International Journal of Secondary Metabolite

IJSM is published 4 issues per year (March, June, September, December), and accepting manuscripts related to secondary metabolites of plant and allied organisms (algae, fungi, and lichens). Research areas covered in the journal are phytochemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, ethnopharmacology, biological and pharmacological activities (Antimicrobial activity, Antioxidant activity, Antiulcer activity, Anti-convulsant activity, Anti-anxiety activity, Antidiabetic activity, Anti-gout activity, Antiprotozoal activity, Anti-inflammatory activity, Antispasmodic activity, Antiparasitic activity, Anti-mutagenic activity, Anticholinesterase activity, Antidepressant activity, Hepatoprotective activity, Anti-anxiety activity, Anti-convulsant activity, Anti-spasmolytic activity, Anticancer activity). IJSM welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Authors are required to frame their research questions and discuss their results in terms of major questions in plant biology. Contribution is open to researchers of all nationalities. The following types of articles will be considered:

1. Research articles: Original research in various fields of plant and allied organisms (algae, fungi, and lichens) will be evaluated as research articles.
2. Research notes: These include articles such as preliminary notes on a study or manuscripts new records on secondary metabolites.
3. Reviews: Reviews of recent developments, improvements, discoveries, and ideas in various fields of plant and allied organisms (algae, fungi, and lichens) will be requested by the editor or advisory board.
4. Letters to the editor: These include opinions, comments relating to the publishing policy of the International Journal of Secondary Metabolite, news, and suggestions. Letters are not to exceed one journal page.

International Journal of Secondary Metabolite (IJSM) has a fully online submission and online reviewing system. This system offers authors the option of tracking by online based review process of their manuscripts. All manuscripts must be submitted with online from the system by registering. During submission, you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The information below details the section headings that you should include in your manuscript and what information should be within each section.

EVALUATION
Technical Control
During the first check, journal administrators may return the articles for the following reasons:
• The manuscript is not prepared in the format provided on the journal’s website,
• The manuscript file is not the same as the manuscript template file given on the journal’s website,
• The order and format of the names of the authors in the manuscript are not consistent with those on the copyright form,
• The number of references or pages exceed the specified limits,
• The authors did not perform the requested corrections or provide the necessary documents within the requested time,
• Similarity index (iThenticate result) is higher than the permitted threshold. There is no single number for the similarity percentage since each report is investigated in detail, but submissions exceeding 25% score are generally returned to authors. The resubmission of the same title without reducing the similarity score may cause a ban of the authors from the journal. For the similarity reports with more than 50% scores, the authors’ future submissions are always viewed with suspicion, and may not be considered for publication.

Scientific Evaluation
The peer review process is double blind, i.e. both authors and referees are kept anonymous. Manuscripts may be rejected without peer review by the editor-in-chief if they do not comply with the instructions for authors or if they are beyond the scope of the journal. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, i.e. after referee-recommended revisions are complete, the author will not be permitted to make changes that constitute departures from the manuscript that was accepted by the editor. Before publication, the galley proofs are always sent to the authors for corrections. Mistakes or omissions that occur due to some negligence on our part during final printing will be rectified in an errata section in a later issue. This does not include those errors left uncorrected by the author in the galley proof.

Plagiarism
The use of someone else’s ideas or words in their original form or slightly changed without a proper citation is considered plagiarism and will not be tolerated. Even if a citation is given, if quotation marks are not placed around words taken directly from other authors’ work, the author is still guilty of plagiarism. Reuse of the authors’ own previously published words, with or without a citation, is regarded as self-plagiarism. All manuscripts received are submitted to iThenticate®, a sophisticated plagiarism checking system, which compares the content of the manuscript with a vast database of web pages and academic publications. Manuscripts judged to be plagiarized or self-plagiarized, based on the iThenticate® report or any other source of information, will not be considered for publication. Open-access theses are considered as published works and they are included in the similarity checks.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Author information
Full names and email addresses of all co-authors on your manuscript.

Cover letter
A cover letter that includes the following information, as well as any additional information requested in the instructions for your specific article type:
• An explanation of why your manuscript should be published in IJSM
• An explanation of any issues relating to journal policies
• A declaration of any potential competing interests
• Confirmation that all authors have approved the manuscript for submission
• Confirmation that the content of the manuscript has not been published, or submitted for publication elsewhere (see our Duplicate publication policy)
• If you are submitting a manuscript to a particular special issue, please refer to its specific name in your covering letter

Peer reviewers
You may suggest potential peer reviewers for your manuscript. If you wish to do so, please provide institutional email addresses where possible, or information which will help the Editor to verify the identity of the reviewer (for example an ORCID or Scopus ID). Intentionally falsifying information, for example, suggesting reviewers with a false name or email address, will result in rejection of your manuscript and may lead to further investigation in line with our misconduct policy.

