• Please consider the following aspects before submitting the manuscript:
• Check in the Aims and Scope section if the content of the article fits into the topic of our journal.
• Prepare the manuscript in the template of this Journal.
• Check compliance with the rules of good conduct in research and publication, copyright, authorship, format and content of figures and photographs.
• Please ensure that the manuscript will be submitted exclusively to this journal and is not published, in press or submitted elsewhere.
• Make sure all authors are aware of the journal’s Open-Access (OA) policy and Creative Commons Attribution License (CC 4.0) which allows unrestricted access to article contents.
• Check if all the authors have signed the Ethical Declarations of the Authors that must be sent together with the manuscript.
• Please note that failure to comply with these requirements may lead to rejection of the manuscript.

Types of publications

ALSE publishes novel research carried out at different scales, including laboratory studies, field experiments, case studies and investigations at the landscape level. There are no restrictions on manuscript length. Articles and reviews in the fields of soil, plants, water, crop and animal production and environmental sciences are encouraged.

Articles are research manuscripts that provide new information in the field of study addressed by the authors. The content must refer to representative research and be as recent as possible (preferably from the past five years). The article must be structured to include the following components: 1. Abstract, 2. Keywords, 3. Introduction, 4. Materials and Methods, 5. Results, 6. Discussion, and 7. Conclusions. The manuscript’s total length must be at least 3,500 words (excluding bibliography or reference list).

Reviews provide a thorough overview of the existing body of work in a field of study and highlight any gaps or issues that still need to be addressed. They ought to be constructively critical and make suggestions for further study. Ideally, the narrative flow should be structured using the following section headings: 1. Introduction, 2. Literature Review, 3. Methods and Analyses, 4. Results, 5. Discussion, 6. Conclusions and Future Research. If authors choose to ignore this structure, they must make sure to explain their choice of alternative.

Case studies offer an in-depth examination of a particular subject, for instance, a group, location, business, or phenomenon. They must show why the subject in question is essential and what we can learn from it which has not already been already extensively covered in other articles on the same theme. Case studies are useful for outlining, contrasting, assessing and comprehending various facets of a subject. Ideally, authors should emphasize why their case study is important, show why it is distinctive and demonstrate what it adds to existing scholarship.

Submission procedure

Manuscripts should be submitted online on the ScholarOne Manuscript ScholarOne Manuscripts (manuscriptcentral.com).

To submit your manuscript, register and log in to the submission website and then follow the seven-steps required until the submission is complete.

DETAILED INFORMATION about the SUBMISSION PROCESS can be found at ScholarOne Manuscripts Support – Author – Web of Science Group (clarivate.com).

We cordially and collegially ask you that before sending an article, check and make sure that the rules of Good editorial practices of ALSE Journal are respected.

The author submitting the manuscript is usually the corresponding author, who will be in contact with the editors throughout the peer-review process and until the article’s publication. The corresponding author must certify that all co-authors have read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript.

The Ethical Declarations of the Authors signed by all authors will be uploaded along with the manuscript.

Authors are requested to use the Microsoft Word Template when preparing their manuscript.

Cover letter

Authors are encouraged to send a cover letter (cover letter model attached), in which they should justify their manuscript’s relevance to the journal and to other articles recently published in it.

The corresponding author must confirm that the manuscript is original, that it is not sent for analysis to another publication, and that all authors approve the sending of the current version to ALSE.

