Nutrition and Food Sciences Research- Submission Instruction
Instruction to authors

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Instruction to authors

  1. Aims and Scope: The “Nutrition and Food Sciences Research” (NFSR) is the official scientific quarterly publication of the National Nutrition & Food Technology Research Institute (NNFTRI) that provides a platform for regional and international research to share latest findings on nutrition and food science at the earliest. NFSR publishes original research, review articles, study protocols, short communications and letters to the editor not previously published or simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere including national and international journals.
  2. Types of manuscripts
  1. Original research: Research articles must report original data obtained from a human study, animal experiment, laboratory investigation or computational methods. Clinical trials must be in accord with CONSORT 2010 guidelines. Authors should therefore submit a completed CONSORT checklist available at www.consort-statement.org together with their manuscript. Clinical trials must also be registered at one of the related sites including www.clinicaltrials.gov or www.irct.ir and the registration code must be mentioned both in the abstract and the main the main text of the manuscript.
  2. Review articles: Narrative reviews are considered for publication only if (i) they have been written by an expert in the related field who has at least three peer-reviewed original article on the subject, and (ii) they are commentary and put forward new insights for future research. Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, scoping reviews and umbrella reviews are welcomed. Meta-analysis studies must be registered at PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/) and the registration code must be mentioned in the abstract and main text of the manuscript.
  3. Study protocols: NFSR encourages all research groups to submit their research protocols. Nevertheless, the study protocols will be considered for publication only if (i) they have been submitted prior to the commencement of the study. For human studies, the protocols submitted at the recruitment phase are also acceptable, and (ii) they have been approved both scientifically and ethically by the related institution in a peer-reviewed process. A letter from the higher research authority of the institution is therefore needed to address these issues. This letter must be submitted alongside the manuscript. Protocols of national, regional, international and cohort studies are especially welcomed.
  4. Short communications: Original research studies that include smaller number of observations that can be presented in at most two tables and/or figures and do not need a full manuscript can be submitted as short communications. The word limit for short communications are 2000 including an unstructured abstract and ten references at most.    
 3. The manuscript should include: Title page, structured abstract, highlights, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgement and references.
  1. The title page: The complete title of the manuscript, the name of all the authors with their highest qualifications and affiliations, the full address of the corresponding author(s) including telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail. The running title, word count (excluding the abstract, tables, figures and references), number of figures and number of tables must also be following the authors' affiliations in the title page.
  2. Highlights: Highlights represent the extract of your article in three to five bullets with no more than 100 words. This will increase the visibility and readership of your manuscript so please use the terms that you know will be used for online searching. Apart from this, highlights will help our internal reviewers for fast review and making quick decision on your manuscript. You do not need to capture all the findings or concepts of your work in the highlights, just the most prominent ones will suffice. Following is an example:
  • The COVID-19 epidemic has affected diverse issues of life including economy, health and nutrition.
  • About 33%, 24%, 14.2% and 7% of the households had decreased the weekly consumption of red meat, white meat, eggs and rice/bread, respectively, following COVID-19 epidemic.
  • About half of the households (46.9%) who decreased their intake of the animal protein sources had increased their intake of rice or bread, instead.
  • The major reasons for these changes were decrease of income and job loss.
Please submit “Highlights” in a separate file and DO NOT INCLUDE IT IN YOUR MAIN DOCUMENT.
  1. Abstract: It should be structured as background and objectives, materials and methods, results and conclusion. The abstract should contain 250 words at most followed by a maximum 3-5 keywords (including multiple words), describing the backbone of the manuscript subject based on Mesh. For clinical trial studies, the registration code must be mentioned in parentheses at the end of the abstract.
  2. Graphical abstract: Authors are highly encouraged to submit a graphical abstract of their work. Graphical or visual abstract is a pictorial summary of the main findings of an original research or the highlights of a review article. It can either be specifically designed for this purpose (that is highly encouraged) or may be a concluding figure already existing in your manuscript. In both cases, the illustration used in graphical abstract must be original and no pre-published figure is acceptable (even with the permission of the copyright holder). It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to approve the originality of the illustration in the covering letter. The graphical abstract will not be presented in the PDF format of your article but will be displayed in an on-line search thereby increasing the visibility of your work. Following is an example:

