Guide to Authors

Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology (ANFT) is published tri-annually (January, May and September) in English by the Animal Nutrition Association, India. The suitability of papers for publication in the journal is judged by the peer review. The Editor-in-Chief has full responsibility for papers which are edited in the order received.

Submission of Papers

1. Manuscript of original full-length papers (limited to about 6000 words), review articles (up to 8000 words) and short communications (up to 2500 words) must be typed using Times New Roman (font size 11) on A-4 paper, 1.5- spaced. The main document, complete with the tables and figures, should be submitted as a single file using the journal's online platform (). The entire manuscript must be page-numbered and line-numbered continuously. The manuscript, in general, should be organized in the order:

• Running short title (limited to 50 characters)
• Title (should be clear and not too long)
• Present address(es) of authors
• Abstract
• Keywords (maximum 5, in alphabetical order)
• Corresponding author's email
• Text of research paper divided into Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion (combined), Conclusion, Acknowledgements (if any), References, Tables and Figures.

2. Tables should be 1.5-spaced and as few as possible. Weights and measures must be expressed in the metric system and temperature in the Celsius scale. Data on diet composition and digestibility, etc. must be in percentages preferably. Energy values must be expressed in kcal/g or Mcal/kg units.

3. The legends for figures should be typed on a separate sheet. Clear photographs of standard pixel prepared carefully only will be accepted. While submitting graphs/figures the related data in the excel file shall be submitted preferably.

Structure of Manuscript

Title Page

The first page of the manuscript should start with a title page containing in order a short title, main title, author(s) name(s), institution with address (including city, postal code and country), corresponding author email, present address of authors (if applicable). The short title at the top is to be followed by the main title typed in bold style in sentence case format and set in the center of the page. Title will be followed by the names of authors with initials of first and middle name followed by the last name (surname). Authors listed for the manuscript implies that they are aware of the research reported and accept the responsibility for the content of the manuscript.

The name of the corresponding author should be marked with an asterisk, and identified with email address at the bottom. When a paper has several authors from different institutions, place the numerical superscript to the names of the authors with the respective address as the footnotes at the bottom of the page, after the corresponding author's email. A model title page can be found online. [http://www.indiaana.org/authors-guide.php]

Abstract

The abstract (not more than 300 words) should appear on a separate page following the title page. The word ABSTRACT is centred, printed in bold style in capital letters. The text of the abstract should start on the next line. It should start with a statement defining the objectives, followed by a brief description of the experimental design (no. of animals with mean age, sex and body weight, and study duration), important findings (based the statistical analysis) and conclusions of the experiment. Abbreviations that appear in the abstract must be defined before they are first used.

Keywords

List up to five keywords, arranged alphabetically, at the end of the abstract that best describes the nature of the research. The term ‘Keywords’ is to be typed in bold style followed by a colon. The first letter of each keyword should be in upper case separated by commas.

Headings

Major headings [INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION CONCLUSION, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (if any) and REFERENCES] are aligned with the left margin, with the entire heading capitalized using bold letters. Major headings of review papers may deviate from this standard format.

Sub-Headings (if required): First sub-heading should appear at the left margin on a separate line in italics with only the first letter capitalized and followed by no punctuation. Second sub-heading should appear at the beginning of the first line of a paragraph in italics followed by a colon and with only the first letter capitalized.

Introduction

The introduction should start on a new page. It should justify the research problem based on a brief review of the latest background literature, leading to identification of gap in knowledge, and specify the hypothesis to be tested. The introduction should invariably end with the objective(s) of the study.

Materials and Methods

A clear description or specific original reference is required for all biological, analytical and statistical procedures used in the experiment. Routine and widely used protocols must not be presented in detail; a simple mention of the concerned reference should serve the purpose. However, modification(s) of the procedures, if any, must be briefly explained. Diets, animals (breed, sex, age, body weight and weighing condition), analytical techniques, measurements and statistical models should be described. The group names/ abbreviations should be well defined in the abstract as well as in the Materials & Methods sections. While mentioning time, the 12-hour clock system should be used (e.g., 5.00 am, 6.45 pm).

Results and Discussion

The results should elaborate or explain the data presented in tables or figures. Authors are advised to avoid repetition of data in the text. The discussion should interpret the results clearly and concisely supported by previous literature published in peer reviewed journals so as to provide the reader a broad base to accept or reject the hypothesis proposed. The discussion shall include explanation and implications of the findings of the research work carried out.

Conclusion

The conclusion should be brief (limited to two/three sentences at best) and based strictly on the logical outcome of the study. The conclusion should match the proposed objectives. Additionally, a sentence proposing future research may also be included at the end, if the authors feel so.

References

Only the references published in peer reviewed journals, or proceedings of conferences/reports/other important scientific events that are available on the internet are acceptable. References in the text should be cited either as Sharma (1998) or (Sharma, 1998; Hasan et al., 1978) or Hasan et al. (1978); Sharma and Ogra (1990) or (Sharma and Ogra, 1990). Multiple references, when quoted for a single statement, must be arranged chronologically in ascending order. The references in the bibliography should be listed alphabetically adopting the following style:

Book:

AOAC. 1980. Official Methods of Analysis, 13th ed. Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Washington, DC.

FAO. 2004. Assessing Quality and Safety of Animal Feeds. FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 160.Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.

NRC. 2001. Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle, 7th rev. ed. National Research Council. National Academies Press, Washington, DC.

Suttle, N.F. 2010. Mineral Nutrition of Livestock, 4th ed. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.

