Publication Ethics

PUBLICATION ETHICS

  1. Journal of Agriculture (JoA) adheres to the prevailing industry standards and procedures for investigating publication ethics.
  2. Journal of Agriculture (JoA) does not allow dual publication (the same material published twice in the peer-reviewed literature), or dual submission (the same material simultaneously submitted to more than one journal).
  3. Specifically, Journal of Agriculture (JoA) does not tolerate plagiarism, data, or figure manipulation, knowingly providing incorrect information, copyright infringement, inaccurate author attributions, attempts to inappropriately manipulate the peer review process, failures to declare conflicts of interest, fraud, and libel. This list is not exhaustive - if there is uncertainty of what constitutes such actions, then more resources may be found at the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
  4. Journal of Agriculture (JoA) will rigorously enforce our standards, and follow up on any transgressions. In extreme cases, this may call for individuals to be reported to their institutions and/or for manuscripts to be retracted.

OPEN ACCESS POLICY

  1. All Journal of Agriculture (JoA) articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (see each article for the exact CC BY version used). With this license, authors retain copyright, but allow any user to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing to provide additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source by using this license, all Journal of Agriculture (JoA) articles meet or exceed all funder and institutional requirements for being considered Open Access.
  2. Authors cannot use copyrighted material within their article unless that material has also been made available under a similarly liberal license.

FOCUS AND SCOPE

The journal will consider primary research papers from any source if they make an original contribution to the experimental or theoretical understanding and application of theories and methodologies of some aspects of agricultural science including:

  • Soil science;
  • Climate science;
  • Agronomy;
  • Plant breeding;
  • Biotechnology;
  • Plant disease and protection;
  • Farming system;
  • Postharvest technology;
  • Socio-economics of agriculture;
  • Human research of agriculture

Initial manuscript evaluation

The editor first evaluates all manuscripts. It is rare, but it is entirely feasible for an exceptional manuscript to be accepted at this stage. Those rejected at this stage are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, have poor grammar or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal. Those that meet the minimum criteria are passed on to at least 2 experts for review.

Authors of manuscripts rejected at this stage will be informed within 2 weeks of receipt.

Type of peer review

The review process will use a Double Blind Peer Review system.

How reviewers are selected

Reviewers are matched to the paper according to their expertise. Our database is constantly being updated. We welcome suggestions for reviewers from the author though these recommendations may or may not be used.

Reviewer reports

Reviewers are asked to evaluate whether the manuscript :

  • Is original
  • Is methodologically sound
  • Follows appropriate ethical guidelines
  • Has results which are clearly presented and support the conclusions
  • Correctly references previous relevant work

Reviewers are not expected to correct or copy edit manuscripts. Language correction is not part of the peer-review process.

How long does the review process take?

Typically the manuscript will be reviewed within one months or more. Should the reviewers’ reports contradict one another or a report is unnecessarily delayed a further expert opinion will be sought. All our reviewers sign a conflict of interest statement. Revised manuscripts are usually returned to the initial referees within 2 weeks. Reviewers may request more than one revision of a manuscript.

Final report

A final decision to accept or reject the manuscript will be sent to the author along with any recommendations made by the reviewers and may include verbatim comments by the reviewers.

The editor’s decision is final

Reviewers advise the editor, who is responsible for the final decision to accept or reject the article.

Journal of Agriculture (JoA)

If you are not currently a reviewer for the Journal of Agriculture (JoA) but would like to be added to the list of reviewers for this title, please contact the editorial office at editor@itscience.org. The benefits of reviewing for Journal of Agriculture (JoA)g include the opportunity to see and evaluate the latest work in your research area at an early stage, and to be acknowledged in an annual statement inJournal of Agriculture (JoA) if you have reviewed more than X manuscripts in the preceding 12 months. You may also be able to cite your work for the Journal of Agriculture (JoA) as part of your professional development requirements for various professional societies and organizations.