Prepare your manuscript for Agronomy Journal

Author guidelines

Manuscripts must be written in British English. Authors who do not write English as a first language should arrange a careful language review before submission.

Article types

Original articles permit up to 20 listed authors. Where a larger collaborative group is essential, additional contributors should be identified in a suitable appendix.

Manuscript arrangement

Use double spacing, numbered lines and generous margins. Arrange an original article in the following order:

1. Title page: full title, author names, affiliations and corresponding-author details.
2. Abstract: a clear summary of no more than 400 words.
3. Keywords: three to six terms in alphabetical order.
4. Introduction: concise background and purpose.
5. Materials and methods: enough detail and supporting references to permit replication.
6. Results: findings presented clearly, with supporting tables and figures.
7. Discussion: interpretation, significance and relationship to earlier research.
8. Acknowledgements and references.

Scientific and technical style

• Use the International System of Units.
• At first mention, pair an organism's common name with its complete scientific name in italics, including attribution and cultivar where appropriate.
• Prepare equations with an equation editor and number them consecutively when several appear.
• Define specialist abbreviations at first use and apply them consistently.

Tables, figures and supplementary files

Number tables and figures consecutively with Arabic numerals and refer to each item in the text. Titles and captions should explain the content without requiring readers to search the manuscript. Do not repeat identical data in both a table and a graph.

• Colour figures: TIFF or JPEG, prepared in CMYK at a minimum of 300 dpi.
• Black-and-white or greyscale figures: TIFF or JPEG at a minimum of 600 dpi.
• Labelling: use clear, consistent lettering and define symbols in the figure, caption or note.
• Supplementary movies: upload as supplementary files; each should not exceed 5 MB.

Citations and references

Agronomy uses an author–year citation system. Cite one or two authors by surname and year. For works with more than two authors, use the first author's surname followed by et al. Grouped citations should be separated by semicolons and ordered first by year, then alphabetically where necessary.

List references alphabetically by the first author's surname. Distinguish multiple works from the same year with lower-case letters. Journal titles should use recognised scientific abbreviations. Every item in the reference list must be cited in the manuscript, and every formal citation must have a corresponding reference.

Reference formats

• Journal article: authors, year, article title, abbreviated journal title, volume and pages.
• Book: author or organisation, year, title, edition, publisher and publication place.
• Book chapter: chapter author, year, chapter title, editor, book title, publisher and pages.
• Proceedings: authors, year, contribution title, event title, location, volume and pages.
• Thesis: author, year, title, qualification and institution.
• Web material: responsible organisation or author, year, title and stable URL with access details where needed.
• In press: accepted work may be listed with “In press” after the journal title.

Personal communications and unpublished observations should be identified in the text rather than placed in the reference list.

Peer review and authorship

Each submission first receives an editorial assessment for relevance, quality and priority. Manuscripts that proceed are normally evaluated by at least two external reviewers with suitable subject expertise. Editorial screening may result in a decision without external review when a paper is outside scope or is not ready for further consideration.

Authorship should reflect substantial participation in the study's conception or analysis, preparation or critical revision of the manuscript, and approval of the final version. Each author must be able to take responsibility for the contribution. Funding acquisition, data collection or general supervision alone does not establish authorship. A brief contribution statement should be supplied.

Submitting a revision

1. Sign in and open your author dashboard.
2. Select the submission queued for review.
3. Open the editorial decision area and upload the revised manuscript as the author version.
4. Use the submission record's notification function to tell the editorial team that the revision is ready.

Submission preparation checklist

Authors should confirm each point. A submission may be returned when essential requirements are missing.

1. The work has not been published previously and is not being considered by another publication, unless an explanation has been supplied to the editorial team.
2. The manuscript uses a readable 12-point font, double spacing, numbered lines and italics rather than underlining except where a URL requires it.
3. Full text, references, tables and figures are included in one Word document, with illustrations and tables placed at the end.
4. The manuscript follows the structural, stylistic and bibliographic requirements on this page.
5. At least two potential reviewers are suggested in the “Comments to the Editor” field, with their names, affiliations and professional email addresses.
6. All authors have approved the submitted version and their contributions and competing interests are accurately declared.

Copyright notice

Published manuscripts are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. This permits readers to copy, redistribute and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes when appropriate credit is provided, a link to the licence is included and changes are identified.

Authors retain copyright and grant Agronomy Journal the right of first publication. Authors may also enter separate, non-exclusive arrangements for distribution of the published version, such as deposit in an institutional repository or inclusion in a book, provided the original publication is acknowledged.

Authors may share appropriate versions of their work online before and during submission, subject to accurate identification of the version and any applicable research or institutional obligations.

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