Author Guidelines

PDRD International Journal of Biotechnology (PDRD-IJB) Author Guidelines

Sections:

1. Submission

2. Aim and Scope

3. Manuscript Categories and Requirements
4. Structure of an Article

5. Preparing the Submission

6. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations

7. Author Licencing

8. Publication Process after Acceptance

9. Post Publication

10. Submission Checklist

11. Human and Animal Rights

12. Editorial Office Contact Details

 

1. SUBMISSION

PDRD International Journal of Biotechnology (PDRD-IJB) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes high-quality, original research, reviews, mini-reviews, case reports, and Letters to the Editor from all fields of study. As a core Biotechnology journal, PDRD-IJB welcomes empirical and theoretical contributions in all streams of biotechnology.

All submissions should note the following:

1) PDRD-IJB audience includes colleagues outside of given streams, such as outside of medicine, including teachers, students, public health providers, etc. Write all manuscripts in a style that is both accessible and understandable to this broad audience group.

2) Manuscripts should be actionable. If the authoring group believes something should be done, please state the action. For example, instead of "for people with metastatic disease, consider a new biopsy," use "we suggest a biopsy of new disease..." The term “suggest” reflects that there may be differing opinions, but this is the action the authoring group would take. If an action is based on evidence and reflects wide consensus among experts, then it should be “recommended” rather than “considered.”

Once the submission materials have been approved and prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online here.

2. AIM AND SCOPE

PDRD International Journal of Biotechnology (PDRD-IJB) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research and innovations across all areas of biotechnology. The journal aims to provide a global platform for scientists, researchers, and industry professionals to share advancements that contribute to the development of sustainable solutions in health, agriculture, environment, and industrial processes.

Scope of the Journal Includes:

Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology: Genetic engineering, gene editing (CRISPR/Cas), recombinant DNA technology, and synthetic biology.

Industrial and Microbial Biotechnology: Enzyme engineering, fermentation technology, biofuels, biopolymers, and biocatalysis.

Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology: Biopharmaceuticals, vaccine development, molecular diagnostics, regenerative medicine, and gene therapy.

Agricultural Biotechnology: Plant tissue culture, genetically modified crops, plant-microbe interactions, and biotechnology in crop improvement.

Environmental Biotechnology: Bioremediation, waste management, bioenergy, and biosensors for environmental monitoring.

Bioinformatics and Systems Biology: Computational approaches in genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics.

Marine and Food Biotechnology: Marine-derived bioactives, functional foods, probiotics, and food safety innovations.

Biotechnology Regulations and Ethics: Studies addressing policy, biosafety, and ethical considerations in biotechnology applications.

The journal welcomes original research articles, review papers, short communications, and case studies that provide novel insights or practical applications in biotechnology. PDRD-IJB fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and encourages submissions from both academic and industrial research communities.

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

  • Original Research Articles: Original Research Articles (also called Research Papers or Primary Research Articles) are scholarly papers that present new and original findings based on the author(s)’ own research. 
  • Review Articles: A timely, in-depth treatment of an issue. Review articles are solicited by the editors, and also unsolicited materials will be considered for publication. Manuscripts of this type should be 8000 to 10000 words (a higher allowance is allowed at the editor’s discretion), including references and tables.
  • Case Studies: Case studies are a type of academic and clinical article. Unlike original research articles that involve large-scale studies or experiments, case studies focus on in-depth analysis of a single case or a small number of cases—usually unique, rare, or particularly illustrative of a broader principle.
  • Short Communications: Short Communications are concise versions of original research articles. They are used to quickly disseminate significant new findings that may not require a full-length paper but are still important for the academic community.
  • Letters to the Editors: Letters to the Editor are brief, focused communications submitted by readers in response to recently published articles, ongoing debates, or important current issues. They are a valuable part of academic discourse and often appear in scientific, medical, and scholarly journals.

