Indian Journal of Horticulture

Impact factor: 0.163 (Journal Citation Reports 2021, Clarivate Analytics);

NAAS Rating (2020): 6.16 

Indian Journal of Horticulture is the official publication of Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences (Formerly The Horticultural Society of India) being published since 1943. All issues of the journal are available online at https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijh&type=home.  The journal features the original research in all branches of Horticulture and other cognate sciences of sufficient relevance and primary interest to the horticulturists. Articles dealing with breeding, biotechnology, genomics, plant production, plant protection, post-harvest technology etc. will be considered for publication. The journal publishes three types of articles, i.e., Review/ Strategy paper (Invited or otherwise), Research paper (full length) and Short communication.

The first issue of the journal was published in 1943 of Demi Octavio size with plain ‘Golden monocolour’ cover page. The articles for the first issue were contributed by eminent horticulturists of that time. The issue had Messages, ten Research articles and had Notes and Reviews too. The messages were rendered by Sardar Jogendra Singh Kit, Member of the Governor-General’s Council for Education, Health and Lands, Govt. of India; and Dr W. Burns, the then Vice Chairman, Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, Delhi.

Thereafter, the journal did undergo several changes with regard to article format; cover design, colour and patterns; and text styles. Several new features were added with the passage of time. Some of the cover styles, which were adopted are
given hereunder.

The publication of the journal has been the most important activity of Society/ Academy. Efforts were made by the Editor/ Editorial Team to maintain the standard and timeliness of the journal. Since 2004, then two Advisory Boards are being constituted, i.e. National Advisory Board and International Advisory Board comprising eminent scientists/ researchers/ subject matter specialists to solely assist the Editorial Team in the review process, early processing and maintaining the quality of research articles. The Academy acknowledges these scientists/ faculty assisting the Editorial Team in a review of manuscripts by publishing their names every six months in the journal. The printing of the journal is timely and up-to-date and it has been dispatched to members and subscribers as a hard copy/ soft copy as per the choice.
Online Submission
In 2009, the society started its online submission and review of articles on the portal provided by www.indianjournals.com. The society journal is “A” rated by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi and therefore it gave the online portal of the ICAR for submission and review of manuscripts submitted by the authors across the globe using the webportal www.epubs.icar.org.in/ejournal/ index.php/ijh.

Review and Acceptance of Articles
The research manuscripts received on the ICAR journal portal are assigned to two experts of the subject matter for their independent review of the article. Based on the reviewers comments, the Editorial Team decides the acceptance of an article for publication. These interventions eased the review process and helped in not only early review but also in taking the timely decisions on suitability for publication of a large number of manuscripts received by the Editorial Team.

Online Publication of the Journal
In 2000, the electronic submission of research articles by authors was initiated through Society’s e-mail hsi42@rediffmail.com. In 2006, the society entered in agreement with the M/s Indian Journals.com Naraina, New Delhi for making the journal online and promoting its circulation in the foreign countries through M/s IOS Press, the Netherlands. The annual subscription rate for this purpose was kept US $ 200/- for online copies, while US$ 222, inclusive of postal charges for print copies. The society hoists its entire journal issues (current and archive) online available since 1943 on www.indianjournals.com under mutually agreed terms and conditions (MoU), which are revised annually. This effort made online access to all the research articles to the global community. With this, the overseas distribution and sales of the journal were exclusively handled by the IOS Press and accordingly, the subscriptions and the profits made as a result of sale/ subscription/ downloads of articles are being shared.

The journal has both Print (ISSN: 0972-8538) and Online (ISSN: 0974-0112) ISSN registration numbers. The journal was started in 1943 as half-yearly and  quarterly since 1949 with four issues one each in March, June, September, and December every year. The journal size and cover design were grossly changed in 2004, when a circular of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi through its Agricultural Education Division, gave directive on the quality journals. At present, the journal has the A4 size and publishes 30 articles comprising of full papers and short communications in each issue besides Reviews and Strategy Papers through invitation have been made by the society through its Editorial Team.

Abstracting of the Journal Articles
The Indian Journal of Horticulture since its inception has maintained quite high standards. All the articles are abstracted by the major Abstracting agencies including CABI, Scopus, Agricola, Indian Science Abstracts, J-Gate, Google Scholar, EBSCO Discovery, Indian Citation Index etc. Different important abstracts covering the articles published in the journals include CAB Abstracts, Horticultural Abstracts, Agro-forestry Abstracts, Agricultural Engineering Abstracts, Biological Abstracts, Crop Physiology Abstracts, Forest Abstracts, Ornamental Horticulture Abstracts, Plant Breeding Abstracts, Plant Genetic Resources Abstracts, Post-harvest News and Information, Seed Abstracts, Review of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Rural Development Abstracts etc.

