A farmer walking through a green field with a herd of cows

Agricultural & Environmental Letters Author Instructions

Scope

Contributions to Agricultural & Environmental Letters (A&EL) are concise manuscripts that report high impact and innovative results and observations with strong implications at the forefront of one or several agricultural and environmental disciplines; results with immediate impact on the research of others and requiring rapid publication; and methods manuscripts introducing innovative techniques, with applications to agricultural and environmental disciplines. Manuscripts describing cross-disciplinary research or addressing emerging issues are of particular interest. Also accepted are manuscripts that provide commentary on relevant issues (e.g., issues related to science, policy, research trends, exciting new discoveries, food security, etc.) and letters to the editor.

Manuscript Types

Manuscripts are published under the following categories:

Research Letter. Manuscripts that provide research information and other related information, up to 2500 words in length. Research letters include an abstract and may be divided into sections to bring organization to the manuscript.
Commentary. Commentary on relevant issues related to science, policy, research trends, business trends, exciting new discoveries, food security, etc. Commentaries can be as long as 2500 words and include an abstract.
Letter to the Editor. Letters to the Editor are usually no longer than 500 words in length. They can be as long as 1000 words if there is detailed dialogue that results from the papers published in A&EL.
Book Review. By invitation only.

Manuscript Submission

Templates

Download the A&EL Manuscript Submission Template and Pre-Submission Manuscript Formatting Checklist.

Submission

Submit manuscripts at the A&EL Manuscript Submission Site. Submissions to A&EL may not be previously published in their entirety or simultaneously submitted to any other scientific or technical journal. American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) journals follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style) for references. Consult our Publications Handbook and Style Manual for specific questions about style.

Creating the Manuscript File

Microsoft Word or LaTeX files may be submitted for review. For your convenience, we encourage you to use our Word template. The manuscript should be double-spaced, using page and continuous line numbers. See our LaTex File Submission Guidelines for instructions on submitting LaTeX files.

Graphical Abstract

A&EL strongly encourages authors to submit a graphical abstract with their manuscript. The graphical abstract should visually convey the work’s main message and strive to capture the reader’s attention. The main purpose of the graphical abstract is to convey the meaning of your article at a glance. Graphical abstracts are published with the eTOC and used in promotion.

When submitting your original work or revision to the A&EL Manuscript Submission Site, include a high-resolution (at least 300 dpi and at least 8 cm wide) image as a separate figure file and at the end of the main text document. Label the file “graphical_abstract.” PDFs are preferred; TIF files, and JPEGs (especially for photographs) are accepted. On occasion, a manuscript figure (e.g., a flow chart) can work as a graphical abstract. In that case, submit the figure twice, once labeled with the figure number, e.g., “Figure_1,” and once labeled as “graphical_abstract.”

You may supply a brief (maximum 70 words) caption for the graphical abstract added at the end of the main text file with the figure captions and labeled “Graphical abstract caption.”

As with all figures, authors are responsible for obtaining any permissions for use of images included from outside sources.

Tips: Use full color. Keep it simple, one panel, with not too much text. Avoid the use of imagery that can be viewed as an advertisement. Use a sans serif font, such as Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri, large enough to be read on a mobile device.

Word Limits

Regular papers should be approximately 2,500 or fewer words, including headings, tables, and figures, where each table or figure, including table titles and figure captions, is equivalent to 200 words. The abstract and references are not included in the word limit.

Include the cumulative word count at the top of the submitted manuscript, counting each table and figure as 200 words. For example, the total word count for a manuscript with 1900 words (excluding abstract and references), one table, and two figures is 2500.

Peer Review and Revision

All manuscripts submitted to A&EL undergo single blind peer review. Papers are assigned to a technical editor, who will assign an associate editor to solicit at least two reviews. After evaluating the completed reviews, the associate editor will recommend a decision to the technical editor. Authors will be prompted to provide a list of potential reviewers. These reviewers must not have a conflict of interest involving the authors or paper, and the editorial board has the right to not use any reviewers suggested by authors. See the ASA, CSSA, SSSA Editorial Policies page for additional information on review policy, including the policy for appeal of manuscript review. All revisions to the manuscript during the review process will be made by the author only, and revisions will be given the same manuscript number, with an R number on the end (e.g., AEL-2008-02-0024-RL.R1). Each revision has the opportunity for another round of review—the manuscript status “awaiting reviewer selection” is automatic and does not indicate a resubmission. Authors have 10 days to review and return their manuscript following reviewer and associate editor comments. Manuscripts may be released if revisions are not received, and the paper will have to be submitted as a new manuscript. Soon after submission, the editorial board will decide whether to send the paper through review. For papers that are reviewed, the average time from submission to final decision (including revisions) is about 40 days. It is common for accepted papers go through at least one revision.

ORCID iD

Corresponding authors are required to use an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. More information on ORCID can be found on their website. We encourage all authors to list their ORCID iD in the manuscript.