Please submit “graphical abstract” in a separate file and do not include it in your main document.
(e) Introduction: This section should summarize the purpose and the rationale for the study. It should neither review the subject extensively nor should it have data or conclusions of the study.
(f) Materials & Methods: This should include aim(s), design and setting of the study. The full description of the methods, observations or experiments is necessary. If an apparatus has been used, its manufacturer’s name and address should be given in parenthesis.
For instance: Serum retinol was assayed by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method (model X, name of manufacturer, city, country) using C18 column (name of manufacturer, city, country).
If the method is established, give reference but if the method is new, full information must be given to make it repeatable by other researchers. If a drug is used, its generic name, dose and route of administration must be given. For patients, age, sex with mean age ± standard deviation must be given. In case of trials, the study must be registered at a valid registration site (e.g., www.clinicaltrials.gov or www.irct.ir) and the registration code must be mentioned. Statistical methods must be explained clearly (including the power of the findings where appropriate) and the statistical packages used should be specified. The ethical issues must be explained under the subheading of “Ethical Considerations” which comes in the end of Materials and Methods. For human and animal studies, approval of an ethics committee is a must and the ethics code must be mentioned. Animal studies must be in accord with animal experiments ethical guidelines (https://www.forskningsetikk.no/en/guidelines/science-and-technology/ethical-guidelines-for-the-use-of-animals-in-research/).
(g) Results: The results must be presented in the form of text, tables and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not be all repeated in the text. Instead, a reference to the table number may be given. Full articles may need sub-headings within some sections to classify their contents. As for laboratory tests results, both conventional and SI units are acceptable.
(h) Discussion: This should present the implications of the findings and highlight the strengths and limitations of the study.
(i) Conclusion: The main conclusion(s) must be summarized in this section along with their importance and relevance.
(j) Abbreviations: The abbreviations must be defined at first use in the manuscript. A list of abbreviations must be provided. Do not use abbreviations in the title.
(k) Acknowledgement: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship (see below) should be covered in the acknowledgement section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and departmental head who only provided general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.
Criteria for authorship
All authors must have contributed to the work substantially in one or more aspects including conception, design, analyses and/or interpretation of data. In other words, provision of funding, mere technical assistance, and finding subjects, though essential to the work, are not considered as authorship. All authors should contribute to the article through critical reviewing the initial draft and approving the final manuscript. The corresponding author takes the responsibility for the whole work by assuring that all authors meet the criteria for authorship.
(l) Authors contribution: In this section, the corresponding author must provide a description of each author's contribution to the work. Upon submission of the manuscript, an email will be sent to all authors notifying them of their contribution to the work. No reply from the authors to this email will be considered as their approval of contribution.
12. Tables: To prepare tables, please note the following instructions:
  • Tables should be specified by numbers using Arabic numerals (e.g., Table 1 or Table 2 and alike) that are cited in the main text in order.
  • Small tables (not bigger than one A4 page) may appear in the appropriate place in the main text. Otherwise, please put the tables in the end of the manuscript (after references) but indicate the right place of the table in the text. Please include the tables in the main document and do not submit them as separate files. 
  • The title of each table must be above but legends should be underneath of it.
  • Please do not use color and shading in the tables. If you need to highlight some parts, use superscripts, numbering, lettering or symbols and describe them in the legend.
  • Do not submit tables as photographs. Prepare the tables using "Table object" function in your word software.
  • For numerical results both in the tables and throughout the text, up to two significant numbers after decimal are acceptable so please round up the numbers appropriately. As for standard deviation (SD) and standard error (SE), two significant numbers after decimal are allowed where appropriate. For p values, three significant numbers after decimal must be mentioned.  
Example: Subjects' weight mean±SD: 83.46±3.34 kg must be rounded up to 83.5±3.3 kg
Serum creatinine concentration: 1.13 ±0.023 mg/dL must be rounded up to 1.13 ± 0.02 mg/dL.
  • All tables must be formatted without vertical left, right. and internal lines with bolded words in the first row and column. Example:
Table 1. Comparison of anthropometric measures, lipid profile components, and serum 25(OH)D between boys and girls
Variable Boys
(n1=53)		 Girls
(n2=38)		 p value Total
(n=91)
Age (y) 9.16±2.7 10.3±3.5 0.078 9.6±3.1
Weight (kg) 42.5±16.9 46.8±22.8 0.308 44.3±19.6
Height (cm) 138.4±18.4 138.2±22.5 0.969 138.3±20.1
BMI (kg/m2) 21.6±6.1 23.3±6.8 0.215 22.3±6.4
Triglyceride (mg/dL) 87.5±42.4 86.9±47.0 0.954 87.3±44.1
Total Cholesterol (mg/dL) 144.3±27.1 148.1±22.7 0.477 145.9±25.3
HDL-C (mg/dL) 53.3±13.4 52.0±11.3 0.627 52.7±12.5
LDL-C (mg/dL) 73.5±20.8 78.8±18.9 0.220 75.7±21.0
25(OH)D (nmol/L) 27.8±13.0 22.6±13.3 0.068 25.7±13.3
Abbreviations: BMI: body mass index; HDL-C: high density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDL-C: low density lipoprotein cholesterol; 25(OH)D: 25-hydroxycalciferol.