Impact Factor and Rating of Indian Journal of Horticulture
In 2005, effort was initiated by Dr V.B. Patel, the then Joint Secretary with the support of Editorial Team particularly Dr S.K. Singh the then Assistant Editor, under the overall guidance of Dr K.L. Chadha, President of the Society for grant of international impact factor by Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Philadelphia, USA. As a result, the journal was granted an international impact factor of 0.229 in 2008 after three years of continuous evaluation by the M/s Thompson Reuters, Philadelphia, USA. As per the rating of 2020, the journal is having an impact factor of 0.156, which is equivalent to 6.16/20.00 rating granted by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi. It is the only horticulture journal in India to have this distinction. The journal is rated 8th of the entire agricultural journals published in the country as per the Indian Citation Index from 2006-2015. With regards to citations per paper, the journal is ranked 5th with a rating of 1.161 per article. As the latest global ranking of the Indian Journal of Horticulture is 31st of all the exclusive agricultural/horticultural journals published across the world and is 3rd in Asia. In 2017, it had the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) of 0.317. Since 2015, society also applied for Digital Object Identifier or DOI, which is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for all research articles published in the journal to improve the citation.
Data Source: Scopus®; Scimago Lab, Copyright 2007-2017l; (Ref:http://www. scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=1108&area=1100&page=1&total_ size=72; accessed on 09.10.2017)

Instruction for authors

Manuscript submission

The manuscript is to be submitted online (www.iahs.com) strictly in the format of the journal. Files should be in docx or doc format with 12 font size of Times New Roman. The automatic page and line numbering function should be used. On receipt of a manuscript, an acknowledgment with a registration number of the paper is sent to the corresponding author. This number should always be quoted while making further correspondence about the manuscript. All correspondence regarding the manuscript should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences (IAHS), Society Block, F-1, First Floor, NASC Complex, D.P.S. Marg, IARI P.O., Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012. Submission of manuscript implies that the work submitted has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication anywhere else. Further, the publication has been approved by all the co-authors and responsible authorities where the research work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims of compensation.

Manuscript guidelines

Review/Strategy paper: The review article is through invitation but regular submission can also be considered based on merit. It should be comprehensive, up-to-date, and contain critical review on a recent topic of importance. The maximum page limit is of 25 double-spaced typed pages or 6000 words including tables and figures. It should cite the latest literature and identify some gaps for the future.

Research paper: Each full-length research paper must not exceed 3500 words including tables, illustrations and references. Manuscripts should be typed in double space, Times New Roman 10 font size and thoroughly revised before submission. Line numbering should be done for easy reviewing. Short communications should be restricted to about 1200 words but not exceeding five typed pages including an abstract (150 words), tables, figures, and references. Extra pages will be charged as per the prevailing rates from time to time.

Title: The title should be short, specific, and informative and  only the first letter of the title should be typed in capital letters, Latin names in italics.

Authors: Names of the author(s) to be typed in first letters capital. The name should be devoid of degrees, designation, etc. Changes of authorship or in order of the authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript. The manuscript should be approved by co-authors.

Address: Address of the institution(s) where the work was carried out should be given. The corresponding author should be indicated by an asterisk (*), and his/her e-mail should be given as a footnote.

Abstract: A concise summary (maximum of 250 words) of the entire work done along with the justification of study, results and main highlights of the findings and a concluding statement should be given.

Key words: A maximum of five keywords should be given indicating the contents of the paper.

Headings: Each full-length research paper should have the following main headings, which are to be typed only the first letter capitals on left of the page: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and discussion, Acknowledgements (optional) and References.

Introduction: It should be brief and highlight the importance of the topic under study. A brief review of the literature citing the latest research in the field should be given. The introduction shall be able to justify the need for research work done.

Materials and methods: It should describe the experimental materials, year of experimentation, experimental design and the statistical methods used. Further, the software used for statistical analysis should be quoted. Also describe the methods employed for the collection of data in short along with the statistical details. For well-known methods, citation of relevant reference(s) will suffice. For inserting equations, formulae, etc. equation editor function should be used

Results and Discussion: This segment should focus on the fulfillment of stated objectives as given in the introduction. Should contain the findings presented in the form of tables, figures and photographs. As far as possible, the data should be statistically analyzed following a suitable experimental design. Same data should not be presented in the table and figure form. Mention only pooled data in Tables, if recorded for more than one year, except in rare cases where authors are willing to show some specific trend for the given seasons/ years. Use the metric system units only to express the data. Also, follow proper style for units: ml, l, µl l-1, kg, g, mg, kg ha-1 etc. Similarly, use proper symbols for degree (°), plus-minus sign (±), percent (%), more than (≥), less than (≤), alpha (α ), beta (ß), gamma ( γ)  etc. Write the name of variety/ hybrid/ individual genotype in inverted commas like ‘Amrapali’. Avoid the use of numerical values in findings, rather mention the trends and discuss them with the available literature.

