Submissions

Author Guidelines

The maximum length of manuscripts is 5,000 words, excluding the abstract, tables, figures and references (maximum 1,000 words for a research note).

1. Introductory section

The introductory section of the manuscript should include the title, the names of all the authors and their affiliations, the abstract and keywords. The title, abstract and keywords should be provided in both the languages used in BASE (US-English and French).

The English abstract is recorded, unchanged, in the international databases that will index the article and it therefore constitutes, together with the title and the keywords, an important source of information for prospective readers.

The title should be informative or descriptive and should contain the main message of the article.

A short title is also requested (to be provided in the language of the paper) with a maximum of 55 characters (including spaces). This short title is printed on the page header, which appears on every other page.

For reviews, the word "review" must appear in the title.

1.2. Authors

In the author list, names should appear as follows: first names (in full), followed by the surname. The name of the corresponding author should be identified with an asterisk and his/her email address given.

BASE accepts two first authors to be considered as co-first authors and two last authors to be considered as co-last authors.

Author affiliations should be given in accordance with institutional guidelines. Affiliations usually start with the name of the institution followed by the name of the faculty, department and / or laboratory and end with the mailing address and the country.

1.3. Abstract (structured)

The abstract should contain 100 to 250 words (150 words for research notes). It should contain no references, tables or figures. It should be possible for the abstract to be read independently of the text of the article. The abstract should be structured in five parts with the following titles: "Description of the subject", "Objectives", "Method", "Results" and "Conclusions". Abstracts for reviews should be structured in three parts ("Introduction", "Literature", "Conclusion").

1.4 Keywords

Following the abstract, six to ten keywords should be provided (in both English and French). These represent the essential concepts of the article. Their aim is to facilitate the indexing of the article and its research in bibliographic databases.

The keywords should be selected and translated using AGROVOC, the FAO multilingual agricultural thesaurus (http://aims.fao.org/en/standards/agrovoc/functionalities/search). This thesaurus is used in nearly 90 countries and offers a structure based on the relationship between standardized concepts.

Words appearing in the title and the abstract must not be included in the list of keywords.

2. Body of the text for articles and research notes

The body of the text should be structured according to the IMRaD model. Each section has a specific function, representing the stages of the work being presented.

2.1. Introduction

The introduction should identify the issue (what are we talking about exactly?) and refer to the published literature (what do we already know?). It should also present the hypothesis (the research question).

The objective of this section is to highlight the importance of the work described and to justify the choice of hypothesis and the scientific approach.

2.2. Materials and methods

This section describes in detail (unless already well described in the literature) the experimental protocol and the data used.

The objective is to allow evaluation of the quality of the experimental design and of the robustness of the results. It should offer to another researcher the possibility of reproducing the experiment or of using the same method in another experiment.

For papers describing animal research, it is necessary to mention the experimental protocol number and the name of the animal ethic committee that approved the protocol.

2.3. Results

The results should be presented with figures, tables and descriptions. No interpretation of the results should appear in this section. Care should be taken to avoid unnecessary duplication between the text and the illustrations (tables and figures) and between the illustrations themselves.

2.4. Discussion

The discussion should make links between the results and the hypothesis. In this section, authors can refer to the originality and implications of the article (and research). Any unexpected results or observations that occurred may be explained here.

The discussion should highlight the practical consequences of the research. It should also provide an impartial critique of the study, presenting the limitations of the research performed.

This section should provide a discussionof the resultsofthe research describedin the article. It should not include points that would have been better placedin the introduction.

The discussion should end with a detailed conclusion that could be presented as a stand-alone section.

Sentences may be extracted from this section and cited in other articles or books.

2.4. Research notes

One particular type of research paper is the research note. The choice to write a research note can be justified under the following circumstances:

• the need to present results based on a small but significant data set;

• the presentation of the adaptation of an existing methodology;

• work for which the method is not new but for which an input is made in relation to a variety or region.

3. Body of the text for reviews

3.1. Introduction

The introduction should specify the subject, the framework and the scope of the research. It should also inform the reader regarding the structure of the "Literature" section and regarding the nature of the information retrieval methods used (keywords, databases and other resources, selection criteria).

3.2. Literature

This is the main part of the review. It should contain a discussion of the different bibliographic references used. Judicious selection of these bibliographic references (limited to 50) is essential. In order to avoid redundant sources, only the most important references should be chosen.