Manuscript content

• Title: The manuscript title should be short and concise. It must indicate the purpose of the study as precisely as possible. It should also indicate the study’s noteworthiness and originality.
• Authors and affiliations: The first and last names of the authors must be written in full. It is strongly suggested that authors’ email addresses and ORCID codes appear within the published articles. One of the authors should be the designated corresponding author who will maintain contact with the editor during the editorial process leading up to publication. The corresponding author must notify the editor if any of the authors do not wish their e-mail addresses to be published. The corresponding author can delegate another author to replace them if for whatever reason they can no longer fulfil that function in the editorial process. The authors’ affiliations must include their exact positions within the units and sub-units of their institutions or organisations (such as Department, Faculty/School, University), as well as the institution/organisation’s full address (city, postal code, state/province and country).
• Abstract: The abstract should be clear, brief and accurate, provide the study’s justification and indicate clearly its objectives, results and conclusions. Copy pastes from the article’s contents are not acceptable. The abstract should include neither citations, references, sources, nor figures or tables. We suggest that authors add numerical values of their results to attract attention.
• Graphical abstract: The key conclusions of the article can, if desired, be summarized in a single succinct graphic manner. The graphic displayed could be the last figure in the article or, better yet, a figure created especially for the purpose of the abstract that sums up the article’s content at a glance. The graphical abstract will not appear in the article’s PDF file or print version, but it will be shown in online search result lists and the article’s contents list.
• Keywords: List three to five relevant keywords for the article. Consider using keywords that do not appear in the title to increase your article’s visibility. Avoid keywords that are heavily generalising, such as ‘design’, as opposed to the more specific ‘garden design’, so that we can invite the most suitable specialists to review the article.
• Introduction: The study should be described briefly at the start, beginning with its significance. The introduction should then specify the study’s goal, as well as the precise hypotheses it is testing. The current state of knowledge in the field the study is addressing should be carefully reviewed, supported by citations of the relevant and most recent publications. (Studies produced in the past five years are most desirable). At the end of this introductory section, the study’s objectives should be presented briefly and clearly, followed by its clear hypothesis or hypotheses. If the introduction is convincing and is supported by the publications referenced, editors, reviewers and readers will find your study useful. Bibliographic references should be cited in-text, in round brackets (please see the journal template). Footnotes are not accepted.
• Materials and Methods: This section should explain clearly how your research was carried out. In terms of practice, readers should find here all the information necessary for them to perform similar experiments and to judge the quality and validity of the work. Established research methods can be described briefly and must include the necessary bibliographic references. Only new methods/instruments should be described in detail. Research involving animals or humans must include an explicit authoritative statement granting approval, including its code.
• Results: In this section, the main findings of the undertaken study must be described as precisely and concisely as possible. Express yourself as if you were telling an interesting story, one that is easy to read and understand. Keep in mind that you are presenting your own results, so it is not appropriate to include in this section the results obtained by other authors cited in the references. For all experimental results, a measure of variability must be presented (standard errors, coefficients of variation, least significant differences).
• Discussion: In contrast to the Results section, here discuss the interpretations of your findings; do so as broadly as possible and in relation to both previous research and your own working hypotheses. You should explain what your results mean, what their significance and importance are and how they add new knowledge to the extant research.
• Conclusions: Authors should include conclusions of substance that are based on the findings of their study. Copying and pasting text from other parts of the article into this section is not acceptable. It is sufficient to specify whether the obtained results support known theories. Suggestions for future research are welcome.
• Author contributions: In the case of articles with several authors, the contribution of each author must be specified. This should be done by inserting the initials of the respective author after each one of the following activities: conceptualisation; methodology; analysis; investigation; resources; data curation; writing, review; supervision; and so on. All authors must declare that they have read and approved the publication of the presented manuscript.
• Funding: Please specify, as appropriate: ‘There was no external funding for this study’ or ‘The authors express their gratitude to [Name or Designation of the funder] for project/grant number . . . ‘. To avoid errors, copy the format for writing the funder’s name as it appears here: https://search.crossref.org/funding.
• Acknowledgments: If you have received logistical, technical or administrative support (e.g., experimental materials, writing assistance, language revision) from a source other than the funder, it is fair to admit this.
• Conflicts of Interest: Please specify any conflicts of interest or lack thereof.
• References: References must be listed, in alphabetical order, at the end of the manuscript. We encourage use of specialised software, such as EndNote. To facilitate access to cited references, it is important to include the digital object identifier (DOI). All references must be provided in English (ACS Style) with a specification of the original language in round brackets when appropriate. To avoid self-citation, authors may include at most two of their own relevant articles previously published in representative journals.  Please be sure to make this change before submission.

References should follow this format:

Journal papers: Surnames and Initials of authors. Title of the paper. Journal name Year, Volume (issue), page range. https://doi.org/.

Xiong, M.; Sun, R.; Chen, L. Effects of soil conservation techniques on water erosion control: A global analysis. Science of the Total Environment. 2018, 645, 753–760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.124.

Proceedings Volumes: Surnames and Initials of the authors. Title of the paper. Conference name, Date, Place, Publisher, DOI or Citable Link.

Hardy, J.; Massa, G.; Nabity, J.; Kociolek, P. Review of Targeted Lighting Approaches for Controlled Environment Agriculture in Space Habitats. 51st International Conference on Environmental Systems ICES-2022-6, 10–14 July 2022, St. Paul, Minnesota, Texas Digital Library, https://hdl.handle.net/2346/89549.