Tables: Tables should be typed on separate sheets, each with a short heading. Tables should be typed with the first letter (T) capital. Table function should be used for making a table and should be numbered in Arabic numerals followed by a period. All measurements should be in metric units. All tables should be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order. Source of already published materials included in the table, if any, should be given. Footnotes to Tables should be indicated by superscript, lowercase letter (or an asterisk (*) for significance value or other statistical data) and included in the bottom of the Table.

Figures/Line drawings: Only good quality figures essential for the manuscript shall be given in JPEG or TIFF format. The illustrations should not repeat the data presented in tables and vice-versa. Text figures should be used in preference to plates. All the figures should be numbered in Arabic numerals and cited in the text in consecutive numerical order. All figures must have descriptive captions and patterns and/or colour to be used for clarity. All the legends to illustrations should be typed on a separate sheet of paper. Prior permission must be taken from the copyright owner(s) for use of figure(s) from already published articles. For such permission, costs involved, if any, are to be borne by the authors.

Photographs: The photographs should be of high quality in JPEG or TIFF format. All photographs should carry descriptive caption and number in Arabic numerals. Processing charges of Rs. 5,000/- per page for authors from SAARC countries and $100 for other countries are to be paid in advance for coloured photograph in the print version

Authors’ contribution

The contribution of each author is to be mentioned in the following heads. The name of the authors to be given in abbreviated form within the parenthesis against each head.

Conceptualization of research ( ); Designing of the experiments ( ); Contribution of experimental materials ( ); Execution of field/lab experiments and data collection ( ); Analysis of data and interpretation ( ); Preparation of the manuscript ( ).

Declaration: The authors should declare that they do not have any conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments: Should mention only assistance received in real terms, and financial grant provided by an agency.

References: Reference to literature should be arranged alphabetically and numbered according to the author’s names, should be placed at the end of the article. Each reference should contain the names of the author with initials, the year of the publication, title of the article, the abbreviated title of the publication according to the World List of Scientific Periodicals, volume and page(s). In the text, the reference should be indicated by the author’s name, followed by the serial number in brackets. A maximum of 15 key references are permissible for citation in a full length manuscript.

 

(a)   Text citation by name followed by number of reference: Singh (1); Khar et al. (2); (Sharma and Singh, 5; Saxena et al., 8; Sharma et al., 9).

(b)  Listing of references should be in alphabetical order.

(c)   Author’s names to be written in normal sequence, with surnames first, followed by initials, a period, and year (followed by a period).

(d)   Journal names should be written in standard abbreviations and the book titles in full.

(e)   Volume of Journal should be in bold face followed by colon and page numbers/DOI numbers.

(f)   Volume or part of serialised books to be printed as vol. 2 or pt. III (not bold), followed by a colon, and page numbers. Name of publishers not to be abbreviated.

Research Paper

  1. Scaffer,B. and Guaye, G.O. 1989. Effects of pruning on light interception, specific leaf density and chlorophyll content of mango. Scientia Hor 41: 55-61.

Thesis

  1. Laxmi, D.1997. Studies on somatic embryogenesis in mango (Mangifera indica L.). Ph.D. Thesis, P.G. School, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.

Book Chapter

  1. Sunderland, N. 1977. Nuclear cytology. In: Plant Cell and Tissue Culture, Vol. II. H.E. Street (Ed.), University of California Press, Berkeley, California, USA, pp.171-206.
  2. Chase, S.S. 1974. Utilization of haploids in plant breeding: breeding diploid species. In: Haploids in Higher Plants: Advances   and Potential. Intl. Symp. 10-14 June, 1974, University of Guelph. K.J. Kasha (Ed.), University of Guelph, Canada, pp. 211-30.

Book

  1. Panse, V.G. and Sukhatme, P.V. 1978. Statistical Methods for Agricultural Workers, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, 381p.