Excluding peer reviewers
During submission you may enter details of anyone who you would prefer not to review your manuscript.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPT
IJSM has a fully online submission and online reviewing system. This system offers authors the option of tracking by online based review process of their manuscripts. All manuscripts must be submitted with online from the system by registering.
When the articles are uploaded, a plagiarism report must be taken from the plagiarism program (Ithenticate, Turnitin etc.) and added to the IJSM system after uploaded article. Articles with a plagiarism rate of 25% or more will not be accepted.
For a study to be accepted for publication, approval of at least two referees is required. When referees ask certain changes within the study and if the author(s) disagree(s), s/he may withdraw the manuscript. Communication with referees will be carried out directly electronically and the coordination will be carried out by the Editor and/or subject editor.

MANUSCRIPT TYPES
Original research articles, review articles, and letters to the editor are welcome. The editor may invite survey reviews concerning recent developments in particular areas of interest. Please note that the journal no longer accepts submission of rapid communications and short communications. The editor-in-chief can change the manuscript type after manuscript submission.

Research Articles
A research article reports the results of original research and assesses its contribution to the body of knowledge in a given area with the relevant data and findings in an orderly, logical manner. Research articles should be no longer than 25 pages, should have an abstract of 250 words at most, should contain a limit of 40 references, and should have no more than 8 figures and tables combined.

Review Articles
A review article is written to summarize the recent developments, improvements, discoveries, and ideas in various subjects. Review articles should present an unbiased summary of the current understanding of the topic. Review articles should cover subjects that fall within the scope of the journal and are of active, current interest. Review articles should be no longer than 50 pages, should have an abstract of 250 words at most, should contain a limit of 100 references, and should have no more than 12 figures and tables combined. Principal sections should be numbered consecutively (1. Introduction, 2. Historical background, etc.), and subsections should be numbered 1.1., 1.2., etc. All reviews should contain an introduction section and a conclusion section, with relevant section headings in between. The introduction should explain the importance of the subject, the text should be comprehensive and detailed, and the references should be exhaustive. Review articles should be written with the support of original published studies of the author(s).

Letters to the Editor
Letters to the editor reflect the opinions of other researchers on articles in previously published issues of the same journal. Typically, letters address the contents of an original journal article for one or more of the following reasons: to identify errors and make a correction, provide an alternate theory, provide additional information, offer additional evidence, or provide a counterpoint. The letter should be brief and concise. Letters to the editor should not exceed a single printed page (approximately 600 words and 4-5 references). Letters are always written to the editor; they are never addressed to the authors of the article in question. While writing a letter, one should avoid assuming a personal and biased attitude or the use of aggressive language. All suggestions should be supported by scientific data. General comments not reinforced by logical arguments are not acceptable (e.g., “I think that this is a very important article” or “I think that this article is worthless”). The writer should not repeat the original article at length in his/her letter. The letter authors’ names and affiliations should be written clearly at the top of the letter, and the title of the article about which the letter is written should be clearly stated in the introduction of the letter.

MANUSCRIPT CONTENT
All research articles should be divided into clearly defined and numbered sections as appropriate. Principal sections should be numbered consecutively (1. Introduction, 2. Materials and methods, etc.) and subsections should be numbered 1.1., 1.2., etc.
You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review (see a template on https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ijsm/page/3708 for submission manuscript).

Title page
The title page should:
• present a title that includes, if appropriate, the study design
• list the full names and institutional addresses for all authors. I
• f a collaboration group should be listed as an author, please list the Group name as an author.
• indicate the corresponding author

Abstract
The abstract should be a total of about 250 words maximum. The abstract should be a single paragraph and should follow the style of structured abstracts, but without headings: 1) Background: Place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study; 2) Methods: Describe briefly the main methods or treatments applied. 3) Results: Summarize the article's main findings; and 4) Conclusion: Indicate the main conclusions or interpretations. The abstract should be an objective representation of the article: it must not contain results which are not presented and substantiated in the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions.

Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Introduction
The introduction should briefly place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important. It should define the purpose of the work and its significance, including specific hypotheses being tested. The current state of the research field should be reviewed carefully and key publications cited. Please highlight controversial and diverging hypotheses when necessary. Finally, briefly mention the main aim of the work and highlight the main conclusions. Keep the introduction comprehensible to scientists working outside the topic of the paper.

Materials and Methods
The methods section should include:
• the aim, design and setting of the study
• the characteristics of participants or description of materials
• a clear description of all processes, interventions and comparisons. Generic names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand names in parentheses
• the type of statistical analysis used, including a power calculation if appropriate

Results
This should include the findings of the study including, if appropriate, results of statistical analysis which must be included either in the text or as tables and figures.

Discussion
For research articles this section should discuss the implications of the findings in context of existing research and highlight limitations of the study. For study protocols and methodology manuscripts this section should include a discussion of any practical or operational issues involved in performing the study and any issues not covered in other sections.

Conclusions
This should state clearly the main conclusions and provide an explanation of the importance and relevance of the study to the field.

Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the References. If the work has been presented in a conference or scholarly meeting, it should be mentioned here.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests and Ethics
The authors declare no conflict of interest. This research study complies with research and publishing ethics. The scientific and legal responsibility for manuscripts published in IJSM belongs to the author(s). Ethics Committee Approval and its number should be given by stating the institution name which gave the ethical approval.