Plagiarism Screening

Papers submitted to ASA, CSSA, SSSA journals are screened for plagiarism before being sent for review. If there appears to be major repetition from other sources, the editor will evaluate the duplication and take appropriate action as warranted.

Article Requirements

Accepted manuscripts are prepared for typesetting using Microsoft Word. Therefore, authors are strongly encouraged to use this software during manuscript composition. Rich-format text and TeX files are not acceptable. The file should be double-spaced and line-numbered.

The file should contain the following elements:

Title page (including author byline and affiliations)
Core ideas
Abstract
Plain Language Summary (optional)
Abbreviations
Text
Data Availability statement (optional)
Conflict of Interest statement
Author Contributions
Acknowledgments (optional)
Supplemental Material statement
References list
Figure captions
Graphical abstract caption (optional)
Tables*
Figures* (figures may also be submitted separately as high-resolution image files in the following acceptable formats: EPS, TIF, PDF, or JPEG)
Graphical abstract (optional; the graphical abstract should also be submitted separately as a high-resolution file labeled "Graphical_abstract." See further guidelines under Manuscript Submissions above.)

*Tables and figures (review quality) with captions should be placed into the text document at first mention. Figures of accepted papers must also be submitted separately for production as high-resolution image files in the following acceptable formats: EPS, TIF, PDF, or JPEG.

Paper Structure

Title page. The title page should include the title (preferably 12 words or fewer, not including conjunctions or prepositions), author list, and author affiliations, including city, state, and country. Also include in this section the corresponding author’s email address. Use an asterisk to identify the corresponding author.

Core Ideas. Include 3 to 5 summary statements that convey the core findings of the article. These statements should identify the most relevant outcomes of the paper and encapsulate the significance of the research. Each statement must be a complete sentence 115 characters or less (spaces included). Core ideas are published with the paper.

Abstract. Research articles and commentaries should include an informative, self-explanatory abstract (no citations). The abstract should be a single paragraph of 150 words or fewer, for use in abstracting services and databases.

Plain Language Summary. You may include a plain language summary (limit 1000 characters). The summary should be clear, concise, and free from jargon. See guidelines for writing plain language summaries here.

Abbreviations. Prepare a list in alphabetical order of abbreviations used in your article. Do not include SI units, chemical abbreviations, or abbreviations listed in the style manual as not needing definition.

Text. Papers should be written in scientific English, consistent with the style of other ASA, CSSA, SSSA journals. This should typically include the following sections: Introduction (or Background), Procedures or Materials and Methods (when relevant), Results, Discussion, Conclusion (optional), and References.

Data Availability. Authors are encouraged to include a data availability statement if applicable.

Conflict of Interest. Authors should include a statement just before the References section that explains any conflicts of interest. If there are none, authors should explicitly state there are no conflicts of interest.

Author Contributions. The contributions of each author must now be indicated at submission. The submitting author is required to assign specific author contribution roles for each coauthor, using the CRediT taxonomy to indicate their respective roles. The 14 roles are Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, and Writing – review & editing. Author Contributions will be published with the accepted article and cannot be edited after article acceptance. Therefore, you must ensure the Author Contribution information you provide is accurate prior to final acceptance.

A final acknowledgments paragraph may be included.

Supplemental Material. Supplemental material is not encouraged in A&EL as a way to circumvent the word limit for manuscripts. However, supplemental material may on occasion be included in the online version of articles. This will be decided on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the editors. The material must be submitted along with the original manuscript and will undergo peer review. Ancillary information such as some experimental data, including schematics of apparatus and maps of study sites, or material of interest mainly to specialists, are examples of potential supplemental material. Include a short (one- or two-sentence) paragraph, titled “Supplemental Material,” describing the supplemental material in the main manuscript directly after the main text.

Supplemental tables and figures should be cited in order in the main manuscript, as Supplemental Table S1, etc. Supplemental material should be formatted with a cover sheet listing authors and manuscript title, and the number of pages, figures, and tables. Pages must be numbered consecutively, starting with S1. Tables and figures should be numbered Supplemental Table or Supplemental Figure S1, S2, etc. The journal program manager may limit the quantity of supplemental material posted. Ideally, the supplement should consist of a single PDF or MS Word file, rather than a series of files with individual images or structures. Other file types, such as Quick Time or Excel, may be allowed. Contact the program manager with questions about file types. If submitting videos please use the format .FLV (Flash Video) with 640 x 480 or 720 x 480 (widescreen) as the resolution. If you do not have this format available to you please contact the program manager. The following are not allowed: executables (.exe) of any kind, java script, and TeX.

In place of supplemental material, our journals encourage the use of data repositories that assign DOIs or other persistent unique identifier (PID) to the data.

References. ASA, CSSA, SSSA journals follow the APA style for citations and references. The author-year system for citations is required; do not use numbered references. Refer to chapter 1 of the Publications Handbook and Style Manual for examples of our reference and citation style, in addition to following these guidelines:

Arrange the list alphabetically by the surnames of the first authors and then by the second and third authors.
Single-authored articles should precede multiple-authored articles for which the individual is first author.
Two or more articles by the same author are listed chronologically; two or more in the same year are indicated by a, b, c, etc.
Only literature that is available through libraries or other readily accessible public media can be cited. Material that does not meet this standard should be cited as personal communication or unpublished data.