In this section, information should be organized according to the evolution of the subject under consideration, presenting the views, the schools of thought and the various aspects of the subject. Personal contributions made by the author must be clearly identifiable.

The review should not simply provide a list of descriptions, but offer a critical analysis. Avoid starting every sentence of this section with an author's name.

3.3. Conclusions

This section summarizes the main contributions made in the literature, and presents the areas of agreement and disagreement. It identifies issues that are still awaiting answers. 

4. Body text for methodological papers

The structure of a methodological article is identical to that of a research article. It is advisable to provide some results, for example at least.

5. Writing conventions

5.1. Names of organisms

The first mention of every living organism in the text and the abstract should be designated by its full scientific name, followed by its proposer. From the second citation in the text, the genus should be abridged (unless it appears at the beginning of a sentence).

5.2. Chemical compounds

The international rules of nomenclature issued by the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, 1987) should be followed. When the scientific name of a compound is very long, authors may add, at the first mention of the common name of the compound, its CAS registration number (Chemical Abstracts Service).

5.3. Biochemical compounds

BASE follows the recommendations of the IUBMB (International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1992) and IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry). Trade names that are used in addition should be indicated by an "*" and accompanied by the name of the manufacturer.

5.4. Capital letters

Abbreviations and acronyms should always be written in capital letters (without full stops). Geographic locations and the names of individual organizations and institutions should also have initial capital letters. Capital letters should always be use for proper names and brand names.

5.5. Punctuation

Sentences end with a full stop, an exclamation point or a question mark or. The full stop goes before or after the closing quotation mark, depending on the context. It is never used twice. A comma separates the parts of a clause or sentence. A comma is also used to separate items in a list. There is no comma before a bracket or a square bracket. If a comma is required, it comes after these. A semicolon separates different items of a similar nature. A colon introduces an explanation, a quotation, or a list. Ellipses should always be in a group of three (however the use of “etc.” is preferred).

Brackets are used to give additional information within a sentence. Square brackets indicate details within a set of brackets or a break in a citation. Text in brackets or square brackets should be kept short so as not to break the rhythm of reading. There should be no space just after an opening bracket or square bracket or just before a closing bracket or square bracket.

5.6. Textual enhancement (bold and italics)

Bold type is used in titles or to make a word stand out. Its use should be limited to highlighting part of a text.

Italics are used for in-text citations, for untranslated words or for a brand or product name (databases, for example) and for periodicals and books.

Underlining is only used for hyperlinks.

5.7. Lists

Lists are introduced by a colon. Second rank enumeration are introduced by a little dash.No punctuation on lists items unless they are complete sentence.

5.8. Numbers

The numbers from one to ten should be written as words. When used for quantities followed by a unit of measurement, numbers should be written as figures. They should also be written as figures if the numbers with one base unit (one to nine) and numbers with two base units or more (more than nine) are written in the same sentence and designate units of the same kind.

However, numbers appearing at the beginning of a sentence should be written as words. Years should be written as four figures (e.g. 2014).

Reported data should include no more significant digits than the precision of the experimental methods allowsand, as a rule, presentation of data should conform to the guidelines of the standard ISO 31 (ISO, 1993).

5.9. Titles and subtitles

Decimal numbering should be used to indicate the hierarchy of divisions and subdivisions within an article, not exceeding three levels. A full stop, comma, colon or semicolon should never appear at the end of a title.

5.10 Mathematical formulas

When using mathematical formulas within an article, it is preferable to use an equation editor (included in the main word processing software). These programs produce images that can then be inserted into the text. The author will pay attention however to provide these pictures separately.
The Latin alphabet should be used and variables, unknowns or indexes should be represented by italic lowercase letters. Greek letters (lowercase or uppercase) should never be written in italics.

The names of the usual functions (sin, cos, ln, log, etc.) should appear in normal text type. Number sets (matrices and vectors) should be written as bold capitals and italics (e.g. A).

5.11. Units

The ISO 31 standards for “Quantities and units” and the ISO 1000 “International system of units (SI) and recommendations for derived and other units” (ISO, 1993) are applicable for physical units, equations, quantities and units of measurement. Abbreviations may be used for these units. Liter is denoted “l”.

In the text, units should be written in word form except when preceded by a number, in which case the international abbreviation should be used (min, h, d, g, m, J, etc.).

When expressing units of measurement, the negative exponent is preferred to the fraction line (e.g. m.s-2 and not m/s2).