Books: Surnames and Initials of the authors. Title of the book, Edition. Editor, Publisher name, Publisher location, Country, Year, Page numbers.

Heldt, H.W.; Piechulla, B. Plant Biochemistry, 5th Edition. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2021, pp. 335–371.

Chapters in books: Surnames and Initials of the authors, Title of the chapter, In Book Title, Edition. Editor, Publisher name, Publisher location, Country, Year, Page numbers.

Heldt, H.W.; Piechulla, B. Biosynthesis, Processing, and Degradation of Plant Proteins, In Plant Biochemistry, 5th Edition. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2021, pp. 503–531.

Dissertations: Surnames and Initials of author. Title of Thesis. Level of Thesis (PhD Thesis, MSc Thesis), University Name and Location, Date of Completion.

Kammoun, M. Active molecules extraction and conversion from plant biomass: Salts as green catalysts and solvents. PhD Thesis, University of Liège, 27/06/2022.

Web references: Title of Site. Available online: URL (accessed on Day Month Year).

FAO. Zero tillage: when less means more. http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0101sp1.htm (accessed on 25 August 2022).

• Acronyms/Abbreviations: All abbreviations should be defined the first time they appear in the abstract, the main text of the manuscript and in each table and figure legend.
• Equations: Insertion of equations as images is not allowed. Please use the equation editor of the word processing program you are using so that the calculation relationship is visually pleasing but also allows the intervention of the editorial office for possible rearrangements. Immediately below the formula, the meaning of the symbols that compose it must be explained. Formulas are aligned flush right and numbered in order of appearance, with numbers in parentheses.
• SI Units: As a general rule, International System measurement units should be used.
• Research data and supplementary materials: Note that publishing your manuscript implies that you must make all materials, data and protocols related to the publication available to readers. Any limitations on the accessibility of the materials or information should be disclosed at the submission stage. For more rules, read the information regarding Additional Information and Data Deposit.
• Organisation names: Name should be written in full, followed by the acronym in square brackets in the first citation. In subsequent citations, the acronym alone can be used. Example: National Institute of Statistics (INSSE), 2021.
• The Data Availability Statement: Authors are asked to include links to publicly archived datasets used in the study as well as information about where to find the data supporting the reported results.
• Guidelines and standards: ALSE Journal adheres to criteria and recommendations for particular categories of research. For further details, please visit Editorial process and peer review.

Table and figure captions should stand alone and allow the reader to understand them without reading the main text. Good practice for composing informative captions is to pretend that you do not know the contents of this paper and are reading only the caption. Is it descriptive enough for you to understand the table or figure or do you need more information?

Figures must include a succinct description that explains how the data were generated. Figures with complex content require a legend to help readers understand the graphic representation. Please insert figures/photographs with a good resolution (minimum 500 dpi resolution).

Figures, schemas and pictures should be created/presented in colour. Please note that the volume is printed in colour and that authors are charged no publication fees.

ALSE is dedicated to fostering free and open exchange of ideas in the sciences and to helping our writers follow best practices for disseminating and preserving research data. We urge all article authors to share their research findings. Data sharing regulations apply to the smallest dataset necessary to support the main conclusions of a published study. The generated data must be made available to the general public and properly referenced per journal requirements.

TOP Guidelines and FAIR Principles serve as a basis for ALSE Journal data policies.

Data sharing should not be done in situations where there are moral, legal or privacy concerns. Any restrictions should be made apparent in the Data Availability Statement before submission. Usage of confidential data is subject to participant consent. Authors must make sure to obtain it before sharing any data.

Data Availability Statements provide specifics on where to find the data that backs up claimed conclusions. They also include links to publicly archived datasets that were used in the study or created during it. This should be the content of an asterisked note the first time Data Availability Statements are mentioned.

Short paragraphs (1 or 2 sentences) can disrupt the flow of the manuscript. Please consider this stylistic matter throughout the manuscript by combining paragraphs on similar topics.

For example:

‘The data recorded were processed using post-hoc Tukey HSD Test from R statistical package (RStudio Team, 2019). Effects were accepted as statistically significant if p ≤ 0.05’.

‘The data recorded were processed using the post-hoc Tukey HSD Test from the R statistical package (RStudio Team, 2019), the effects being accepted as statistically significant if p ≤ 0.05’.