4. STRUCTURE OF AN ARTICLE

      1. Title Page
        • Title (concise and informative)
        • Full names of authors and affiliations
        • Corresponding author’s email, mobile number and ORCID ID
      2. Abstract (150–250 words)
        • Summary of objectives, methods, results, and conclusions
        • Keywords (3–7)
      3. Introduction
        • Background and research problem
        • Objectives and significance
      4. Methodology
        • Research design, participants, data collection, and analysis
      5. Literature Review (For Review Article)
      6. Results
        • Objective presentation of findings, with tables/figures if applicable
      7. Discussion
        • Interpretation, comparison with literature, implications
      8. Conclusion
      9. Acknowledgements (if any)
      10. Conflict of Interest Statement
      11. References (Vancaours style)

In-Text Citations: At the end of the sentence within the square brackets [1,2]

References:

Journal Article: Graham TA, Sottoriva A. Measuring cancer evolution from the genome. J Pathol. 2017;241(2):183-191. doi: 10.1002/path.4821.

Books:

Websites:

5. PREPARING THE SUBMISSION

Cover Letters: Provide a cover letter that describes the significance of the work, includes a statement verifying its originality, and discloses any previous abstracts, presentations, reports, or publications that contain material that might be perceived to overlap with the current submission, as well as any additional information that may impact the review process. Cover letters should be addressed to the editor.

Parts of the Manuscript: The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: main text file with figures and tables; figures; supporting information (if applicable)

Main Text File

Organize the text file in the following order:

  • Title: A short, informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations.
  • Authors: The full names (complete with middle names or initials) of the authors;
  • Author Affiliations: The authors’ institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the authors’ present address if different from where the work was conducted;
  • Corresponding author’s complete contact information, to include address, phone number, and email address;
  • A funding statement that includes details of all funding sources for the work in question;
  • A conflict of interest statement that includes details of potential conflicts for all authors (or indicates that there are none);
  • Abstract: (250 words or less) and keywords;
  • Main text:
  • References:
  • Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes); tables may also be included separately as .DOC, .DOCX, or .XLSX files;
  • Figure legends;
    You should also supply the figures and supporting information as separate files.
  • Formatting Guidelines: Font style: Times New Roman; font size: 12 pt; line spacing: 1.5; margin: 1 inch (2.54 cm) on all sides; Page numbers—bottom-centered; alignment—justified; Headings—Use numbered headings (1.0, 1.1, etc.); Line numbering—should be present on all pages except the title page.
  •  

Authorship: Please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on author listing eligibility.

Acknowledgments: Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned.

Conflict of Interest Statement: Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the “Conflict of Interest” section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement, which must be included on the title page of the manuscript in addition to being entered in ScholarOne Manuscripts. To ensure that the editors and reviewers assigned have access to this information, manuscripts will not enter the peer review process unless this statement is included in the Word document.

Keywords: Please provide 3-7 keywords. 

Tables: Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive—the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnotes are indicated with superscript lowercase letters in alphabetical order (a-z). Statistical terms such as SD or CI should be identified in the headings. Submit single-spaced on separate pages in the word processing program used. Tables imported into the word-processing program from spreadsheet programs (eg, Microsoft Excel) should be left in table format and not converted to text. Gridlines should be retained. Limit tables to those that adequately and concisely present findings without redundancy. Refer to all tables in the text. Number tables consecutively, using Arabic numerals, in the order cited in the text. The table number is followed by a brief descriptive title. Obtain written permission to reproduce previously published tabular material. Credits for the reproduced work are included as a footnote to the table and must include author(s), title, either publisher and city (and country, if other than US) or periodical name, volume, page, and year. Signed permission forms must be sent to the PDRD-IJB Editorial Office upon submission.