5.12. Citations

Any use of ideas or words from an author must be referenced (even if the document is freely available, in the public domain or as a web page). There are no exceptions to this requirement.
Bibliographic references in the text are in "author-date" format inside brackets: "(Smith, 2011)". Pagination is not necessary. For a reference with two autors, both names are indicated (Brown & Dupont, 2010). For more than two authors, the name of the first authoris followed by "et al". If several references are cited together, they should appear in chronological order and be separated by a semicolon "(Iwai et al, 1980; Binoux et al, 1988; Dordick, 1989)".Direct citations should be placed inside quotation marks. Citations in another language should appear in italics. When a whole paragraph is reproduced, it should be indented. The citation should be followed by the reference in brackets, appearing outside the quotation marks.

6.2. Articles in journals

Journal titles should be abbreviated according to the list published by the ISSN International Center, “The List of Title Word Abbreviations” (http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php). Those containing only one word should not be abridged: Heredity, Endeavour, etc.

6.3. Chapters in an edited book

Authors, editors and publishers must be clearly identified. The name of the editor is followed by “ed.” or “eds” (if more than one).

 The reference to a conference in a proceeding should include the title, and if possible, the place and date of the meeting.

6.4. Theses

Theses should be identified as monographs with the title of the degree and the name of the university where the thesis was presented.

6.5. Internet documents

An Internet document should be described in the same way as a printed document followed by a comma, the full Internet address and the consultation date (written in brackets).

Citations of articles "in press" or "accepted" may be included in the bibliography. Documents "in preparation", "submitted" or constituting a "personal communication" (which may be cited in the text), internal unpublished reports, courses and masters dissertations should not be listed in the bibliography.

7. Tables and figures

All tables and figures should be identified by a number and should appear in the text, together with their titles and captions in French and in English. Captions should be completeand should enable the reader to understand the table or figure without reading the text.

Within the text, references to tables and figures should be written as follows: “Table 1”, “(Figure 5)” or “as shown in Figure 5”. Tables and figures should be numbered in order of citation.

The use of illustrations (photographs, tables, figures, drawings) taken from a work must always be reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder (it is therefore not sufficient simply to indicate the source).

7.1. Tables

Columns within tables should be set using the tabulation key. The table should contain only data (dates, text, numbers, percentages...); it should not contain any formulas or macros.

The table title is placed before the table.

7.2. Figures

Illustrations should be provided in JPG *, *. GIF,. * EPS or TIF * format with a resolution of 300 to 600 dpi. Vector images may be submitted in EPS format.

Drawings, graphs, flow-charts, etc. must fit into one text column (width 8.5 cm, height 18 cm maximum) or two text columns (width 17.5 cm, height 18 cm).

Lines should not be less than 0.25 mm. Characters should appear in Helvetica neue regular or Arial font, 9 points.

On graphs, axes should be named in accordance with the style of the text followed by the abridged units of measurement in brackets. These names should be placed parallel to the axes, at a distance in proportion of the size to the drawing and the letters.

Shading (and outlines) that are too dark should be avoided, as should large black areas. Figures should not be surrounded by a black outline. Axes on graphs should appear in black.

The title of the figure is placed after the figure.

8. Submission of manuscripts

8.1. File formats

Manuscripts should be sent in .DOC, .DOCX or .ODT format and the body of the text should be in Times 11, double spaced. Lines should be numbered (continuously). Manuscripts can also be submitted in markdown format.

To facilitate the layout process, use of the following should be avoided: small caps, paragraph formatting, page numbering, headers and footers, and automatic bibliographic references links in the text.

8.2. Sending manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted on this site. The accompanying cover letter (e-mail) should do the following:

• present the major points and the originality of the submitted article;
• state that all the authors involved are aware of all the instructions (particularely regarding plagiarism, fraud and conflict of interest) and have had the opportunity to read the final version of the manuscript. The approval of supervisory bodies of the authors is assumed to have been acquired;
• specify the individual contribution of each contributor;
• suggest five referees with whom there is no conflict of interest ;
• argue a possible consideration of request for two co-first authors and / or two co-last authors.

The author undertakes not to contact his/her suggested referees. If this does occur, the editorial board reserves the right to reject the paper.

The cover letter should contain a declaration that there is no conflict of interest (financial, commercial, contractual, patent-related).

Submissions will be acknowledged via an e-mail to all the authors. This is why it is essential and mandatory that the lead author encodes the name and e-mail of the co-authors in the dedicated form during submission.