When using the phrase ‘on the other hand’, there must be a ‘one hand’. For example, one statement would say ‘On the one hand, I like muenster cheese’ and the second can say ‘on the other hand, it has a rather pungent smell’. It is necessary to use both of these phrases for this expression to make sense.

Avoid using the word ‘like’ to introduce an example, as it is considered informal. Please use the phrase ‘such as’.

Use ‘that’ when introducing a restrictive phrase and ‘which’ when introducing a non-restrictive phrase. For example: ‘The semi-structured interview included questions that allowed us to collect information regarding the production system’.

For numbers in a range, the unit must follow the last number in the range (10–12%).

Do not use a superscript ‘o’ or ‘0’ instead of a degree symbol. The degree symbol can be found in the insert tab, under symbols.

Only numbers with five or more digits should use a placeholder (comma).

Avoid using the phrase ‘in order to’. Typically, this can be shortened to the word ‘to’ without changing the meaning of the sentence and is more concise.

When a sentence begins with a measurement, the unit should also be written out. For example: ‘One millilitre’.

Use commas around examples when they are not essential. For example: ‘I like different kinds of cheese, such as sharp cheddar and feta, as well as other dairy products’. In this sentence, ‘such as sharp cheddar and feta’ are not necessary for me to convey that I like different kinds of cheese.

Use one consistent font type and size throughout the main text. Section and sub-section headings and table and figure captions may have a different font size, but the font type should remain consistent throughout.

Use a hyphen between two words that are jointly modifying a noun. For example: ‘long-term stress’, ‘high-performance’ or ‘wild-type mice’.

‘Taken into consideration’ can be expressed more concisely as ‘considered’.

Cultivar and variety names should be encased in single quotation marks the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and in each table and figure caption. For example: ‘Express 617’.

All abbreviations and symbols used within a table should be defined below the table.

Genus names should be spelled out upon first use in the abstract, main text of the manuscript and in each table and figure caption.

Use the word ‘and’ or ‘or’ between the last two items in a list.

When describing methods, use the past tense. For example: ‘recommended terminology was used’.

The Journal of Applied Life Sciences and Environment is fully committed to the COPE Core Practices, which guide our editorial decisions and processes. We rigorously follow COPE guidelines in handling ethical issues, ensuring that all cases of potential misconduct are investigated thoroughly and transparently. Our peer review process is designed to be fair, confidential, and free from bias, aligning with the COPE principles.

Research ethics

Studies involving human participants

Authors of articles that refer to human subjects or human data must declare that the provisions of the Helsinki Declaration revised in 2013 have been respected (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki).

A written informed consent for publication must be obtained from each participating patient.

The data relating to each participant will be described in detail. However, private information or photos of people’s faces will not be included except in special situations, i.e. when these data or materials are relevant for the study carried out. It is not allowed to appear on the image the elements of a nature to allow the identification of the person, not even the initials of the name. Manuscripts containing personal information or photos of patients will not be accepted unless the authors of the study send an appropriate informed consent from any human participants, whose rights, dignity and privacy must be protected. Patient informed consent must be signed by the patients, their relatives or guardians to the editors of the journal. In order to anonymize the patient’s details, the patient’s age, religion, ethnicity or profession will not be provided unless they have a relevant meaning for the study undertaken. Along with the manuscript, a version of the form based on which the informed consent was obtained must be sent, which does not contain the name or signature of the participating patient. Submissions that do not comply with these ethical requirements will not be considered.

People interviewed through questionnaires or on social networks must be assured of anonymity and be presented with the possible risks that may arise from the publication of the study. The recording and storage of personal data must be done in compliance with the ethical guidelines of the research.

Authors must submit an ethics statement and/or ethical approval for the study from an ethics committee/body. If ethical approval is not deemed necessary for the study, the relevant specifications from the national legislation must be provided. In the case of articles containing personal information and/or images of patients, the authors must obtain the signed informed consent that must be uploaded and sent to the editors together with the manuscript.

The patient or his legal representative must confirm that he has read the manuscript and agrees with its publication in an open access regime and that he assumes the risk of being identified despite anonymization.

In the case of studies involving vulnerable groups, the editors may request consent forms or documents from an ethics committee/body. If references are made to people grouped by race, ethnicity, sex, disability, etc, the article must include clear explanations for why such classification was deemed necessary.

