Submissions

Author Guidelines

GUIDELINE FOR CONTRIBUTORS

TO BIOFARM JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

BIOFARM: Journal of Agricultural Science is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Pekalongan. The journal publishes original research articles in the fields of agronomy, horticulture, plant breeding, soil science, plant protection, agricultural biotechnology, sustainable agriculture, precision agriculture, agricultural environment, and other relevant areas of agricultural and plant sciences. Submitted manuscripts must be original research papers that have not been published previously, are not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and are free from plagiarism. Manuscripts should provide scientific novelty and contribute significantly to the advancement of agricultural science. Review articles are accepted only when they critically analyze recent developments in a specific field, synthesize current knowledge, identify research gaps, and propose future research directions. Authors submitting review articles should be recognized experts in the subject or have previously published several related articles in reputable peer-reviewed journals.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

An acceptable manuscript should present original scientific findings that contribute significantly to agricultural science. The research objectives must be clearly defined, the methodology should be scientifically sound and sufficiently detailed to allow reproducibility, and the results should be supported by adequate experimental data. Discussions should interpret the scientific significance of the findings and compare them with previous relevant studies. The manuscript should be concise, well organized, grammatically correct, and written in clear scientific English. Conclusions should summarize the principal findings of the study and highlight their scientific or practical implications.

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

Manuscripts must be submitted through the BIOFARM Online Journal System (OJS) at https://jurnal.unikal.ac.id/index.php/biofarm using the official journal template. The manuscript should be prepared on A4 paper size (21 × 29.7 cm) with top and left margins of 3 cm and right and bottom margins of 2.5 cm. The text should be typed in Arial font size 10 pt with 1.15 line spacing. The manuscript should be arranged in two-column format, except for the title, author information, abstract, and keywords, which are presented in a single column. The recommended manuscript length is 15–20 pages, including tables, figures, and references.

MANUSCRIPT TITLE

The title should clearly reflect the content of the manuscript, be concise, informative, and preferably contain no more than 20 words. Abbreviations, formulas, and uncommon symbols should be avoided. The title must accurately describe the research and emphasize its novelty. For manuscripts written in Indonesian, an English version of the title should also be provided before the English abstract.

AUTHORS

The manuscript should include the full names of all authors without academic titles. Each author's institutional affiliation, complete postal address, and email address must be provided. One corresponding author should be identified using an asterisk (*), and the corresponding author's email address should be included for all editorial communications.

ABSTRACT

The abstract should appear immediately after the title and author information. Manuscripts written in Indonesian must include abstracts in both Indonesian and English, while manuscripts written in English require only an English abstract. Each abstract should consist of one paragraph containing 150–200 words and briefly describe the background, objectives, methods, principal results, and conclusions of the study. References, citations, equations, tables, figures, and uncommon abbreviations should not be included in the abstract.

KEYWORDS

Authors should provide three to six keywords immediately after the abstract. Keywords should be arranged alphabetically, separated by semicolons, and should not duplicate words already used in the manuscript title. Appropriate keywords will facilitate indexing and retrieval of the published article.

INTRODUCTION

The Introduction should present the research background, current state of knowledge, recent relevant literature, research gap, scientific novelty, and objectives of the study. A separate Literature Review section is not permitted; instead, previous studies should be integrated into the Introduction to demonstrate the originality and significance of the research.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This section should clearly describe the research location and period, experimental materials, research design, treatments, sampling procedures, variables observed, laboratory and analytical methods, and statistical analyses. Sufficient detail should be provided to enable other researchers to reproduce the study. The International System of Units (SI) should be used throughout the manuscript. Units should be written using slashes where appropriate (e.g., kg/ha), ranges should include the unit at the end (e.g., 10–15 t/ha), and percentages should be written using the symbol (%) only with numerical values. Mathematical equations should be prepared using the Equation Editor.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The Results and Discussion should preferably be presented as an integrated section. Results should directly address the objectives of the study and be supported by appropriate tables and figures where necessary. The Discussion should interpret the scientific significance of the findings, explain possible mechanisms, compare the results with previous studies, and demonstrate the contribution of the research to existing knowledge. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively, placed close to their first citation in the text, and presented in an editable format. Table titles should appear above the tables, while figure captions should be placed below the figures.

CONCLUSION

The Conclusion should summarize the principal findings of the study without repeating the discussion. It should clearly answer the research objectives, emphasize the scientific contributions of the study, and indicate the practical or theoretical implications of the findings. Recommendations for future research may be included where appropriate under the heading Suggestion or incorporated into the concluding paragraph.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors may acknowledge funding agencies, institutions, or individuals who have made significant contributions to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship.

REFERENCES

All references must follow the APA 7th Edition citation style. Authors are strongly encouraged to use reference management software such as Mendeley, EndNote, or Zotero. At least 80% of the references should be primary sources from peer-reviewed scientific journals, and preference should be given to recent publications issued within the last ten years. Every reference cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and all references listed must be cited in the manuscript.

Example

Reference to a Journal Publication:
Abdallah, E. H., Musa, Y., Mustafa, M., Sjahril, R., & Riadi, M. (2013). Comparison between hydro- and osmo-priming to determine period needed for priming indicator and its effect on germination percentage of aerobic rice cultivars (Oryza sativa L.). AGRIVITA Journal of Agricultural Science, 38(3), 222-230. http://doi.org/10.17503/agrivita.v38i3.886

Reference to a Book:
Bolda, M. L., Tourte, L., Klonskyk, K. M., & de Moura, R. L. (2005). Sample cost to produce fresh market rasberries. Berkeley, US: University of California Cooperative extension.

Reference to a Chapter in an Edited Book:
Tuong, T. P., & Bouman, B. A. M. (2003). Rice production in water-scarce environments. In W. Kijne, R. Barker, & D. Molden (Eds.), Water productivity in agriculture: Limits and opportunities for improvement (pp. 53–67). Manila, PH: CAB International.

Reference in Proceeding:
Hapsari, L. & Masrum, A. (2011). Diversity and characteristics of banana (Musa acuminata) diploid AA cultivars group collection of Purwodadi botanic garden. In D. Widyatmoko, D. M. Puspitaningtyas, R. Hendrian, Irawati, I. A. Fijridiyanto, J. R. Witono, R. Rosniati, S. R. Ariati, S. Rahayu, & T. Ng Praptosuwiryo (Eds.), Conservation of tropical plants: Current condition and future challenge. Paper presented at Proceedings of Seminar Cibodas Botanic Garden 159th Anniversary, Cibodas (pp. 225-229). Cibodas, ID: Indonesian Institute of Sciences