text. If figures consist of special graphics and images, they can be submitted in JPEG, TIFF, GIF, or PNG files. But line drawing and graphs prepared in MS Office (such as Word and Excel) should be embedded in editable format.

Scientific nomenclature

With respect to scientific nomenclature, the manuscript should strictly adhere to internationally agreed rules such as those adopted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the international system (SI) of units, the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (ICN), the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB), the International Code of Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP), the International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature (ISCN), the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC), and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN).

Names of organisms should include the full binomial, authority, and family in the first reference in the body of the manuscript (e.g. Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758; family Hominidae). In subsequent mention in the text, standard abbreviation can be used, e.g. H. sapiens.

Manuscript submission

Manuscript can be submitted as an email attachment to sciencevision@outlook.com. Alternatively, it can also be submitted through the manuscript submission portal.

Copyright policy

We publish under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International LicenseIt dictates that users are free to read, copy, download, distribute, remake, and link the articles, or use them for legitimate purposes including reproduction, display, and reprinting, without obtaining prior permission from the publisher (the Mizo Academy of Sciences) or the authors.

Authors hold the copyright to their contributions. Therefore, reusing and remixing of their materials in any form should be accompanied by proper credit to the uniform resource locator (URL of the article) and the author(s). 

Publication policy

Publication in Science Vision is entirely free. There are no manuscript-processing chanrges of any kind. Publication in print and online system is supported by subscription fees and grants from the Directorate of Science and Technology, Government of Mizoram.

There are no paid workers in the management. Editorial and reviewing duties are wholly voluntary.