Figure Legends: Legends should be concise but comprehensive—the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Figures: Submit only publication-quality (>300 dpi) figures in TIFF, JPG, or PNG. written permission to reproduce previously published figures. Credits for the reproduced work are included in the figure legend and must include author(s), title, either publisher and city (and country, if other than US) or periodical name, volume, page, and year. Signed permission forms must be sent to the PDRD-IJB Editorial Office upon submission. Color figures are published in print and online free of charge. Please note, however, that it is preferable that line figures (e.g., graphs and charts) are supplied in black and white so that they are legible if printed by a reader in black and white. Gray shading in figures may not reproduce well for publication and should be avoided. Do not use overall background shading in figures. Do not use gray-shaded bars in graphs—use bars with solid, open, or hatched fill. Avoid fine lines and very small type and symbols in figures. Lines should be reasonably dark and type and symbols should be easily read if the figure is reduced for publication.

Image Integrity: Changes to images can create misleading results when research data are collected as images. It may, however, be legitimate and even necessary to edit images. We ask authors to declare where manipulations have been made. Specific features within an image should not be enhanced, obscured, removed, moved, or introduced. Original unprocessed images must be provided by authors should any indication of enhancement be identified. Adjustments to brightness or contrast are only acceptable if they apply equally across the entire image and are applied equally to controls, and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the information originally captured. Excessive manipulations, such as processing to emphasize one region in the image at the expense of others, are inappropriate, as is emphasizing experimental data relative to the control. Non-linear adjustments or deleting portions of a recording must be disclosed in a figure legend.
Constructing figures from different gels, fields, exposures, and experimental series is discouraged. When this is necessary, the component parts of composite images should be indicated by dividing lines clearly demarcated in the figure and described in the legend.

Reproduction of Copyright Material: If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is the author’s responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners.

Supporting Information: Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc. Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

Manuscript Preparation Tips: PDRD-IJB has a range of resources for authors preparing manuscripts for submission, which are available here.

Editing, Translation, and Formatting Support: PDRD Editing Service can greatly improve the chances of a manuscript being accepted. PDRD Editing Services offers expert help in English language editing, translation, manuscript formatting, and figure preparation to ensure that the manuscript is ready for submission.

6. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Peer Review and Acceptance: All submitted manuscripts are reviewed initially by the editor for quality, scientific importance, and relevance to the journal’s general readership. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication or those that are outside the scope of the journal are rejected promptly. Manuscripts judged worthy of further consideration are sent to associate editors. Manuscripts that pass the initial screening by the Editor and assigned Associate Editor are reviewed by experts in the field. The Associate Editors select the external peer reviewers (although authors can suggest preferred and non-preferred reviewers) and make the final decisions on manuscripts. Editors and reviewers are required to disclose financial interests or relationships.

PDRD-IJB employs a single-anonymous review process in which peer reviewer identities are kept confidential, but author identities are made known to reviewers. The existence of a manuscript under review is not revealed to anyone other than the peer reviewers and editorial staff. Peer reviewers are required to maintain confidentiality about the manuscripts they review and must not divulge any information about a specific manuscript or its content to any third party without prior permission from the journal editors. All authors will be sent notification of the receipt of manuscripts and editorial decisions by email.

Submissions from Editors: PDRD-IJB strives to ensure that any submission from the Editor-in-Chief or a member of the journal’s Editorial Board receives an objective and unbiased evaluation. This is achieved by assigning any submitted manuscript from the Editor-in-Chief or an Editor to an Associate Editor who can maintain the integrity of the review process. When appropriate, PDRD-IJB also utilizes the services of Guest Editors who are members of the Editorial Advisory Board and familiar with the peer review processes and policies of the journal.

Conflict of Interest: The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker’s fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.

Funding: Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/. Please be sure to indicate whether any grants are from the NIH.

Authorship: 

The journal follows the ICMJE definition of authorship, which indicates that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.


In addition to being accountable for the parts of the work he or she has done, an author should be able to identify which co-authors are responsible for specific other parts of the work. In addition, authors should have confidence in the integrity of the contributions of their co-authors. All those designated as authors should meet all four criteria for authorship, and all who meet the four criteria should be identified as authors. Those who do not meet all four criteria should be acknowledged. These authorship criteria are intended to reserve the status of authorship for those who deserve credit and can take responsibility for the work. The criteria are not intended for use as a means to disqualify colleagues from authorship who otherwise meet authorship criteria by denying them the opportunity to meet criterion #s 2 or 3. Therefore, all individuals who meet the first criterion should have the opportunity to participate in the review, drafting, and final approval of the manuscript.