Studies Involving Animals

The authors can recommend possible reviewers provided that they hold a doctorate and have publications in the field of study presented in the article, are not from the same country, and have not published any work together with the authors in the last three years.

Authors can also request that the manuscript not be sent for evaluation to reviewers they do not agree with.

We consider that the quality of published articles is conditioned by the rigour of the editorial process. That is why we have adopted a peer review process that we want to be efficient, transparent, and honest for authors as well as reviewers and editors.

We operate a single-blind evaluation process with at least two independent reviewers, selected according to fields of interest corresponding to the content of the manuscript. The decision regarding the opinions and evaluations of the reviewers belongs to the editors of the journal. The final decision belongs to the editor-in-chief, who controls the academic quality of the publication process and finally that of the content of the journal.

The stages of the editorial process can be found in the graphic representation below.

Pre-Check

Manuscripts sent to the editorial office are checked by the editor-in-chief in terms of suitability to the topic of the journal, scientific content, compliance with ethical criteria, and the percentage of overlaps. Following this analysis, the manuscript may be rejected, revisions may be requested from the authors, or the manuscript may be assigned to an editor who begins the peer review process by inviting specialized reviewers.

Peer Review

Manuscripts are distributed to reviewers suggested by the journal’s online platform. In the event that the invited reviewers do not agree to evaluate the manuscript or do not respond before the expiration of the time allotted for the evaluation, the editors can identify other potential reviewers who will be invited. Peer review comments are confidential.

Editorial Decision and Revision

Manuscript submitted to Journal of Applied Life Sciences and Environment are reviewed by at least two reviewers. The editor communicates to the editor-in-chief, for each assigned article, the decision regarding the acceptance/revision/rejection of the manuscript in accordance with the reviewers’ opinions.

In turn, the editor-in-chief communicates to the corresponding author one of the following decisions:

• Accept

Manuscript is accepted for publication.

• Minor Revision

Authors must respond to reviewers’ comments within 10 days.

• Major Revision

The modifications will determine whether the manuscript will be accepted or not. If parts of the text cannot be changed in accordance with the reviewers’ comments, the author must offer a point-by-point rebuttal. For each paper, a maximum of two major revision rounds are typically offered. The corrected work will be returned to the reviewer for additional feedback after the authors are requested to resubmit it within an appropriate time limit. In order to prevent undue time pressure and to make sure that all submissions are appropriately edited, we will advise authors to remove their work before resubmitting if the needed revision time is anticipated to take more than two months.

• Reject and Encourage Resubmission:

The manuscript will be rejected if additional research is required to substantiate the findings, and the authors will be urged to submit the paper again after the additional research has been completed.

• Reject

The article is seriously flawed and/or does not offer anything new or noteworthy. There is no invitation to submit the manuscript to the journal again.

Each reviewer criticism should receive a point-by-point response. The authors must be specific in their answer when they disagree with a reviewer.

Authors’ appeal

In the case of a rejection decision, authors can appeal a denial within two months. A chosen editorial board member will analyse the author’s point of view and recommend acceptance, peer re-evaluation or rejection of the manuscript. The final decision belongs to the Editor-in-Chief.

Publication

Accepted manuscripts are sent to a professional editing service in English. The Publisher – Iasi University of Life Sciences – will cover all associated costs.

The edited manuscripts are sent to the authors to give their consent or not to the changes made and to respond to the comments or suggestions of the proofreaders, if any.

Afterwards, the manuscripts are copy-edited and sent again to the authors to give their final approval regarding the publication and not to request further changes to the content.

Finally, the manuscripts are assigned the DOI identifier and are published online.

Published manuscripts are registered at Crossref and archived at the CLOCKSS.

Sets of 10 articles will be the subjects of issues that will be printed. For the covers, the authors are requested to provide images or graphic representations related to the content of the respective articles. If none of the offered images are approved by the editorial committee, the content of the cover will be made available to the editors.

The use of tools associated with artificial intelligence in the writing of scientific articles in the ALSE journal must align with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) position statement that “authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even for those parts produced by an artificial intelligence tool, and are therefore liable for any violations of public law”.

The author(s) are therefore fully responsible for the originality, validation and integrity of the entire manuscript submitted for publication, in accordance with the publication ethics of the ALSE Journal.

Authors who use artificial intelligence must declare this and justify the need for their use in the last paragraph of Ethical Declaration of the Authors (EDA).