Short communication: The text including table(s) and figure(s) should not exceed five typed pages. It should have a short title; followed by name of author(s) and affiliation, Abstract (100 words), Keywords (3-5), Short research paper, and References (7 max.). There should be no subheadings, i.e. Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results & Discussion, etc. The manuscript should be in paragraphs mentioning the brief introduction of the of the topic and relevance of the work, followed by a short description of the materials and the methods employed, results and discussion based on the data presented in 1 or 2 table(s)/ figure(s) and a short conclusion at the end.

General instructions

  • Article forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief for publication is understood to be offered to INDIAN JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE exclusively. It is also understood that the authors have obtained a prior approval of their Department, Faculty or Institute in the case where such approval is necessary.
  • l  Acceptance of a manuscript for publication in the Indian Journal of Horticulture shall automatically mean the transfer of Copyright to the Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences. At the time of acceptance of a manuscript, all the authors should be the life member / individual subscribers of the academy.

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief

Dr. R.K. Pal, New Delhi

Former Director, NRC Pomegranate, Solapur, Mahrashtra; Resident Advisor, ACARE, Myanmar; Camp: ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India

Editors

Dr. R.M. Sharma, New Delhi

Principal Scientist,  Division of Fruits and Horticultural Technology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi- 110 012  Google Scholar Profile : https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=K4GqU-4AAAAJ&hl=en)

Dr. Anil Khar, New Delhi

Principal Scientist, Division of Vegetable Science, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi- 110 012;  Google Scholar Profile : https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=SnyNxMYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate; Research gate profile : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anil_Khar

Member, Editorial Board (2020)

  1. Dr Subhash Chander, New Delhi ( Professor, & Principal Scientist, Division of Entomology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=azKw_goAAAAJ)
  2. Dr A.S. Dhatt, Ludhiana ( Senior Vegetable Breeder, PAU , Ludhiana; https://www.pau.edu/cohf/index.php?_act=manageDepartments&DO=viewFacultyData&intFacultyID=63&intDepTitleID=50&intLinkID=12&strDepTitle=Faculty; Research gate Profile : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ajmer_Dhatt)
  3. Dr M.R. Dinesh, Bengaluru ( Director , ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru, Karnataka; https://www.iihr.res.in/dinesh-mr;  google Scholar : https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X8yOkXoAAAAJ&hl=en)
  4. Dr T. Janakiram, Vice Chancellor, Dr YSR horticulture University, Venkataramanngudem, West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh; http://www.drysrhu.edu.in/english-officers;
  5. Dr Krishan Kumar, Solan (Former Prof and Head, Department of Fruit Science, YS Parmar Univ of Hort & Forestry Solan, H.P. http://www.yspuniversity.ac.in/fs/k-kumar.pdf; Google scholar : https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=xc13pH0AAAAJ&hl=en)
  6. Dr R.L. Misra, New Delhi ( Former Principal Scientist and Project Co-ordinator, AICRP on Floriculture, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi; https://www.krugerbrentt.com/Publisher)
  7. Dr Naved Sabir, New Delhi (Principal Scientist, Centre for Protected Cultivation Technology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi ; https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Naved_Sabir2)
  8. Dr Shruti Sethi, New Delhi ( Principal Scientist, Division of Food Science and Post-harvest Technology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi; Google Scholar : https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=k-xOmMwAAAAJ; Research gate : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shruti_Sethi)
  9. Dr Akhilesh Sharma, Palampur (Professor & Head, Department of Vegetable Science
    & Floriculture, CSK HPKV, Palampur; https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Akhilesh_Sharma23)
  10. Dr Kanwar P. Singh, New Delhi ( Professor and Principal Scientist, Division of Floriculture and Landscaping, ICAR-IARI, New Delhii; https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2080260609_Kanwar_Pal_Singh)
  11. Dr Akath Singh, Jodhpur ( Principal Scientist (Hort), Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur, Rajasthan; https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Akath_Singh)

International Advisory Board- 2020

  1. Dr Bhimu Patil, USA ( https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IWSmPcAAAAAJ&hl=en)
  2. Dr Avtar Handa, USA ( https://ag.purdue.edu/hla/CV/HandaCV.pdf; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DcExQwgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
  3. Dr Zora Singh, Australia (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bYBcnGcAAAAJ&hl=en)
  4. Dr Schwarz, Germany (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/scientia-horticulturae/editorial-board/d-schwarz)
  5. Dr M. Shygio, Japan
  6. Dr S. Burnett, USA,
  7. Dr Philip Simon, USA (https://horticulture.wisc.edu/directory/philipp-simon/)
  8. Dr Monika, Poland (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Monika_Kaluzna)
  9. Dr Giuseppe Colla, Italy (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Giuseppe_Colla)