Publication Ethics: PDRD-IJB uses Similarity Check to screen submitted content for originality and to detect instances of overlapping and similar text. We investigate all instances of alleged scientific misconduct identified in submitted manuscripts and published papers (including, but not limited to, plagiarism, manipulation, fabrication, falsification, and duplicate publication). As Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) members, we follow the Core Practices in managing investigations of possible misconduct. Depending on the outcome of our investigation, we may reject the manuscript, publish a correction, or ask the authors to retract their paper. In instances of rejection or retraction due to misconduct, the corresponding author’s institution and funding agency will be notified, per COPE’s Core Practices. The corresponding author will be notified if PDRD-IJB forwards any manuscript or materials to the institution or funding agency.

Tobacco Policy
PDRD-IJB will not consider any work that is funded directly or indirectly from tobacco companies or their subsidiaries. Any such work will be editorially rejected. Please note that this does not include work from organizations that sponsor research from funds won by U.S. states and federal governments as part of tobacco settlements that are intended to promote research and care toward alleviating the suffering of individuals affected by tobacco products.

Refer and Transfer Program: PDRD-IJB believes that no valuable research should go unshared. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable PDRD Journals, either through a referral from the journal’s editor

7. AUTHOR LICENSING

If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email from the editorial office, and they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper. Accepted papers are published under a CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons license at no charge to the author. Please note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used; there will be a different Article Publication Charge (APC) for authors that require a license other than the CC-BY-NC-ND.

Article Processing Charge (APC): 

  • Indian Author: INR 4000/-
  • Non-Indian Author: USD 150/-

8. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted Article Received in Production: When an accepted article is received by the PDRD-IJB production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to sign a publication license at this point.

Proofs:

Once the paper is typeset, the corresponding author will receive an email notification with full instructions on how to provide proof corrections.

Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made during the editorial process—authors should check proofs carefully. Note that proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt of the first proof. Correspondence regarding proofs should be directed to PDRD-IJB Production Editor.

Embargo Policy: Once submitted, articles cannot be discussed with the media until one week before the publication date. Accepted articles are embargoed from reporting by all media until 12:01 A.M. (EST) on the date of online publication. Authors who discuss their work with the media in the week prior to publication must ensure that the media representatives know the embargo policy and the embargo date.

Authors can participate in scientific conferences prior to publication of their article in PDRD-IJB if their paper is in press (accepted and sent to production).

The following are the author guidelines for discussing articles at scientific conferences:

  • Please keep comments minimal (no article title and details); discussing the findings and results in general terms is allowed. A figure or table may be shown during the presentation.
  • Please do not distribute copies of the manuscript, tables, or figures.
  • At the conference, authors should decline interviews from the media until the embargo has lifted.
  • If an embargo break is the result of any action by an author, the author risks withdrawal of publication of the manuscript.

9. POST PUBLICATION

Access and Sharing: When the article is published online:

  • All PDRD-IJB articles are freely available without subscription.
  • The authors receives an email alert (if requested).
  • The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
  • The author will have free access to the paper

Promoting the Article: To find out how to best promote an article, click here.

10. SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

Before submitting, authors must ensure:

  • The manuscript is original and unpublished.
  • Vancour's referencing style is used.
  • All figures and tables are numbered and accompanied by captions.
  • A plagiarism check has been conducted (acceptable similarity index: < 15%).
  • A cover letter is included, stating originality and relevance.
  • All submissions must be in English (US). Authors must ensure linguistic accuracy

11. Human and Animal Rights

Manuscripts reporting research involving human or animal participants should disclose ethical approval and consent obtained.

12. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS

PDRD-IJB Editorial Office

PDRD Publishers

B. Kothakota,

Annamayya District, AP-517370

Email: contact@pdrdijmr.org