Submissions

Author Guidelines

SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPT—GUIDE TO AUTHORS

You may watch the video for more guidance. >> https://youtu.be/mGwYaaww4lY

Manuscripts should be addressed to the Editor of JTFS, Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), 52109 Kepong, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Submissions must be accompanied by a covering letter that includes:

• declaration that the manuscript has not been published (even in proceedings or as working paper) or offered for publication elsewhere in substantially the same or abbreviated form, either in print or electronically (e.g. the internet)
• explanation of the originality and significance of the manuscript especially its contribution to new knowledge in the field
• names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of the corresponding author and contributing author(s).

The total number of words (text + figures +tables + equations) is 6,000 or less not counting the abstract.

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically via https://jtfs.frim.gov.my/.

Please refer to the AUTHOR GUIDELINES if necessary.

Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word. PDF files are not acceptable. Use 12-point font size, double-space text and begin the manuscript with title page. All pages must be numbered consecutively. Line numbers on each page of text are helpful for reviewers. Authors should aim to present ideas and information clearly and concisely. Before submitting your manuscript, please read this Guide to Authors carefully.

Types of contributions

JTFS accepts research articles and review papers. Research articles are reports of original research and contribute to the forest science and technology. Review papers are full-length state-of-the-art reports that discuss published works. When submitting review papers, authors are requested to consult the Editor in advance.

Preparation of research articles

Title page should include title, author(s) and affiliation(s). The title should be specific and informative.

Abstract must be on a separate page. It should be a clear and concise one-paragraph summary (less than 200 words) of the paper. Highlight objectives, significant results and major conclusion without the use of reference.

Keywords (5–10 words separated by commas) are intended for literature retrieval. To widen search, the keywords should be other than words already present in the title.

Text should have the following headings: introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion. Print headings in bold type and subheadings in italics. Authors should use SI units and appropriate symbols. Keep footnotes to the minimum. Please make sure that the final document does not contain any highlights, tracked-changes, coloured fonts, comments or other field codes (e.g. CWYW and links for in-text citations to references in the bibliography).

References should be cited in the text as follows: ‘Owens (2002) ....’ or ‘.... (Teshome & Petty 2000)’. Sentences should preferably not start with references. All references cited in the text must be listed in alphabetical order on separate pages. For the list of references, adhere closely to the following examples for journal, proceedings and book citation:

BUNGARD RA, ZIPPERLEN SA, PRESS MC & SCOLES JD. 2002. The influence of nutrients on growth and photosynthesis of seedlings of two rainforest dipterocarp species. Functional Plant Biology 29: 505–515.

WATLING R, LEE SS & TURNBULL E. 1996. Putative ectomycorrhizal fungi of Pasoh Forest Reserve, Negri Sembilan, Malaysia. Pp 96–104 in Lee SS et al. (eds) Conservation, Management and Development of Forest Resources Proceedings of the Malaysia–United Kingdom Programme Workshop. 21–24 October 1996, Kuala Lumpur.

CHAPIN SS. 1991. Effects of multiple environmental stresses on nutrient availability and use. Pp 68–88 in Mooney HA, Winnwe WE & Pell EJ (eds) Response of Plant to Multiple Stresses. Academic Press, San Diego.

For more guide on how to write references, see below.

Tables, figures and photographs should be compiled at the end of the manuscript or separately in a supplementary file. They should be numbered consecutively and referred to in the text. Draw graphs using Excel. Make sure figures are clear. The page format of the journal should be considered in designing the drawings. Keep footnotes to the minimum. Details given in the text should not be repeated in the tables and figures.

Acknowledgements should be brief with essential credits, without title(s) of the person(s).

 Proofs

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of submitted work, including changes done during editing. For paper with joint authorship, one author must accept the responsibility for all correspondence and has the authority to act on behalf of the contributing authors in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript. Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author to be checked for errors and returned promptly, usually within 48 hours (not counting weekends and common public holidays). Only minimal alterations are allowed at this stage.

Offprints

JTFS supplies a complimentary PDF file to the corresponding author. The PDF file cannot be posted on any website without prior permission from the Director-General FRIM. For this request, please write to the editor.