Tables. Each entry should appear in a new table cell. Do not use tabs, spaces, or graphics. Cite each table in the text in numerical order; do not use table parts (1a, 1b). Each table must be cited in the text. Table heads should be brief but complete and self-contained. Define all variables and spell out all abbreviations. Table notes can include “Notes” for general notes that apply to the entire table, superscript lowercase letters for specific notes, and asterisks and other symbols as needed for significance notes.

Figures. At submission, review-quality figures with captions should be placed into the main text document at first mention. Authors may also submit figures as separate files. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, color figures must adhere to our color-figure policy. Figures must also be submitted separately as high-resolution image files (300 dpi preferred) in the following acceptable formats: PDF, EPS, TIFF, or JPEG. PPT files are acceptable if the figure was created in PowerPoint. Width of figures should approximate desired print size, i.e., 80 mm for a one-column figure, 180 mm for a two-column figure. All figure parts should be labeled. Multi-panel figures should be submitted as one image. Biplots should have equally scaled axes with tick marks.

Spell out abbreviations on first mention in figure captions, even if they have already been defined in the main text. Define symbols used either in the caption or in a legend within the figure. For more information on figures, see Chapter 5 of the style manual.

Math. Use keyboard formatting where possible (i.e., bold, super-/subscripts, simple variables, Greek font, etc.); if needed, use MathType (preferred) or Word Equation Editor (only if MathType is not available).

Units of measure. The International System of Units (SI) is suggested. Other units may be indicated in parentheses after the SI unit if this helps understanding or is needed for replication of the work.

Nomenclature

Both the accepted common name and the chemical name of pesticides must be given upon first mention in the manuscript. Use chemical symbols for elements, ions, and simple compounds except at the beginning of a sentence or in a title or heading. The Latin binomial or trinomial (and authority for plants) must be included with the common name for all plants, insects, pathogens, and animals at first mention. When referring to soils, give at least the subgroup in accord with the US system of soil taxonomy. Ideally, both the series and complete family name should be given.

Changes to Author Byline

From time to time, authors' names are either added or removed from a given manuscript between the time of submission and publication. In situations such as this, the ethical and responsible manner of handling this type of change is for the lead author to advise the author being added or removed of the change and to notify, in writing, the journal editor and program manager for approval. In addition, all coauthors should notify the program manager that they are aware of and approve of the change.

Consent and Permissions

Before submitting the paper, the corresponding author should send each living coauthor a draft copy of the manuscript and obtain the coauthors’ assent to coauthorship. Authors are responsible for obtaining all permissions for use of figures or other material from other publishers and should supply these permissions when the manuscript is accepted. Authors are also responsible for obtaining permission from individuals whose images are included in photographs. Note that ASA, CSSA, and SSSA reserve the right to publish and republish any images you submit with a manuscript.

Errata

Errata may be used by the authors of a paper to correct errors and omissions that affect the integrity of the version of record that are identified after publication. All additions and corrections are subject to editorial approval and must be approved by all coauthors before submission; corrections of minor errors or omissions will not be published. Send all errata requests to the journal’s program manager.

Publication Fees

Mandatory Open Access Fees

Authors are assessed a mandatory open access licensing fee of $1,670 to apply an open access license at the time of publication to make the article freely available without a subscription.

Journal articles in are published open access under the CC BY-NC-ND (attribution, noncommercial, no derivatives) license. Learn more

Authors may request that their article be published under the CC BY (attribution) license. Learn more

No licensing fees are charged for invited reviews, comments, book reviews, or letters to the editor.

For authors publishing in this open access journal, fee waivers and discounts may be available to qualifying corresponding authors based in low- and lower middle-income countries. Visit the waivers and discounts web page to learn more.

Institutional Funding and Transformational Agreements

Your institution or funder may be able to help with open access licensing fees through a transformational agreement. For qualified authors, fees may be covered in full or part when publishing in the journal. Visit the institutional funder payments web page to learn if you qualify and for more information.

Authors Funded by cOAlition S

If you or one of your co-authors received funding from a member of cOAlition S, there may be restrictions on where you can publish. Please check your agreement with your funder for specific details. The information and author compliance tool on this web page can help you make an informed decision about where to publish in alignment with funder and journal requirements.

Official Sources

Spelling: Merriam-Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary
Plant scientific names: USDA–ARS GRIN database
Chemical names: PubChem
Soil series descriptions: USDA–NRCS Official Soil Series Descriptions
Fungal nomenclature: Fungi on Plants and Plant Products in the United States (APS Press)
ASA, CSSA, SSSA journal style: Publications Handbook and Style Manual

For questions about the format of submissions, the process of submitting a manuscript, or about the status of manuscripts that have been submitted and assigned a manuscript number, please contact A&EL Program Manager

Submit to Agricultural & Environmental Letters Back to Journal Author Resources