Edited Book/Book Chapter:

Weichbrod, R.H., Thompson, G.A.H. and Norton, J.N. (Eds.). 2018. Management of Animal Care and Use Programs in Research, Education, and Testing, 2nd ed. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, USA.

Merril, L.B. and Taylor, C.A. 1981. Diet selection, grazing habits and place of goats in range management. In: Goat Production (Ed. C. Gall). Academic Press, NY, USA, pp. 233-252.

Fitzsimmons, K. 2006. Prospect and potential for global production. In: Tilapia Biology, Culture and Nutrition (Eds. C. Lim and C.D. Webster). The Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY, USA, pp. 51-72.

Conference Paper:

Pattanaik, A.K., Sastry, V.R.B., Katiyar, R.C. and Lal, M. 1998. Energy kinetics in crossbred calves on synchronized rumen degradable protein and starch-based diets. In: Proceedings of VIII World Animal Production Conference, July 3-8, 1998, Seoul, Korea, pp. 58-59 (Abstr.).

Promkot, C. and Wanapat, M. 2007. Effect of sulfur on rumen ecology, blood metabolites, hormones and production in lactating dairy cows supplemented with fresh cassava foliage or cassava hay. In: Proceedings MEKARN Regional Conference 2007: Matching Livestock Systems with Available Resources (Eds. R. Preston and B. Ogle), November 25-28, 2007, Halong Bay, Vietnam.

Thesis:

Pedrock, H.B. 1987. Ammoniated Rice Straw as a Feed for Growing Cattle. PhD Thesis, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

Journal Article By Page Numbers:

Ricardi, C. and Shimada, A. 1992.A note on diet selection by goats on a semi-arid temperate rangeland throughout the year. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 33: 239-247.

Journal Article By DOI (With No Page Numbers):

Kala, A., Kamra, D.N., Kumar, A., Agarwal, N., Chaudhary, L.C. and Joshi, C.G. 2017. Impact of levels of total digestible nutrients on microbiome, enzyme profile and degradation of feeds in buffalo rumen. PLoS One, 12(2): e0172051. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172051

Pawar, M.M., Pattanaik, A.K., Sinha, D.K., Goswami, T.K. and Sharma, K. 2017. Effect of dietary mannanoligosaccharide supplementation on nutrient digestibility, hindgut fermentation, immune response and antioxidant indices in dogs. Journal of Animal Science and Technology, 59, 11. DOI: 10.1186/s40781-017-0136-6

Journal Article With An Article Number (With No DOI):

Dutta, N., Dubey, M., Banerjee, P.S., Pattanaik, A.K., Sharma, K., Kumar, P. and Narang, A. 2012. Effect of supplementing tanniferous tree leaves mixture on immune response and GI nematodes in kids. Livestock Research for Rural Development, 24, 35. http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd24/2/dutt24035.htm.

Electronic Material/Reference to a Website:

Luckstadt, C., Kuhlmann, K.J. and Tho, V. 2012. Effect of dietary sodium diformate on performance and litter quality in broiler till 42 days post-hatch. https://en.engormix.com/poultry-industry/articles/effect-dietary-sodium-diformate-t35441.htm (Accessed 08 December 2019).

Haffaf, S., Chachoua, I, Djaalab, I, Allaoui, A, Mamache, B. 2013.Interest of peripartum mineral profile in the management of breeding reproductive ewes. In: Proceedings of the Conference of Meeting on Ruminant Research, Paris, France, p. 375. http://journees3r.fr/IMG/pdf/Texte_10_repro_S_Haffaf.pdf (Accessed 12 January 2020).

Tables

• Tables will be presented after the reference section. Tables should present numerical data in a self-explanatory manner. Any abbreviation used in a table must be defined in the footnote. The tables should be typed double-spaced with each table on a separate sheet. All the tables should be cited in the text. Arabic numerals should be used to number the tables. The table title and number are typed in a normal font. The title of the table shall be in normal font and sentence case. Column headings will be in normal style with the first letter capitalized.
• Presentation of pooled standard error/standard error of means as the general basis for statistical comparisons of means is recommended when the variance is homogenous. Presenting individual standard error tends to clutter up the tables. Standard errors can be attached to each mean by ± sign when variance or standard errors are heterogeneous (e.g. unbalanced experiment or unequal error).
• The overall size of the table (including the number of columns and rows) must be decided keeping in mind the layout (page-side) of the journal (12×18 cm).
• Authors must explain the relevant information given in the header rows/columns (e.g., different dietary groups, units for enzymes, typical abbreviations, etc.) in the footnote using the following symbols as superscripts: †, ‡, §, ¶, # (in order). Superscripts to differentiate among groups must use alphabets (a, b, c, …) placed after the mean (54.3ab±2.46, and not after SE as 54.3±2.46ab) with no space in-between.

Figures

• Figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals, have descriptive captions. Photographs submitted must be of high quality for direct reproduction.
• The line drawings (in black and white) should be sufficiently clear with appropriate size.
• All line- and bar-diagrams must be presented with error bars. Separate (EXCEL) file(s) for line drawings should also be submitted along with the data.
• All abbreviations used in a figure should be defined in the caption.

Access to Pdf Version of Accepted Manuscripts

The corresponding author will be provided with a soft copy (pdf version) of the published article. However, the authors of the accepted manuscripts are required to pay article processing charges. The exact amount to be paid by the authors would be communicated at the time of conveying the final acceptance.

Common Abbreviations

All abbreviations should be defined in parentheses the first time they appear in the main text. However, the followings are considered as standard abbreviations for the journal and can be used directly without the need for defining.