Guide for Authors

Preface

The Journal of Land Degradation and Restoration (LDR) welcomes articles in various areas of land management and earth sciences. Contributions must be original and have not previously been published elsewhere. Authors should ensure that there is no conflict of interest among them. Manuscripts submitted to LDR are reviewed through the double-blind review process. Manuscripts should be submitted via the Editorial System (www.jldr.uoz.ac.ir).

Types of article

The LDR publishes the following types of articles:

Original research article: It should describe novel and well-validated findings, and experimental techniques should be described in sufficient detail to allow the study to be verified. Research papers of 6000-8000 words in length, with tables, illustrations, and references, in which hypotheses are tested and results reported.

Review article: Review and perspective on current issues are accepted and encouraged. The format and length of review papers are more flexible than for a full paper. Typical reviews are less than 12000 words including references.

Short Communications: It is appropriate for recording the results of small-scale research or providing information on novel models or hypotheses, innovative methodologies, procedures, or apparatus. Research papers of 2500-3500 words in length, with tables, illustrations, and references.

Structure of Articles

The text should be written in a succinct and cohesive manner, with an emphasis on significant points, conclusions, breakthroughs, or discoveries, as well as their broader relevance. All running text should be saved as a Word document with Times New Roman 12, 1.5 spacing. Figures and tables should be put within the text.

The original research articles should contain the following sections:

Title 

The title should be clear, intelligible to experts in different disciplines, and represent the substance of the article. There may be no abbreviations in the title.

Name(s) of the author (s) not visible in the manuscript (Double Blind Reviews).

Abstract 

The title's information does not need to be duplicated in the abstract. The abstract should not be more than 250 words long. It must include the objectives, methods, findings, and conclusions. Abbreviations should be explained when first used.

Keywords         

Provide a maximum of six keywords. They better be different from the terms used in the title.

Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods
Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Results
Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions
Conclusions of the study may be presented in this section.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments of persons, grants, money, and so forth should be included before the reference list in a distinct section.

References

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). In the text, papers with more than two authors should be cited by the last name of the first author, followed by et al., (in italics), space, and the year of publication (example: Jones et al., 2020). If the cited manuscript has two authors, the citation should include both last names, space, and the publication year (example: Smith and Ebrahim, 2018).
In the Reference section, a maximum of ten authors of the cited paper may be given. All references cited in the text must be listed in the Reference section alphabetically by the last names of the author(s) and then chronologically.

Format for Periodical 

Author, A.A., Author, B.B.,  Author, C.C., Year of publication. Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy 

Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2010. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.Sc.2010.00372.

Format for Books

Author, A.A., Year of publication. Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.

Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 2000. The Elements of Style, fourth ed. Longman, New York.

Chapter in an Edited Book 

Author, A.A., Author, B.B., Year of publication. Title of chapter, in: Title of book (Eds.). Publisher, Location, pages of chapter.

Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 2009. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.

Tables and Figures

Please submit tables and figures as editable text and not as images. All figures and tables should be embedded while correctly positioned. Please use "Table" and "Figure" in both text and captions. Footnotes to tables should appear beneath the tables and should be designated by a lower-case superscript letter, †, or z, y, x, etc.

Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

Suggest Reviewers

With the manuscript, the author should include a list of three qualified, independent, prospective reviewers who could perform quality peer reviews of your document. Be sure to include their complete names, affiliations, and current e-mail addresses.