Authors' contributions
The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.

Orcid
The author (s) must provide their ORCID numbers.

References
References should be listed in alphabetical order according to the order of occurrence in the text and separately at the end of the article. IJSM has been using APA7 Reference Styles. Please read APA7 Reference Style files for details. For detailed information, check out the recently published articles in IJSM.
References should be described as follows, listed in letter order according to APA style and depending on the type of work:

Journal Articles:
Author, A. A. (Date of Publication). Title of article: Capital letter to start subtitle. Journal title, Volume(issue), page range. https://doi.org/#######

Book format:
Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter to start subtitle. Publisher.

Edition number? If the edition is known, include it in the reference - but not the first edition. APA Style Blog: Citing an Edition of a Book in APA Style

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter to start subtitle (edition# ed.). Publisher.

Conference Proceedings:
Author 1 Surname, A. (Names’ first capital letter), Author 2 Surname, B. (Names’ first capital letter). (Year). Title of Presentation. In Title of the Collected Work (if available), Proceedings of the Name of the Conference, Location of Conference, Country, Date of Conference; Editor 1, Editor 2, Eds. (if available); Publisher: City, Country, Year (if available); Abstract Number (optional), Pagination (optional).

Thesis:
Citing a dissertation published elsewhere:
Author last name, Initials. (Year). Dissertation title [Type of dissertation/thesis, University Name]. Archive Name. URL

Citing an unpublished dissertation in APA Style:

Author last name, Initials. (Year). Dissertation title [Unpublished type of dissertation/thesis]. University Name.

Websites:

Unlike published works, websites may change over time or disappear, so we encourage you create an archive of the cited website using a service such as WebCite. Please do not use like .net, .com sites and use .edu, .org or websites accepted by institutions. Archived websites should be cited using the link provided as follows:

Title of Site. Available online: URL (accessed on Day Month Year).

Examples

Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M., Babaç, M.T. (2012). Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi - Damarlı Bitkiler. Nezahat Gökyiğit Vakfı Yayınları, İstanbul.

Topal, Y. (2013). Investigation of Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Effects of Phenolic Compounds of Some Species of Alchemilla L. (Rosaceae) genus [Master Thesis]. Bingöl University.

Wong, C.C., Li, H.B., Cheng, K.W., Chen, F. (2006). A Systematic Survey of Antioxidant Activity of 30 Chinese Medicinal Plants Using the Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power Assay. Food Chem., 97, 705-711. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2005.05.049


Preparing Tables
When preparing tables, please follow the formatting instructions below.
• Tables should be numbered and cited in the text in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, Table 2 etc.).
• Tables less than one A4 or Letter page in length can be placed in the appropriate location within the manuscript.
• Tables larger than one A4 or Letter page in length can be placed at the end of the document text file. Please cite and indicate where the table should appear at the relevant location in the text file so that the table can be added in the correct place during production.
• Larger datasets, or tables too wide for A4 or Letter landscape page can be uploaded as additional files. Please see [below] for more information.
• Tabular data provided as additional files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls ) or comma separated values (.csv). Please use the standard file extensions.
• Table titles (max 15 words) should be included above the table, and legends (max 300 words) should be included underneath the table.
• Tables should not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files, but should be formatted using ‘Table object’ function in your word processing program.
• Color and shading may not be used. Parts of the table can be highlighted using superscript, numbering, lettering, symbols or bold text, the meaning of which should be explained in a table legend.
• Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values.
If you have any questions or are experiencing a problem with tables, please contact the IJSM team at ijsm.info@gmail.com.


Preparing Figures
When preparing figures, please follow the formatting instructions below.
• Figures should be numbered in the order they are first mentioned in the text, and uploaded in this order. Multi-panel figures (those with parts a, b, c, d etc.) should be submitted as a single composite file that contains all parts of the figure.
• Figures should be uploaded in the correct orientation.
• Figure titles (max 15 words) and legends (max 300 words) should be provided in the main manuscript, not in the graphic file.
• Figure keys should be incorporated into the graphic, not into the legend of the figure.
• Each figure should be closely cropped to minimize the amount of white space surrounding the illustration. Cropping figures improves accuracy when placing the figure in combination with other elements when the accepted manuscript is prepared for publication on our site. For more information on individual figure file formats, see our detailed instructions.
• Individual figure files should not exceed 10 MB. If a suitable format is chosen, this file size is adequate for extremely high quality figures.
• Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures (or tables) that have previously been published elsewhere. In order for all figures to be open access, authors must have permission from the rights holder if they wish to include images that have been published elsewhere in non open access journals. Permission should be indicated in the figure legend, and the original source included in the reference list.


File Formats
The file format must be the Microsoft word (DOC, DOCX) for the main manuscript document.

PUBLICATION and ETHICS POLICY of IJSM

CANCELLATIONS/RETURNS

IJSM, there is no charged under any procedure for submitting or publishing an article.