About the Journal

Open Access

Open access (OA) refers to freely available, digital, online information with no financial barriers (walls) before access as in traditionally published works, for both the authors and the end-users. This we at JUL strongly endorses as the best publishing option for Africa.

Articles published Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers.

Authors of articles published in the Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) are the copyright holders of their articles and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate the article, according to the Journals copyright and license agreement.

Publication and peer review process

Content overview

Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) considers the following types of articles:

• Regular articles: These should describe new and carefully confirmed findings, and experimental procedures should be given in sufficient detail for others to verify the work. The length of a full paper should be the minimum required to describe and interpret the work clearly.

• Reviews: Submissions of reviews and perspectives covering topics of current interest are welcome and encouraged. Reviews should be concise. Reviews manuscripts are also peer-reviewed.

• Short Communications: Short Communication is suitable for recording the results of complete small investigations or giving details of new models or hypotheses, innovative methods, techniques or apparatus. The style of the main sections need not conform to that of full-length papers.

Ethical guidelines

Submission of a manuscript to the Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that any experimental research that is reported in the manuscript has been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee. Research carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, and any experimental research on animals must follow internationally recognized guidelines. A statement to this effect must appear in the Methods section of the manuscript, including the name of the body which gave approval, with a reference number where appropriate. Informed consent must also be documented. Manuscripts may be rejected if the editorial office considers that the research has not been carried out within an ethical framework, e.g. if the severity of the experimental procedure is not justified by the value of the knowledge gained. For all articles that include information or clinical photographs relating to individual patients, written and signed consent from each patient to publish must also be made available if requested by the editorial staff.

The Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) has a legal responsibility to ensure that its journals do not publish material that infringes copyright, or that includes libellous or defamatory content. If on review, your manuscript is perceived to contain potentially libellous content, the journal Editors, with assistance from the publisher if required, will work with authors to ensure an appropriate outcome is reached. The involvement of scientific writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged.

Data and materials release

Submission of a manuscript to the Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) implies that readily reproducible materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes. Nucleic acid sequences, protein sequences, and atomic coordinates should be deposited in an appropriate database in time for the accession number to be included in the published article. In computational studies where the sequence information is unacceptable for inclusion in databases because of a lack of experimental validation, the sequences must be published as an additional file with the article. Any 'in press' articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office.

Article publication charge

The journal charges a maximum article publication fee of 25,000 Naira only, payable to the Bank Accounts of the Society for Underutilized Legumes (Zenith Bank 1015998607). Payment is required only when your article has been accepted for publication by the Editorial Office, and evidence of payment sent via emailsubmit.jul@gmail.com. Any alternatives for payments, especially for foreign authors can be sorted out at the Editorial Office for assistance. Under certain circumstances, the journal editorial board may grant waivers (or discounts) for publication fees. These waivers are typically considered on a case-by-case basis and are subject to recommendations of the Publishers of the Journal.

Competing interests

The Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) requires authors to declare any competing financial or other interest in relation to their work. All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests.

Plagiarism detection

In cases of suspected plagiarism CrossCheck is available to the editors of the Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. CrossCheck is a multi-publisher initiative allowing screening of published and submitted content for originality. As an antiplagiarism policy, the maximum allowable similarity index for any submitted manuscript or material is 15%. 

Copyright

Authors of articles published in the Journal of Underutilized Legumes (JUL) retain the copyright of their articles and are free to reproduce and disseminate their work.