FURTHER GUIDE ON HOW TO WRITE REFERENCES

Rules for references listed

• The reference should be double-spaced with hanging indent.
• Retain the order of authors alphabetically.
• If there are seven or more authors in the reference, write the first three names only followed by et al.
• For title of book, journal and proceedings use all lowercase for articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor, etc.) and prepositions that are fewer than four letters (on, at, to, by, etc.). For the rest of the words, capitalise the first letter of each word.
• Name of journal, book and proceedings are in italics.
• Name of article and chapter of book are in sentence case and in roman (non-italic) font.
• Volume number and page numbers of journals, article in proceedings or chapter of book are romanised.
• Do not include issue number for journal paginated by volume (i.e. continuous pagination)
• If journal pagination is by issue (i.e. each issue starts on page 1), write the issue number in roman font.
• Use en dash to connect range of pages, not hyphen.
• Distinguish the en and em dashes. We use the em-dash to create a break in the structure of a sentence or separate out phrases, i.e. as a stand-in for comma, parenthesis or colon.
• There is a period after the page numbers.
• There is one space between the colon and the first character following it.
• For books, include the publisher name and its town (not state or country).
• For proceedings, include the editor(s) as well as date and venue of seminar/conference/workshop.
• If there are more than three editors, only write the first author followed by et al.
• For name of author, write the last name of followed by initials. Do not write comma after the last name and there is no period between initials.
• For reference with two references, use ampersand (&) between the two names. If there are more than three authors, use comma between names and ampersand between the second to last and final author.
• Write a period after the last initial and before the year of publication.

• With multiple authors, use an ampersand (&) before the last name.
• Do not include unpublished items (forthcoming, accepted, in press) in the reference list.

Rules for in-text citations

• For reference with one, two and three or more authors, the in-text citations at the end of sentence would be ... (Dawkins 1958), ... (McCutchan & Main 1989) and ... (Thapa et al. 1992) respectively. Sentence should preferably not start with references but if necessary, write reference as Dawkins (1958) ..., McCutchan and Main (1989) ... and Thapa et al. (1992) ... respectively. 
• If citing more than one reference, separate references with comma, e.g. (Ho 1994, Garcia & Morrell 2008).

Examples

Articles

GROGAN J, BLUNDELL AG, LANDIS RM ET AL. 2010. Overharvesting driven by consumer demand leads to population decline: big-leaf mahogany in South America. Conservation Letters 3: 12–20

KENZO T, ICHIE T, HATTORI D, KENDAWANG JJ, SAKURAI K & NINOMIYA I. 2010. Changes in above- and belowground biomass in early successional tropical secondary forests after shifting cultivation in Sarawak, Malaysia. Forest Ecology and Management 260: 875–882.

PIZZI A & STEPHANOU A. 1994. Phenol–formaldehyde wood adhesives under very alkaline conditions. Part 1—behavior and proposed mechanism. Holzforschung 48: 35–40.

Proceedings

ARIFIN ABDU, AZANI MA, NIK MUHAMAD MAJID & ZAKI MH. 2004. Effect of sewage sludge application on the growth performance of five timber tree species in Malaysia. Pp 95–104 in Matsumoto Y, Ueda E & Kobayashi S (eds) Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Landscape Level Rehabilitation of Degraded Tropical Forests. 2–3 March 2004, FFPRI, Tsukuba.

MAILINA J, NOR AZAH MA, FADZUREENA J ET AL. 2011. Identification of volatile constituents from fresh sample of Baeckea fruitescens L and their distilled oils. Pp 41–45 in Mastura M et al. (eds) Harnessing The Tropical Herbal Heritage: Recent Advances in R&D and Commercialisation. Proceedings of the Seminar on Medicinal and Aromatic Plant (MAPs 2010). 3–4 August 2010, Kepong.

Book

CHANDLER C, CHENEY P, THOMAS P, TRABAUD L & WILLIAMS D. 1983. Fire in Forestry. Volume 1: Forest Fire Behavior and Effects. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

LOVELESS MD & GULLISON RE. 2003. Genetic variation in natural mahogany population in Bolivia. Pp 9–28 in Lugo A et al. (eds) Big-leaf Mahogany: Genetics, Ecology and Management. Springer-Verlag, New York.

VAN WAGNER CE. 1987. Development and Structure of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System. Forestry Technical Report No. 35. Canadian Forestry Service, Ottawa.

EDITORIAL POLICIES

Correction and Retraction of a paper will be considered:

1. If there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable due to data fabrication, image manipulation, miscalculation or experimental error.
2. If the findings have been previously published elsewhere without appropriate cross referencing, permission or justification for cases of redundant publication or duplicate publication).
3. If the research constitutes plagiarism.
4. If there is evidence of fraudulent authorship, compromised peer review or unethical research.

In the case of paper correction and retraction, the Editor-in-Chief must be notified at frim_penerbitan[at]frim[dot]gov[dot]my

Research ethics and informed consent policy

Studies involving plants and field studies must have been carried out after obtaining approval or permits from the relevant local committees or authorities. All research procedures must be conducted in accordance with applicable national or international guidelines.

Advertising policy

The journal does not publish advertisement.