13. Figures: To prepare figures, please note the following instructions:
  • Figures should be specified by numbers using Arabic numerals (e.g., Figure 1 or Figure 2 and alike) that are cited in the main text in order.
  • Multi-panel figures with different parts should be formatted as a single file i.e., all parts (specified as a, b, c, etc.) in a composite picture.
  • Captions must be placed below the figures.
  • The same data should not be presented in tables, figures and text, simultaneously.
  • Please crop the figures as much as possible to minimize the surrounding empty space.
  • Please include the figures inside the main document at the first submission. Upon acceptance of the article, if a specific resolution is required, you will be informed so that you may submit the figures with the desirable resolution as separate files.
  • Please note that the figures must be original. If you need to use a pre-published figure (or table), it is the responsibility of the corresponding author to obtain permission from the main owner (copyright holder) to reproduce it in the open-access journal of NFSR. The permission letter should be submitted alongside the main document. Please note that pre-published illustrations cannot be used for graphical abstract (see point “d”).
14. References: This Journal accepts references according to a style based on Vancouver style. All manuscripts should be accompanied by relevant references. The author should ensure reference to locally published studies by doing proper literature search. It may not be possible for the editor and reviewers to check the accuracy of all reference citations. To minimize such errors author should verify references against the original documents. The reference should provide the following information as stated in the presented models as follows:
Article: Kavouras SA, Panagiotakos DB, Pitsavos C, Chrysohoou C, Anastasiou CA, Lentzas Y, et al. Physical activity, obesity status, and glycemic control: The ATTICA study. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2007; 39: 606-11.
Chapter: Mnn JI, Lewis – Barned NJ. Dietary management of diabetes mellitus in Europe and North America. In: Alberti KGMM, Zimmet P, Defronzo RA editors. International textbook of diabetes mellitus. 2nd ed. Vol 1. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons; 1997: 759 – 71.
 Book: Ralph A, Garrow JS, James WPT, editors. Human Nutrition and Dietetics. 10th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone 2000. p. 1831-8.
Proceeding: Hoppel C. The role of carnitine in normal and altered fatty acid metabolism. Am J Kidney Dis 2003; 41 suppl 4: S4-12.
15. Proof Reading: Upon completion of reviewing process, the proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for proof reading. The corrections should be marked up either by track changes or highlighting in the revised copy of the manuscript. In addition, a rebuttal letter must be prepared in which every single comment of the reviewers should be answered and addressed in the manuscript appropriately. Authors are pleased to send the revised copy together with the rebuttal letter to the journal through the website (https://nfsr.sbmu.ac.ir/) in four weeks at most. This period may be extended upon the request of the corresponding author whenever needed.
16. Ethical guidelines: Ethical considerations must be addressed according to the NFSR policy.
19. Conflicts of interest: Conflicts of interest must be addressed according to the NFSR policy.
20. Page charges: There are no charges for publication in this Journal.
21. Peer review process: All manuscripts are considered to be confidential. They are peer-reviewed by anonymous reviewers selected by the associate editor assigned by the Editor in Chief.
22. Copyright. Authors should (a) provide a license to NFSR to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher; and (b) give the right to any third party to use it freely with an appropriate citation so that the authors and publisher can be clearly identified.
23. The Editorial Board of the Journal, reserves the right to accept or reject the article at any stage and any time or delete a part of the text, tables or figures, if necessary.
24. Quick checklist: The authors must ensure that before submitting the manuscript for publication, they have taken care of the following:
  1. Title page containing full and running titles, name of the authors, their affiliations, the corresponding author with complete address including e-mail, Phone & Fax number, word number, number of tables and figures.
  2. Highlights must be submitted in a separate file.
  3. Graphical abstract including an original illustration must be submitted in a separate file.
  4. Abstract in structured format up to 250 words.
  5. References mentioned as stated in the Instruction to Authors section.
  6. Tables should be included in the main document.
  7. Make sure for headings of tables, their numbers and captions of illustrations. Do not repeat the information in tables if it is covered in the text.
  8. Photographs / illustrations along with their captions also included in the main document.
  9. Disclosure regarding source of funding and conflict of interest if any besides approval of the study from respective Ethics Committee/Institution Review Board.
  10. Covering Letter
  11. Copyright license

The Editor-in-Chief: Professor Tirang R. Neyestani; Nutrition and Food Sciences Research P.O. Box: 19395-4741, Tehran, Iran Tel/Fax: (98-21)22086347
Email: nfsrsbmu.ac.ir; nfsr.journalgmail.com
 URL: www.nfsr.sbmu.ac.ir
Submission: Manuscripts should be typed using Microsoft Word in double space with clear margins on both sides. Tables and illustrations should be depicted on separate pages of the main document. The figures should be in JPEG or GIF format which will produce high quality images in the online edition of the journal. Submissions are accepted only via Journal URL: www.nfsr.sbmu.ac.ir. All tables, illustrations, figures and pictures must be original otherwise a formal permission letter from the original owner of the copyright is necessary. 

The Editor-in-Chief, Nutrition and Food Sciences Research P.O. Box: 19395-4741, Tehran, Iran Tel/Fax: (98-21)22086347
Email: nfsrsbmu.ac.ir; nfsr.journalgmail.com
 URL: nfsr.sbmu.ac.ir 
Topic URL in Nutrition and Food Sciences Research website:
http://nfsr.sbmu.ac.ir/find-1.20.13.en.html
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